It’s the end of the quarter, and today’s the last day to support progressive candidates with money that will make the most impact. MyDD.com’s Chris Bowers on why that is:

This is it. These are the final days where fundraising totals matter to the overall narrative. The Q2 fundraising deadline ends at midnight on Friday. That is only 75 hours away (check that–35 hours away). The next quarter will end on September 30th, and the reports on that quarter won’t be out until mid-October. Buy then, all targeting and media attention will already be in place. That makes this the final deadline where totals will signal to the media and to the political establishment that a candidate is for real. To make that national difference, you need to donate now. Over at the MyDD / Dailykos / Swing State Project combined Act Blue page, there are many candidates worthy of your support.

 You’ll notice that our man Massa’s in that ActBlue netroots list. I went in and donated $20. Every little bit helps, and even folks without a lot of spare money to rub together (like me) can show support. A number of people-powered campaigns are much more visible, viable, and credible if, well, people are powering them.

And if you can’t donate, then volunteer, which honestly is worth a heck of a lot more than any financial contribution.Â

We’re all in this together, and anything we can do together, even the smallest bit, goes a long, long way.

Which brings me to why we’re here. I was going to write a schpiel on this soon, but MyDD’s Matt Stoller puts it even better:

[T]his isn’t just a way to funnel money to candidates, this is infrastructure that’s being created. Â I’m not sure how useful the blogging world was to Jon Corzine’s election in 2005, but the blogosphere that was left behind in the wake of that election has been helpful to New Jersey progressives and Democrats. Â The Virginia blogs created in the wake of Tim Kaine recruited James Webb, and won him the primary victory. Â The Montana blogs that grew in 2004 helped Tester immensely in his primary victory. Â The Connecticut blogs are becoming a permanent part of the Connecticut establistment and beating up on Lieberman, the Texas blogs are remaking the Texas Democratic party, and the Pennsylvania blogs are part of the ’silent revolution’ that is attacking the very structure of the Philly machine. Â All over the place, an entirely new progressive and open source political intelligence network is snapping into place, supporting candidates, learning, and growing. Â Next cycle, they will recruit candidates and one day soon, we will have an entirely different party. Â It will have its own problems and its own structural weaknesses, but it will be more transparent and it will be people-powered.

We have big shoes to fill if we want to do what those blogs have done. But we’re already making an impact, in terms of informing, supporting, and connecting folks (what blogs do best, really) on the local political/progressive scene. I look forward to helping shape conventional wisdom, weeding and feeding progressive candidates and movements, and moving on to what’s next: a sustainable society. Because as important as getting progressives elected is, it’s merely stopping the bleeding. And progressive folks in government are the ones who will be more likely to step back and see the bigger picture, then make decisions for “the 7th generation” down the road, as the Iroquois said.

But a thousand mile journey begins with the first step, so put $10 out there for your favorite netroots candidate already!

[Updated: J in the comments makes a good point about supporting Ned Lamont. I agree, and did. I'm curious, if anyone else reading this has donated, post a comment on who they're supporting.]

• Hawright, peoples, circle up. It’s crunch time for signatures, and my man jaysmith36 is working his butt off to get Dems on the ballot. But he could use some help. He is coordinating signature-gathering for Dan Maffei and other Dem candidates in Webster. They really, REALLY need volunteers. If interested, folks can contact him (his name’s Jared) using the Contact Us form, that would be a huge help to getting Dan and others on the ballot. Candidates will be riding each other’s coattails upticket and downticket, so every race counts!For those who haven’t done it, signature gathering is pretty painless, it’s just going door-to-door, to Dem households, and Dems these days are almost always more than happy to take a minute and sign a couple petitions if it means a better chance of turning a seat blue.
• Drinking Liberally tonight! Exile on Ericsson St. reminds us all:

Don’t forget to stop by Drinking Liberally tonight at 8 pm at Monty’s Korner on Alexander and East. Independence Day is only a few days away and there is no better way to show love for your country than by downing a few pints with fellow progressives.

