September 04, 2008 02:08 AM UTC

Polis still part of Blue America fundraiser

•  
• by: Steve Balboni

The sales pitch is getting embarrassing. Emphasis mine.

http://downwithtyranny.blogspo…

Last Saturday, we introduced a week-long Blue America contest, “to spotlight nine of our House endorsees this week who may eventually wind up in the program but who need campaign cash to compete effectively now.”

That “now” is the critical word. Ads must be produced now, though they may not appear until later. Time slots and ad spaces must be purchased now, though the ads may not be slated to run until sometime several weeks down the line. Strategies for October and November must be planned now, to get enthusiasm and energy and turnout all revved up for election day. A sudden flood of cash the day before the election is nice, but by then it just goes to pay down the campaign debt. These campaigns need cash, and they need it now…

Jared Polis is facing off against a candidate who has raised a grand total of $16,707 and has $4,848 cash on hand according to the FEC.

http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-…

For comparisons Polis has raised $6,447,837 (nearly $5.3 million of which was contributed by the candidate himself) and has $1,257,420 cash on hand.

http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-…

There is absolutely no reason for Blue America to continue pushing this ridiculous meme that Jared Polis somehow needs cash immediately. He simply doesn’t.

Either the folks at Blue America know this and simply don’t care or they are grossly ill-informed about the races that they are highlighting. Neither speaks very highly of them or their process.

I don’t know if the folks at Blue America have a Fiduciary Duty to their contributors or not but if I was spearheading a high-profile fundraising campaign I wouldn’t be quite so cavalier. At the very least it demonstrates an utter lack of concern for the donors and their funds.

If Peterr of Blue America wants to play fast and loose with his own money he should go ahead and do that. Using Blue America to direct funds into non-competitive races and to candidates who have ability to nearly completely self-fund is an utter disgrace.