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Are we back to where we were?
Democratic Voters Pour Cash Into Kansas Special
Thompson, a civil rights attorney and Army veteran, raised approximately $240,000 in 20,000 individual donations, much of it since Thursday, according to his campaign manager, Colin Curtis. The haul was bolstered by an ActBlue fundraising campaign backed by several progressive grassroots groups, including Daily Kos, Democracy for America, and Our Revolution.
The surge in donations shows a groundswell of support for Thompson, the first Democrat to face voters in a federal election since Donald Trump won the presidency in November. The Democratic Party, however, is staying away from the race.
Thompson dismissed his partys failure to invest the race as establishment thinking.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/james-thompson-kansas-election_us_58ea3423e4b05413bfe38f8b?
Tatiana
(14,167 posts)But this is one race to invest in. I wish we'd had a better coordinating ground game. Thompson has come on strong of late... not sure if its enough to close the gap, but he's a great candidate, has a great looking family, delivers a great message and would really give Democrats a strong presence in Kansas. I have donated. I would encourage any others who can to do so.
Me.
(35,454 posts)"Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee communications director Meredith Kelly said its fantastic that Thompson is receiving such a surge of grassroots support.
Theres no doubt that we will need small donors across the country to pitch in and help us fight back against House Republicans this cycle, Kelly said on Sunday."
Does the last election and both houses of Congress gone mean nothing to them?
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Tatiana
(14,167 posts)The Chairman of the DCCC is a thankless job, primarily geared towards raising $$$. Rahmbo Emanuel was good at it because he had all the corporate fatcats in his Rolodex and could order money bombs at will for his preferred candidates.
I think we may be struggling with going the route of small donations or relying on the fatcats for $$$. As you have indicated, the DCCC is the arm that should be giving Thompson's campaign a shot in the arm with funds for TV and radio to increase his name recognition and profile.
We really need to get our house in order.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)a few months ago too.
Tatiana
(14,167 posts)I like him as a member of Congress, but we really need someone in a safe seat with their ear a little closer to the battleground.
I'm still stunned by our loss in Michigan. Wisconsin could be argued was the Walker-Koch Bros. effect which will take some time to uproot. But Michigan... no excuses there. Our party apparatus let us down big time.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Michigan, when the State Dems were telling them, begging for help, saying there is a huge problem here, it kinda makes you wonder.
Again, Ben Ray Lujan, why don't you tell us what's up.
We are the dedicated Dems.
MuseRider
(34,060 posts)Hopefully well. I have spent the better part of this week listening to Dems complain that he has no chance. Dennis Mc Kinney was their guy. 'Thomson has killed himself, and us, being Pro Choice. McKinney would have won easily but you women will just not take one for the team.". Yeah. We will see. I am begging the cosmos to send this progressive candidate a win. Begging male Dems in Kansas has been a big loser.
Wiseman32218
(291 posts)Wish I could do more.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)underthematrix
(5,811 posts)Try to think beyond your own assumptions and consider we're talking about lily white very red Kansas.
Leave it alone. They got it right. And James Thompson is the guy. I love his story and tweeted him my support. He has the heart of a public servant. We need more public servants who can act in the public's interest like James Thompson.
He can win as long as they continue to play it like they're playing it. You can support him by tweeting and retweeting him or positive stories about him. That's what I'm doing as one of his AfAm supporters.
LAS14
(13,749 posts)underthematrix
(5,811 posts)Me.
(35,454 posts)And why we don't have either the house or senate.
My assumption was that we were going for the 50 state strategy, which would include Kansas, instead of blue states only. Apparently, they haven't learned anything from the last election and only understand what's it's like to lie down in defeat without putting up a fight.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)I'm AA and voted with all the sane Americans so we didn't do this. I wasn't confused about who would take away my healthcare and my voting rights. I didn't vote my feels. I voted my interests and the interests of my fellow Americans.
I wasn't manipulated by Russian psyops.
All I'm saying is we deal with the landscape we have NOW, WIN the seat and then work for change. But first we have to WIN.