• He also reports:

DL regular and Pennfield Dem chariman Lynne Crawford is putting together a real progressive humdinger of a celebration this Saturday as part of the Pennfield Independence Day parade (it’s a little known fact that Pennfield declared its independence three days before the rest of the country, a fact Pennfield residents are justly proud of).Â

Not one, but two (!) progressive Congressional candidates will be there — Dan Maffei (NY 25) and Eric Massa (NY 28). There will be many other progressive luminaries in attendance as well. Here’s the full announcement if you’d like to stop by.

• OTPFTP, who are hosting the Massa meet and greet mentioned a few posts below, have this really cool site. Check it out.

• It’s great to see readership and contributorship (is that a word?) on the rise. Many thanks to all. A special phat shout out to the visitor from the U.S. House of Reps who stopped on by last night while searching for stuff on Eric Massa. I just know you’re interested in finding out why so many people love him, and not a Kuhl staffer doing oppo research.

And yes, I did enjoy writing a title containing nothing but 4 letter words.Â

From the folks at Democracy for America, who have their noses to the ground when it comes to local progressive candidates…

• ‘Walsh may find his ‘06 race more of a battle’ (from the D&C, 6/25/06, h/t Dan thehepcat ) Even the D&C is sitting up and taking note of the Money quotes from the article, which is more of a he-said, she-said overview of the candidates than anything else:
• “[Walsh is] certainly concerned about me,” Maffei said. “His voting record does not match his constituents’” beliefs.
• “What I find unequivocally this year is that people are out shopping for a replacement for Walsh,” Capanna said.
• The National Journal magazine last week ranked the race as the 45th most competitive House contest in the country — the only one on the list from the Rochester area.
• Check out Sean Maloney’s website http://www.seanmaloney.com/ — it’s been redesigned. (h/t Tom J)
• Sign up to march with DfA in the Gay Pride Parade! I marched last year and it was fun watching the counter-protesters outnumbering the fundie protesters. I also enjoyed then County Lej candidate Ted Nixon engage a fundie with “You know how many times the bible mentions the poor?” I’d like to make a placard to carry with the words “What Jesus REALLY said about homosexuality:”, followed by a big picture of Jesus next to an empty speech balloon. (E.g., not one damn word. Come on Christians (and I’m one), let’s keep our eye on the ball, already!)
• DfA’s July Linkup (7/5) will be an interesting one. Eric Massa will be back with an exciting and encouraging update on his campaign and Joe Robach’s challenger Willa Powell will also speak. More info and RSVP here.

I just can’t get enough of this guy. From a June 19, 2006 fundraiser (h/t noelschultz from dailykos):

Where I live in upstate New York, the ultimate family value is a living wage job. (applause) The ultimate family value is the ability to live in peace and know that the Constitution of America stands for all of us and not a select few, and so we will demand — we will demand — that we stop this insane assault on our civil liberties starting day one. (applause)

Exile On Ericson St. asked me to pass this along, in case YOU can’t get enough of him either:

On 7:00 p.m., Thursday July 6, 2006, OTPFTP will be hosting a Meet the Candidate Event with Eric Massa, the Democratic candidate for the 29th Congressional District. Massa, a former Special Assistant to General Wesley Clark, and one of the “Fighting Dems”, is a progressive who is seeking to unseat Randy Kuhl. For information on Massa, including his interviews with Al Franken and Daily Kos, see: http://massaforcongress.com

I REALLY want a “take it to ‘em” kind of Dem in congress, one that will call a spade a spade and cut through the BS. There’s a lot of BS to cut through these days, and from everything he’s said, Massa’s got a honkin’ HUGE pair of hedgeclippers.

[UPDATE: Rottenchester makes a good point that an address for the event would be nice, since we're plugging it and all. I've emailed the Massa campaign to get the info and will update here when I get it. - btp]

[UPDATE II: I've updated the announcement with a link to the website for the folks holding the event.]

Don’t forget to come to Drinking Liberally tonight at 8 pm at Monty’s on Alexander and East! The political season is heating up and you don’t want to miss even a minute of all the action packed political discussions that go on in the Drinking Liberally “war room”. Since it is not yet possible to Tivo the meetings, this involves actually showing up to Monty’s tonight and every Thursday night! I’m still in Italy, but I’ll see you all in a couple weeks when I get back.

Ok, we all agree the Rochester area needs some help. What can you do?

Comment on something you see here. Did you like, not like, agree, disagree? We want to know! Join the conversation.

