Goldy

When people talk about the progressive “netroots” the first thing that comes to mind are the plethora of local and national blogs that have grown to challenge the legacy media’s diminishing control over the political narrative. But in fact it is much, much more than that, and one of the most exciting and important netroots developments of the past few years has been the growth of ActBlue, an online fundraising clearinghouse that is beginning to enable the financial power of the people to challenge the entrenched power of corporate America.

The US Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that money is speech, and in that context, the special interests of the ultra-wealthy have long spoken louder than the interests of the average Joe, but by democratizing fundraising, introducing efficiencies and creating new grassroots opportunities that flip the traditional top-down model on its head, ActBlue has begun a process that could eventually free candidates from the financial stranglehold of corporate sponsors. The fact is that money, and the media it buys, be it television, radio, direct mail or other, is the primary means by which candidates communicate their message to voters; no realistically achievable amount of doorbelling or coffee klatches can win a congressional district on its own, and no candidate can be expected to compete for votes without securing at least a somewhat level financial playing field. ActBlue provides a tool that doesn’t just enable progressive campaigns to tap into the aggregate resources of the public at large, it enables the people to organize ourselves in support of the candidates we prefer, as opposed to merely those candidates the political establishment would prefer we be limited to choose from.

During the 2006 cycle ActBlue showed its potential, enabling the national progressive netroots community to funnel its collective resources into a handful of high-profile local races… but that is nothing compared to what we have seen so far heading into 2008. In 2005 candidates raised $1,684,797 on ActBlue from 23,816 individual contributors. In 2007 those totals leaped tenfold to $16,872,127 from 169,287 contributors. And were only just now entering the heart of the fundraising season.

Locally, the impact and influence of this populist tool can be easily discerned from ActBlue’s list of Top Ten Candidates in 2007:

Candidate	Race		Contributors
John Edwards	President		53,433
Tim Johnson	SD-Sen		5583
Donna Edwards	MD-04		5582
Darcy Burner	WA-08		4189
Dennis Kucinich	President		3126
Rick Noriega	TX-Sen		3081
Eric Massa	NY-29		2577
Mark Pera	IL-03		2290
Charlie Brown	CA-04		2067
Joseph Sestak Jr	PA-07		2067

While the roughly $140,000 Darcy Burner raised via ActBlue in 2007 accounts for only 16% of her $858,125 total, it played a crucial role in her achieving an early TKO of her primary opponent, and has provided the difference between trailing incumbent Dave Reichert in cash-on-hand versus her surprising lead. Sure, it would take double-max contributions from only 30 Republican fat cats for Reichert to counter the efforts of Burner’s 4189 ActBlue donors, but there are many, many more of us than there are of them, and that is what really puts the fear of God into the political establishment on both sides of the aisle. Burner raised less than $32 per ActBlue donor (compared to an ActBlue average of $119 per contribution in 2007,) tapping into a much broader pool of potential donors than heretofore possible in local races, and virtually eliminating the financial advantages of incumbency: nearly 90% of Burner’s 2007 money came from individual contributions, while about half of Reichert’s money came from PACs and committee transfers.

It would be an overstatement to claim that ActBlue has changed the nature of political fundraising, but it sure does appear to be in the process. (At least for the Democrats. Republicans can’t seem to put together a comparable service.) And candidates like Burner sure do appear to be at the forefront of these changes.

Apparently, shamelessly racist smear campaigns aren’t limited to anonymous emails anymore, what with the Clark County Republican Party’s official website front-paging the “Barack Obama is a Muslim” hoax:

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. […] It is reported that Obama swore his oath of office using the Koran and pictures have shown him standing for the Pledge but not reciting it and holding his hands to his side while others place their hands over their hearts.

This is chilling information about a candidate for the highest office in the Country especially given the radical Muslim claims that they will destroy American from “the inside”.

Really. I’m not making this up. Jon Devore gets the credit for exposing this pathetic attempt at swiftboating Obama, and just in case the Clark County GOP attempts to cover up their shameful hate-mongering, Jon’s captured a screen shot for posterity.

FYI, I’ve Googled several distinct phrases from the Clark County GOP’s post, and the only thing that comes up is the post itself, so either they copied it from an email or party memo, or they actually composed this garbage themselves. What a bunch of wankers.

