Our side can't match the Kochs, Adelsons and Roves in monster contributions, but we don't need to - moderate contributions add up; candidates with enough funds to get their message out can win even against multimegabucks and dark money from the 1% of the 1%. We can contribute efficiently and securely online to Democrats running all over the country for federal and state offices through ActBlue.com.
I am targeting my contributions to close Congressional races: both houses are in play, and both are needed to avoid gridlock. Obama has a solid lead, and Romney has two serious weaknesses: his personality, and the severe difficulty of appealing to the fanatical Republican base and to swing voters at the same time.
The most cost effective way to help win all 3 branches (considering federal court appointments) is to give to progressive Senate and House candidates in key presidential states such as WI, FL, OH, NV, NH. By supporting real progressive candidates - "Better Dems" - we help shape the mandate in what could be another wave election.
My recommendations after the jump.
I just gave to HEIDI HEITKAMP in ND, a progressive running a competitive race in a very low population state, where a small contiribution helps reach the greatest percentage of voters. She made John Nichols' short list, in The Nation magazine here:
http://www.thenation.com/...
Nichols wrote:
HEIDI HEITKAMP: In North Dakota, a state Obama will lose this year, and where the Affordable Care Act has taken a pounding from right-wing talkers, Republicans thought they could finish off former State Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp’s Senate campaign by linking her to the law. Heitkamp didn’t blink. “Twelve years ago, I beat breast cancer. When you live through that, political attack ads seem silly,” she explained in one of the most effective TV ads of the 2012 campaign. “There’s good and bad in the healthcare law, and it needs to be fixed. But Rick Berg voted to go back to letting insurance companies deny coverage to kids or for pre-existing conditions. I approve this message because I don’t ever want to go back to those days.” If Heitkamp wins her open-seat race, as now seems possible, she’ll give Democrats a win no one was expecting and very possibly save the Senate for her party. More important, she’ll provide Democrats with something they could use a lot more of: a rural populism that wins in farm country and small-town America.
Other priority Senate candidates with tough races:
Tammy Baldwin in WI would be my top choice if the POTUS race were looking closer: she meets all criteria - close race, presidential battleground, strong progressive opposing a leading right-wing Republican, also on Nichols' list;
Shelley Berkeley in NV, a close race in a presidential battleground, also low-population; and
Joe Donnelly in IN, running to pick up the seat held by non-fanatical Republican Richard Lugar who lost his primary to TeaPartyer Mourdock.
I also gave to Elizabeth Warren in MA, though the state is safe for Obama and she has enough $$ already: her high-profile race counts for more than one seat, she will send a message nationwide. A big Warren win could embolden Obama to replace Geithner with somebody better, maybe even go after the banksters' ill-gotten gains, and help prevent a grand bargain that meets the austerians halfway.
Likewise Sherrod Brown in OH, although he has a solid lead, both because it is a key Presidential state and to help strong progressives like Brown and Bernie Sanders in VT win by landslides.
House races I recommend start near home in NY-19 - Julian Schreibman vs Gibson, NY-18 Sean Maloney vs Hayworth, NY-23 Nate Shinagawa against Reed, and NY-24 Dan Maffei against Buerkle; and both seats in NH (a presidential battleground): Carol Shea Porter NH-01 and Ann McLane Kuster NH-02.
Further from home, in Florida, a key battleground, progressives in competitive races are Alan Grayson FL-09, Val Deming FL-10, Patrick Murphy in FL-18 against wild, wild Alan West, Lois Frankel in FL-22 and Joe Garcia in FL-26. Others: PA-06, -08; OH-16; WI-07.
Information sources I use for targeting include Nate Silver's Senate projections at 538.com, DailyKos Speaker Pelosi Project and Hell to Pay lists, old reliable ADA ratings of incumbents voting records by Americans for Democratic Action, and David Nir's classification of House races on DailyKos, ranking competitive races into 5 tiers from likely D to likely R. Not as much info as Chris Bowers used to give in previous cycles, but still very useful.
I follow the advice of John Kenneth Galbraith: give till it hurts, considering how much more another bad election would hurt, but in any case give what you can - moderate contributions do add up, and whatever our misgivings about Democrats, the Right wing money machine must be defeated, and electing progressives will help after the election.