Daily Kos has been raising money for Democratic causes for almost exactly eight years now, ever since the launch of the DNC's original "ePatriots" program in June of 2003. The following year, we began to solicit donations via ActBlue, and in 2008, we-rebranded our official fundraising page as the "Orange to Blue" list. Though it's early in the election cycle, the current version of Orange to Blue has already been very active, raising over $430,000 in our effort to fight Scott Walker and the Republicans in Wisconsin.
While the Badger State recall elections are indeed heating up, we're also getting ready to start focusing on Senate and House races. In recent years, it's been our practice to ask federal candidates seeking our formal endorsement to answer a short questionnaire. It's not a litmus test, and there aren't necessarily any automatic deal-breakers. It's also not 50 questions long—we aren't trying to get a complete dossier on anyone. Rather, we've selected a handful of questions on issues of key importance to the progressive movement. They help define not only who we as progressives are, but they articulate a vision for what we want the Democratic Party to look like. In short, we want to make sure that the candidates we support are ones whose values are in line with this community's.
Of course, if you're aiming for a brief questionnaire, you're necessarily going to leave certain issues out. But that doesn't mean topics you don't see on this list aren't important to us. We look at candidates holistically and consider all sources of information. In the past, we've endorsed candidates who have given less-than-perfect responses to our questions and rejected candidates who may have answered everything the "right" way. That's because we also look at many other things, such as: how is the candidate on the stump? has she run for office before? is he a strong fundraiser? is she from a red district? And that's just a small sampling.
But the starting point for our evaluations is our questionnaire, which we've updated for 2011, and may revise further as events warrant. (For instance, last year, we asked candidates if they supported repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Thanks to our big victory on that front, we're pleased to say we no longer need to include that question!) Without further ado, the Orange to Blue questionnaire:
1. Do you support:
a) A public health insurance option, offered by the federal government and tied to Medicare reimbursement rates plus 5% (H.R. 3200, Subtitle B, including § 223(b)(1)(A), as introduced in the House, 111th Congress)?
b) The Medicare You Can Buy Into Act (H.R. 4789, 111th Congress), which would allow all citizens or permanent residents to buy into Medicare?
2. Do you agree that any immigration reform bill should:
a) Contain a meaningful path to citizenship — one that does not include overly-punitive fines or a touchback requirement — for law-abiding undocumented immigrants currently in the United States;
b) Ensure that expanded legal permanent immigration, rather than expansion of temporary worker programs, serves as the United States' primary external answer to workforce shortages; and
c) Ensure that any non-agricultural temporary worker programs maintain current caps on the total number of non-agricultural temporary worker visas issued, and also include a meaningful prevailing wage requirement keyed to the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act?
3. Do you oppose each of the following changes to Social Security and Medicare:
a) Raising the retirement age;
b) Eliminating or reducing the cost of living adjustment;
c) Directly reducing benefits;
d) Means-testing recipients; and
e) Privatization, so-called "personal accounts," and vouchers?
4. Do you support the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409/S. 560, 111th Congress), including the provision known as "card check"?
5. Do you pledge to vote against any efforts to extend the temporary tax cuts for income over $250,000 (Public Law 111-312)?
6. If elected to the House, do you pledge not to join the Blue Dog Coalition?
7. If elected to the Senate, do you pledge to restore majority rule to the Senate and work/vote to end the filibuster?
A few thoughts on why we chose each of these particular topics. For question one, we consider the fight over healthcare reform to have only just begun. While the Affordable Care Act was an important first step, we still want to see the implementation of a public option, at the very least, with Medicare-for-all as the ultimate end-goal. On question two, immigration remains a key defining issue for the future of this country and the Democratic Party. Our question articulates a vision for comprehensive immigration reform that is both fair and sensible for immigrants and citizens alike.
Number three is a big one: preserving the social safety net has already soared to peak prominence thanks to the Republican embrace of Paul Ryan's Medicare-killing budget plan. We want to know where candidates stand on protecting Social Security and Medicare, both of which are vital components of the progressive platform. Our fourth question on "card-check" is a real gut-check for Democratic support of labor unions — an even bigger issue now with the state-level assault on workers' rights.
For question five, we consider the elimination of the Bush-era tax cuts on the wealthy to be not just a matter of common sense, but an important part of ensuring long-term fiscal well-being to the country. And finally, questions six and seven both pertain to institutions which have thwarted progressive attempts at reform: the Blue Dogs and the filibuster. We'd be better off without both!
One final note: When we do endorse federal candidates, we publish all of their answers to all of these questions (or we ask the campaigns to do so themselves, in diary form). It's part of our commitment to transparency: When we ask community members here at Daily Kos to part with their hard-earned dollars, we want folks to know what they're getting in return—it's only fair. In any event, we're very excited to start adding candidates to our list, which we expect do soon. If there are any Democrats out there you particularly like and think would make worthy additions, please let us know in comments!