July 1, 2015

Santorum Holding Onto Debate Stage By His Fingernails in Latest CNN Poll

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Fox News will be sponsoring the first Republican debate on August 6, and they have decided to limit the stage to the top ten candidates. The lucky winners will be the ones who “place in the top 10 in an average of the five most recent, recognized national polls leading up to Aug. 4.”

So how is everyone doing so far? CNN is certainly a recognized national poll, so they’ll be part of the eventual winnowing. And their most recent poll shows Jeb! at the top followed by Trump, Huckabee, Carson, and Rand Paul. The bottom three candidates—Christie, Cruz, and Santorum—could easily lose a point or two just due to statistical churn, to be replaced by Jindal, Kasich, and Fiorina.

I’m looking forward to the Trump-Christie showdown for the Annoying Loudmouth Award, and to the Carson-Cruz showdown for the Looneybin Award—though both men have been disappointingly circumspect lately, hedging their beliefs as if they really wanted to win this thing.

But there’s still a chance of Rick Perry melting down in amusing fashion. That should make the whole thing worth watching.

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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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