Welcome to the first Delaware Liberal online Congressional Candidate Caucus!
The purposes of the caucus are three fold:
1) to raise money for the eventual Democratic nominee,
2) to allow Delaware Liberal Readers, commenter’s, and lurkers to direct us when it comes to endorsing one of these candidates and to
3) to allow the three people running to be the Democratic candidate for US Congress to demonstrate their organizational strengths by encouraging supporters to donate.
While other blogs might endorse or not endorse in this race based on their sense of how closely a candidate’s philosophy conforms to theirs, in these three candidates we have found that each of them has positions that qualify them for our support – so to help make a final endorsement decision we are leaving it up to the outcome of this open and democratic process.
Here are the rules:
Over the next three days (72 hours) every donation to either Christopher Bullock OR Jerry Northington OR Karen Hartley-Nagle that is:
– made from within Delaware and that is
– at least $10.00 and that is
– coded to correspond to a candidate
Chris Bullock votes coded with an additional $0.01
Karen Hartley-Nagle votes coded with an additonal $0.02
Jerry Northington votes coded with an additional $0.03 and that is
– made through this Act Blue Page will be counted as one vote.
Donations that are made from outside of Delaware that conform to the other requirements will count as one half of a vote.
[In other words, a donation of $10.01 from Cheswold counts as one vote for Chris Bullock. A donation of $100.02 from Milton counts as one vote for Karen Hartley Nagle. A donation of $5.03 from Milton counts as zero votes. A donation of $10.03 from Gary Indiana counts as one half vote for Jerry Northington.]
Since the part of the purpose of this caucus is to gauge organizational support and not the relative wealth of a candidate’s friends and family, the total money raised by each candidate is not being considered.
The $10.00 threshold is in place to discourage GOP tampering and because I don’t care how poor you are, if you believe in your chosen candidate you can manage a $10.00 donation. All donations must be made through This Act Blue Online Caucus Link in order for us to tabulate the votes accurately. The half vote allowance for out of state voters is in recognition of the fact that it takes not only money but in state volunteers to win elections.
At precisely 11:00am Saturday March 15th the votes will be counted and the final results will be posted.
These rules (as crappy and unfair as you might find them) are final and no suggestions for changes or alteration will be entertained. Anybody who does not like these rules should get their own blog.
Keeping it Real Clause: An endorsement by Delaware Liberal carries with it no promise to go easy on any candidate if they screw up.
Confidentiality:
Act Blue in accordance with Federal Election law will require you to disclose your name address and occupation in order to make your donation. Delaware Liberal will never ever disclose any information that anyone provides in connection with this fundraising caucus. Ever.
Good luck.
Hey Jason, are you going to give an opportunity to beg for our votes?
I made my vote. I gave them a $1 ‘tip’ too; does that mean I get a better table next time I show up?
Big spender.
Candidates can feel free to beg away.
I thought it was “Its not how much you give, its the fact that you participated.”
I was talking about the tip.
It is all about participation.
This process favors people who have decided on a candidate already (everybody but me, apparently). 😉
Crap, I think I voted for Pat Buchanan again.
Good point, Cass. Why are you doing this so early, Jason? Many people have never heard the candidates give a speech, let alone engage in a debate. Or is the idea merely to gauge now, early in the race, how many supporters the candidates have?
Al –
After all the bullshit that was coming out last week I thought I’d give the sock puppets a chance to put up or shut up.
So far they are taking the “shut up” option.
Who is Jerry Northington, anyway? I was at a district committee joint meeting on Tuesday where state-wide contestants were each given a chance to speak before the committees endorsed, and only Chris and Karen were there – no mention whatsoever of a 3rd candidate.
Jason,
Are we going to be able to see the interim ongoing results? Or just the finals? Even if it’s just the final results it would be really neat to see the recorded day-by-day totals for each candidate….
(Speaking as a disinterested Libertarian with no candidate and an inordinate need to spend my ten bucks on lunch.)
Keeping it real clause really means
I’m not reigning in DV if he starts bashing someone
I LOVE IT!
Steve –
I’ll be putting up horse race results twice daily.
Jerry Northington is a wonderful person and you all would love him. He’s a vet. He plays the mandolin and sings with his wife who plays the guitar, you can sometimes catch them at folk music events. He has a beautiful pony-tail. He attends every single peace event and is headed for the big one in DC next week. He’s just a lovely, lovely guy who has absolutely no chance of ever winning an election. He’s doing his patriotic duty by running on a peace platform because his conscience says he must. Think Dennis Kucinich, only Jerry is tall. I really love Jerry. But being pragmatic is part of what I do.
Actually, I voted for Bullock because of his pony-tail and folk-music acumen.
Dis, you are a panic.
I thought it was his smoking body.
Health care rally at Legislative Hall today. AFL-CIO, ACORN, Green, Independent Party of Delaware, many other organizations speaking on behalf of single payer universal health care.
John Kowalko, Dan Short and Senator Margaret Rose Henry were excellent speakers.
The one candidate for congress who was invited to speak, and received top billing from the Alliance for Better Health…was a NO SHOW!
Karen Hartley Nagle who has supported universal health care for 5 or 6 years was not invited until the last minute, but couldnt go because she had speaking engagements elsewhere….but you would think the “one” candidate who was invited early on…could have least showed up?
Jason, Karen’s last name is spelled Hartley-Nagle. Is it possible to correct the spelling? Thanks
Why are you hating on Mike Miller? Bastard.
Jerry also has a popular blog at the Daily Kos.
Seriously, where is Miller? You have something against family loving businessmen?
A real debate is what is called for! Inviting ALL candidates, live and in person. That is the only way to determine who has the issues of the citizens.
In fact, a debate would bring many other citizens out to hear and see all the candidates. That is the only fair and honest way to determine who you support.
Liz, you are dancing around who did and didn’t show up at the Health Care event. Just spit it out. Was it Bullock?