Last Sunday, August 28, we had an official Daily Kos canvass on behalf of Paul Clements, running for US Congress in MI-06. The event was a great success, thanks to the TWELVE canvassers we had that afternoon, who knocked on over 300 doors on a sunny and hot afternoon. (The photo above shows us just before we headed out to cover our various turfs, so we still look cool and energetic.) What you can’t see is the great range of experience represented there, from the Democratic Party District Chair for MI-06 [Mark Miller, who has also been a DKos member since 2003] to a high school student canvassing for the first time. All of us are eager to help Paul win.
Please contribute & share this post widely!Thanks are also due to longtime Kossack extradish and her husband, who hosted a meetup ahead of the canvass. Thanks are especially due to Paul Clements himself, who is a terrific candidate and running an excellent campaign. He has a GOOD CHANCE to win this district, since this election shows promise of becoming a big blue wave. He has the endorsement of Bernie Sanders and Our Revolution; he has the endorsement of Daily Kos; he has the support of thousands of climate change activists who know that he will be a fierce advocate for the policies and programs we desperately need.
If Clements wins, he would take the seat of Fred Upton, a multimillionaire who has been in the House nearly thirty years and a reliable opponent of any progressive legislation brought to the House floor. As chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee since 2011, he wields undue influence over national energy policy. In December 2011, the LA Times put Upton in the #1 spot on their list of the ten most anti-environmental Republican Representatives, calling him “one of the biggest threats to planet Earth on planet Earth.”
The campaign staff is so solid that they turned around our pre-canvass photo by Monday morning, using it in their email, “Momentum,” seeking to solicit enough donations to be able to hire one more organizer. Two days ago, they needed $7,145 to meet that goal. As of this morning, they need only $1090 by midnight tonight to hire that organizer in Benton Harbor.
Here’s the campaign’s message:
We are building the largest field program in the history of southwest Michigan. No one to run against Congressman Upton has ever done this. Here's an example - We will have a field organizer dedicated to Benton Harbor. No campaign has been able to put an organizer in Benton Harbor whose only job is to register voters, and turn them out to vote.
We in Michigan know what having an office in Benton Harbor means. Benton Harbor is a predominantly African-American city, the poorer sibling to St. Joseph on the shore of Lake Michigan. Benton Harbor has suffered under so-called Emergency Management and has seen first-hand what the corruption of Snyder and his cronies entails. For our Democratic House candidate to staff a field office in Benton Harbor is a game-changer.
NOW is when your support will have a real impact. Please do what you can to help a strong, progressive Democrat win his crucial race. Every rec, tip, share, tweet, and contribution makes a positive difference. THANK YOU for all you can do.
PS—We will likely have other Daily Kos canvasses in MI-06, and probably in MI-08 as well, for Suzanna Shkreli, the other MI House candidate we’ve endorsed. Stay tuned for further developments.
Please help us build this weekly Michigan thread so that it includes any information relevant to turning MI Blue again that you would like me to highlight. MI contributors are always welcome! You can reach me through kosmail at peregrine kate. Or say hi through email here: peregrinekate@gmail.com And please follow me on Twitter @peregrinekate
Please feel free to drop in on ANY State Open Thread! So far, we have these regulars:
Colorado: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern [though likely to change to Thursdays]
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern