OK, here's the thing: I know some of you are tapped out. I know you're sick of being treated like an ATM: Just push the button and money comes out, hooray!
At the same time, I also know that you guys keep saying you want not just more Democrats, but better Democrats.
Well, I hereby give you a guy who represents a shot at both: Lance Enderle in MI-08.
He's posted some diaries here (and here, here, here, here and here).
He's pro-choice. He has no problem with same-sex marriage. He wants to repeal NAFTA, is in favor of Cap & Trade and massively expanding green tech jobs, is endorsed by the Michigan AFL-CIO.
He's been described by at least one respected progressive blog as "Alan Grayson with Darth Vader's voice."
What more do you want?
What's that? You say you want him to have a decent shot at actually, you know, winning?
Well, OK; let's be realistic, then. The odds are actually pretty damned long; his opponent is a 5-term Republican in a +2 GOP district, with over a million bucks in the bank, in a Republican-leaning year.
Even so, he has a few things in his favor. For one thing, his district includes Lansing, where the Democratic candidate for Governor, Virg Bernero, recently won re-election as mayor with 63% of the vote. Yeah, I know Bernero is himself down in the polls for Governor state-wide, but in Ingham County, located entirely within the 8th District, he's pretty popular and should do very well.
You know what else is in Ingham County? Michigan State University, where Lance happens to be a grad student. Did I mention that Ingham County went for President Obama by a whopping 2:1 margin 2 years ago? I'm sure the buzz has dropped a bit since then, but the point is that Lance has an excellent chance at running up some huge numbers in Ingham.
Now, Lance got into this race very late, under Unusual Circumstances, to steal a line from Benjamin Button. But in it he is. His staff and resources are very limited, but he's making the best of the staff and resources he has.
If you live in the district, of course, he needs boots on the ground. For the rest of you, however, what he really needs right now is very simple: Money. There's never a polite way to say it; every candidate needs money to put up a fight, for good or for bad.
Here's the good news: He doesn't need a lot of money, at least by Congressional standards; hell, what he's looking for is a drop in the bucket, but it'll help him run a lean, mean campaign for these final three weeks.
$10,000. That's it. Hell, I've seen this site raise $10K within an hour before.
Oh, yeah, there's another reason why Lance, even more than the typical Democratic Congressional candidate, needs the small donation help (or, hell, large donations if you prefer!) from individuals: He refuses to take ANY corporate or PAC money.
Period.
In fact, he just returned a $1,000 donation from a perfectly harmless and otherwise worthy PAC because he gave his word and intends to stick to it.
Anyway, for those looking for a taste of what Lance is like, here's an interview he did on Lansing Online News Radio last week:
Lance Enderle for Congress
Lance's ActBlue Page
Lance's Facebook Page
Lance on Twitter
Full disclosure: I'm being paid a modest sum to develop Lance's campaign website. However, any blogging/other promotion of his campaign is being done strictly on my own time & my own dime.