We all know what happened today. Regardless of what becomes of the parliamentary procedural game, what the two former Democrats did today is unacceptable and wrong. When I found out, I wanted to bang my head against the wall until I would realize this was all a bad dream. But it's not. This coup embodies everything that is wrong with Albany- a major development brokered through a backroom deal, legislators putting their personal gain ahead of the good of the state, elected politicians directly defying the will of the people who elected them, unqualified, corrupt scions rising to the upper echelons of power not for merit but for shady deals about power; it's all there.
While it may feel good to just sit and curse the traitors, Hiram Monserratte and Pedro Espada Jr., we should all take a deep breath, and refocus that anger into removing these pathetic, spineless, selfish losers from office in 2010.
So here are some steps we should all be taking now:
1. First and foremost, tomorrow every one of us should contact the chairs of the Bronx (for Espada) and Queens (for Monserratte) Democratic Committees and ask them for a commitment that under no circumstances will the committee put either Senator up for the Party's nomination in 2010.
Contact info:
The Bronx Democratic County Committee
Office: 718.931.5200
Fax: 718.792.3882
Info@BronxDemocrat.org
2. Identify and support primary challengers to these two jokers. I think John Sabini, Monseratte's predecessor in Senate Seat before Paterson appointed him to chair the Racing and Wagering Board would be an ideal choice. Espada's predecessor, whom he beat in the 2008 primary, Efrain Gonzales, is corrupt and wouldn't be ideal. So if anybody knows and good potential challenger, please drop a comment.
Once we have primary opponents declared we can start gathering donations and volunteers for them, but until then, I think Actblue should set up Nominee funds so we can donate to challengers before we have picked them yet.
3. If you're a blogger, googlebomb them. Hiram Monserratte and Pedro Espada Jr. have some very serious skeletons in their closets that their voters should be more aware of. Let's make sure the causal voter checking out the google knows about these things.
Once there are viable challengers identified, we can do much more, like knocking on doors and all the great grassrooty volunteer stuff. But for now, these steps should suffice.
Remember: revenge is a dish best served cold. 2010 will be cold, cold year for Espada and Monserratte. We can make certain of that.
I set our fundraising goal for Scott Murphy in the NY-20 special election in people, not dollars. I thought it would be great if we could get 50 people to pitch in to hold on to that seat. Well, as of today, 51 people have contributed through our TAP Challengers ActBlue Page for Murphy and we've raised over $5,000. Not too shabby, eh? I'm curious to see if we can go even further. Can we get 60 people to pitch in? Can we get 75?
This is what ActBlue had to say about the DSCC's performance:
7. NY Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
Senate Democrats in New York have launched a campaign to recapture the State Senate, aiming to win two seats in 2004, two in 2006, and three in 2008. The Committee has beaten the odds, winning five seats in the last three years, and is "on the edge of taking back the State Senate for the first time in four decades."
The NYS DCCC is working to court high-dollar donors.
Here is how the whole top ten shaped out:
Barack Obama | President | $111,436.65
Kay Hagan | NC-Sen | $109,177.53
Gary Peters | MI-09 | $32,196.27
Rick Noriega | TX-Sen | $31,790.73
Equality for All | $28,320.00
Tom Udall | NM-Sen | $26,509.52
NY Democratic Senate Campaign Committee | $25,000.00
Jeanne Shaheen | NH-Sen | $23,255.67
Gavin Newsom | CA-Gov | $22,860.00
Larry Kissell | NC-08 | $22,075.30
That's a great way for the DSCC. I know that they said they are targeting high dollar donors, but this is ActBlue. We ALL can give, especially to this great cause.
Eric Massa has always been a strong fundraiser on ActBlue. Massa has raised $444,767 on ActBlue to date, with that money coming from 6,981 donors as of this writing. So it shouldn't be surprising that after cracking the top ten on ActBlue a few weeks in the past, Massa has raised over $32,000 for the week of August 18-24, securing the top spot all across ActBlue during that time.
