This is the second in a series of Grassroots Reports we will be providing over the final few weeks of the campaign to let the blogosphere know what 21st Century Democrats is doing in several key battleground states. This week we’re focusing on Michigan where Democrats continue to build momentum. Recently, John McCain was forced to pull out of the Wolverine State in a move that will benefit not only Barack Obama, but Democrats all down the ticket – including our endorsed candidates Gary Peters, Mark Schauer and Andy Meisner.
21st Century Democrats has focused the majority of our resources in the important swing district of Oakland County. We've had organizers on the ground there for months and the polls have started to show voters moving in the Democrats' favor with Barack Obama now leading John McCain in the county by 6%. While this is a good sign, we must keep fighting hard until all the votes are counted on November 4th.
In Michigan’s 9th Congressional District (which includes Oakland County), Gary Peters is running ahead of incumbent Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg. Recent polling has shown Peters up by as much as 9 points, and he is ‘banking’ a lot of support in preparation for a strong get-out-the-vote effort. The campaign has already identified over 55,000 ‘yes’ votes for Gary! Things are also looking good in the 7th Congressional District where Mark Schauer is consistently polling 7-10 points ahead of his opponent, Rep. Tim Walberg.
Andy Meisner, our endorsed candidate for Oakland County Treasurer, is running a truly impressive field operation as he tries to move to a new post after three successful terms in the state legislature. 21st Century Democrats’ organizers have helped the Meisner Campaign contact 34,143 voters and make 7,886 IDs. The numbers are looking very good with 7,886 voters identified as a ‘1s’ or ‘2s’ (meaning they will likely vote for Andy) against only 463 people who said they would probably vote for his opponent.
The prospects for a big Democratic victory in Michigan are strong, but we can't let McCain's withdrawal make us complacent. As Peter's Republican opponent's campaign manager said, "our voter turnout operation is knocking on doors to get people to show up on Election Day." These Republicans understand the value of knocking doors and turning out the vote - and so do we! I hope you will support our efforts in Michigan and around the country.
So far all I have is a link to the WXYZ stream of the forum.
Click here to watch the entire forum. What I thought was strange was Knollenberg's criticism that some of Gary's money came from people outside of Michigan that Gary doesn't know.
Come on, Joe. Do you personally know all of your contributors? I'm sure you know all those lobbyists that contribute to your campaign. Joe was kind of grumpy, I thought, and appeared McCain-like in his demeanor.
For the past several weeks I wrote diaries [on Daily Kos] imploring Kossacks to help us in the Michigan 9th to raise some funds for Gary Peters' campaign against GOP incumbent, Joe Knollenberg, through the fundraising contest held by People for the American Way's Voters' Alliance Progressive Champions campaign.
To say that these diaries seemingly fell on blind eyes is an understatement. I mean, do you guys have any idea how lonely it feels to be the only one to comment in one's own diary?
Nonetheless, I received the following email today, and it was quite gratifying:
Huge news out of the 9th District, where the Peters campaign says campaign finance data has them outraising Joe Knollenberg in the third district ... by more than $125,000.
Gary Peters filed his 3rd Quarter report today with $650,572.18 Rep. Joe Knollenberg filed later today with $524,308.03
This is ... beyond huge. Going into the final stretch of this race, all of the momentum is in Peters' favor. He's up in (internal) polls, his race is better rated by Cook, and now he's outraised Knollenberg in money.
I've listened to dozens of interviews Jack Lessenberry has conducted with people from across the political spectrum. Whatever he writes elsewhere, he's always a respectful interviewer, asks questions and just lets the person answer without trying to shout them down or trip them up in order to publicly embarrass them (he's not like Frank Beckmann, who actually used clearly edited clips to make the governor look bad on taxes last year). So, I can discern no explanation for this...
We had hoped to speak with both candidates however, Congressman Knollenberg declined to be interviewed for this program.
Peters gets time to talk about something he talks about and understands well, which is a forward-thinking energy policy.
Update! ... Oh, Knollenberg isn't the only person who turned down an invite by Lessenberry. Last week, Tim Walberg did, too.
The progressive advocay organization People for the American Way (PFAW) has launched a short, sweet and to-the-point contest to raise awareness and funds for congressional elections. The contest rules are simple: Raise the most money by October 15, 2008, and PFAW's Voters' Alliance Fund will contribute an additional $3000 to the winning candidate's campaign.
Let's bring some money into Michigan, and with it some much deserved notoriety for this race. After months of fundraising on national sites like Daily Kos, which have consistently ignored both Peters and Schauer's efforts, we need to take charge of our own internet/blog fundraising events.
All Michiganders have felt the Bush legacy in the form of high unemployment, the loss of manufacturing jobs, record gas prices, record home foreclosures, huge corporate bailouts and the deaths of hundreds of young people in an unnecessary invasion, and now you can see it all in one place when the National Bush Legacy Bus Tour Comes to Michigan on Saturday.
The Bush Legacy is a 45-foot, 28-ton clean bio-diesel powered museum on wheels that features several exhibits on how disastrous the Bush/conservative policies have been, and how they have weakened America's security abroad while neglecting and undermining important priorities here at home.
It is also highlighting the people who have helped Bush wrecked havoc on the county, and the bus tour will be in Battle Creek on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the backyard of Bush enabler Tim Wahlberg, where he is locked in a battle with State Sen. Mark Schauer. It will be in front of the Kellogg Arena at Michigan Ave between Macamly and N. Capital. On Monday it will be in Jackson from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 120 N. Jackson St. The museum will also be in Lansing in front of the Capitol from 2-4 p.m.
On Tuesday it will be in Bush enabler Joe Knollenberg's district from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Royal Oak Farmers Market at 11 Mile Road and Troy Street in Royal Oak. Gary Peters is neck and neck against Knollenberg.
The tour kicked off on June 24 across the street from the White House, and the National Bush Legacy Bus tour has since blanketed half the country - from New Hampshire to New Mexico - and will continue making nearly 150 stops in the hometowns of Bush's enablers in Congress and symbolic locations like the President's home away from home in Crawford, Texas.
It will be back in Michigan before the tour concludes on Election Day in Virginia. It will be in Kalamazoo on Oct. 21; Grand Rapids on Oct. 22 and Ann Arbor on Oct. 23.
Well, what it buys is airtime for a single ad for Gary Peters, who is taking on incumbent GOP Congressman Joe Knollenberg in Michigan's 9th District. Previously I introduced you to Peters, and told you a bit about what we are up against in Knollenberg, and why this is a race we can win. Why we can help move ever closer to such a majority in the House that we can avoid the ills associated with Blue Dog and other defections from truly progressive policies.
No, this is not a marquee matchup here on Daily Kos, but it one that the DCCC has targeted in the first wave of Red to Blue challengers' races. And now, based on some recent polling data which I'll detail below, there's all the more reason to believe that we can actually win this one.
If you've got a few moments and can spare $38.20, you can help.
(Let's get out and help Gary Peters take back the 9th Congressional District! - promoted by LiberalLucy)
Join the Granholm Cherry Ground Crew, a grassroots effort to support great Democratic candidates in Michigan!
We're traveling across the state to keep Michigan blue in 2008. Knocking doors and talking to voters is the most effective way to win elections, so we'll be going door-to-door for Gary Peters in Oakland County this Sunday, September 7. With a strong showing of support, we can make a major difference in Gary's closely contested race.
We'll be meeting at the Peters for Congress Volunteer Center in Clawson at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, and will be out canvassing until 4:30.
The last time EPIC-MRA polled people in the 7th, Walberg led 51-40 ... except after a brief biography was read to them. After that happened, Schauer had the slimmest of leads.
EPIC-MIRA's polling shows the race today stands in a statistical dead heat, with Wallberg up by three. This, despite a steady drumbeat of press coverage that has offered him an uncritical forum from which to endorse drilling as the way to bring down the price of gasoline.
The same EPIC-MRA poll had Joe Knollenberg over Gary Peters by seven double digits. Again, when a brief biography was read to potential voters, Peters was in the lead. Some of that is no doubt based on the high negatives Knollenberg has in his own district (47 percent unfavorable), but if the Schauer race is any indication, it's a matter of name recognition. I understand that the Peters campaign started airing ads last night.
For the fourth time, Gary Peters has cracked the weekly top 10 fund raisiers through ActBlue. This week, he hits number eight.
This week is Peters's fourth appearance on the Campaign Newswire. The former Michigan state Senator has been the beneficiary of big name fundraisers on ActBlue, including Michigan Senator Carl Levin, the DCCC, and Blue America. His weekly total reflects the efforts of his campaign and the commitment of his donors, many of whom have pledged to make recurring contributions to his campaign until the November election.
Last week, Gary Peters' campaign cracked the top ten fund-raising efforts through ActBlue. This week, Peters moves up to number four, and Mark Schauer's campaign comes in at number 10.
Peters' campaign raised $15,000 last week through ActBlue, according to an ActBlue e-mail, and Schauer's campaign raised $8,645.
Here is what the e-mail had to say about the Peters campaign.
