In 2008 we raised somewhere in the neighborhood of 11k for a number of Federal Candidates. Most of that money came late. While it certainly helped, we know that early money is most important in getting good candidates off to a good start.
We recently endorsed Shelia Smoot in AL-07, and we are looking for more candidates that we can help support starting now. Of course I will be working on this campaign and have had a long friendship with this candidate. This is an open seat being vacated by Artur Davis who is running for Governor.
Early seed money is vital to candidate success. Please send us your nominations and of course any donations. This year we would like to do a screening process where we talk to a number of candidates. Please start giving us names and we hope to add candidates to the list now. We would like to have approximately 10-15 good candidates for which we can raise a minimum of $1500 each.
We will include incumbents as well as new challengers in our 2010 campaign. I would like to add some good incumbents immediately.
While we certainly like all political blogging, we believe that we created a niche in 2008 by helping good candidates. After much thought we also understand how we can be instrumental in helping good candidates raise money to compete with self-funded and handpicked candidates who have a built in advantage.
Here is our goal for the 2010 cycle which over the next 15 or so months comes out to a very doable $2000 a month. We all have learned large amounts of small donations can and will continue to make a difference.
Of course many of us are in a very different economic reality than we were in 2008. However here is one idea.
March Madness starts tomorrow and I know many of you will be making a donation to someone else in a bracket competition. Save that $5, $10 and instead help support a candidate in 2010 that supports your ideals and values. I love march madness more than anyone and I've been doing bracket competitions since I was about 13 years old. But think about what is important especially in light of the continued change we need in this country.