Me.
(35,454 posts)You weren't the only one who voted in the best interests of the country so remove yourself from that bubble, there were many of us who not only voted but made an actual effort to get HRC elected. Actually, your post makes no sense. If you want to win the seat tweeting/retweeting is not going to do it. The landscape we have is that if you want to win the seat it takes real support and that involves both money and actual work on a campaign.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)94% of AfAm women also voted in the best interest of the country. I'll just leave it at that.
Me.
(35,454 posts)But others did so too, myself included, though not in the same %.
LAS14
(13,749 posts)Ossoff in GA is being criticized because most of his money is from out of state.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Go Vols
(5,902 posts)Good for him,need more like him.
What people need to know is that the New Democrats historic business patrons are more despicable that Goldman Sachs. The New Democrats first formal organization, created in 1984, was the Democratic Leadership Coalition (DLC). The DLC was funded overwhelmingly by huge corporations, but two of its donors are worthy of special note the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation. Tom Frank made this point forcefully in in 1984 in Whats the Matter with Kansas. The DLC spawned another Wall Street front group with an even more dishonest name the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI).
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/01/not-4-sale-principle-slogan-real-democrats.html
Author: William K. Black
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black
Me.
(35,454 posts)Go Vols
(5,902 posts):/
LAS14
(13,749 posts)... a realy 50 state push. Let no Repub go unchallenged.
And what we seem to be getting is the same old ho hum. It's disappointing and depressing. And where is Tom Perez, isn't this precisely what he should be getting the DNC involved in? We don't need any more talk unless they're going to put the money where their mouths are.
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)for presidential elections. Congressional and stat elections are all small potatoes to them. What they don't understand is that elections like this one in KS and the other one in GA are critical because they communicate a message to the voters better than any presidential campaign can do.
Me.
(35,454 posts)We are supposed to be building an all inclusive foundation. Maybe the activists need to go after them.
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)Grassroots may even be better than funneling donations through the DNC. The candidates are free to be themselves and know how to talk to their own constituents.
Enough of the high paid consultants working out of the war room.
Me.
(35,454 posts)We were getting a new start, fresh air and all that....Sigh
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)The upside to doing so is that when elected they're not beholden to the DNC.
JI7
(89,182 posts)Me.
(35,454 posts)JI7
(89,182 posts)they didn't ask the national for help. The entire matter has me flummoxed.
WomenRising2017
(203 posts)since Trump backlash is thriving there.
But we need to be cautiously optimistic here.
It's clearly a referendum on Trump, but we need to keep in mind that this is a deep red district.
The Democratic Party has been strong in their support for Thompson. A win here would be incredible, but a more realistic expectation would be to have it be a close race, or at least within single digits, and that will be seen as a victory toward making inroads.
Me.
(35,454 posts)is pretty amazing.
mythology
(9,527 posts)The DCCC is pretty broke at the moment with about 6.6 million cash on hand and about 14 million in debt.
http://www.fec.gov/disclosure/committeeDetail.do
Building a 50 state approach again will require time and effort. The money for that doesn't appear out of thin air overnight. Additionally grassroots PACs like Our Revolution are tied to a specific portion of the Democratic base. They have spent a great deal of time talking about how Democrats are similar to Republicans (no matter how objectively wrong they are about that) and that people should donate directly to politicians who are embraced by the group rather than giving money to the DCCC or DNC. Obviously there's a chicken and egg aspect there as people in that group can say that if the DCCC supported their preferred candidates they would donate to the DCCC, but no matter which way the causation lies, it makes it that much harder for the national party organizations to raise money to then disperse to local campaigns. Also given how the people behind Our Revolution largely came out of the Sanders campaign which was obviously running to the left of the party median voter and claiming that Clinton was too conservative, what happens when the 50 state solution results in somebody more conservative than they would like wins the nomination? There are plenty of calls for the head of Joe Manchin here, demanding he be primaried etc.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Show us what you can do and fix it!