UPDATE:
Gee, that was fast…

Wankers.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
Grays Harbor County GOP chair Cathy Colley has been caught forwarding the Obama smear from her party email account. Looks like we’re starting to see a pattern.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:

7PM: Radio Kos: who really won Nevada?
Daily Kos contributing editor Joan “McJoan” McCarter and Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly were both in Nevada this week covering the Democratic caucus, and they’ll both be in the studio to give us a first-hand report. Did Hillary Clinton really win, and if so, how’d she do it? And what does the turnout and electoral breakdown portend for the rest of the presidential race? Plus, we’ll ask Joan and Joel to respond to my theory explaining Rudy Giuliani’s brilliant Florida strategy.

8PM: Can you stump Ken Jennings?
Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings thinks he’s one smart dude, but then he’s never gone up against the likes of my know-it-all listeners. He’ll be joining us plugging his new book, “Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac“, and that means this is your chance to call in and stump the all time leading Jeopardy winner.

9PM: TBA
The usual liberal propaganda.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Ever since Emmett Watson passed away, it seems the city’s columnists have been vying for the honor of replacing him as Seattle’s official curmudgeon. Take for example Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, who brings us this story today about Rose Walter being carded at Von’s Grand City Cafe in Seattle; when the 91-year-old great-grandmother couldn’t produce an ID with proof of age, she was denied service and asked to leave the bar. To Danny, this anecdote apparently says something deeper and broader about Seattle.

“In the good old days,” Rose says, “I don’t remember things being so fussy.”

Welcome to Seattle 2008, Rose. Fussy is our middle name.

You probably won’t be surprised the manager at Von’s feels he no longer has a choice but to ask for ID, even if it’s a centenarian hobbling in with a cane.

“Obviously you have heard what’s going on downtown lately, with the mayor and the Police Department and the liquor board,” said Greg Galuska, Von’s manager. “They’ve blatantly put out an agenda that they’re going to penalize bar operators.

“We decided that to protect ourselves in this environment, we had to move to 100 percent ID compliance,” he said. “No exceptions. It’s not worth risking imprisonment on the part of me or my staff.”

Yeah, well, my question for Danny is… when was the last time you’ve been carded?

I’m 44 years old, and with my falling hair and greying beard, I pretty much look my age (if I don’t always act it,) and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been carded in Seattle or anywhere else. I’d guess Danny’s a few years younger, and his puckish demeanor and boyish good looks only accentuate his youthful appearance. So tell us Danny… how often are you asked to produce your ID?

It’s not that I’m defending the mayor’s overly zealous anti-club crusade, it’s just that Rose’s ridiculous carding strikes me as more a comment on Von’s policies than on those of the city or the state. According to Danny…

Even the state Liquor Control Board says bars only have to check IDs of “youthful appearing persons.” Which it has defined as “anyone who does not look at least 30 years of age.”

[…] Elizabeth Walter, Rose’s daughter, says this incident is trivial by itself.

Yet she does wonder what’s become of her city.

“We’re supposed to be so liberal, but then we have this police state that’s encroaching on us, in small ways, just little by little by little,” she said.

That’s the downside of all these rules and regs and zero-tolerance policies. They’re well-intended. But they trample common sense.

Um… huh? How the hell is the LCB’s “youthful appearing persons” standard a “zero-tolerance” policy? And how exactly is this incident evidence of anybody “trampling common sense” except the folks at Von’s? (Or maybe, Danny, for attempting to conflate an isolated incident into a cautionary tale of Seattle’s slow decline into a “police state.”)

Yeah, sure… perhaps Seattle can be a little “fussy.” But if so, the fussiness starts with our columnists.

24’s 1994 pilot. Yeah, it’s old, but it’s new to me.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:

7PM: The Stranger Hour with Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett
The Stranger’s Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett join us for the hour for our regular look back at the week’s news, and a peek ahead toward what’s coming up. Josh will give his take on the start of the new legislative session, while Erica grades the new Seattle City Council. But first, strategist, blogger, pundit James Boyce calls in with his analysis on today’s results from Nevada and New Hampshire.

8PM: Free the elephants?
Local comedian and Seattle P-I columnist Cathy Sorbo is back, and she’s brought her fellow Elephanistas with her, fight to free the Woodland Park Zoo elephants. Really.

9PM: More liberal propaganda.
Should smoking be banned when kids are in the car? Is Bush’s economic stimulus package a classic example of small government, free market conservatism? Is the US a torturer?

