How To Make Small Political Contributions Make A Real Difference In A Political System Dominated By Wealthy Special Interests

Ilya's crucial primary in Illinois is the day after tomorrow. It looks very good for a progressive win. But that's hardly the end-- not for Ilya, who then has to go on and beat GOP hack Bob Dold-- and not for the progressive movement, which has quite a few more tough primaries against conservative Democrats between now and the general. Last month Jonathan Bernstein, sitting in for Greg Sargent at the Washington Post penned a column that flies in the face of Beltway conventional wisdom, Want to make your money count? Don't give it to Obama. Most realists recognize that, in the end, the presidential election will come down to a battle between a conservative standing up for the status quo and, in some areas trying to move it marginally in favor of the less privileged (marginally) and a reactionary, dead set on moving the clock backwards as far as he can get away with. Obama isn't my idea of a great president but Romney? Come on. In 2008 Blue America had already recognized what Obama is and, unlike virtually all of our colleagues we refused to endorse him. We knew what was coming. Better than McCain? Of course... marginally. But we concentrated our efforts on House and Senate races where there was a chance to elect a progressive who would actually work to move things in a new direction. And that's what Bernstein is counseling for this year as well:

If you’re planning on making political donations this year, and you really want your money to help the cause, here’s what you should do: Instead of sinking cash into either presidential campaign, put it where it will really matter-- into Congressional or state and local races.

Here’s why: The battle for the House and Senate may well shape up as toss ups, which means that control of Congress is hanging in the balance. This matters just as much, and in many ways more, than control of the White House. The least bang for your buck comes in presidential general elections. Your money will make a much bigger difference in practically every other type of election.

If you’re a typical donor of the $25, $100, or even $5000 variety, your money is just a drop in the ocean of the hundreds of millions of dollars that both sides are going to spend on the presidential election. But more importantly, what we know about voter behavior suggests that money is least important in presidential (general) elections. Money matters more in nomination fights-- where the candidates share a party label-- than in general elections, where most voters will use the party label as a powerful cue. Moreover, voters will pay less attention to information they hear through paid advertising when there is plenty of other information available, as is the case with high-profile presidential elections. Add it all up, and your money just matters more-- a lot more-- in lower profile contests.

If you’re a partisan, that probably means finding the most competitive House and Senate races, or state and local races, and investing your money in those. If you are ideologically driven, that may mean getting involved in primaries. I’d recommend that liberals find nomination battles with clear liberal vs. moderate lines in states or districts where Democrats should win easily in November.

He points to the Hawaii Senate race, where moderately progressive Mazie Hirono is facing right-wing corporate whore Ed Case. Not a bad idea. I'd like to suggest a lucky seven House races that matter, races where a stalwart progressive is facing at least one conservative and/or corrupt Democrat. In order of when their states vote:

Matt Cartwright (PA-17), April 24. Matt faces off against corrupt reactionary Blue Dog Tim Holden, who voted against health care reform, hysterically opposes Choice for women, supports fracking and the whole right-wing corporate agenda. Matt explained the race better than anyone else could in his announcement speech:

This is a new beginning, a new chance for working families to have a representative in Washington who will vote to put the economic well-being of the middle class first. This is your chance to elect a representative who will vote for legislation that benefits the middle class… and not the corporate special interests that fund his congressional campaign.

Working families throughout the new 17th Congressional District, like working families all across the country, are hurting. For those that aren’t struggling with unemployment or underemployment, their incomes have been stagnant. Even as we struggle to emerge from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, large corporate profits continue to go up, while middle class incomes go nowhere.

Why? Because incumbent congressmen continue to support policies and cast votes that put corporate profits over people. For too long, their priority has just been to get reelected, to protect their own jobs, so they wind up representing the deep pockets of the special interests instead of the people. It is wrong and it has to stop.

Working families in the new 17th Congressional District do not need a representative who votes against legislation making Wall Street and the big banks accountable for how they spend taxpayer money meant to prevent the collapse of our economy.

Working families in the new 17th Congressional District do not need a representative who, while the economy is still struggling, votes against legislation that helps distressed families keep their homes.

Working families in the new 17th Congressional District do not need a representative who votes for legislation that makes it harder for struggling families to get out from under crushing credit card debt.

Working families in the new 17th Congressional District do not need a representative who votes against legislation that makes medicine and health care more accessible to seniors and young adults, that allows coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and that also includes coverage for women’s preventative health care services.

To vote against legislation ensuring that taxpayer money in the TARP funds is used to benefit the economy and the middle class instead of stuffing the pockets of Wall Street executives-- that doesn’t represent middle class values or interests of working families.

To vote for legislation that makes it harder for folks to get a second chance in life… just so the credit card companies can squeeze their last nickel from them doesn’t represent the values of the middle class or interests of working families.

To side with the big banks… who helped create the economic crisis to begin with… and vote against legislation that helps avoid more home foreclosures doesn’t represent middle class values or interests of our working families.

To vote with big health care insurance companies and HMOs, doesn’t the interest of our seniors, young adults, people with pre-existing conditions and women.

