My name is Dan Seals and as many of you may know, I am running for Congress in Illinois’ 10th district. I wanted to take this opportunity to first thank all of you for the outpouring of support I received through Blue Majority but also to introduce myself as a candidate for Congress.

It was reported recently that State Senator Andrew Rice, currently running against odious republican Jim Inhofe, has raised more than $1 million dollars thus far in the campaign. This is, obviously, good news for Oklahomans and Americans, as Sen. Rice is the kind of progressive candidate that we should all hope for on the ballot.

The problem is that it was also reported today that Inhofe has out-raised Andrew by more than 2-1, with a whopping $2.2 million in cash on hand. Inhofe has long been in the pocket of various special interests and industry lobbyists and it appears he is calling in some favors. It has always been said that Sen. Rice would have an uphill fund-raising climb against Sen. Inhofe. This merely underscores that point.

I know that the national primary season has taken its toll on both our emotions and our pocketbooks. However I believe that the dKos community has it in them to help out a true progressive Oklahoman in his time of need. For some reason, Andrew wasn't included in Kos' Blue Majority pitch, but I know that he is nonetheless behind Andrew 100%. So, I've decided to help out Andrew in whatever small way I can:

I just came back from Darcy Burner's fundraiser here in the LA/Hollywood area.  Although I am an irregular contributor here at dKos, I read this (and many other) blogs on a regular basis and consider myself to be a part of this community, albeit mostly a passive one.  So, as a passive member of the community, I would like to share my experience with you.

First and foremost, Darcy is an amazing netroots candidate.  She has a specific plan to end the Iraq war and really deserves your support.  Please donate here.

Okay, now on to my personal experience at the fundraiser.

What a night!  I met many web-celebs -- John Amato, Matt Stoller, Digby herself -- just to name a few.  But what was most amazing was that I felt, something I haven't felt in years:  empowerment, excitement, and the thrill of being a part of something bigger than myself.

More below...

Its a cool but sunny day in Central Pennsylvania and with that, we have some great news to share.

Earlier this morning we received the endorsement of the Communication Workers of America - AFL-CIO.  We want to thank that thousands of working men and women of the CWA for their support and Bill looks forward to working with them as the next congressman in the PA-05.

In addition to that, we want to thank everyone for joining us in the $5 for the 5th fundraising drive.  We asked for you to help us raise $5,000 in the last 50 hours of the fundraising quarter and you did it.  As of midnight last night, we brought in an additional $5,586.07 in just online contributions.  Much of that came through our ActBlue page and we are always happy to promote its use.

Our ActBlue page exploded with $5 donations and we are now up to 125 grassroots contributors.  So thank you all again.

Yesterday you blew away our goal of 6,500 donations for Blue Majority candidates, but since we've got until the end of the month--Monday--to close out the quarter, we set a new goal of 1,000 contributions per candidate, focusing on getting Rick Noriega, Dan Seals, Gary Trauner, Joe Garcia, and Leslie Byrne over the 1,000 contibutor hump.  Last night, we got there with Seals, so now it's time to push the others over.

Demonstrating a broad base of support--garnering a large number of small donors--is almost as important in this quarter as the total amount raised. It sends a strong message to big donors, to the DCCC, and  to the Republicans. It helps scare away Republican opponents, like in the case of Dan Maffei in NY-25, where the Republicans just can't scare up a strong candidate for the open seat. That's what happened this year when Wyoming's Barbara Cubin was scared away from running against Gary Trauner again, because he came so close to beating her in 2006.

Donating now is also a chance to reward candidates stepping out on critical issues. For instance, Leslie Byrne is among the Blue Majority candidates who have endorsed the Responsible Plan for Iraq, an effort that is gaining more and more coverage from the traditional media. Or you have Joe Garcia in FL-2925, taking on the corrupt Center for a Free Cuba.

The other thing that lots of donations from us does is, as Markos has argued, is offset the need for money from those other, less small "d" democratic sources.

So we can let AT&T buy our candidates, or we can have regular Americans "own" them. It's the difference between serving their corporate masters and serving their constituents.

It sounds crass, it sounds ugly, but I see it differently -- it's one way (of several) that we can directly invest in our democracy. Few of us have serious money in our bank accounts, so this is the way we can look for the candidates who most inspire us and reflect our values, hopes, and aspirations.

Every one of these candidates will fulfill our goal of "more and better" Democrats. We won't help just anyone who attaches a "D" to their name anymore, we've shifted focus from the unqualified "more" to the critical "better" part of that equation, and Byrne, Trauner, Garcia, and Noriega fit the bill.

Help get these candidates over the 1,000 donation hurdle, and that much closer to a seat in Congress in 2009.

We just topped our goal of 6,500 donations our Blue Majority candidates!

Thank all of you for getting us there, and here's some incentive to keep going to meet the next goal, 1,000 contributors per candidate.

