AMERICAN CITIZENS WILLING TO FINANCE THE END OF RIGHT-WING DOMINATION AND NIP THE FASCIST TAKEOVER IN THE BUD

With Republican incumbents jumping ship in unprecedented numbers and with the antipathy Americans are feeling towards the Bush Regime coming into clear focus so early in the election cycle because of his S-CHIP veto and the Republican congressional rubber stamping of that, at least Republicans don't have to worry about oodles and oodles of cash to fight a resurgent Democratic Party. Right? Uh... no. Not this time.

Mark Warner raised over $1 million dollars in his Senate race since announcing he would run a few weeks ago. Democrats throughout Virginia are on the rise and Gov. Kaine is leading a campaign to capture the state legislature in time for redistricting. Congressional candidates are doing well too. Judy Feder-- in the northernmost district in the state, the 10th-- raised three times as much money as rubber stamp Republican incumbent Frank Wolf. She raised $223,000 and has more money on hand than her opponent.

Nice-- and similar to what I've been hearing from our candidates all over the country. In fact, just last night, I read on Burnt Orange Report that even the congressman who represents Clear Channel, rubber stamp GOP hack/son-in-law of CC chieftain, Michael McCaul, who is  in a desperate race to keep his seat from a surging Dan Grant, is way in the red. Not just in the red in terms of his horribly reactionary voting record, but in the red financially-- to the tune of $170,857. He's spending far more than he's taking in-- even with daddy-in-law's big bucks pals desperate to keep junior in office. But McCaul and other Republicans across the country have gotten so used to deficit spending that they don't know how else to do it. Similarly a report at Horsesass.org showed that only ill-disguised bookkeeping tricks would make anyone think rubber stamp Republican Dave Reichert could even approach the grassroots fundraising prowess of Blue America-endorsed Darcy Burner. Even with a high profile fund-raiser with Bush-- or maybe because of it, Darcy stomped all over Reichert, a prelude to what he can expect next November.

And another thing they have gotten used to is following the leader. And in terms of fundraising, they're doing that too. While donations are pouring in to Clinton's and Obama's campaign, Giuliani and Romney are spending money faster they can take it in. Right now Hilary has $35 million in the bank, Obama has $32 million and the two top Republican fundraisers, Giuliani and Flip Flop Mitt, have, respectively $16 million and $9 million (and Romney only has that much because he keeps writing his campaign checks, over $8 million $17.3 million). In fact, Romney sent $21 millions and only raised about $10 million. Giuliani also spent more than he raised. Full O'Mitt ran "more ads in Iowa and New Hampshire than have all of the other Republican candidates combined. Romney had placed 10,893 television and radio ads through Oct. 10, according to the Nielsen Company, and advertising accounted for almost a third of Romney's outlay over the past three months." Thompson's campaign was laughing at Romney, calling his efforts a disaster. "I’d be frustrated too if I had spent tens of millions of dollars so far on a campaign and was still in third place. There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s flip-flops.” Meanwhile McCain is $94,000 in the red, i.e.- bankrupt.

Many of our Blue America candidates are reporting great contribution numbers. Even though Andrew Rice only announced 60 days ago and is taking on the daunting task of challenging a well-known  Oklahoma incumbent, Inhofe, he has already banked over $300,000. He's gotten oven it from over 1,100 donors, 76% of whom live in Oklahoma. John Halls has raised over a million dollars so far and as he announced at a recent house concert/fundraiser with Jackson Browne, he may not have Occidental and Exxon, but he does have Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt. He also has David Crosby and Graham Nash, who are playing for him in Beford Hills, NY on October 28. Another Blue America candidate who did really well this quarter was Vic Wulsin in OH-02, where her $160,000 haul far outpaced Mean Jean Schmidt's take.

If you'd like to lend a hand, there is no such thing as too small an amount at our Blue America page. Worthy progressives on our list facing early primaries include Donna Edwards (MD), Mark Pera (IL), Sam Bennett (PA), John Laesch (IL), Steve Cohen (TN), Rick Noriega (TX), Jon Powers (NY), Victoria Wulsin (OH), and Russ Warner (CA). Do you live in any of those states? Can you spare $5 or $10? Believe me, it adds up-- to a free America.


COMPREHENSIVE CONGRESSIONAL FUNDRAISING ROUND-UP

Our pals over at Swing State Project have all the data on the key House races. Predictably, it looks dire for the Republicans. Here are some nuggets:

• Republican challengers who out-raised Democratic incumbents: Richard Goddard, fake Dem. Jim Marshall's opponent (GA-08), Jim Ryun (KS-02), John Stephen (NH-01), Andrew Saul, a self-funding, check-writin' multimillionaire (NY-19), Chris Hackett, fake Dem. Chris Carney's opponent (PA-10)

• Democratic challengers who out-raised Republican incumbents: Darcy Burner (WA-08), Charlie Brown (CA-04), Charlie Stuart (FL-08), Nels Ackerson (IN-04), Andrew Duck (MD-06), Mark Schauer (MI-07), Linda Stender (NJ-07), Vic Wulsin (OH-02), Steve Black (OH-02), Tom Perriello (VA-05), Judy Feder (VA-10), Gary Trauner (WY-AL)

• Republican incumbents who were out-raised by other Republicans: Wayne Gilchrest (MD-01), John Doolittle (CA-04)

• Democratic incumbents who were out-raised by other Democrats: Dan Lipinski (IL-03)