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June 28, 2007 04:45 PM UTC

Polis Courts GLBT Community

  • 42 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Boulder Daily Camera reports:

Congressional candidate Jared Polis sent an e-mail this week to members of the gay and lesbian community asking for financial support based on his sexual orientation.

In the appeal, Polis encouraged recipients to “make history” by helping in an effort to send the first-ever “non-incumbent openly gay man” to the U.S. House of Representatives.

“With your help, I would be honored to be Colorado’s first openly gay Congressman,” Polis wrote in the e-mail.

Polis, a 32-year-old wealthy entrepreneur and philanthropist from Boulder, who is running to replace Mark Udall in the 2nd Congressional District, said the e-mail was one of several targeted appeals his campaign made in the lead-up to Saturday’s second-quarter fundraising deadline and not an attempt to place special emphasis on his sexual orientation.

Polis’ appeal represents the first time in Colorado — and perhaps the nation — that a candidate making an initial run for national office has asked for support based on the fact that he or she is gay…

Katy Atkinson, a Republican political analyst, said Polis can benefit from having a close connection to the gay community as long as his sexual orientation doesn’t begin to define his campaign.

“As long as that’s not his sole identification, it’s not a bad strategy,” she said. “It’s not as big a risk as it was 10 years ago or even six years ago.”

We think it’s a good strategy for Polis to differentiate himself early on a social issue important to Democrat primary voters in CD-2, but he won’t be able to monopolize the gay community’s support simply by personally being gay. As we reported in February, powerful GLBT figures like philanthropist Tim Gill have already pledged their support to opponent Joan Fitz-Gerald.

On a related note, the first real fundraising numbers for this race will be out next week, and all eyes will be on dark horse candidate Will Shafroth to see if he was able to raise enough money this quarter to be at all competitive. If he didn’t, expect pressure to build on him to exit the race.

UPDATE: Polis has pulled off a surprising and impressive show of “netroots” support via the online donation site ActBlue, where he is currently the #1 fundraiser nationally. His campaign was quick to point it out in a press release (follows).

CD2 CANDIDATE JARED POLIS IS THE BEST GRASSROOTS ONLINE FUNDRAISER IN THE COUNTRY

Swing State Project and Act Blue Names Polis as Top Democratic Fundraiser

Boulder, CO – Thursday, June 28, 2007 – Closing in on the second quarter fundraising deadline, Congressional District 2 candidate Jared Polis has set the bar very high. 

According to the Swing State Project and ActBlue.com Polis is the top online grassroots fundraiser in the country, among Democrats running for the House of Representatives, as of early Thursday morning.

“What this shows is that innovation,  grassroots organizing and a complete understanding of technology are deciding factors in how political races are won these days,” states Wanda James, Polis’ Campaign Manager.

The support throughout the second congressional district has been impressive.  36% of Polis’ donors have come from the district and 58% have come from Colorado.

“Jared has been in our community and working for change since he was a teenager,” adds Josie Heath, a long time political activist and former US Senate candidate, “He will be an outstanding representative for this district because of his commitment to education, and standing up for the values of the 2nd Congressional District in new and innovative ways.”

The second quarter deadline for fundraising is Saturday, June 30, 2007. 

ABOUT JARED POLIS

Co-founding his first company, American Information Systems, while still in college, Polis has launched several successful business ventures, including bluemountainarts.com, Proflowers.com and other online start-ups. He has been named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and one of the top ten young entrepreneurs by Success Magazine.

He won statewide office in 2000 to the Colorado State Board of Education. During his six-year tenure, he was a strong advocate for school reform and enhancing educational opportunities. He played an instrumental role in the passage of Amendment 23 to improve state funding for public schools.

The Jared Polis Foundation was founded in 2000 to improve and expand access to education, recycle computers, and serve at-risk youth by creating two innovative charter schools that meet the needs of underserved students. The New America School, to extend the benefits of English literacy and a high school liberal arts education to all students and the Academy of Urban Learning to serve the challenges faced by teens who struggle with homelessness or unstable living conditions.