Also, if you register for an account, you can create your own posts on this site.

If you want to dive in and help get progressive candidates elected, check out Rochester’s local Democracy for America. A bunch of positive, progressive, can-do folks that are fun to be with. You’ll get to meet and work with some of the Rochester area’s most progressive candidates.

If you’re more interested in movements than individual candidates, MetroJustice is working on several key local issues– for example fighting poverty, spearheading Clean Money Clean Elections, and restoring sanity to the government-private relationship.

Now, for local efforts in movements that are nationwide, find a MoveOn chapter in your area.

And if you’re just getting your feet wet, or just really want to talk about the issues, try our local chapter of Drinking Liberally. A fun, informed bunch that meet weekly to discuss the politics of the day.

There’s other local progressive organizations, but these are the ones we have the most experience with, so we can recommend them reliably.

You can also directly volunteer for specific campaigns by visiting their sites and signing up. It’s up to YOU to make a difference.

A review of fun or interesting progressive stuff found while surfing Rochester blogs. - bythepeople

Normally this’ll be about recent posts I’ve come across, but since this is my first time doing this I’m including some older posts that are still relevant.

DragonFlyEye.net features not 1, not 2, but 3 solid pieces on local prog issues. This guy’s on fire:

• He gives a favorable review of the Rochester Premier of An Inconvenient Truth, and relates a discussion he had while waiting, about CSA (Community-Sponsored Agriculture). Sounds like a fun progessive evening. I’ve been in a CSA, and it rocks. I want to see the movie, but was afraid I would just leave depressed. According to him, though, it’s motiviating and inspiring. He’s also updated his site to show energy efficiency tips instead of quotes. Very cool.
• He gives an interesting take on the proposal to turn Broad Street into a canal. I still believe a canal, done well, could be a cool addition to downtown, a la Providence, RI, or Oklahoma City. After reading dfe’s take though, I have to agree Broad St. is not the best location.
• He also takes my earlier post about People Powered Polling, and really runs with it. It would be great to see these kinds of ideas really catching on locally.

Over on RochesterWriters, where they’re less intensely progressive but no less interesting, we have a couple nuggets:

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

Our Spam Karma plugin, which we use to prevent “comment spamming” seemed to be especially hungry over the last day or so, eating new and previously existing comments. I’ve restored them and will be looking at how to re-configure the plugin a little later today. Sorry for any inconvenience. Anyone with Spam Karma experience out there?

[UPDATE: I switched over to askimet, per DragonFly's suggestion. Hopefully that'll work a little better. Thanks DragonFly!]

But, on Saturday Morning all of my business as of late will materialize in the form of a massive petitioning drive across Webster, Penfield, and Irondequoit. The Maffei Campaign is bringing around 15 volunteers from Syracuse in to help a number of Rochestarians collect as many signatures as possible to get Dan and other local candidates on the Primary ballot.

If anyone is interested, please click on the “About/Contact Us” link toward the top right of the screen and you too can join the drive to turn Congress Blue again!

The Where and the When:

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

Note: I love this. This is what people-powered is all about. - bythepeople

On Tuesday, June 13th, area residents packed the County Legislature to urge their representatives to sign a resolution in support of statewide reform of the industrial development agency (IDA) system. It was standing room only and Speaker Zyra had to settle down the vocal crowd several times.

There were so many speakers that the President of the County Legislature, Wayne Zyra had to cut everybody’s allotted time in half. Speaker after speaker addressed the need for reforming the system that regulates COMIDA. Metro Justice members, elected officials, and representatives of organized labor pointed out the lack of accountability in the system and the need to use tax incentives in a responsible manner, rather than handing over tax breaks to businesses without any accountability.

The legislation passed the assembly local government committee on Tuesday. A statewide campaign is mobilizing hundreds of phone calls a day to leaders in the Assembly and Senate. There are only two weeks left in the legislative session.

Want to help by contacting your legislator? Metro Justice has more info here.

Some pictures from the event:

Rockie speaking

County Lej - constituents

Now this is something we can really use. Over on dailykos, Yoss is spearheading an effort to help local candidates do their own polling. A bunch of folks have signed on already to help develop methods and tools for campaigns.