Massa was seventh on last week's list but climbed to the top of this week's list by raising $32,976.94, over $20,000 more than he raised last week when he was seventh on the list and more than $4,000 more than the second-place fundraiser.
The full top ten list is here:
1. Eric Massa | NY-29 | $32,976.94
2. Campaign For Our Country | $28,156.08
3. Kay Hagan | NC-Sen | $25,444.86
4. Equality for All | $25,137.50
5. Gavin Newsom | CA-Gov | $24,280.00
6. Rick Noriega | TX-Sen | $22,089.12
7. Scott Kleeb | NE-Sen | $16,918.58
8. Russ Warner | CA-26 | $15,802.55
9. Martin Heinrich | NM-01 | $14,348.04
10. Mark Warner | VA-Sen | $13,157.50
This is an impressive showing by Massa, especially considering the names on this list. Rick Noriega has been consistently one of the fundraisers on ActBlue and turned in a great showing this week with $22,089.12 in money raised. But Massa topped that number by over $10,000 and really has proven that he can raise money consistently, especially on ActBlue.
After going a week without a candidate from New York, a New York candidate has finally returned to the weekly top ten list on ActBlue.
Jon Powers raised $11,523.75 across ActBlue last week. During the week, he was also among the hottest pages on ActBlue, which are listed on ActBlue's home page and are described as pages with the most activity.
Here is what ActBlue had to say about Powers:
7. Jon Powers (NY-26)
Jon Powers, running for Congress in New York's 26th District, is an Army Captain and decorated Iraqi War veteran, schoolteacher, and nonprofit leader. On returning from Baghdad and Najaf, Powers returned to New York planning to become a social studies teacher in the Clarence, NY public schools. But he felt compelled to return to Iraq, and founded War Kids Relief, a nonprofit youth services group in Baghdad that was recognized by NBC Nightly News. Hailed by his fellow troops as a "very passionate" and "exceptional leader," Powers has been endorsed by General Wesley Clark and Senator John Kerry, among other national leaders and local and national unions. Powers will face New York attorney Alice Kryzan and manufacturer Jack Davis in a September 9th primary.
Powers's fundraising success on ActBlue this week was driven by the Daily Kos community. After introducing Powers to the Daily Kos community as part of its 'Orange to Blue' page, Daily Kos diarists have been enthusiastically supporting Powers and encouraging readers to donate to his campaign. One of these diarist is no other than Senator John Kerry, who met Powers nearly three years ago and said of Powers that "there isn't a more impressive young man getting involved in public life today." The work of this blogging community has not gone unnoticed by the candidate: Powers has had a diary on Daily Kos since January 2008, and last week thanked his online supporters for their dedication to his campaign.
And just within the last few minutes, an e-mail sent out by VoteVets asks supporters that, if they are in the area, to come out and help the Powers campaign.
The New York state primaries are coming up quickly and VoteVets.org endorsed candidate Jon Powers needs your help in and around the district. The campaign is looking for volunteers to phone bank, canvas, and to carry out a number of other tasks.
If you are interested in helping his campaign please email me at brian@votevets.org.
This race is winnable and only with your help will we be able to send Jon Powers to the US Congress.
Jonathan Powers has long been one of VoteVets.org's go-to guys, and has represented us in press conferences and media many times. We're very excited to see him throw his hat into his home district around Buffalo, NY. An Army Captain and decorated Iraq War veteran, schoolteacher and non-profit leader, Jon sets an exceptional standard for "leadership by example" some in Washington, DC would be wise to follow.
Powers is an exciting candidate and will be a strong congressman when elected in November. He brings intelligence about the issues to the table, as well as a knack for leadership and decision-making. He will not fail the people of NY-26 serving us in the House of Representatives.
Naval veteran Eric Massa is a candidate for Congress from New York's 29th District. He is challenging Republican incumbent Randy Kuhl for the second time. Massa is a vocal supporter of the "Responsible Plan for Iraq" http://www.responsibleplan.com/. This is Massa's second cycle with ActBlue.
