Kerry Donates an Unprecedented $6 Million to Help Elect Democrats

[Dover]

Kerry Donates an Unprecedented $6 Million to Help Elect Democrats in the House and Senate

8/16/2004 11:00:00 AM

The Kerry-Edwards campaign announced Monday that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has donated $3 million from his primary campaign to both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). The unprecedented donations will help play a crucial role in the committees' efforts to elect more Democrats to Congress.

"Thanks to tremendous grassroots support from across the country, John Kerry was able to raise a record breaking amount during the primary that he can now share in the effort to elect Democrats across the country," said Kerry-Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. "Together with Democrats in the House and Senate, John Kerry and John Edwards will build an America that is stronger at home and respected in the world. They will strengthen the economy by creating good paying jobs, cut taxes for middle- class families and make America stronger and more secure.".....cont'd

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=112-08162004

[bemildred]

1. This is good.

Personal loyalty to Kerry instead of the DNC,
helps you get your program enacted after you get in office.
The Golden Rule in action, he who has the gold makes the rules.

[Shallah Kali]

2. Good! Kerry won't be as effective a President if there is a GOP majority

Go Kerry!

[Hawkeye-X]

5. November 2, 2004

Will forsee the sweep of the Republican party, and into the majority of a filibusterproof Democratic majority for a generation (or two)!

[TrogL]

3. I'm glad somebody gets it

The White House is not enough.

We need the Senate, House and Supreme Court.

[Q3JR4]

4. The Senate and presidency

will give us the Supreme Court.

[Frances]

6. And I hope that the Senate and the presidency

will also give us back the fairness doctrine in the media

I am tired of us little folks having to compete with the corporations to get our message out

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. and time

we need time to be on our side too

[displacedtexan]

9. Hey, MR!

May I post your squirrel pic on my blog?

http://ascrivenerslament.blogspot.com/

[Born Free]

20. love the squirrel picture..

We have squirrels in our neighborhood, they are fun to watch. Yesterday two of them were doing their impressions of commercial where the squirrel causes an accident. Both were standing up in the middle of the street, and would not move, I ended up stopping and waiting for them to walk over so I could get by.

[Kolesar]

8. Hey, that's my money

I don't know if I like this. The Kerry campaign is the only campaign I am focusing on, and I think he needs every cent, otherwise I would not have donated. I could give money to congressional candidates if I want to.

[connecticut yankee]

23. I couldn't agree more

I have a limited amount of money and time, and am devoting every nickel and every minute I can to help take back the White House.

I have sent money to the Kerry campaign and am planning to send more, as well as helping run a fund-raiser in a couple of weeks. The idea was to pay for advertising in other states (Connecticut appears to be a safe state).

I don't want my money to go to a Congressional race in a state halfway across the country. That's not what I've been doing this for.

Was this Terry McAuliffe's idea?

:mad:

[Orangepeel]

25. please see post #24

as I understand it, the Kerry campaign has run into spending caps because he didn't opt out of federal matching funds for the general election like he did for the primary. (that's what bush did, too, because it is the way to get the most bang for the buck)

But, that's okay, because the money you donated is helping Kerry (indirectly of course, because it would be illegal to do it directly). Your money is freeing up money that can be used to promote Kerry.

[trogdor]

26. Thank you!

1. Kerry can't get squat accomplished with the same GOP-controlled Congress. Bill Clinton even said in a direct-mailing I got the other day, "don't put John Kerry in the position I was in for most of my presidency," or something like that.

2. The more money congressional candidates have to spend, the more noise they can make, right there where the rubber meets the road. It's called synergy. Disney does it. AOL does it. They do it because it works.

[jwirr]

28. My Money

I think you missed the point. It will do us little good to elect John Kerry and leave him with Repugs in control of the congress. We need them both to get anything done, especially if we want changes instead of business as usual. He his first presidential decision by selecting John Edwards to be his vice president. This is his second presidential decision and it is a vital one.

[proud patriot]

10. Wheeeeeeee !

good for him

[mongo]

11. I HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM WITH THIS!

Our local Kerry campaign coordinator got into town last week, and I am working with her. She represents 5 (mostly) rural counties in SW Ohio.

Luckily, one of the local attorneys has donated an office for her to work out of, and they are working to fix up a store front which will be shared by the Kerry campaign and the local Democratic party.

But, SHE HAS NO BUDGET. No money whatsoever for campaign materials. The local dems seem to be concentrating on the local candidates. They have a booth at the county fair right now, but they have no Kerry materials, no information, no bumperstickers, no yard signs - NOT EVEN FOR SALE.

We don't need a whole lot - a couple of hundred yard signs, some bumperstickers and pins would be nice. This is a very economically depressed area, and the only people who have money are the repubs.

I was at the Ohio State fair last week and the repubs were giving out bumperstickers and signs at their booth. The Dems had a guy with a pad of paper asking for volunteers.

