I have a serious question for my readership. Because I am committed to keeping Susie and myself safe from the virus, and also because of physical considerations attendant upon my age, I cannot really get out and do door-to-door campaigning. I have given a fair amount of money to a variety of campaigns but I just received a check for $707 as royalties this year on my half-century old book In Defense of Anarchism, so I could afford to spread $1000 around in various campaigns. I don’t want to give to the Biden campaign – it is awash in money. Nor do I want to give to campaigns that don’t really have any chance of success, although I am perfectly willing to take a flyer. Does anybody have suggestions? It doesn’t have to be a high-profile campaign. I would be willing to give something to a state or local progressive candidate who has a shot at winning. I get 40 or 50 emails a day from campaigns all over the country asking for money, but I would appreciate suggestions from readers, whom I am prepared to trust.
I would suggest that you take a look at the interactive map posted at the link below, and send your donation to the Democratic candidate in those states which are currently Republican, but are leaning Democratic.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.270towin.com/2020-senate-election/
MS
I have been impressed with Justice Democrats. They are rooted in a rising youth movement. They were behind AOC's, Ed Markey's and Jamall Bowman's campaign among others. The are gaining attention and providing ways for centrists Dems to move left.
ReplyDeleteHere's the page on their website of candidates they are endorsing and by the way when they endorse someone it meets they are committing to activity in their ground game.
https://justicedemocrats.com/candidates/
I would suggest picking a candidate in a tight race that is extremely important overall. Especially one that needs more funding to win.
ReplyDeleteAn example would be Theresa Greenfield in the race for the Iowa Senate against Sen. Joni Ernst, the GOP incumbent. Iowa is neck and neck, and the state could go either way in several races. But the senate is hugely important, as everyone realizes. So $ are flowing in to both sides.
I like the Working Families Party.
ReplyDeleteFrom their About Us page - "The Working Families Party is building our own party on top of the two-party system in the United States. We organize outside the two parties, and then we recruit and train people-powered candidates up and down the ballot and run them to win, often inside Democratic Party primaries."
They have chapters and local branches in Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington state, and Washington, DC.
https://workingfamilies.org/
One race to consider supporting is New Mexico Rep. Xochitl Torres Small who won in 2018 in a very tight race that went to a recount. According to the latest poll, it is a dead heat again. She won the seat held by Steve Pearce who vacated the seat to run for Governor. She is up against the same opponent as 2018. An indication of how conservative this district has been is that Pearce is one of the idiots who believes that Planned Parenthood and UNM were selling baby parts. Torres-Small is a lawyer who specialized in water rights, which, I am told, is a very, very complicated and crazy field. According to her opponents ads, Torres Small votes with Pelosi 955% or the time.
ReplyDeleteAmy and I are redirecting some of our contributions, intended initially for other races that now have comfortable margins, to Torres Small.
Professor Wolff: I have read your blog on a regular basis for several years, but I have never commented. I am an attorney licensed in Pennsylvania and New York. Until last month, I was assistant professor of taxation at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, PA.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that you consider donating to the Flippable state fund:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/flippablefund1?refcode=website-actnow-join-the-fund&_ga=2.236454593.1164604519.1600881168-206455980.1600881168
You can find Flippable's plan here: https://flippable.org/our-plan/
Basically, one of the fundamental problems for the Democratic party is that the Republicans control many more state legislatures. All sorts of important policy is determined at the state level. Furthermore, the Republicans use their control of the state legislatures to gerrymander districts to retain future control for themselves (and they also gerrymander federal congressional districts). The Koch brothers have pumped a lot of money over the years into state level races. Flippable is a grassroots attempt to retake state legislatures for Democrats. One of the states is your current home state of North Carolina. Although your governor is a Democrat, under state law, your governor does not get to play a role in drawing districts. The other states that Flippable is focusing on are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Flippable focuses on helping state legislative candidates in each of these states. Conveniently, funding those candidates will probably help Democrats reach more voters than funding the Biden campaign or funding the campaigns of specific Senators. The state legislative candidates tend to do much more targeted, local work because they have small districts. This, in turn, will probably help campaigns up and down the ballot in the states that Flippable funds. Conveniently, all of those states are to some degree in play at the Presidential and/or Senatorial level.
Professor Wolff,
ReplyDeleteI'm a law professor at SUNY Buffalo, a longtime reader (actually since I read In Defense of Anarchism as a freshman) and a first time commentator. I recently contributed to this bundle of (1) borderline Congressional races that (2) happen to be in states that have borderline Senate races but also (3) happen to be in states that are close in the Presidential race. The idea -- though it probably doesn't bear explaining -- is that you're giving money to races where it will be of use, and in doing so help the more high profile races (on the assumption that nobody really splits their ticket these days.
Here's the link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/timeforsomegoodnews?refcode=fb
I can't vouch for the policy positions of every candidate and probably disagree with many of them (I'm a DSA member), but they're all Democrats.