Massa raised more than $8,000 this week on ActBlue, with the majority of contributions coming through ActBlue slate pages, among them OpenLeft's candidate page (http://actblue.com/page/olbd), the Daily Kos Orange to Blue list (http://actblue.com/page/orangetoblue), and the Blue America page (http://actblue.com/page/blueamerica08).
Massa has been very consistent and strong on ActBlue, as indicated by his overall numbers and making the top ten this week.
Last week, I posted here http://www.thealbanyproject.co... and here http://www.thealbanyproject.co... to let the TAP community know that it was a crucial time to show support for Don-- and, thank you all so much, that did work out (we met and exceeded the goal set for us by DSSC, and will leverage their "top tier" funding... more coming from the campaign on that soon).
At a thank-you party for supporters Sunday, Don said he liked the metaphor: Barber and his supporters are like the "little engine that could"... change Albany. Now that we get the news that billionaire Golisano may be throwing his weight behind SD-51 incumbent Republican Senate Whip Seward, well, our mountaintop to climb just grew a bit taller.
No prob. Together we are strong-- like, quantitatively, impressively strong. Like: the word from Marissa Dorgan (ActBlue's Director of Strategy and Communications) is that, as of last night, Don Barber is the first state candidate to make the ActBlue Top Ten list! Martha Robertson, the Barber Campaign Fundraising Director, says:
As of tonight the Barber campaign has received 315 donations on ActBlue (donations, not unduplicated donors, since some people have given multiple times). That is more than twice the number of gifts of all other NY Dem Senate challengers combined (their 154 compared to our 315)... Also, in terms of total dollars, we have about 50% more than Gennaro, who has the next highest total.
Pass on the good news! Full report on the Barber July 15 filing to come soon.
How many netroots activists and sincere local supporters does it take to overcome entrenched special interests joined by a billionaire biz tycoon? We are about to see.
Eric Massa, who is challenging Rep. Randy Kuhl in NY-29, was sixth for the week of June 9-16 raising $10,397.68. NY-21 Democratic candidate Tracey Brooks came in 10th place with $7,750.00 raised for the week.
ActBlue provided write-ups on each of the candidates who finished in the top ten. Here is what they had to say about Massa and Brooks.
On Massa:
Naval veteran Eric Massa is a candidate for Congress from New York's 29th District. He is challenging Republican incumbent Randy Kuhl, for the second time. Massa is a vocal supporter of the "Responsible Plan for Iraq."
Massa raised more than $10,000 this week on ActBlue, with a median donation of only $50.
On Brooks:
Attorney Tracey Brooks is aiming to succeed Democratic Rep. Mike McNulty, who will retire next year after holding the congressional seat for 20 years. Brooks, a former program director at Catholic Charities who served on Senator Clinton's regional staff, is the only woman vying for the nomination, and it is projected that she will face at least seven other candidates in the state's September primary. Brooks was the Democratic nominee for the New York State Assembly, 108th District, in 2002, and came within three points of an upset victory over a ten-year Republican incumbent.
What do you say New York? Let's keep Massa and Brooks in the top ten.
SD-55 Democratic candidate David Nachbar might not have a website (yet) but he did launch an ActBlue page today.
Nachbar has always been in touch with the netroots. Just a few days after he announce his candidacy against Sen. James Alesi, Nachbar allowed me to inter view him about his campaign. He also gave us a glimpse at to what kind of person he is and how his upbringing has impacted his life.
He also allowed me to record him speaking about why he is running in SD-55. Here is that video:
Nachbar is a strong candidate. I hope he can raise a ton of money on ActBlue for his campaign. I just gave $10 to Nachbar. Please join me in giving Nachbar a small contribution or if you can, give him a huge showing of your support today.
I have been following the ActBlue pages for NY-26 Democratic candidate Jon Powers and NY-29 Democratic candidate Eric Massa for about eight hours now. On occasion, I would check the pages and write down the time, number of donors and total amount that they have raised. This is, after all, the last day of this fundraising quarter.
