August 30, 2008 11:33 PM UTC

Jared, please do the right thing

• 8 Comments
• by: Steve Balboni

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Blue America PAC is holding a contest,

http://www.crooksandliars.com/…

Today’s the first day of a week-long Blue America contest, I’d like to invite you to participate in. Some of our candidates have been endorsed by the DCCC’s Red to Blue program, which makes it easier for them to access institutional Democratic money- big donors, labor unions, single-issue groups, incumbents, etc. And some haven’t. Blue America wants to spotlight nine of our House endorsees this week who may eventually wind up in the program but who need campaign cash to compete effectively now. These are the nine:

Sam Bennett (PA-15)- Lehigh Valley

Debbie Cook (CA-46)- Orange County

Larry Joe Doherty (TX-10)- northern Austin to Brenham and Katy

Alan Grayson (FL-08)- Orlando

Jared Polis (CO-02)- Boulder and Westminster out to Eagle County

Dennis Shulman (NJ-05)- northern New Jersey from Bergen and Passaic around to Warren County

Annette Taddeo (FL-18)- Miami-Dade from Miami Beach and Coral Gables down to Key West

Russ Warner (CA-26)- northeast L.A. suburbans from Rancho Cucamonga to Arcadia

Barry Welsh- (IN-06) east central Indiana centered on Muncie

We’re counting votes at a just launched new ActBlue contest page. Whether you donate a dollar or $20 or $2,000 to the candidate, of your choice, it counts as one vote… The candidate who gets the most votes gets a $5,000 Blue America check. The winner will be announced on Saturday, September 6th.

For all I know this contest was put together without any input from the Polis campaign. I would just ask that the leadership at Blue America use a little more common sense in the future and that Jared do the right thing and withdraw his name from this contest.  

Jared Polis does not need contributions from Act Blue, he does not need to win a contest for a $5,000 check. Beyond the money he’s not even in a competitive district.

There are candidates across the country who cannot self-fund like Polis and that are in competitive races. Jared, do the right thing and withdraw your name from this contest. It will go a long way to helping candidates who are really in need.

The leadership at Blue America should be ashamed of themselves. The liberal online community is not a bottomless pit of money. We need to think strategically about how we use our limited resources. Asking donors to send money to self-funding candidates in safe districts demonstrates very poor judgment.