November 4, 2009

Throwing the Bums Out

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The electorate was pretty tough on incumbents tonight.  Democrats got kicked out in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans got kicked out in NY-23, and Michael Bloomberg, who was expected to win reelection in a rout, only barely squeaked by.  John Garamendi won in CA-10, but that was hardly a race in the first place.

I guess that’s not too big a surprise considering the lousy economy and the generally sour mood of the voters.  Unfortunately, it looks like the Maine referendum on same-sex marriage got caught up in the sour mood too, losing by 52-48, the same as California last year.  From a purely practical political perspective it’s easy to understand why Obama didn’t want to get involved in this, but it might have made a difference.  I don’t have any doubt that California and Maine will both flip within a few years anyway, but sooner sure would have been better than later.

UPDATE: More here on the NY-23 race from David Corn.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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