A while back, someone sent me an article from subscription-only MIRS that's an interesting read. It's got a couple of items worth noting, which will be the subjects of this post and the next one.

In the article, one reads this:

Another interesting twist in the 7th is in bundling money. Last election, the free-market Club for Growth bundled more than $600,000 from donors largely outside Michigan for Walberg. This cycle, the Washington, D.C.-based Club political action committee (PAC) bundled a total of $21,785.

But it was Schauer who showed his bundling prowess, taking home $70,518 thanks to Cambridge, Mass.-based ActBlue, an online liberal fundraiser.

At first read, the good-government-loving person will think, "Oh no! We don't want to replace the Club for Growth with a liberal counterpart! We want honesty and integrity!" But that's not quite the whole story.

The Club for Growth, when it bundles money, sends out solicitations to a wide network of wealthy members on behalf of the candidates it supports. So the Club is actively fundraising for Walberg. There is, in fact, a progressive counterpart, called EMILY's List. But they only support pro-choice women, so they won't be getting involved on behalf of Mark Schauer.

ActBlue works differently. It does bundle money, in that it accepts contributions from individuals and then sends them on to the candidate. However, it does not actively solicit contributions. Instead, it merely lists every single Democratic candidate running in the country. So, it's true that bloggers and liberal activists from across the country could, in fact, be supporting Mark Schauer and urging their readers to do the same. They use ActBlue as a tool for that, but ActBlue itself isn't doing anything except transfer money.

So why is ActBlue a good thing for Mark Schauer? By setting up fundraising pages for every Democrat in the country, it makes online fundraising suddenly a lot simpler for Democrats. Tim Walberg's campaign website has a PayPal page as part of his website and he spent $9,000 last quarter on services from Topfundraising.com, according to the MIRS article. Schauer... put a link to ActBlue on his website. That's a lot of money and effort saved.

This is what building a progressive infrastructure looks like, and this is the sort of thing that helps Democrats win in ridiculously Republican districts (PVI R+7).

With all of this in mind, let's look at the number the MIRS article quoted:

But it was Schauer who showed his bundling prowess, taking home $70,518 thanks to Cambridge, Mass.-based ActBlue, an online liberal fundraiser.

If that's true, then about 22 percent of the money Schauer raised last quarter came in over the internet. When looking at just individual contributions, that's about 29 percent.

Is raising money on the internet inherently good for a candidate? Well, no. Money is money, and a candidate will take it via any means available. But it's also at least 29 percent of Schauer's contributions that aren't coming in the smoke-filled rooms or behind-the-scenes deals. Strong internet fundraising means that a candidate has strong support from more than big-money interests. The more raised over the internet, the more evidence there is that a candidate is "people-powered."

I just thought it was an interesting item.

Labels: 2008 Election, ActBlue, Club for Growth, Fundraising, Mark Schauer

According to Politicalmoneyline Congressman Tim Walberg has $159,893 in his campaign account as of 3/31/2007. We all know that it takes a great deal of money to win an election. All the talk and comments about how bad Tim Walberg is will mean nothing if we do not start to raise some cash. Last week I posted about my support for Jim Berryman and the creation of my fundraising page on ActBlue. To date I am the only one who has contributed.

For some time there has been a link on this site to give to the Democrat who wins the nomination. As of post time there has been a grand total of $21 raised.

It is time to wake up people!!!!!

There are a lot of people who come to this site. I know everyone can afford something, $10, $25, $100, or more. This Blog alone will not win this election. If we want to show that the bloggers will have an influence in this race we will need to begin to raise some serious cash. Look at what can be done. The Blue America Communities have raised $545,169. Now I know that these are large Blogs, but it does show what is possible.

I challenge every regular reader to go to ActBlue and set up your own page. Send links to all your friends and family. Lets see who can raise the most money. You do not need to live in the district, you just need to want to get rid of Walberg.

Labels: $, ActBlue, Jim Berryman, Tim Walberg

It's April 1st, and the first three months of 2007 are over. This week, I'll be posting a "report card" of sorts for Congressman Walberg's performance in the first quarter of the year, but first, I'd like to take a brief look inward at Walberg Watch. This will probably be a pretty dull post, but I think it's important. If you want to skip over the traffic stuff, there's a fundraising appeal toward the end of the post.

First, there's the posts us Walberg Watchers are producing. From the first post on August 11, 2006, to December 31, 2006-- a four-and-a-half month period-- there were 65 blog entries. In the first three months of 2007, we've managed 68 entries. Without a doubt, this increase is because of the addition of other contributors... prior to the 2006 election, this was a one-man show.

Then there's site traffic. Here's the monthly data, from August to April 1st:
That sharp drop-off at the end isn't a sudden decline in interest, but just a reminder that it's only the first day of April.

So it isn't DailyKos, but I think this traffic is fairly impressive, especially for a local blog with a very narrow focus. There's been considerable growth, especially after Congressman Walberg does something to get himself noticed by the media-- winning the election, for example, or comparing Iraq to Detroit.

Part of the reason the traffic is growing is from the location of Walberg Watch when you do a Google search on "Tim Walberg". The blog has been alternating for a few months between fifth and sixth listed, after only Walberg's Wikipedia entry, his official House site, his campaign site, and a National Journal profile. There's an awful lot of traffic from people searching for more information about Walberg.

There has also been considerable traffic from the "house.gov" domain name, mostly during the week when the House of Representatives is in session. Any given day might see five to fifteen visits from that domain. That's a nice little ego boost for me.

... And another ego boost, of course, came with the first traditional media coverage of Walberg Watch. I had actually been contacted once during the 2006 campaign by a newspaper reporter, but that story was never published. To anyone in the print or broadcast media that's interested, we're certainly willing to talk. Not that I'm trolling for publicity or anything...

Looking Forward

So what's next for Walberg Watch? Well, the newest project is all about the money.

"There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is."
-- Mark Hanna

It's sad, but all too often, it's true. Money is what will make the difference in the 2008 election, and we've got to make sure Walberg's eventual opponent-- whomever that may be-- has the resources to compete. As part of that, I've created an ActBlue page for Walberg Watch readers to contribute to the ActBlue Democratic Nominee Fund for MI-07.

I've never done anything quite like this, and I'm not sure what to expect or what to ask for. So I'm going to start off with this goal:

Help me raise $100 for the Democratic nominee.

Yeah, just $100. Kind of small, I know. That could be as easy as $5 from 20 people, or $20 from five people, or any number of other combinations. I want to see how long it takes to reach $100 from the regular readers of Walberg Watch. Based on that, I'll be setting either quarterly or monthly fundraising goals, and posting regular updates. It could be fun!

In case you're wondering, I have not contributed through the ActBlue page... yet. It's not that I'm just tight with the (little) money I have. I'd also like to reach $100 without anything from me, so that I can see a clear picture of what I might be able to expect in the future.

So head on over and contribute a few dollars to a better future. Help make sure Tim Walberg won't be in Washington two years from now. Make a difference! Help me raise $100 for the Democratic nominee.

Labels: ActBlue, Fundraising, Netroots