I have heard several times that the area of Ohio I live in will determine the election for Ohio and that Ohio may determine the election for the country. Why aren't we getting any support to help Kerry win?

[sybylla]

12. Same here

Wisconsin is a swing state and yet the local county parties have to buy bumper stickers, pins and yard signs? Of course they didn't arrive in time for our county fair last week. One of our board members visited the Kerry office in Madison and asked for materials. They directed him to another office across the state and wouldn't give him any materials for the fair. He's a big man and just stared down the pipsqueak working the office, daring him to stop him from taking the pile of bumper stickers setting on their counter.

If the field offices are fighting for materials, there is a problem. Kerry better get his own house in order before he starts handout out cash.

[2Design]

13. go to the list of contacts on kerry site and start calling and see

what you can do to get this corrected.

[mongo]

14. Good idea

I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

[sybylla]

15. Been there, tried that

Most of my voice mail messages were not returned. When I actually got to speak to a campaign worker, they passed me off on someone else. It was like trying to get customer service from the phone company.

Of course that was in late May. Perhaps they have their act together a bit better by now.

[2Design]

16. so go and volunteer on the spot to return phone calls and you can

tell them you know it is needed because no one returns your calls..:)

[sybylla]

18. Go and volunteer in DC?

I think not. Get real. I already volunteer loads of hours for my local Dems orgs and Dem candidates. I don't have time to fix Kerry's campaign if I even had the opportunity. I have to spend far too much time trying to cover for the campaign for not having lit, stickers, buttons, signs and more available. In four years of being active in my local dem org, this is the only campaign for which we've had to BUY campaign materials. I could see if Wisconsin were a very sure thing. But unfortunately its not.

The solution needs to come from the top down. If they have a problem getting materials to field offices in a swing state and their national office passes the buck or won't return phone calls, there's nothing I can do about it locally.


Perhaps you have a few spare hours?

[mongo]

17. I just spoke to someone at the Natl HQ

Who said that they have no knowledge of this, and that it probably wasn't true.

I don't know what to believe now....

[JNelson6563]

22. That is a difficult situation

We blew through 1,000 lawn-signs in 2 weeks up here in Rethug strong-hold, little Traverse City. If we had had to wait for the MDP or the DNC or anyone else to send stuff we'd've had nothing. Thank bob some of us have been hard at it for a long time and now the Dem party is so plush, we can spend very large $ easily. I recommend you hop right into the action of your local Dem party and start working to build it up.

Good luck on getting some help. After years of complete neglect we've taken matters into our own hands and now we're the envy of the district.

Rock on, don't get discouraged, get organized! :toast:

Julie

[Orangepeel]

24. Spending caps. Kerry gives money to the Dems and the DNC buys ads

Although of course, it isn't quid pro quo, because that would be illegal.

Kerry is using matching funds for the general election (although he didn't for the primary), so there are limits on how much the campaign can spend. But, the DNC is running ads that promote his program. I see them all the time here in my swing area of a swing state. That's legal, as long as there is no coordination.

So, Kerry gives money he can't spend to promote Democratic house and senate candidates. Then, the DNC has more money to do what it needs to do, like run pro-Kerry ads.

At least that's how I understand it.

[Kolesar]

27. That is not how I understood it

I recall getting emails from the Kerry campaign during the week of the convention saying that Thursday was the last chance to donate to the Kerry campaign before he goes on federal funding. Polls looked like this was a tough fight, so I donated a significant amount of money.

In my grassroots work, I have been contacting republicans and trying to get them to dump Bush on account of his horrible environmental record. I won't win with them if I present to them a comprehensive vision of the Democrats taking back the Congress also.

[depakid]

19. It's a start!

now if his campaign would just start using their visibility to bring attention to all of the appalling actions and policies that Republican's have advanced over the past 4 years- It is, after all, in his best interests to have a Democratic Congress and Senate- and the only way to do that is to nationalize the election- and run against Republicans, based on their record.

Unfortunately, their strategy seems to be to legitimize Republicans and their policies and procedures in order to seek out a few so called undecided votes. If he wins the presidency and loses Congress and the Senate, he'll regret listening to the "strategists" and consulatants who told him to do this.

[JusticeForAll]

21. After reading this thread I called too

In Arizona, I visit the State party office on pretty much a daily basis, even if it is just for five minutes here or there. Consistently for the past two weeks they, too, have been turning people away and to the internet for literature and campaign stickers and supplies.

This morning, I received I phoned the National HQ after reading this thread. The woman who took my call acknowledged the situation. She explained that it was a budget issue, but then I referred her to the main point of this thread ($6M donated to other races), and she hesitated and passed me on to someone's voice mail. I have yet to hear from that person (6 hours and waiting).

Hopefully someone in the National campaign will realize that the grass roots efforts become very difficult when materials like this are not available.