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Only 1-percent of precincts have reported, but that hasn’t stopped the AP from projecting Mitt Romney the winner of Nevada’s Republican caucus, largely on the strength of Mormon voters, who accounted for 25-percent of GOP caucus goers. Early returns show Romney taking over 40-percent of the vote, with Ron Paul, John McCain and Fred Thompson jostling for a distant second place. The much more high profile and closely fought Democratic caucus is still underway.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, where the Republican candidates have campaigned heavily in pursuit of the top spot in today’s primary, turnout is reported to be very, very low.

Three hours into voting, the South Carolina State Election Commission reports that turnout has been low “across the board” for today’s Republican primary here.

“All the reports I’ve received from various counties is that turnout has been light,” said commission spokesman Chris Whitmire.

Hmm. That can’t be too encouraging for Republicans.

UPDATE [1:12 PM]:
The networks have all called the Nevada Democratic Caucus for Hillary Clinton, who leads Barack Obama 50% to 45% with 74% of precincts reporting. Do the math; despite trailing only slightly in recent polls, John Edwards will finish a distant third. Looks like Nevada voters bought into the media narrative that this was two-person race.

UPDATE, UPDATE [4:51 PM]:
Or maybe Obama won. I’m confused.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE [6:26 PM]:
McCain wins South Carolina. Just barely.

There was a hearing in Olympia yesterday on state Sen. Eric Oemig’s impeachment resolution, and the hearing room was packed with citizens seeking to testify in favor. One attendee has a firsthand account posted over on Daily Kos:

Today I was privileged to be one of about 200 citizens who went to our state Capitol to ask our legislators to defend the US Constitution by directing Congress to investigate whether sufficient grounds exist for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The atmosphere was boisterous and enthusiastic, but respectful. We were there to testify at a Senate committee meeting and we comported ourselves accordingly. Unfortunately, a Republican member of the committee was not able to do likewise.

It should come as no surprise that the Republican member in question was none other than state Sen. Pam Roach, Auburn’s own gun-toting, do-nothing whackjob, who’s considered a bit of an embarrassment even by some of the craziest elements of her own caucus. (Seriously Pam… when even your fellow Republicans share eye-rolling stories with liberal bloggers like me, you might want to start reeling it in.)

TVW has the video, and you can view Sen. Roach’s outburst here, starting at about 28:10, when she sternly warns the crowd:

“I’m going to be filing an ethics complaint, because I believe that the topic of this hearing in an election year with this content, especially because this issue has been aired in the year 2007, is specifically using state property, state facilities for campaign purposes.”

To which the audience laughs in derision. The committee chair, Sen. Darlene Fairley, attempts to restore order, but Sen. Roach wasn’t finished. As the next panel is assembling, Sen. Roach interrupts again, pulling out a photo of her son, Air Force Capt. John Adams Roach (not to be confused with Stephen, her gun-toting, drug-dealing son,) and angrily chastises the audience: “What you are doing is a disgrace!”

As Sen. Roach stands up waving the photo and yelling at the audience in mock anger, the crowd erupts, despite Sen. Fairley’s calm explanation that “She’s doing this for TVW, so let’s just let her do it.”

So what exactly did the panelists say that so offended Sen. Roach? Well, it’s interesting to note that while she starts her grandstanding at 28:10, the senator didn’t actually arrive in the hearing room until after 24:50, sometime during the three minute statement of Linda Boyd of Washington For Impeachment. So if Sen. Roach was genuinely responding to any of the comments made during the hearing, it would have been those of Boyd.

I’ve transcribed part of Boyd’s testimony below, but I urge you to view the TVW video to judge her “disgraceful” comments for yourself, especially those moments where Boyd’s voice cracks with emotion in describing her reverence for the Constitution and the rule of law.

“Without our Constitution we have nothing, and it threatens to make our entire government illegitimate, and I do not say this lightly — I cannot believe that these words are coming out of my mouth, that our government is illegitimate, and does not answer to the people.

Impeachment was promised to us by the founders as a way to restore integrity and to restore the power of the people in their government. Articles of impeachment introduced by Dennis Kucinich, have been waiting in the Judiciary Committee in the House, but the bill is stuck in committee. We have turned to you to magnify our voices, to bring Congress to do their job. This is a traditional role of the state Legislature; Jefferson’s Rules 602 through 604 guaranteed the right of legislatures to call on Congress to do their job.

We have a beautiful vision in this country — impeachment is not a mere act of castigation, it is to preserve the beauty of our document of our initiation of the ideas that connect the people of this country. The price of not impeaching is very high. The eyes of the world are upon us; let them know that the senators of Washington State understand that politics here is not just a game of winning the next election, politics are the lives of the people.”

