Have You Written to the FEC Yet?

ActBlue is not a PAC! Don't let the FEC penalize small donors who give to political campaigns through ActBlue.

You can use my letter, or use this handy form on the John Edwards campaign site.

ActBlue is Not a PAC

John Edwards has asked the Federal Elections Commission to rule on whether he can get public matching funds for the contributions that have been made to his campaign by ActBlue.

The FEC is making it difficult. It says ActBlue is a PAC (Political Action Committee) even though obviously it's not. It's just a mechanism that allows small donors to donate, and to ask their friends to donate, to candidates they like. The FEC is interpreting the law literally (do you really care about the details? Kos explains them here) rather than upholding the spirit of federal election laws which are supposed to let small donors participate.

They are accepting public comments. Your comment can help the FEC interpret the laws the way they were meant to be interpreted. Sent public comments to to the FEC Secretary, Mary Dove, at this address:

mdove@fec.gov

The deadline for the submission of comments is 12:00pm noon (Eastern Time) on December 13,2007.

You can use my letter if you like (note that it says I am voting for Obama, you'll need to change that if you are for another candidate). My letter is adapted from a letter helpfully posted by Lynne at BlueMassGroup (thanks Lynne!).

Dear Ms. Dove,

Please accept this email as an official public comment in opposition to the FEC categorizing ActBlue as a PAC for purposes of a candidate's eligibility for public matching funds.

ActBlue is simply a mechanism to set up online fundraising. The rules governing public matching funds are intended to keep big money out of politics, so that small donors can still have influence on the political process.

ActBlue encourages small donors to campaigns, by allowing individuals to set up a place for people to send the same sort of individual donation that you might do directly through a candidate's website or by sending them a check.

By ruling them ineligible for matching funds, you would be stifling small donor participation in the process of donations. While ActBlue only allows one political party to participate, there is nothing stopping any other party from setting up the same mechanism online, and I believe any political party should be accorded the same ruling.

Please allow ActBlue donations to count towards public matching funds. I say this as a voter who intends to vote for Barack Obama in the primary, so I have no reason to want Senator Edwards (who is as I understand the impetus for clarifying this rule) to gain advantage by getting this money. I just believe in fairness and want to ensure that the rules governing our elections encourage instead of discourage public participation....as the rules were intended to do. ActBlue is a poster child for the spirit of democratic participation. Please do not let your ruling stifle that.

Sincerely,

Listen to Eric Massa (NY-29)

Here's how a real military man would respond to the North Korean nuclear explosion:

1) Reconvene. President Bush should call an emergency session of Congress tonight to respond to this crisis. Last year, during the Schiavo family medical tragedy in Florida, the Congress reconvened in emergency session to pass a law that had nothing to do with national security, nothing to do with making America safer, nothing to do with the public welfare. Instead, they passed and signed a law in midnight session that purported to intervene in the private medical decisions of a family in crisis. If this Administration and its allies in Congress truly value life, truly value the security of this nation, then they ought to be able to give the same consideration to national defense.

2) Refocus. The obsessive focus on Iraq that has characterized the Bush Administration's approach to the world has left us willfully ignorant of ever changing political dynamics across the globe--particularly in East Asia. It is no longer sufficient to reduce the world to slogans and Axes of Evil--we must fundamentally refocus our efforts on a global level.

3) Redeploy. Over time, our military has been gradually withdrawn from bases in South Korea and repositioned to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This has had the dual effect of suggesting to the North Koreans that we are not committed to the defense of South Korea and of dramatically reducing our ability to exert force in that part of the world. In addition to redeploying our military, we must also redeploy the other facets of our international power--trade, diplomacy, and economic aid. The flow of resources in this government has been focused for too long upon a misguided and counterproductive war in Iraq to the detriment of our interests worldwide.

4) Re-energize. We must now seek to understand the motives and machinations of our adversaries even as we seek to reach out to our traditional allies in that region: Japan, Australia, and South Korea. Using these relationships, and employing skillful diplomacy instead of a reckless cowboy approach, we may be able to leverage our power, and that of China, to force North Korea to disarm.

He was on the Ed Schultz Show yesterday. Here's the audio.

