ActBlue as Netroots Infrastructure

by: jsw

Thu Aug 20, 2009 at 14:00:00 PM PDT

Now that everyone is back from Netroots Nation and enjoying the success of the Standing Up For The Public Option effort to reward congresscritters who have promised to vote against health care reform that doesn't include a public plan, I'd like to take a moment of your time to talk about something really boring:

Infrastructure!  I know, even the word conjures up images of long hearings in beige rooms to determine the proper rate of increase and carrying capacity in the local water and sewer assessments.  

But infrastructure is critically important.  And ActBlue is one of the most important pieces of infrastructure for the the netroots and grassroots.  I've from time to time disclosed in comments that I work with ActBlue on a volunteer basis.  I'm actually on ActBlue's Board of Directors, and I did the initial legal research to help ActBlue operate in California and Oregon state races.  

I give a lot of my time to ActBlue because I think it's a critically important organization.  And now the board members are also doing a bit of fundraising for ActBlue, and I'd like the Calitics audience to consider contributing a bit of their hard earned cash to Actblue.

Why, you ask?  A current example is on the flip.

- It would have taken days to locate and assemble the campaign accounts of the various congresscritters, and it would have been almost impossible to easily split up contributions among the congresscritters.

- There would have been no central location ready to collect and disburse the funds to the various congresscritters.

- There would have been no-one ready to do all of the compliance work to make sure that the proper contributor information was collected and passed on to the congresscritters.

ActBlue for ActBlue

Any contribution you can make will be greatly appreciated by me and by the ActBlue team.