In this excellent diary by David Jarman on where your Democratic donations would do the most good, fellow Kossack tmservo433 (I checked with him and he's OK with being referenced and quoted) had an excellent suggestion: Target the downticket races in need of canvassers, because the ground game is where it's at.
I decided, with Sir Thomas Servaux's permission, to write this diary so that this idea gets spread beyond the confines of a comments thread. Follow me past the orange snickerdoodle for more on this concept.
Here's tmservo433's comment:
PLEASE NOTE: If you want to defeat Roberts (KS) (17+ / 0-)
Roberts has completely pulled the entire Republican Field Plan. It no longer exists. It is all media, they have completely abandoned their active canvass in all areas.
If you want to beat Roberts (and help a lot of other democrats) I would STRONGLY encourage you to invest in MICRO races, these are races for the state house - why? Because these are the races that in Kansas equal FIELD PLAN. $50 to a candidate running for the state house in Kansas is a day of 2 people walking a district, promoting advance ballot and helping to organize voter turnout.
So, if you want to defeat Roberts (and Brownback, and all others here, actually) don't give toward Orman.. privately, ask me - there are 7 candidates in Kansas house races who are running the most agressive field plans in districts where Democratic turnout in an off year is typically POOR, and where a rise in democratic turnout would significantly impact the race.
So, thinking about meddling in Kansas for fun? I'll give you the campaigns that will stretch $50.
And I did just that. :-)
Here's the deal: People who vote in downticket races also vote for the top of the ticket. Getting out the vote for a downticket Democrat also helps out the Democrats at the top of the ticket. It's a lot cheaper than TV ads, let me tell you, and more effective, especially in rural areas.
This is such a fabulous idea that I checked with a local activist to see which races in Minnesota would benefit from this concept. Obviously we want to help Franken stay in the Senate, but which downticket races are the ones where more canvassers would do the most good, especially in view of the Minnesota GOP's plan to retake the Minnesota legislature by targeting vulnerable outstate Democrats?
The (enthusiastic) reply was along these lines (I'm paraphrasing wildly here):
I'd like to see a "Keep The Upper Valley Blue" campaign for Jay McNamar, Andrew Falk (who is perfect), and Mary Sawatsky. All of these are incumbents in the Minnesota House.
The Upper Minnesota River Valley has a tradition of sending Democrats to the House and all three are huge targets. Andrew's opponent is running mostly on his courageous marriage equality vote (same with McNamar's Republican opponent). Sawatsky's more socially conservative, but great on labor issues.
Shannon Savick, who is running for the House seat in Albert Lea, could use the help, too.
Here's
Jay McNamar's website.
Here's Andrew Falk's website. (Send donations to: Andrew Falk for State Rep, 1160 Hwy. 9 NE, Murdock, MN 56271.)
Here's Mary Sawatzky's website.
Here's Shannon Savick's website (most of the info is from her 2012 campaign, but it still applies today).
$25 or $50 given to any one of these candidates buys at least a half day's worth of canvassing, which helps out both that candidate and every single candidate above them on the ticket. If you really want to help out Al Franken and the Democrats in Minnesota overall, as well as helping us keep the US Senate, give to any or all of these four persons.
Thank you for reading!
UPDATE: Here are the Kansas candidates tmservo433 touts:
Here are the races and candidate that matter most and why:
The #1 is Liz Dickinson. Her district is a district that is in Johnson County, a district that Paul Davis must win. She came in with 47% of the vote in 2012 against a candidate with tens of thousands. This year, she's running against a candidate with NO money.. except one thing: he's also a candidate who wants to divert state funds for Gay Re-education (yes, making gay people straight).. as a Christian Minister, he's been noted in The New Republic and next week in Alternet as one of the most dangerous candidates in America. Liz is deploying an active canvass every day.
Why it matters: Liz is the ONLY canvass in her area.. she is the one working not just for her, but governor candidate Paul Davis, Jean Schodorf (Sec of State), etc. $50 funds her canvass for a day. $100 funds it for a weekend.
I want to say something else.. tomorrow, I will have a special diary about Liz. Liz really, really needs our support. Last week, her sister, age 32, passed away in Texas. Her sister wasn't a wealthy woman, and had struggled with many issues. But point blank: the lack of medicaid expansion in Texas left her open to struggle until multi-organ failure took her life.
Tonight, Liz sent me this message:
So- I have a bone to pick with the GOP. Texas was one of the states that didn't expand Medicaid. My sister, Sarah, died of an autoimmune disease that she never was able to get the dr's to figure out until it was too late. Unfortunately, the same symptoms she's had for years have been the same as mine for years, too. They've pretty much been in lock step. IF Texas had had medicaid expansion her life might have been saved, if not, undoubtedly, prolonged. She was just 32.
Medicaid expansion. We need it.
Liz is a hard working candidate in a district we MUST win. In 2012, she ran against a candidate with BIG money and she canvassed so hard that on a budget of $1,800 (eighteen hundred) she took in 46% of the vote. What can she do with real support?
http://lizdickinsondistrict30.org/...
The #2 is Von Peterson.. Von Peterson wasn't on my list before.. but he's done something senational.. Von has used his connections and he may win a district that doesn't favor (D)s. But Von is attracting BIG audiences in performance after performance. As a result, he may be what it takes to bring over McPherson county big for Paul Davis..
But because Von has taken a very active stance on Gay Rights - in a debate, he was asked if his business would craft a tomb stone for a gay couple (that's his business is monuments of all sorts) and he responded with "hell yes I would" many think that his progressive stance may bite him. But he's beloved in his community.. people honestly like the guy. Today, he's throwing a picnic.. and they were expecting 25. They ended up with more then 80. $50 for Von canvasses McPherson.. a county that Davis and Schodorf MUST WIN to beat Brownback and Kobach.
http://vonpeterson.com/...
These are the two candidates I'm directing most people to give to. There are others.. if you want others in the state.. but because these two races are critical for every democrat around them (Davis MUST win this areas, Schodorf MUST win these areas) and they are the ones actively canvassing, I'm doing everything I can to bat small money to them because what is small money to another campaign is a lot of work for these campaigns.