After debuting in the eighth spot on our Top 10 list last week, Peters has pushed his way into the Top 5 this week. This past weekend, the Peters campaign launched its new "Take Action Now" initiative, in which Gary Peters and supporters will take time off from the campaign trail to volunteer with community service programs across Oakland County. The first volunteer event was the Stogdill Pancake Breakfast in Pontiac, Michigan, and the campaign intends to volunteer with community service programs across Oakland county. This isn't the first time Peters has mobilized volunteers to help his community: in 1997, Peters formed "NetDay Michigan," a grassroots organization that "installed donated wiring and computers in twenty-two schools, libraries, and recreation centers."
And about the Schauer campaign.
Schauer, who built a career in community services, has recently attracted donations through an ActBlue page acknowledging Schauer's reliability as an advocate for children. The Schauer example highlights an important feature of ActBlue: by being explicit about the issue that drives a community to support a given candidate, the candidate can better understand what matters to his supporters.
You can find Peters' ActBlue page here, and Schauer's here.
According to an ActBlue weekly digest e-mail, Gary Peters cracked the top 10 in fund raising last week. Of all campaigns, his raised the eighth most cash nationwide with $8,587.75. The e-mail noted that some of his donors included the DCCC and Sen. Carl Levin.
This, from the e-mail:
This week is Peters's Campaign Newswire debut, and the former Michigan state senator has been the beneficiary of big name fundraisers on ActBlue, including Michigan Senator Carl Levin, the DCCC, and Blue America. His weekly total reflects the efforts of his campaign and the commitment of his donors, many of whom have pledged to make recurring contributions to his campaign until the November election.
With donations totalling $135,805.99, Gary Peters hit number nine on ActBlue's second quarter fund raising list.
Top candidates for the quarter on ActBlue by dollars raised include Senate candidates Rick Noriega of Texas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Scott Kleeb of Nebraska; Congressional candidates Dan Seals of Illinois, Chellie Pingree of the Maine, Joseph Sestak, Jr., of Pennsylvania, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Gary Peters of Michigan; and presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama.
The above was copied and pasted from an e-mail. According to the same e-mail, the results will be officially posted on the ActBlue blog some time this week.
When Tim Walberg has been shouting "Drill! ... Drill! ... DRILL!," little did we know that it was highly conditional. He, and Joe Knollenberg (another guy whose chief strategy to bring down gas prices is to explore and drill for oil that won't hit the market for a decade, two decades at peak production), among other Republican representatives from Michigan, voted against requiring oil companies who want additional oil and gas leases on public property to put up or shut up. Here is the text of the act. Please note that the legislation would oil companies to relinquish their leases, if they just don't think the place would pay off.
In short, what the act says is that if you hold oil and gas leases on public land, you either need to be developing them or show some kind of plan for developing them, or else you can't have new public land leases. This means Tim Walberg and Joe Knollenberg (not to mention other Republicans in less competitive districts) want to lease out public property to people who already hold leases on land where there is potentially a lot of oil, but who aren't doing anything with it.
Gary Peters is a uniquely qualified leader with the experience, character, and judgment that we need in Washington right now. From the Navy Reserve to the state Senate, Gary Peters has made a career out of taking action to solve problems, and that's what he'll do as the Congressman from the 9th District.
I don't need to tell this community that General Clark knows what grassroots and netroots campaigning is all about. The Draft Wes Clark movement in 2003 made history, and since then, General Clark and WesPAC have been working nonstop to support other Democrats who believe that we need to act now to bring our troops home from Iraq, strengthen our national security, and provide the best possible care for our veterans.
Dems battle to woo leery veterans Party works to shake off lingering anti-war image with more focus on military issues. Deb Price / The Detroit News WASHINGTON --
Army veteran Chuck Griffiths grew up in a Democratic household, but feels the party "abandoned" him decades ago and hasn't won back his trust on military issues. "The anti-war activists were outside the Democratic Party in '68 and running the party by '72," said Griffiths of Westland. "It's anti-military, by and large. If they really want to appeal to people like me, they need to put more guys like (Vietnam War veteran and Virginia Sen.) Jim Webb in leadership positions and not as window dressing." His view isn't hard to find around VFW halls and other gathering spots of veterans. Pollsters and military analysts say vets tend to be more conservative -- and more Republican -- than other voters. But Democrats, in a national trend demonstrated in Michigan, are increasingly trying to woo the Chuck Griffiths of America. The party is running challengers with Persian Gulf-era military experience, such as Gary Peters, who is trying to oust eight-term Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg in Oakland County and has a "Veterans for Gary Peters" group ready to knock on doors for him.
Yesterday, I welcomed Senator Barack Obama to the 9th Congressional District for a town hall meeting in Troy. From the energy in the crowd, you could really feel how much the momentum for change is building here in Oakland County.
Below the jump is the video of my speech welcoming Senator Obama to Oakland County.