It is to this fervent plea that Sen. Roach responds with nothing less than naked political grandstanding. She doesn’t even display the courtesy of sticking around for Sen. Oemig’s closing statement: at 34:40, less than ten minutes after arriving, Sen. Roach gets up and leaves, remaining absent for the hearings on the following bills as well. (Watch the video; Roach’s seat is empty for almost the entire hearing.) That’s the kind of thoughtful, dedicated public service we’ve all come to expect from Sen. Roach.

Sen. Roach threatens to file an ethics complaint charging that hearing the impeachment bill — giving the citizens of our state the opportunity to give public testimony for or against — is somehow an abuse of state facilities for campaign purposes… and I sure hope she does. For the only person I saw campaigning in that hearing room yesterday was Sen. Roach, and if she files her ethics complaint I intend to file mine, charging her with abusing the ethics complaint process for political purposes.

There are a wealth of high-profile races on the ballot this year, and, well, the contest to replace retiring State Treasurer Mike Murphy isn’t exactly one of them. But that doesn’t make it any less interesting to political junkies like me.

Murphy, allegedly a Democrat, is backing his top aide, Allan Martin, a licensed funeral director and embalmer, who has declared as a Republican. Democratic Rep. Jim McIntyre, an economics professor and former Finance Committee chair, is giving up his House seat to seek the Democratic nomination.

Also seriously exploring a run is Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief economist and longtime revenue forecaster. But while Sohn is reportedly planning to run as a Democrat, you’ve got to wonder about his party credentials, what with his name appearing on a petition by the libertarian Cato Institute calling for Social Security privatization:

… we support giving workers the option of shifting all or part of their Social Security taxes into individually owned, privately invested accounts, similar to individual retirement accounts or 401(k) plans. We believe that only a system based on savings and investment can provide a safe and secure retirement without burying future generations under a mountain of new taxes.

Huh. Dismantling Social Security doesn’t particularly sound like a Democratic value to me.

I’ve had my run-ins with McIntyre when he chaired the Finance Committee, but at least I know where he stands on the issues. How exactly the State Treasurer impacts these issues, I’m not really sure. But I intend to find out.

NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is holding its 17th Annual Chocolate for Choice event on Tuesday, January 22… the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. The event takes place at the First Base Club at Safeco Field, and tickets start at $35.

I’ve been invited once again to serve as a VIP Judge (along with folks like Darcy Burner, Dow Constantine, Jean Godden, Mike Kreidler, Larry Phillips and others), and let me tell you from personal experience that it is well worth the price of admission. Last year’s event featured an amazing and overwhelming selection of chocolate treats from some of the region’s best confectioners and pastry chefs, and of course, all proceeds go toward protecting women’s reproductive rights.

Hope to see you there; I’ll be the one stuffing my face full of chocolate.

Geez… if I ever run for office, I hope my fourth grade teacher lies.

Huh.  So first the state Democratic Party schedules its presidential caucus on a Saturday, and now we learn the county conventions are scheduled for Passover.  I’m loathe to attempt to speak for my fellow Jews, but… what are we…? Chopped liver?

On a side note, if you’re trying to make up your mind on whether to attend your county convention or your family seder, I’ve been to both.  It might be hard to believe, but county conventions are even more tedious and more frustrating than even the longest Passover seder (think of the platform debate as the four hundred questions,) and the food isn’t nearly as good.  Stick with the seder.

One of the big stories in the presidential primary season thus far has been the youth turnout.  Young people turned out in higher than expected numbers in both Iowa and New Hampshire, overwhelmingly voting with the Democrats.  And even in yesterday’s Michigan primary, where the GOP had a real race while Democrats refused to participate due to party rules, youth turnout was strong:

100,776 young voters aged 18 – 29 participated in yesterday’s Democratic Primary (choosing “uncontested” over Hillary Clinton, 48% – 43%). They were 17% of the Democratic electorate. Comparatively, 112,833 18 – 29 year olds voted in the Republican Primary, and they were just 13% of the Republican electorate.

That Democrats still managed to split the youth vote despite having no race in their primary is good news, and if this trend continues it bodes well for Democrats up and down the ticket next November.  And this apparent demographic shift could pay off huge dividends for years to come.  Young people now self-identify as Democrats in growing numbers, and as they age and participate more regularly in electoral politics, this new generation of voters could form the base of a new progressive majority.