CQ has been surveying the Congressional landscape, and it looks pretty damned encouraging:

Last week’s Jigsaw Politics column about our Senate ratings discussed how the Democrats, though they currently have a razor-thin operational majority of 51 seats, appear more likely than not to expand their majority — and how the idea of the nine-seat gain the party would need for a "filibuster-proof" three-fifths majority, although a considerable longshot, can’t be completely dismissed as crazy talk....

Over the past couple of weeks, CQ Politics changed its ratings on several House races and reported news developments in other races for which ratings had been changed earlier. All but one of these changes reflected improved Democratic chances....

As many of these races indicate, the Republican Party’s ability to seriously make a dent in the 30-seat loss they suffered in 2006, or even to maintain the ground they currently hold, is compromised by a big disparity between them and the Democrats in their relative number of open seats, which tend to be more difficult to defend than those in which incumbents are running. The Republicans currently are defending 25 seats of members who voluntarily left them open to retire or pursue other offices, to just six for the Democrats.

And on top of all this, the most recent money reports showed that the financially strapped Republican minority has little cash on hand to use as "venture capital" to promote its candidates’ takeover bids in Democratic-held districts. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s House campaign unit, had just $5.1 million cash on hand as of the end of February, compared to $38 million reported by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Help make the NRCC's job that much harder by giving to a Blue Majority candidate, and putting all of our candidates over the 1,000 donor mark. We've reached that goal for everyone but Noriega, Seals, Trauner, Garcia, and Byrne. Let's get them there.

As you know, this week - the final week of the first fundraising quarter - Blue Majority is pushing to reach a total of 6,500 donations. We're getting there - following on the heels of our endorsement of Barack Obama, we've now moved past 5,800 donors. That means we need about 700 more, so if you haven't given yet, please do. Donations of all sizes are welcome.

There's also another way you can contribute. We'd like to solicit nominations for new candidates to add to the page. To be clear, this isn't a vote - we won't simply pick the people who get talked about the most. Rather, we want to get a sense of who our communities like, and why. We also don't have a specific timetable for adding new names, but we hope to choose some soon.

As a guide, here are some of the criteria we like to look at - some of these are old, and some are new:

Is the candidate running against a Republican incumbent or for a GOP-held open seat? (This is close to being an absolute requirement.)

Does the candidate embody the kinds of progressive values you'd ideally like to see in Congress?

Is the race not a top-tier affair? (Our dollars can go further in races which, so far, have received less attention and institutional backing.)

Has the local blogosphere embraced the candidate - and vice versa?

Does he or she pass the partisanship litmus test?

Is the Republican an easy target? (Think back to Tom DeLay.)

How blue is the district or state?

Please submit your ideas in comments - and again, please be sure to donate before the end of the quarter.

As most Kossacks know, I am one of the few people who love both Hillary and Barack equivalently and see that they both have different and complimentary strengths and weaknesses.

This will be a very short diary...

Blue Majority added a candidate to its list today - and that candidate is Barack Obama! (Yay! Cheers & Applause all around!)

Why Obama? Chris Bowers explains:

First, Barack Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq from the start, and rejected the neoconservative principle of pre-emptive warfare as one of his main reasons for opposing the war. Being able to identify the invasion of Iraq as a colossal mistake makes Barack Obama far more qualified to lead our country than candidates who both were, and still are, unable to recognize why the war was such a bad idea. Comparing Obama's and Clinton's statements on the death of 4,000 American soldiers in Iraq, it seems clear that Hillary Clinton still believes in the neoconservative vision for Iraq, while Barack Obama does not. The second ideological marker is the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization formed to push the Democratic Party and the national political debate to the right on a variety of issues. While Hillary Clinton is a member of the DLC's leadership, Barack Obama has repeated refuses to be associated with the group.

On Monday, DavidNYC wrote:

It's that time again: A week from today, all federal campaigns have to close the books on the fundraising quarter. This means that if you want your favorite candidates to be able to issue strong quarterly campaign finance reports, you've got to contribute by March 31st.

Now, I'll be honest - this is one of my least favorite parts of blogging, and it's certainly one of the less pleasant aspects of politics in general. But money still matters - a lot. If we want to expand our majorities in Congress - and especially if we want to see progressive change - we'll need a lot of cash to do so. Many big players - including labor unions, progressive organizations, and deep-pocketed donors - will look at these reports to decide which candidates to give to. It may not seem fair or even wise, but it's reality, and we've got to work the system as best we can.

The goal is to make it to 6,500 total contributions by March 31. We're not even to 5,700 yet, so there's a long way to go.