Or read his diary on dailykos.

Check out his website.

Donate to him here on my ActBluepage.

And if you live in his district, vote for him in November! We need more voices of reason like Eric Massa in Congress.

Another Reason To Support Eric Massa (NY-29) For Congress

Cheney is campaigning for his opponent, the Shotgun Senator, Randy Kuhl:

Raw Story: Cheney to stump for GOPer who bullied wife with guns

Roll Call excerpt:

If readers recall, widely reported divorce records showed that Kuhl, currently running for his second term, pulled not one but two shotguns on his wife during a 1994 dinner party at their home. Kuhl's ex-wife also described him as an abusive drunk who "hustled women."

Cheney, the man who may always be remembered for accidentally shooting his good friend on a hunting trip, has agreed to do a private photo-op at a Sept. 22 fundraiser for Kuhl in Rochester, N.Y. And, yes, you guessed it, Kuhl is considered vulnerable this year.

As one Democratic operative told HOH, "I can't tell what Cheney likes best about him—Kuhl's penchant for rubber-stamping the president or for combining beer with firearm use."

Eric Massa for Congress 2006

MainStUSA ActBlue Page

I've Got an ActBlue Page

Main St USA is the name of my ActBlue page. I've got five candidates so far, and if there's someone you think I should add, send me an email (edwardssupporter@aol.com) or tell me about your candidate and your argument as to why I should support her, or him, in the comments section.

Here are my 5:

(1) Kirsten Gillibrand: Running for the NY-20 Congressional seat (my mom's district); David Boies' partner, smart lawyer, and running against the evil oaf, incumbent John Sweeney, the jerk who led the Brooks Brother riot in Dade County during the 2000 Florida vote counting fiasco, and more recently a Jack Abramoff bagman, working hard to keep sweatshops open in the Marianas Islands.

(2) John Bonifaz: Running to be Secretary of State in Massachusetts. When John Kerry took his millions and his promise to fight for every vote and left Ohio in 2004, John Bonifaz bought a plane ticket and went to Ohio and led the fight to have all the votes counted. Running against incumbent Bill Galvin, our comical Secretary of State who never saw a TV camera he didn't ham up to.

(3) Eric Massa: Running for the NY-29 Congressional seat, western New York where many friends and relatives live. One of the Fighting Dems, the large group of military veterans running to bring a realistic view of the military into government. Had enough chickenhawk leadership yet? Vote for the Fighting Dems. Oh, and Massa's opponent is a real piece of work, the Shotgun Senator (when he was in the NY State Senate, he fired a shotgun at his now ex-wife), incumbent Randy Kuhl.

(4) Jon Tester: Running for the Montana Senate seat against incumbent Conrad Burns, Abramoff bagman, and the Senator most famous recently for accosting a group of firefighters from Virginia in the Billings, Montana airport and accusing them of doing a poor job. Tester is a rancher, a gun owner, and a progressive.

(5) Joe Sestak: Running for the PA-07 seat currently held by Curt Weldon, one of the dumbest wingnuts in Congress (he keeps issuing statements saying we've found the WMDs in Iraq. Right.) Sestak is a retired 31-year Navy veteran with a Doctorate in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. Weldon, on the other hand, is a typical corrupt Republican; his 29-year-old daughter is a lobbyist trading on Daddy's contacts. Plus he publicly criticized Sestak's choice of cancer treatment for his 5-year-old daughter. Yucch.

Eric Massa, NY-29, A Fighting Dem for the House

firedoglake: Blue America — Eric Massa, NY-29

I read firedoglake's post on Eric Massa and went to the Act Blue page to send him a little money. Gotta support those Fighting Dems.

He called me! Less than an hour later! He is committed to personal politics. Every contributor gets a phone call. He said his Republican opponent, Randy Kuhl (the Shotgun Senator) just left on a Congressional factfinding mission -- to Iraq. We agreed that the money being spent to send the clueless Kuhl to Iraq would be better spent on armor for the troops, who are still underequipped.

So if you live in western New York, please get out there and work for Eric Massa and put a Fighting Dem in the House in place of a right-wing nutjob.