This is truly remarkable. As I noted on Wednesday, Moveon.org has started a drive to raise money to support the eleven Democratic state senators from Texas who are now holed up in Albuquerque, New Mexico to block the DeLay-driven Republican redistricting plan.
(You can read my thoughts on DeLay’s gerrymandering jihad in this new piece in The Forward.)
The money will go to defray the hotel and other expenses the pols are racking up during their sojourn in New Mexico (they’re conducting state business there, essentially on their own dime) and mount a media campaign to help in their fight. Moveon.org set a goal of raising $1 million. And as of this evening they’ve already raised more than 60% of that goal. And the campaign only began this week.
(If you’d like to add your two cents, or five dollars, or five thousand dollars, visit the drive site here.)
On the one hand, this is a lot of support both moral and financial for a cause that I obviously think is quite worthy.
More broadly, though, it shows that Internet-based, progressive, small-donor fundraising and political organizing has really come of age. The Dean campaign has blazed the trail. But the phenomenon transcends any single candidate or issue.
