Sunday Best-- Regina Thomas vs John Barrow

Even though John Barrow-- despite the incumbent protection racket atmosphere that usually trumps all other considerations in DC-- has been unable to raise money from fellow Democrats this cycle, he's still rolling in corporate cash. [Note that the worst of the Inside-the-Beltway corporate shills, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Steny Hoyer plus fellow Blue Dog scum Allen Boyd and Collin Peterson were among the 10 members who did donate to Barrow.] Barrow, probably the most hated congressional Democrat in his own district has already spent $339,652 and has $825,221 on hand to deploy for the July 20 primary against Regina Thomas, who's raised just over $23,000, almost half of it from Blue America supporters.

With just 4 weeks to go, Blue America is still collecting money for Regina-- you can donate directly to be campaign here-- but we're doing something else as well too. We've created a 30 second TV ad and we've started running it in parts of her district. We don't have the money it would take to blanket the big markets, like Savannah and Augusta so we're concentrating on some of the other markets, smaller ones where Regina isn't as well known.

Jacquie, the Blue America media buyer, didn't like the idea of missing the Savannah and Augusta markets-- so she came up with a brilliant idea. You know what American Idol is, right? Well, there's a gospel version of that show which is every bit as popular in GA-12, especially with the kind of family-oriented, churchgoing women Regina will need to turn out on election day if she's going to beat Barrow. The show is on BET and it's called Sunday Best. Tonight is the finale, which pits 79-year-old Elder Goldwire McLendon of Philadelphia against 27-year-old LeAndria Johnson from Orlando. (The video below was LeAndria's original non-televised audition.) Last weekend we ran our spots in every single GA-12 market, including all the Savannah and Augusta cable areas. Tonight we're doing the same thing-- thanks to the Blue America donors.

The 12 week reality show is hosted by Kirk Franklin and includes 3 judges, Tina Campbell of Mary Mary, Pastor Donnie McClurkin, and Yolanda Adams. The winner gets a recording contract, a new car, a $300,000 prize package benefiting his or her community and, of course, the title "Sunday Best." I wish both contestants lots of luck tonight and I hope the show has a record viewership. We've already paid in advance for our advertising. We're still buying spots for CNN, Comedy Central, Food Network, MSNBC and so on. And you can buy spots yourself-- in fact, I hope you will... right here. The least expensive spot we're offering is just $4.00. If you're an HGTV fan though, you know Curb Appeal is a Georgia-based series. In Milledgeville it only costs $8.00 to get our ad on the air. It's fifty cents more to sponsor an ad on the Food Network's Down Home With The Neeleys in Augusta. More traditional advertising slots are also available for shows on CNN or Colbert's program, Rachel Maddow's, Olbermann's or... the Daily Show. Take a look.