Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Top Ten Candidates on ActBlue, September 22-28, 2008

Kay Hagan | NC-Sen | $127,085.41


Joseph Sestak Jr | PA-07 | $96,213.00


Rick Noriega | TX-Sen | $62,324.99


Equality for All | $59,159.50


Darcy Burner | WA-08 | $49,435.76


Jewish Council for Education & Research | $47,317.00


Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee - Federal Account | $46,446.40


Mark Warner | VA-Sen | $45,609.31


Scott Kleeb | NE-Sen | $44,314.44


Barack Obama | President | $43,709.38


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Kay Hagan (NC-Sen)


Kay Hagan, a Campaign Newswire regular, is running against Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole and was named one of the "top ten most effective state senators" by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research (NCCPPR). After winning the Democratic primary in May with 60 percent of the vote, the five-term North Carolina state senator continues to pick up high-profile endorsements.


Hagan, who recently became the fourth candidate to cross the million-dollar mark on ActBlue, is one of several candidates to use innovative fundraising techniques to fund media buys this cycle. Hagan spells out the challenge for her supporters: "North Carolina is the most expensive state to compete in this cycle. With 10 different media markets, nearly 9 million people and a little more than two months until Election Day, it is imperative that I have the resources to stay on the air." Reminding her supporters that it was "two powerful television ads" that "brought us ahead," Hagan asks readers to help her put the ad embedded in her fundraising page on television (http://www.actblue.com/page/kayisahead). Hagan has also benefited greatly in the past week from a fundraising push by Senator Barbara Boxer, and from other innovative fundraising asks like "Liddy's Slippers" (http://www.actblue.com/page/liddysslippers), a joint production with the North Carolina Democratic Party: "Elizabeth Dole was a Kansan for over 25 years, even running for President as a Jayhawk, right up until she set her sights on a North Carolina Senate seat. Help us help Liddy click her heels three times and go home to Kansas so we can have a true North Carolinian to represent us in the U.S. Senate. A bus ticket from DC to Kansas: $177. Plane ticket from DC to Kansas: $319. Taxi from Capitol to Watergate: $6.25. Fill up Liddy's Gas Tank: $75. A train ticket from DC to Kansas: $147."


Hagan's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18560


Hagan's campaign site: http://kayhagan.com/welcome



Joseph Sestak Jr. (PA-07)



Former Navy Vice Admiral Joseph Sestak, Jr., was elected to Congress in 2006, defeating ten-term Republican incumbent Curt Weldon, and is running for re-election this year. Between tours in the Navy, Sestak earned a master's degree in Public Administration and a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard, and later served as Director for Defense Policy on the staff of the National Security Council under President Clinton, and as director of "Deep Blue," the Navy's anti-terrorism unit. Sestak is the senior military veteran in Congress and the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to Congress. Sestak was among ActBlue's ten most successful candidates in 2006.



The Sestak campaign is planning several events this month, and continues to fundraise principally through the Sestak ActBlue hubpage.



Sestak's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/12839


Sestak's campaign site: http://www.sestakforcongress.com/



Rick Noriega (TX-Sen)


Noriega is certainly no newcomer to ActBlue success, and has appeared on every Top 10 List since ActBlue launched the Campaign Newswire in June 2008. After Noriega's Army tour in Afghanistan, the two-term Texas state representative and Lieutenant Colonel was appointed Incident Commander of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Houston, Texas. He's now running against Republican incumbent John Cornyn for the Texas Senate seat.


The Noriega campaign continues to attract donations via Daily Kos's Orange to Blue list (www.actblue.com/page/orangetoblue), which challenged readers to raise $100 K by end of quarter. Noriega also won Blue America's contest (http://www.actblue.com/page/contest) this week.


Noriega's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18187


Noriega's campaign site: http://www.ricknoriega.com/



Equality for All


Equality for All is a diverse coalition encouraging Californians to vote against a ballot initiative ("Prop 8") that would rewrite the California Constitution to define marriage as a valid union between only a man and a woman. Equality for All is comprised of nearly 50 organizations, including LGBT, pro-choice and civil rights organizations, and organized labor and religious groups. California supporters can take the "Vow to Vote No" on Prop 8 at http://eqfed.org/campaign/vow.


