Maximiznig your political dollar/effort

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Sam Wang at the Princeton Election Consortium advises his readers (both Democratic and Republican) who want affect political outcomes to ignore the presidential race. Basically, Obama is so far ahead that your small contribution (whether in time or money) his highly unlikely to make a difference. But there are several senate races that are very close, and contributions there could very well sway things one way or the other.

I agree and will be making my last few contributions guided by this.

I would add that California's Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, is another such close opportunity.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Do you know of a good site to help direct donations in this way? I see Sam Wang has a fundraising page for the ones he likes, do you have a list of your faves?
6:58 PM, October 13, 2008
Zachary Drake said…
I often go through ActBlue:
DailyKos has a page there that's about "more democrats, better democrats":

http://www.actblue.com/page/orangetoblue

Another ActBlue page with a slightly broader base is:
http://www.actblue.com/page/bluemajority?refcode=OldNetrootsPage

This is the same organization that Sam Wang uses to set up his page.

Another tactic is to give to the Democratic National Committee, who can then allocate as they see strategic opportunities come up:
https://www.democrats.org/page/contribute/ChangeWeNeed

I did this during the 2004 cycle, but I think I would go through an explicitly progressive organization like ActBlue. That way the message gets sent that "if you want money, get more progressive".
10:55 PM, October 13, 2008
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