One of the biggest obstacles to local and second-tier national candidates in this country is the lack of funding they possess. [...]

The most notable example of this problem is that of reliable polling, which has in the modern era been a tool relegated to the high-budget campaigns with national support and interest. Without the means to do even the smallest of benchmark polls early in the election season, most challengers have no way to convince their parties, or their potential constituency, that they stand a chance. [...]

A big barrier for the little guys. Here’s the proposed solution, with a little outside the box thinking.

There is no reason why small campaigns can not field their own polls using volunteers from their campaign. Twenty people making phone calls in the evening or on weekends with their free minutes could very quickly gather enough information to publish the results.

Yes, yes. yes! For a while now, I’ve been convinced that in these days of everybody getting poorer except for mega-churches and CEOs, we need ways for everyone to have a crack at serving in office, regardless of how much money they have. DragonFly addresses that from the angle of the Clean Money Clean Elections campaign.

Developing open-source, Amish barn-raising polling is a huge part of that as well. It lowers barriers to local candidates, gets more people involved in the process, and ultimately helps everyone.

I’ve signed up for the project, and will post updates on how it’s going and how it’s worked for our local candidates who’ve tried it. If you have any interest in helping, you can sign up with them too.

Note: This is really important to our local economy. It’s not just about stopping wasteful and unfair use of taxpayer money, it’s about fighting the inherent broken-ness of the public-private relationship. -bythepeople

Tuesday, June 13, 6pm
County Office Building
39 West Main Street, downtown Rochester

Please join us at the County Legislature as we urge County legislators to sign a resolution supporting IDA reform in Albany.

If you would like to speak on the subject call 428-5350 to sign up. You will have 2 minutes. That’s about 300 words. Please consider being polite. We actually have a chance of getting a couple of Republicans to sign on.

1. We are urging county legislators to sign the IDA (industrial development agency) reform resolution supporting Senator Maziarz’ IDA reform legislation.
2. The bill has bipartisan support and companion legislation is sponsored by Assemblyman Sweeney in the Assembly. Senator Robach is a cosponsor. So are Assemblymembers Morelle, Susan John and David Koon.

   __(’Read the rest of this entry »’)

Note: I know this is a couple weeks old, but it’s timely given the meeting at the County Lej tonight. More shortly.

Ok, finally, the D&C weighs in, citing recent studies:

According to separate audits and analyses by Metro Justice and state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, IDAs, including the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, aren’t watching the store closely enough. Statewide, only about one-third of the businesses given tax relief met their job-creation goals. It’s important that IDAs with greater regularity rescind the tax deals of businesses that skip out on their obligations.

briefly gets off track and muddies the water with a little “he said, she said” journalism:

In recent years, COMIDA has more strenuously insisted that companies meet their job-growth pledges. But even with that, according to Metro Justice, COMIDA, and the community, isn’t getting the job return on its investments.

but, fortunately, concludes that COMIDA should not be operating in a vacuum:

COMIDA and other IDAs must do more to close the gap between tax relief granted and jobs promised. And they should open their governing bodies to the wider, property-tax-paying community.

Well, duh. It doesn’t take someone with an accounting degree to do the math. If there’s no return (or negative return) on investement, why are we investing our tax dollars in corporate giveaways? Trickle-down? Um, sure, because that’s been working really well upstate.

dragonflyeye gives a well thought out take on the situation, and does it in a vblog (video blog). Very cool, and well done, for what appears to be a guy and his computer. I’ll be blogging about the whole situation soon, the whole thing is irritating and dangerous on many levels.

This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series of blog posts entitled “What’s The Big Idea”. These posts will feature “outside the box” thinking about the problems facing the greater Rochester area, as well as the solutions. Have a Big Idea you’d like to see profiled? Let us know, we’d be happy to give it some air time.

Last week, Time magazine featured an article about Chicago Mayor Daley’s vision to turn Chicago into “the most environmentally friendly city in the U.S.”.

If it works — and Daley is betting a hefty sum it will, with promises to buy millions in solar panels, for example — the green movement here is expected to yield the city perhaps billions in saved energy costs and new business.

So, what, in particular, is Chicago doing to help this along, and what lessons can Rochester learn from it?

__(’Read the rest of this entry »’)