According to the latest FEC reports, 69 Democratic House incumbents, each with more than $200,000 in their campaign accounts, are either facing no opposition for re-election, or are facing token Republican opposition that has failed to raise more than $10,000. Combined, these 69 incumbents have roughly $50,000,000 in their campaign bank accounts. If each of these 69 incumbents were to give 30% of their campaign funds either directly to competitive Democratic challengers and / or to the DCCC, that would make $15,000,000. Then, we would indeed have the money to fully target 60 Republican-held seats.
Across the country, there are tons of “safe districts” where Democrats don’t really have to worry about losing a congressional seat. These campaigns, though, still raise a ton of money and this year a good thing for them to do would be to spread some of that wealth around. MyDD has a good post here (that I quoted above), and Lynn over at Evergreen Politics puts a local spin on it:
In this state there is only one Congressman on this list, Norm Dicks in WA-06. So please call his office and politely explain why you are calling, explain the program and the reason for the program.
I just called Norm’s Tacoma office (253-272-5884, DC number is 202.225.5916) ) and discussed the situation with the person who answered the phone. He said that Dicks was hosting fundraisers for Democratic challengers. I thanked him and said we’re asking for more this year. We’re asking for 30% of what they have in their coffers. In Dicks’ case, 30% is $112,040 of the total of $373,466. I also asked him to get back to me with the answer. He said it was unlikely since they were quite busy.
I’m guessing that they may change their mind if 200 or 400 or 1000 of us call.
Tips for good calls
1. Be polite
2. Be prepared for pushback
3. Tell them this is an extraordinary situation because so many seats are in play
4. Tell them others have given more than 30%
5. Give them a way to contact you when they decide how much to pledge
6. Only call Representatives in your home state
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