I will stand up and fight for the middle class values and the interests of our working families.

If you'd like to contribute to Matt's campaign, you'll find it on the Bad Dogs ActBlue page. All of the other candidates are on the regular Blue America House page.

Chris Donovan CT-5), April 24. On the same day voters in Pennsylvania decide between Matt Cartwright and vile Blue Dog Tim Holden, voters in Connecticut will be picking a successor for Rep. Chris Murphy who is trying to regain the Joe Lieberman Senate seat for the Democrats. His opponent is a wealthy son of a sleazy lobbyist who plenty of trashy DC Democrats owe lots of favors to. Donovan is arguably the most successful state House Speaker in the entire United States, responsible for passing the kind of legislative agenda working families in the rest of America craves. In Donovan's own words:

If you dig deep in the most recent weak unemployment numbers, you’ll notice a disturbing trend. The drag on job recovery is not from lack of growth in private sector jobs but the deliberate destruction of public, government jobs. Private business added 57,000 jobs in June, while the public sector lost 39,000 jobs (bringing state and local public-sector employment to their lowest point in five years). The Congressional Republicans' goal to shrink government is working, and the result is higher unemployment and a stagnant economy. More Americans are losing their jobs due to government cutbacks, with teachers, nurses, police and firefighters joining the unemployment lines. D.C. Republicans can add stifling middle class job growth to their apparent ongoing goal to stunt our economic recovery.

Jobs in the private sector are picking up, but public-sector jobs are disappearing. This is out of line with the recoveries of the early 1990s-- in the last two economic recoveries, public-sector job growth averaged 1.7%. Since the recovery started, we have lost 430,000 public-sector jobs. If public sector job growth matched the historic average of growth during recovery, 800,000 more people would have jobs today, and our unemployment rate would drop a full half point from 9.2% to 8.7%.

But Washington Republicans are championing the loss of much-needed public-sector jobs-- a mad rush to cut the taxes of the Wall Street CEOs who put us in this mess and half-century-long ideological wars trumping the suffering of actual people. And their argument, "we can't afford it," is profoundly regressive. American families need jobs now and they will support ending tax-loopholes for the corporate fat-cats and Wall Street CEOs who created this economic morass in order to create them. We can't afford not to grow jobs by repairing our crumbling highway and bridge infrastructure. We can't afford not to grow jobs by rebuilding our aging water and sewage infrastructure. We can't afford not to grow jobs by supporting education from pre-school through college. We can't afford not to grow jobs by investing in green jobs and alternative energy sources provided by companies like PV Squared in New Britain and Litchfield Hills Solar in West Cornwall. And we certainly can't afford not to grow jobs by investing in the technology and modes of transportation of the future, projects like the electrification of the Danbury and Waterbury commuter rail lines, connecting Boston and New York through projects like the Tri-City High Speed Rail and commuter rail corridor that will pass through my hometown of Meriden, and potentially connecting Waterbury to Hartford via rail along the I-84 corridor. These projects aren't just a price tag, they are job engines and are desperately needed improvements that will relieve congestion on Connecticut's crowded highways, improve safety and public health, and create new job hubs in Connecticut's 5th Congressional district.

The American middle class, and projects like the Hoover Dam and the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system, didn't just appear. They were built, brick by brick and person by person, by soldiers returning home with a promise of new opportunities for education and health care, by immigrants seeking a new life in a new world, and by businesses, small and large, that sought American workers, required a well-educated workforce, and relied on American infrastructure. And they were built by the toil of our parents and grandparents with the collective strength forged by the unions that represented them. It's long past time to start rebuilding America, and the economic security of American families through good jobs with strong benefits, brick by brick, person by person.

Cecil Bothwell (NC-11), May 8. Having driven right-wing Blue Dog Heath Shuler out of the race (he's now soliciting jobs with shady, conservative-oriented lobbying firms), Cecil will face a Shuler political operative, Blue Dog Hayden Rogers. Cecil is likely to win the primary and the thrust of his campaign is drawing the contrast between progressive solutions and the toxic conservative agenda:

We American workers need immediate action. Our government can and must put people to work, now. The current recession will only end when unemployment levels are cut in half, and only the U.S. government has the power and obligation to make that happen quickly.

Federal law requires the government, in particular the President and the Federal Reserve, to create jobs. This legal duty comes from three sources: (1) full employment legislation including the Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978, (2) the 1977 Federal Reserve Act, and (3) the global consensus based on customary international law that all people have a right to a job with favorable remuneration to provide an adequate standard of living.

This is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of law.

It isn’t easy to stand up to the lies and corruption coming from Wall Street, from the multinational corporations, from Fox News and the right-wing noise machine. But we can be heroes and stand up for our families, our neighbors and the future of the American Dream!

Patsy Keever (NC-10), May 8. Before Patsy can take on diminutive neo-fascist closet case Patrick McHenry, she has to beat a conservative Democrat, Terry Bellamy, who is weak on protecting Choice, weak on LGBT equal rights and weak on standing up for working people when they're being set upon by corporate interests.

