A first step we can take down this road is to support good candidates in supposedly red districts. Frequently this will mean spending money outside your own congressional district. If we only focus on our own districts, we'll never be in the majority, we need to work together to change the state, not just our own backyard. And the more candidates we help and the more candidates we help win, the more our congressional delegation will owe progressives when it comes time for them to vote on things like the recent FISA/telco immunity fiasco. Like it or not, politics works on the you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours level a lot of the time. If we scratch their backs with our votes, our voices and our checkbooks, they'll have to scratch ours.
At the recent Jefferson-Jackson fundraiser in Hollywood, I met a candidate in this exact situation. Read More »
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The Republican-controlled Florida Division of Elections (which you may remember from its recent appearance in the movie Recount) has determined that Byrnes will be a write-in candidate in August, defying the will of the people and the intent of the law. Laws like the one used to keep Byrnes off the ballot are meant to prevent voter fraud and to help ensure that the will of the people is reflected at election time.
On April 15, 2008, Byrnes received a letter telling him that he had qualified as a candidate in the upcoming election. They didn't tell him that he needed anything further. He later noticed that his name was not appearing on the elections website. He called the division and learned that he had not submitted a required notarized loyalty oath, which was required to be submitted the following day. He sent it by overnight courier and it arrived by the deadline. After the deadline, he was told that he had submitted the wrong loyalty oath. He had inadvertently signed the loyalty oath for a write-in candidate, not a Democrat.
Read More »Overall, 81 people made more than 220 nominations in 20 categories. You may vote any time between now and June 1st. At that point, if there are any categories that are too close to call, we'll have a second round of runoff voting. In the end, all the winners will be announced at the Netroots Conference which will take place at the Jefferson-Jackson Fundraiser Weekend in Hollywood on June 14. We'll also announce the winners on the blog after that.
Please vote and promote the awards as widely as possible so we can get as many votes as possible. Thanks.
We now have 32 votes towards which presentations we'll be offering at JJ and things are still very competitive. You can check out the five options here and e-mail me at quinnelk@hotmail.com with your two choices. Keep in mind, you should vote even if you aren't going to JJ. There are certainly people who are going who think the way you do and may not see this, so you can represent them. Voting on presentations will end Sunday at midnight and we'll announce the full schedule for the Netroots Conference next week.
Read More »Today's focus is on Bob Hackworth, from District 10. Call him and ask him to sign on the Responsible Plan (details on the plan are at http://www.responsibleplan.com, you could also use the talking points from our endorsement of the plan, http://quinnell.us/sspb/?p=1524, or you could use the argument mentioned at OpenLeft showing candidate Darcy Burner gaining ground in her race because of the plan, http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4936, or that she raised more than $500,000 in the first quarter this year running primarily on this issue, http://www.horsesass.org/?p=4656). You can contact him at: 727-458-4134, bob@bobhackworth.com. Read More »