Have you spent that $600 check from Uncle Dubya yet? Got a few dollars left over? Maybe a few gallons of gas? Can I talk you into sending $10 to Mike Copass? He's running for Congress, challenging incumbent Democrat Susan Davis in the primary, in my district, CA-53 - and he would do a better job in this safe blue district.
There are just a couple of weeks left before the June 3rd primary, and I'd love to steer a little cash his way. So he's getting $100 from me today, and if 100 more people will contribute - just $10 apiece - in the next week, I'll double my contribution.
Mike is committed to getting us out of Iraq, to universal single-payer health care, to sustainable energy policies, fair elections, and government accountability, among other issues.
I've put him on my new ActBlue page, about which, more below the fold.
Take a look at this table. You know the stories already - but check out the numbers.
| IL-14 | R+5 | Bill Foster | 52% | $1.2M | 281 | 64.6% |
| LA-06 | R+7 | Don Cazayoux | 49% | $1M | 310 | 71.3% |
| MS-01 | R+10 | Travis Childers | 54% | $1.3M | 344 | 79.1% |
This table summarizes the three Congressional by-elections from this campaign season. The NRCC is probably thinking they should call them, instead, "can't-buy" elections - because for all the money they spent - and they're not exactly rolling in dough this year - they're not seeing anything in the way of results. The 5th column in the table is the amount of money the RNC and the NRCC pissed away on each election, as best I can tell. A million bucks on each race, and in each race, a loss.
The second column, you've probably guessed, is the Partisan Voting Index (PVI). These aren't just losses for the Republicans - they're losses in districts they had every historical reason to think they should have won. And they're losing significantly. LA-06 was close, to be sure, but MS-01 was a blowout.
Now, then. About those last two columns. The penultimate column is the number of districts (out of 435) with a PVI at least as favorable to the Dems as the one for that district. So, for instance, 281 districts have a PVI that is R+5 or less, or, of course, D+anything. And the final column? That's the percentage. So, to pick a different example, 79.1% of Congressional districts have a PVI that's R+10 or better. And we won MS-01 with 54% of the vote.
So I'm looking forward to November.
These numbers tell us where we need to be investing our time and money; we should be going deep into nominally Republican territory, pursuing seats nobody thought we could win. We should be betting on the long shots.
It's because this is a long shot that I feel Mike Copass belongs on this page. He's going up against a 4-term incumbent, and he doesn't have access to the kinds of contributions that his opponent can tap into. Personally, I'm very disappointed in Susan Davis, on issues of impeachment and war funding in particular, and that, with my high opinion of Mike, explains why I'm putting him on the page. Future candidates will probably be from much redder districts - but because Mike's election is so soon, I'm starting with him. Can you help? Please click through and send him $10. And spread the word. We need, in Atrios' phrase, more and better Democrats - Mike's one of the better ones.
Democratic Stimulus Package on ActBlue
Mike Copass for Congress