If you're focused on the presidential race, let me put it this way: Blue Majority candidates are running in swing states like Virginia, Florida, Washington, and Minnesota. If they have early money to be running a strong ground game, that will help get out the vote. And come January 2009, a Democratic president will need strong majorities in Congress to accomplish the things we all so want to see. So even if your heart is fully committed to a presidential candidate, give to a Blue Majority candidate for his or her sake.

It's that time again: A week from today, all federal campaigns have to close the books on the fundraising quarter. This means that if you want your favorite candidates to be able to issue strong quarterly campaign finance reports, you've got to contribute by March 31st.

Now, I'll be honest - this is one of my least favorite parts of blogging, and it's certainly one of the less pleasant aspects of politics in general. But money still matters - a lot. If we want to expand our majorities in Congress - and especially if we want to see progressive change - we'll need a lot of cash to do so. Many big players - including labor unions, progressive organizations, and deep-pocketed donors - will look at these reports to decide which candidates to give to. It may not seem fair or even wise, but it's reality, and we've got to work the system as best we can.

So we're asking you to contribute to the Blue Majority candidates on ActBlue. These men and women are all strong progressives who are taking the fight to Republicans all over the country. Of course, they can't do it without our help, which is why it's the netroots' duty to get involved.

Right now, the Blue Majority page stands at about 5,500 total contributions (you can see the number right at the top). Our goal is to add a thousand more contributions by the end of the quarter so that we can hit 6,500 overall. The size of your contribution doesn't matter (though of course, we encourage you to give as generously as you are able to). We're looking for aggregate numbers of donors. As the Obama campaign in particular has shown, smart campaigns can get a lot of mileage out of small donors, especially those who give early on. (And it's still early.)

So please, stand up and be counted - make a donation to a worthy Democrat or three. And of course, if your favorite candidates are not on the Blue Majority page, we strongly encourage you to give to them at their own websites. Let's nail that 6,500 target!

I grew up in Miami, a region dominated by Cuba politics, so I have some knowledge of how significant Joe Garcia's candidacy is in South Florida.  It is a direct challenge to the pay-to-play foreign policy apparatus of the United States, one where sugar interests and right-wing politics determines that we should have a pointless embargo against the Cuban people.  But today I want to announce that we have another significant nomination for the Blue Majority page: Leslie Byrne for Virginia's 11th district.

Republican Tom Davis is retiring this year, and the district is a good pickup opportunity.  Jim Webb won the district 55%-44% in 2006, Tim Kaine won the district 56%-42% in 2005, while John Kerry lost it by 50-49% in 2004.  It is turning sharply blue; Tom Davis's wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, lost to Democrat Chap Petersen by 11 points in a race for state Senate.  

Disclosure: Member of Joe Garcia's media team

I spoke with Joe earlier and he is very appreciative of the enthusiasm and support from the Dailykos, Open Left, and Swing State Project communities on the Blue Majority endorsement and wanted to say thank you. This campaign started in the Netroots and he wants to actively involve the blogosphere and progressive community in his campaign and if elected, in Congress.

Today the campaign released the following statement.

Tom Perriellois the progressive Democrat fighting for the people of the Virginia 5th. He is running against Virgil Goode who is not bringing jobs to Southside, embarrassing his district with racist comments, and now not standing up for his constituents constitutional rights.

This is Tom Perriello's statement on FISA

A few years ago, I resolved to identify a vulnerable Republican and then help his/her Democratic opponent.  I am now getting around to doing it.  I am looking for a smallish group to help: 1) Identify a vulnerable Republican; and, 2) help formulate a plan to raise money/volunteers/etc. for his or her opponent.  Sort of like adopting a highway, only better.  

Despite the fact that this diary is short, I thought it's important enough that it should stand by itself, and not get lost in an open thread comments.

Markos just put a post to poll the community on whether him and other bloggers (The Blue Majority) should endorse.  

Well, without realizing I wasn't logged in, I voted, and in haste, voted wrong.  Then I thought about making a comment, but realized that I wasn't logged in.  But the system had tabulated my vote (by updating the totals) just the same.  

Then I logged in and realized that I still have the vote button available.  So I voted, and sure enough, the system tabulated my second vote as well.  

A few days ago I wrote a diary on Senator Kerry's long list of accepting PAC money from corporations .  Today Mcjoan has a diary on the FISA bill.
She list 12 Senators who have vowed to support Senator Chris Dodd's filibuster.  Now I am very happy JK voted nay on this bill, but why isn't the Senator taking a stand and supporting Dodd and Feingoldhttp://www.dailykos.com/...

(From the diaries -- kos)

I'm really happy to announce the next endorsement on the Blue Majority page, Wyoming candidate Gary Trauner.  Like several of Blue Majority's candidates, Trauner nearly won in 2006.  He was up against super-wingnut Barbara Cubin, and lost by only .5%, 47.8% to 48.3%, with the balance going to the libertarian in the race.  Cubin, instead of running for reelection, has chosen retirement.