Equality for All's totals this week reflect composite efforts by blogs like Calitics and by a number of community fundraisers. In a prime example of a personalized fundraising ask, "Lesbian Dad" makes the case to potential supporters: "The California Supreme Court's decision didn't merely read the equal protection clause as including lesbians and gay men; it didn't just rule that an individual's right to marry is protected. The court's ruling went on to say that 'an individual's sexual orientation, like a person's race or gender, does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.'" [...]Defeating Proposition 8 (which, as the ballot makes clear, "eliminates the right of same sex couples to marry") won't just defend the fundamental right to marry for all Californians. It will turn the tide in the entire anti-gay marriage movement nationally. Those working to pass the proposition know it: they are marshaling resources on an epic scale, because they know if they can't win here, there's little sense in mounting battles like this elsewhere.[...] But this race will be down to the wire, and will be won or lost by a fraction of a percentage point. Not at all kidding here. [...] Please contribute as much as you can to this fundraising page today! Then pass it on. "


No Prop 8, Equality for All website: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/19788


No Prop 8, Equality for All campaign hubpage: http://noonprop8.com



Darcy Burner (WA-08)



Author of the much-noted "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq," Darcy Burner, a candidate for Congress in 2006, is coming back to challenge Dave Reichert for the Eighth District seat. A Harvard graduate, Burner worked for software companies in Boston and San Francisco before settling in Washington State, where she worked on Microsoft's .NET project.



Darcy Burner continues to pull in stellar totals on ActBlue. Among others, Burner's campaign has been supported this week by Blue America and the Daily Kos Orange to Blue campaign, which has been actively fundraising in the month of September. Burner won the Daily Kos poll this week for having to deal with the nastiest GOP tricks ("Hell to Pay"), and as the winner, became the beneficiary of Saturday night's DKos drive (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/27/175016/728/539/612722).



Burner's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/17762



Burner's campaign site: http://www.darcyburner.com/





Jewish Council for Education & Research



The Jewish Council for Education & Research (JCER), a federal political action committee, was created to develop and disseminate information to voters in the United States around issues of concern to the Jewish community. JCER is motivated by a deep love for the Jewish community and by a desire to ensure that Jews have access to all the information they need as they engage in the electoral process. Its premiere initiative is JewsVote.org, a campaign to help Jews take responsibility for identifying and communicating about the election with voters in our own communities -- among our friends and families -- and in key swing states. JewsVote.org will work with people from across the Jewish denominational spectrum to engage, inform and activate our community members.


The JCER has launched an innovative campaign to persuade Jewish voters in Florida. The Great Schlep, online at http://thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html and billed by comedian Sarah Silverman, describes its mission in the following terms: "The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama."


JCER's website: http://jcer.info/, http://www.jewsvote.com and http://thegreatschlep.com/site/index.html


JCER's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/20799



Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee - Federal Account


The Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee is committed to electing Democrats in Pennsylvania.


The majority of contributions are coming through the "Building Blue" page, online at http://actblue.com/page/pabuildingblue1, as the Pennsylvania Dems prepare their GOTV field program.


PSDC's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/8382


PSDC's website: http://www.padems.com



Mark Warner (VA-Sen)



During his tenure as Virginia Governor from 2002-2006, Warner was hailed by Time Magazine as one of "America's 5 Best Governors" in 2005 and was featured in Newsweek's "Who's Next" issue in 2006. Warner is running for what will be Republican John Warner's vacated Senate seat.



Mark Warner continues to organize a variety of successful events and community fundraising drives.



Warner's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18420


Warner's campaign site: http://markwarner2008.com/welcome



Scott Kleeb (NE-Sen)



Kleeb is a fourth generation Nebraskan, who lived in military bases overseas as a child and has worked in the Sandhills of Nebraska and as a ranch hand in eastern Colorado. While working on the dissertation for his Ph.D. from Yale, Kleeb traveled all over the Western United States and saw firsthand the difficulties that farmers, ranchers and small business owners were facing as part of a shrinking middle class. Kleeb now works to promote locally-grown food and responsible business practices as Director of Operations for Morgan Ranch, a Nebraska-based beef company.



An Orange-to-Blue candidate, Kleeb has embraced the twofold power of the video embed, using online video both to communicate directly with supporters and to encourage donors to help the campaign buy ad time on Nebraska networks. The campaign's efforts this week have landed them once more on ActBlue's Top Ten list.



Kleeb's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18920


Kleeb's campaign site: http://www.scottkleeb.com




Barack Obama (President)


Illinois Senator Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for President.

The Obama-Biden campaign has been the beneficiary of fundraising pushes by AmericaBlog, Atrios, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos (Orange to Blue), and National Anthem, a group of Boston-based classical musicians that staged a benefit concert for the campaign this month (http://www.actblue.com/page/obamaconcert). Obama has 288 individual, successful fundraisers on ActBlue.

Obama's ActBlue hubpage: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/16332

Obama's campaign site: http://www.barackobama.com/



* All fundraising totals represent the amount raised from 12:00 a.m. on September 22 until 11:59 p.m. on September 28.

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