As a teacher, I have many causes, but my real passion is social justice, and public education is the path to a just society. Public education is the backbone of our democracy. The majority of my 25 years of teaching was in 8th grade social studies and language arts, although I have taught students in every grade from kindergarten to soldiers in the Army. Teaching was a career which I loved, but the lingering illness and subsequent death of my husband ended that career prematurely. He was a Vietnam veteran who was exposed to Agent Orange in 1970 and developed a very aggressive case of prostate cancer 30 years later. When I realized that he was never going to get better and that I probably didn’t have much time left with him, I left the teaching profession.
 
Although I am no longer teaching, my passion for leveling the playing field remains as strong as ever. I still fight for those children who live in poverty, whose only chance of a better life is a good education. I still care about the students who need to be challenged and those who have far too many challenges at home. As a state and nation, we need to invest in our children from a very early age all the way through college and beyond if we want to develop citizens who can and will contribute to our society.

For 25 years I have watched the Republican party pick away at our public education system. They have tried to treat our schools as a business which turns out a product. It is not a business! It is a service our government provides in order to maintain a just society. The question is how do we develop each individual to reach his or her potential to be a functioning, successful member of the community. Vouchers and charter schools are not the answer. Defunding good programs and instituting unfunded mandates are not the answer. Adding more students to each classroom while decreasing support systems for teachers is not the answer. Teachers, parents, students, businesses, elected officials and entire communities must find ways to work together for the good of all. Our lives depend on it.

Norman Solomon (CA-2), June 5. This is a solidly Democratic district and Democrats should opt for a perfect candidate, not one flawed by one-percenter conservative values and not one flawed by corporate corruption, like Norman Solomon's two primary opponents.

What's at stake is democracy-- rule by the people, as opposed to rule by big money. But I will be blunt here: Progressives must take much more seriously the necessity of gaining electoral power for the 99 percent. While we may often say and write very perceptive things, government continues to largely function in the service of large corporate interests. As an antidote to the poison of "corporate personhood," we've got to nurture genuine grassroots campaigns that are infused with progressive values.

That's what my campaign for Congress is about. We already have 850 volunteers, 3,800 individual donors and tremendous momentum, while I refuse to take a dime of corporate PAC money. In this "grassroots vs. AstroTurf campaign," voting begins in less than 60 days for an open seat in the new coastal district north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Right now, time is of the essence. How many lawn signs and brochures will our campaign be able to afford as we go to the printer later this month? In a significant way, that's up to you.

Franke Wilmer (MT-at-large), June 5. Another tough primary-- this time with the populist/progressive candidate, Franke Wilmer, facing two insiders, one very rich conservative and one compromised careerist.

“It seems like any news you get of Washington these days is either disappointing or crazy. Making pizza a vegetable was crazy, and the Super Committee failing to come to an agreement is disappointing. I think Congress may be the only place in America where you can ask 12 people to take 2 months to come up with a solution to an important problem and end up with nothing. It is unbelievable that 12 people couldn’t find $1.2 trillion in wasteful spending. Ending the Bush tax cuts just to the top 1% would be a good place to start. Or ending the tax breaks to corporations that export our jobs overseas. Don’t forget how much we are spending on wars ($1.2 trillion so far).

"Then one of the richest members of Congress, Denny Rehberg, comes out with his 'viable' option. In his mind there are really only two options-- either cut Social Security, Medicare, and Veterans Benefits or defund programs set up to help people cover outrageous health care costs. In his mind cutting the wasteful spending to defense contractors (the Commission on Wartime Contracting reported to Congress that $60 billion alone has been lost to waste and fraud in war spending) or cutting subsidies to the oil and gas companies would be insane. Insisting on cuts to Social Security is the wrong place for Republicans to draw a line in the sand. Senior citizens didn’t cause this recession. Congressman Rehberg ironically decided people can live without health care and presented his “viable” plan.

"There was a time in this country where our elected leaders governed using common sense. There was a time where the issues facing this country were more important than the next election. I am running for Congress to help restore some of those principles in Washington.”

Eric Griego (NM-1), June 5. State Senator Eric Griego has a record in New Mexico that indicates he will be a staunch and effective fighter for working families. His main primary opponent, the corrupt and conservative ex-Mayor Marty Chavez has a record too-- a really bad one for the 99%.

“We need a Democratic Congressional candidate who will unapologetically stand up for Democratic values. The current Republican leadership in Congress wants to dismantle the protections that it has taken generations to build, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We need a strong courageous advocate for working families and who has a record of taking on those who put the interests of the richest two percent of Americans and the largest corporate interests ahead of our children, our environment and our local businesses... I stand with seniors, the disabled, and the working and middle class families of New Mexico in calling on President Obama and Congress to keep their hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as they negotiate a solution to the federal debt default crisis. While I support President Obama in his effort avert the catastrophic collapse of our recovering economy, any deal with Republicans that cuts Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid for New Mexico seniors and working families while failing to ensure that our nation's wealthiest are paying their fair share is entirely unacceptable."”

Do any of these messages resonate with you? Let me know here.