Jared is a native of Boulder and received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Princeton University.

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42 thoughts on “Polis Courts GLBT Community”

  1. This is the other side of racism and all the other isms out there.  It’s like voting for Hillary because she is a woman, or Barack because he’s black.  These are all terrible reasons to vote for someone.  As long as one votes for a candidate that has one of these minority identities, one is just as guilty of seeing color/race/SO as Bull Connor. 

    Vote for the best person, not just because of their gender/SO/color etc!

    If I were I CD2, I would NEVER vote for Polis just because of this, regardless of whatever I thought of his other qualifications (which are minimal at best.)

    1. I am sick and tired of the reverse *ism as well. After all, if he were to say vote for me because I am white male, that would draw a HUGE argument.

      But he did not say to vote for him. He asked for support. He understands the difference between financial support vs. voting. After all, do not many contributors contribute to multiple members? Besides, it is good that he is openly out.If I were there, I would vote for him. The fact that he does have a LOT of ideas and is not another lawyer-professional politician appeals to me.

      1. Same difference.

        I would also, off the ism topic, point out that he has no political office experience and the one big attempt to do something poitical, A.41, really backfired.  In fact, I would say that one reason it did is because of his age. It sounded good because it was a hammer.  He and his lawyers didn’t see all the ifs/buts.

        Now that I’m into double the “don’t trust anyone over 30” category, I see 32 as pretty wet behind the ears for a position like congressman.  Not that some aren’t capable, and perhaps Polis is one of them, but the capitol is not a place to find out.

        1. he was a school board member or something. Maybe not the same experience as being in the GA (especially compared to Joan FG’s experience) but it’s political office experience.

    2. Jared was appealing to the gay community for contributions, just like any candidate would appeal to a community they belonged to for financial support.  That is campaign fundraising 101.  Get over yourself with this reverse discrimination stupidity.

  2. Though June 30 is the cut-off for fundraising, typically the fundraising numbers won’t be known officially until July 15 (or the 16th, since the 15th is a Sunday), when the filings are due.  Some times campaigns will release numbers ahead of time, but I’d guess that the CD 2 folks will hold their cards close, not knowing how much the other has raised or given themselves. 

  4. I do not see what the big deal is.  We are still known as the hate state, electing an openly gay man to congress who could do an amazing job would be a great thing.

  5. Perlmutter will raise more money than any Democrat including Mark Udall.

    Potential Republican challengers will be stunned by how much money Perlmutter has raked in from the GOP Faithful.
    Larry Mizel loves Perlmutter and has been helping him. Perlmutter will be above $600,000

    In CD 2 Joan Fitz-Gerald will raise nearly $600,000.
    Neither Will Shafroth or Jared Polis will break $100,000.
    Big surprise here is how much money from big environmental donors and Gay activists that Fitz-Gerald will list.

    Musgrave will have raised over $500,000. Neither Betsey Markey or Angie Paccione will break $50,000.

    Doug Lamborn will scare off Jeff Crank with a big quarter of fundraising.

    And, tomorrow at least three candidates will be putting out press releases bragging about how much they have raised. Who will they be?

    Does anyone have real information or better guesses?

    1. Jared Polis is the number one weekly fundraiser on Act Blue this week. Swing State Project and Act Blue Named Polis as Top Democratic Fundraiser on the grassroot fundraising site Act Blue.

      He is already busted 106 K today and I am sure before this is over will hit closer to 120 or more. Jared has a ton more grassroots support than you all give him credit for.

      Grassroots fundraising, Community Support, News stories… Jared is looking stronger by the day. 

