HELP US PICK A CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT FOR OUR "HAD ENOUGH?" RADIO ADS

Today we're going to have a little experiment in netroots participatory democracy over at Firedoglake. I hope you'll be part of it by coming over at 2 PM (est/11 AM in California) and hitting the comments button which is where the action will be. There's
no special Blue America guest candidate this weekend. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty and I wanted to have a different kind of discussion today. If you're a regular here, you know about our song and our customized versions and videos. I've been hearing from people around the country that they've started finding the ads based on the song on the radio and seeing TV spots as well. This morning I had a call from a friend in Minnesota telling me she had heard the spot aired for Wendy Wilde and today I saw the TV spot that Carol Voisin is running in Oregon. I've heard that Jerry McNerney's campaign, Coleen Rowley's campaign, Stacey Tallitsch's campaign, Mike McGraw's campaign and several others are also running it. Take a look at the Voisin ad and see what's she's done to the end of it:



If you recall, we started an Adopt A District project and last week a generous donor sent in $5,000 and adopted IL-14, John Laesch's race against Denny Hastert. Jacquie, the Blue America media buyer, worked long and hard to put together a plan to make an impact in a part of the district where we felt John's campaign could make some headway. We've bought 4 stations outside of the area where John seems to be making his major efforts (the eastern edge of the district from Elgin to Aurora). We'll be running around 230 one-minute radio spots on WDKB, a lite A/C station targeting women 30 and over in the DeKalb area, WLBK a news and information station that blankets DeKalb County, WAJK, another adult contemporary station targeting women 30 and up and WLPO, a local news/talk station, both in Oglesby. The spots are spread out between 6 AM and 7 PM for 7 days ending on election day. Jacquie put together a similar program for local Connecticut bloggers who raised their own money to help Chris Murphy beat the odious Nancy Johnson in the 5th CD.

We're also deploying the radio spots to help our candidates in OH-02 (Dr. Victoria Wulsin vs Mean Jean Schmidt) and CA-25 (Robert Rodriguez vs Buck McKeon). That leaves almost enough money for one more district. Let's choose it today. Everyone's entitled to make a pitch and to offer incentives to get people to vote for their candidate. Ann had these incredible "Time to Throw Musgrave Out" clocks up and she'll send them to the first 20 people who vote for Angie Paccione. Oh, this is how you vote: You know the Blue America ActBlue Page by now-- you should; you've helped us raise almost $280,000 so far. Drop some dough into the Blue America PAC slot. BUT... here's the catch: if you want us to buy the spots for Charlie Brown add .02; if you want Chris Carney add .03; if you want John Hall add .04; if you want Eric Massa add .05; if you want Angie Paccione add .06; for David Roth add .07; for Bill Winter add .08 and for Steve Porter add .09. When we finish here today, we'll have another district.

I know you may there are plenty of Jay Fawcett fans here-- me included-- and Jay is in a dead-heat with a right wing extremist in a very Republican area. And yesterday the retiring Republican incumbent, Joel Hefley officially stated that he could not support the GOP candidate for his seat. So why don't we run our campaign for Jay? Well, the ads all talk about it being time to throw faithless incumbents out who have voted for Bush's hideous corporate agenda. The ads don't lend themselves to open districts like CO-05 or IA-01, where our man Bruce Braley is running a strong progressive campaign.

Anyway, let's discuss this and figure out who we where we want to deploy the ads. I'm really anxious to hear everyone's opinions and strategies. There is no absolute right and wrong in these matters. Don't hold back.


UPDATE: TAKE A LOOK AT REARVIEW MIRROR PROGNOSTICATION IN ACTION

The DCCC, big funders, Inside the Beltway committees and PACs and the big name pundits all live in their own little world. Those of us out in the country have seen a huge tsunami of disgust for Bush and his criminal rubber stamp Congress building. Inside the Beltway, they timidly revise upward for a seat or two their timid overviews. Who cares? No one should; but the money follows the 2-3 week late analysis of various races. You get a much better idea of what's really going on on the ground by reading Daily Kos, My DD, Swingstate Project or Firedoglake than by reading Charlie Cook. That said, Cook is getting a feeling that the Repugs might be in trouble. He says a 30 seat gain is more likely than a 15 seat gain. Perhaps someone should tell Rahm Emanuel or perhaps someone should have told Rahm Emanuel 3 months ago. No matter, he'll hear in enough time to position himself at the head of the victory parade. I mean he is a leader, right?