An Offer You Can't Refuse

Money is crucial to a successful campaign. I know we’ve all had the pleasure of seeing very good candidates come from behind and win even when being badly outspent. But that’s all too rare. More often we’ve agonized to see really deserving, capable, dedicated people lose elections because they just didn’t have enough money to get their message out effectively; or worse, they didn’t have the funds going into the home stretch to counter false attacks from their opponent.

That’s what is happening now, in the 34th District, to Chap Petersen in his race against Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis, who has been running television ads misrepresenting Chap’s record on the estate tax, the gas tax and handgun legislation. You can go here to get the details from this excellent post by James Martin.

The bottom line is that Chap needs money to answer JMDD’s false charges and misleading accusations. We’ve all seen the damage that can be done when a candidate doesn’t have the funds to counter attack ads with his own advertisements to set the record straight and hold his opponent accountable for deception. So go and contribute to help Chap. He’s one of our most promising prospects for this year, and he’s in a tight race that could be a key to taking back the Senate.

Meanwhile, we have a bunch of other excellent candidates who also need another boost of funds to carry them over the finish line to victory. Lowell is making an offer you just can’t refuse if you care about Virginia’s future. Raising Kaine will match the first $1,000 in donations to candidates. Go over to RK to see the details.

And please be generous with both your money and your time. Remember the campaigns also need foot soldiers to staff their phone banks and canvass door-to-door. Political scientists, who do studies of the most effective campaign tactics, say that face-to-face contact with voters – basic retail politics – is still the most effective vote getter. And in local races like these the ground game will determine the winner. Whoever gets their voters out will claim victory on November 6.