I did a lot of online fundraising for Darcy Burner over the last two cycles, and as proud and amazed as I was over the hundreds of thousands of dollars I helped raise for her, I was consistently disappointed by my failure to help her in my main capacity as a blogger: moving and shaping headlines.
Yeah, sure, the local blogosphere was instrumental in creating buzz around Darcy’s campaign in the spring of 2006, when nobody else was taking the 8th CD race seriously, but when push came to shove, I was never able to have the kinda impact I’ve had in countless other races. If anything, my fundraising efforts on her behalf were counterproductive in terms of my ability to influence media coverage. I don’t want to sound too narcissistic, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the Seattle Times’ over-the-top animosity toward Darcy might not have been at least partially directed at her enthusiastic supporters in the Netroots.
And so for that and other reasons, I’ve backed away a bit from activism over the past couple years, and focused more on the journalism side of what I do, pretty much abstaining from doing any candidate fundraising at all. Until now.
Seattle’s own Joan McCarter just announced on Daily Kos that Suzan DelBene has been added to their Orange to Blue ActBlue page… a testament to just how close the WA-08 race once again is. Of course, it’s also a testament to DelBene’s qualifications for office, and Reichert’s lack thereof, but she wouldn’t have been added at this late stage if there wasn’t reason to believe that the race is winnable.
I know the rest of the local media don’t believe it — they won’t believe it, because it fucks up their narrative of Democrats in crisis — but WA-08 has suddenly become one of the Democrats’ best shots at knocking off a Republican incumbent in an otherwise Republican-leaning year. Which would make a DelBene victory all the more sweet.
So please, give what you can, and help put WA-08 back in the hands of a competent representative.
You can give of your time as well by telephoning. They have a user friendly computerized phone set up at their Renton headquarters.
If nothing else, you can give heartburn to a few wingnuts.
“Yeah, sure, the local blogosphere was instrumental in creating buzz around Darcy’s campaign …, but when push came to shove, I was never able to have the kinda impact …”
That the dying print media have. Yeah, sure, the Seattle Times– which wears its political biases on its sleeve even in bylined front-paged stories by its reporting staff — is a dying albatross. But it still had the power to throw the election to Shuriff Hairspray by lying about Darcy Burner’s education, who does indeed have a “degree in economics” from Harvard University, in the words of a former Harvard dean (and what source could be more authoritative on that issue? Certainly not the Seattle Times).
You can count on one of our resident trolls to dispute Darcy’s academic credentials. To which I say, so what, repeating a lie 1,000 times doesn’t make it true.
Speaking of Dave Reichert, has the 8th District’s brain-damaged representative in the U.S. Congress been showing up at his campaign events, or does his staff have to publicly parade the same effigy doll they’ve been propping up in his lower chamber seat when they’ve taken votes for the last six years?
Geez, that was mean! But then, I’m a feral animal living in a public park, and don’t have human sensibilities.
I’d be ecstatic if DelBene wins and we don’t have to deal with Sherriff Hairspray any longs.
But gee, this really seems like a case of too little, too late. I would have really like to see her hit the airwaves at least a month earlier. She needs more name recognition to help her knock off a three-term Congressman. The more people see her and hear her speak, the more they are impressed with her.
I’ll check to see what I can contribute, anyway.
This election really stinks, first the crap load of awful initiatives (I am just voting NO to all of them) and the candidates themselves. I can’t stand any of them, both parties are showing zero ability to do anything other than whine and cry. There are great ideas floating out there but none are coming out of our government.
I saw Congressman Reichert at Salmon Days ‘pressing the flesh’, as it were. He seemed fine, physically, and there IS NOT a single hair out of place.
He’s smaller than I thought he’d be. I could probably whip his ass. (That’s not a threat; it’s just how guys really think)
I don’t think that I could whip Clint Didier’s ass, though I could probably beat him at checkers.
“I don’t want to sound narcissistic but . . .” boy are you. The post is almost entirely about you and not Suzan DelBene.
joel @8:
Oh c’mon, Joel. For Goldy, almost entirely about himself is not sounding narcissistic.
:-)
PS. I thought you were awfully gentle on the clueless, repetitive, slogan-spewing Ms. Herrera. I’ve seen quite a few YouTubes of GOP Congressional candidates doing the very same schtick — no matter what the Dem says, I’ll just endlessly repeat the 10 words I was given by my handlers — I really fear for our national legislature if a lot of them win. To say nothing of national policies, activities, processes, goals, and future.
@8
Who peed in your Cheerios this morning Joel?
I’d think an experienced political reporter like yourself would have something to say about the apparent turn-around in the WA-8 House race rather than attacking Goldy for his writing style.
Just remember this is a blog with the word “ass” in the name not the “gray lady” of West 43rd.
Maybe she’ll get enough money to buy another attack ad before the election.
re 11: What’s good for the goose….
re 8: He said that he did not WANT to be a narcissist — big difference.
When the incumbent is running ads portraying himself as the outsider and fails to mention that he is a congressman…
you’ve got a race that DelBene can win!
Its going to all boil down to this on Nov 2
Economy – in the tank
Employment – in the tank
Deficit – Bankrupt
No Social security cost of living raise in 2 years
Record forclosures
Record bankruptcies
Record government overspending
15
LD – in the tank
A first for me…….I agree with Connelly – Goldy sounds like a narcisist because he IS one.
Waste your pesos if you must while DelBenzene is loaded. You dumb suckers will scrimp so you can donate to an online campaign account for her and she keeps her millions in her bank account.
Kos just gave del Bene the kiss of death. She has to run to the right of Dave to win.
Given that DelBene keeps talking about balancing the federal budget during a depression–also known as Hooverism–and her other economic ideas consist of giving more money to MS she pretty much is indistinguishable from Reichert.
Largest one-year deficit reduction in history.
Smaller deficit in Obama’s first budget year than Bush’s last one.
Job growth every quarter.
TARP funds paid back and more.
Auto company loans paid back. US automakers profitable again.
Unemployment down to 9.6%.
HUGE pile of dogshit left over from Bush and Republicans getting smaller.
deficit worry is a load of hogwash in the present economic crisis
real unemployment and long term unemployment are historically bad
TARP funds pay back is another load of horseshit. they paid the money back with trillions from the other parts of the Bush/Obama Fed Reserve giveaways.
need millions of jobs now and Dems/Repubs both offer no solutions to this
Obama continues and expands wars and thinks the President should be able to order executions without trial, charges, notification.