      State CD Candidate Raised on Actblue
      CO 2 Jared Polis $100,621 * updated at 3:38 to 106,800 K 
      MA 5 Niki Tsongas $92,787 
      MA 5 Jamie Eldridge $84,358 
      ME 1 Chellie Pingree $73,390 
      CA 26 Russ Warner $55,512 
      IL 10 Dan Seals $48,083 
      AZ 3 Bob Lord $45,275 
      TX 10 Dan Grant $44,010 
      NY 29 Eric Massa $42,931 
      NY 26 Jon Powers $37,825 
      CA 4 Charlie Brown $34,516 
      FL 8 Mike Smith $32,645 
      MO 6 Kay Barnes $27,675 
      CT 4 Jim Himes $25,278 
      NM 1 Martin Heinrich $23,044 
      NC 8 Larry Kissell $22,686 
      MD 4 Donna Edwards $19,217 
      MT AL Bill Kennedy $12,541 
      NM 2 Bill McCamley $11,580 
      OH 1 Steve Dreihaus $9,065 
      http://www.swingstat…

    2. as the deminator points out any body thinking of running for office themselves or reelection will think twice about going against jared or joan.  I’ll bet a lot of money stays on the sidelines.

  6. They saw the ActBlue numbers as well, and got Mary Alice Mandarich, Wanda James and Shafroth on the record.

    http://www.coloradoconfidential.com

    Seems like Mandarich is low-balling expectations, knowing that Joan will come in over $200k.  There is simply no way the senate pres will raise less than $250k.  She’s a very good fundraiser — raised $$ for the senate caucus, the independent expenditures, and nationally for the DLCC.

    Shafroth is a true wild card.  I’ll bet he comes in at close to $200k, of which half comes from out of state. 

    Polis raising over $100k on Actblue is pretty impressive, given his personal wealth I didn’t figure he’d raise that much moolah. 

      1. I said a few weks ago that Joan had stolen Jared’s top identifying trademark out from under him by sponsoring Ref. I. IN AN ELECTION YEAR WHEN THE Ds HAD ONLY A ONE VOTE ADVANTAGE IN THE SENATE. She did not do it to be politically convenient – she stuck to her guns and saw it through – making sure conservative D’s like Sen. Jim Isgar voted for it ( he was also up for re-election….OK, so his race was a cakewalk but it still takes courage to vote your conscience when you represent SW CO). That won her respect and street cred in the GLBT community. She deserved it.

        Meanwhile, what has Jared done? Serve on the CBOE, oh, ok. Doesn’t he have a vested interest in CO education policy? I mean, he has a few charter schools, right? The New America School…..uh huh. 

          1. He also kindly reminded us of that when he “threatened” Mike May over the Amendment 41 fiasco……

            GOP’s May says Polis ‘threatening’ in Amendment 41 talk
            By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
            February 9, 2007

            Jared Polis, the chief backer of Amendment 41, had the Capitol abuzz Thursday when he warned Republicans that they’ll lose elections if they don’t help fix his ethics measure.

            Polis met with House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, who said he was stunned when the Internet entrepreneur reminded him that his wealth helped Democrats win the majority in 2004.

            I hope he will continue to support the Party if he loses to Joan. I’d hate to see him take his marbles and go home. But the truth is, Joan is a tough, tough cookie to beat.

  7. For moneyraised year to date I’ll raise Polis TO $150,000
    Drop Shafroth to $35,000
    and keep Fitz-Gerald at $575,000 based on the Colorado Confidential story.
    I’ll keep to my guesses in the other races
    Anyone have real information and guesses that are actually educated?

    1. should pull in at least 3.5 million, the guys been going gangbusters on the Hill ever since he got there. And he is dynamite on C-Span every time he gets on.

          1. Lamborn is the least effective legislator in Congress.  I don’t believe he’s accomplished a single thing so far this year.  He’s made PLENTY of attempts, even tried his hardest to block John Salazar and Marilyn Musgrave on Pinon Canyon.  He’s a fool, plain and simple.

  8.   Whatever is a politically-correct homo to do?  Choices, choices, choices…..oh my!
    P.S.  I see Gay Gym Jock is back……..and so am I!

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