First, Powers ActBlue page. He does not have as many donors as Massa but he is still raising awesome amounts of money. At about 1:30 p.m. today when I first checked, Powers had raised a total of $220,594 on ActBlue. As of this writing, Powers has raised $230,347 - nearly $10,000 in an eight hour period. Someone contacted me to say that this morning, Powers was at about $214,000. That makes for a pretty good day for Powers.
Massa's ActBlue page is something to marvel at. When I first looked at Massa's page, he had 4,124 donors and had raises $272,474. As of this posting, he has 4,404 donors and $282,725. The number of donors is amazing to me. In eight hours, almost 300 people gave to Massa's campaign. He raised over $10,000 today in the same eight hour period, posting very similar numbers to Powers.
Keep one thing in mind: These shouldn't be used as an official tally of how much Powers and Massa raised today. I suspect (and rightfully so) that they have received donors in other ways also. Nevertheless, this gives you a great idea of how both of these men are looking at this point.
This was a great final day of the quarter for both these men. I can't wait to see how the quarters turned out for both, as well as their upstate counterpart Dan Maffei, who can't be forgotten.
Here's the press release that was just sent out from ActBlue:
ACTBLUE GOES LIVE IN NEW YORK STATE
CAMBRIDGE, MA, JANUARY 31, 2008 ActBlue, the online platform that allows Democrats to raise funds for the candidates of their choice, is now active in New York State. With the launch, ActBlue puts a new tool into the hands of Democrats across the state, allowing them for the first time to support not only federal candidates but statewide candidates, party committees and Democrats running for State Senate and State Assembly.
State party co-chairman David Pollak heralded ActBlue's arrival in New York today. "ActBlue has proven to be an invaluable resource for Democratic candidates across the country," says Pollack. "By adding functionality for state legislative candidates, ActBlue will play a critical role in helping Democrats at the grassroots level get involved in the effort to take back the New York State Senate."
Beyond party activity, the entry of ActBlue into New York will make it possible for individuals in New York State to start mobilizing friends and colleagues in support of Democratic candidates at all levels. Much as in Virginia, where a broad coalition of activists and bloggers joined hands through ActBlue with Governor Kaine and the state party to take back the Virginia Senate for the first time in a decade, ActBlue will facilitate cooperation between New York Democratic institutions and communities of Democrats from upstate to Manhattan.
"This is something that those of us focused on state level races in New York have been wanting for at least two years, and we are beyond excited that this day has finally come," says Phillip Anderson, editor-in-chief of the Albany Project, a prominent blog devoted to Democratic victories in New York State. "I think that we may look back on this day a year from now and see this as a real game-changing event in the effort to take our state government back."
ActBlue has enabled individuals and groups across the country to raise more than $36 million for Democratic candidates and committees since 2004. More important, says executive director Jonathan Zucker, ActBlue has built a new kind of infrastructure capable not only of raising untapped millions at unprecedented speed but also of mobilizing support for Democrats in the closest races. "Building infrastructure is the most important thing we can be doing as a party," says Zucker. "We ran wheezing behind Republicans for years when it came to infrastructure, but ActBlue's $36 million is proof positive that we're not only catching up but on course to win." Zucker is expecting ActBlue's funding total to top $100 million this cycle.
ActBlue will be live blogging from their headquarters tonight from 7 to 8 at the Albany Project, online at http://thealbanyproject.com.
Just a reminder that folks from ActBlue will be here at 7pm to answer any questions you may have about the big announcement that they are now active for state level candidates here in New York. I'm sure they'd also love some feedback as well.
I don't know that I can stress strongly enough just how significant a development this really is. I think that we may look back on this announcement a year from now as a real game changing moment in the battle to take our state government back.
I hope you'll drop by and hear them out. Also, if you can't be here at 7, feel free to leave a question in this thread. I'm sure they'd be happy to answer it.
First, 
