Ohio For Russ Feingold In 2008

Announcing RussForPresident 3.0

2006-11-08T14:53:00.000-05:00

There have been a lot of posts in a lot of places mentioning vague developments for the "Draft Russ Feingold" movement in the near future. Well, it's November 8th, we own the Congress, and "Daffy" Donald Rumsfeld is an unpleasant memory. In other words the future here.

Click here to beat the crowd and sign up at RunRussRun.com.

We're very pleased to announce the launch of RunRussRun.com, which replaces RussForPresident.com as the national headquarters of the Draft Feingold for President movement.

Click here to sign up at RunRussRun.com.

The new site was developed by Internet activists from 16 states and 5 national constituency groups. We looked very carefully at what worked and what didn't in our state-level organizations, our former national site, and previous presidential draft movements. Emerging technology helped us solve most of the problems we saw, emphasize what worked best, and open up what we think is a new kind of site for on-line activism.

Click here to sign up at RunRussRun.com.

RunRussRun.com gives members access to a wide array of services including: a customized activism road map, interaction with other members across the country, and direct access to free tools for building local and state-level groups and activities. It also features up-to-the-minute news from the Feingold for President state and community blogs, discussion forums, and an option to pledge donations to a future Feingold presidential campaign.

The effort to convince Senator Feingold to make a presidential run traces back to December, 2004 when the first Russ Feingold for President blog was started by current Washington University law student Daniel Kuehnert. Since then, the effort has grown to include 16 state blogs and numerous nationwide sites, including RussForPresident.com, which was founded in February 2005 by University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student Matthew Wallock. Steering Committee member, Minnesota resident and political activist Joel Clemmer, says "The movement has grown tremendously and needs a new face for the final push. Our goal over the next few months is to double our membership and bring at least five more states on line."

Take a moment to show your support and sign up at RunRussRun.com.

Russ' GOTV Speech Last Night

2006-10-30T13:01:00.000-05:00

I had the opportunity to attend this meeting last night. It was meant to be a very Wisconsin-centric Get Out the Vote event, and it was. But I think, even if you have no interest in Wisconsin politics, it's interesting to see how the crowd responds to Russ. There's also a nice general-interest bit in the beginning about 26 years of the extreme right in America.

It's a shame that the video doesn't show the crowd response when Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz suggested that Russ move from his current residence in Middleton to something on Pennsylvania Avenue. It brought the house down.

Lamont vs. Lieberman: The Links

2006-10-28T18:43:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Tim Tageris for pointing out these important resources on the Connecticut Senate Race:

Joe Lieberman - "Seasonal Memory Lapses" by Paul Bass (Hartford Courant)
Joe Lieberman - "Truth About Joe"
Joe Lieberman - "Lieberman Wins Republican Friends, Democratic Enemies... (WaPo)
Joe Lieberman - "Joe Lieberman is a Big Oil Republican" (LamontBlog)
Joe Lieberman - "Kerry Calls Lieberman the New Cheney" (ABC)
Joe Lieberman - "Joe Lieberman Doesn't Care About Handicapped People" (Wonkette)
Joe Lieberman - "Joe Lieberman is Running With a Bad Crowd" (Firedoglake)
Joe Lieberman - "116 Reasons Not to Vote for Joe Lieberman"
Joe Lieberman - "How Joe Lieberman Tried to Kill Rock 'N Roll (Huffington Post)"

Ned Lamont - Official Campaign Website
Ned Lamont - Ned Lamont, the Political Entrepreneur
Ned Lamont - "Democrats Back Lamont; Lieberman Files Independent Run" (F0x)
Ned Lamont - Unofficial Ned Lamont Resource
Ned Lamont - Unofficial Lamont Blog
Ned Lamont - "The Democrats Mean Business" (WSJ)
Ned Lamont - "Ned Lamont vs. Joe Lieberman" (The Nation)
Ned Lamont - "Lieberman Loses Debate With Challenger Ned Lamont"
Ned Lamont - "Lamont: Lieberman Sounded Like Cheney"
Ned Lamont - "Lamont Fires Up Naples" (New Haven Independent)

Feingold PAC Making The Difference in Ohio

2006-10-24T12:11:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to lose track of all the Ohio wins in Progressive Patriots fund contests. Just last week, we were among the winners in the "Pick a Progressive Party" contest. This week, the members of the Progressive Patriots Fund chose Ohio's Jennifer Brunner to recieve backing in her Secretary of State run. Here's the announcement e-mail:

All the votes have been counted, and I'm proud to announce that Jennifer Brunner, from Ohio, is our newest Progressive Patriot. Her campaign for secretary of state has drawn an enormous amount of grassroots support, and I'm pleased to have the chance to make a $5,000 contribution to her campaign.
Jennifer supports defending the most sacred American right - the right to vote – and the voters from Ohio are supporting her. She has worked as a Deputy Director of the Secretary of State's Office and has served as a Franklin County Judge. Now, Jennifer is running for Secretary of State to restore the people's trust in Ohio elections. She will bring her record of impartiality and professionalism to the Secretary of State's office, ensuring elections can be audited and verified, so that voters have confidence that elections are safe, reliable, and trustworthy.

To learn more about Jennifer's campaign, please visit her website at http://www.jenniferbrunner.com/.

I'm also proud to have contributed to four other candidates the Progressive Patriots community felt were deserving of our support: Mark Ritchie, Debra Bowen, Ken Gordon, and Michael Mauro are all terrific candidates, and we've rushed contributions to each of them to help them win in two weeks.

By supporting these candidates, the Progressive Patriots community is helping to ensure fair elections in 2008, 2010 and beyond.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

Oh, Those Wacky Republicans

2006-10-23T18:10:00.000-05:00

Cheers to Chris Bowers for pointing out these timely and important articles on Republicans running for Congress.

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
--AZ-01: Rick Renzi
--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
--CA-04: John Doolittle
--CA-11: Richard Pombo
--CA-50: Brian Bilbray
--CO-04: Marylin Musgrave
--CO-05: Doug Lamborn
--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell
--CT-04: Christopher Shays
--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
--FL-16: Joe Negron
--ID-01: Bill Sali
--IL-06: Peter Roskam
--IL-10: Mark Kirk
--IL-14: Dennis Hastert
--IN-02: Chris Chocola
--IN-08: John Hostettler
--IA-01: Mike Whalen
--KY-03: Anne Northup
--KY-04: Geoff Davis
--MD-Sen: Michael Steele
--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
--MN-06: Michele Bachmann
--MO-Sen: Jim Talent
--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
--NV-03: Jon Porter
--NH-02: Charlie Bass
--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
--NM-01: Heather Wilson
--NY-03: Peter King
--NY-20: John Sweeney
--NY-26: Tom Reynolds
--NY-29: Randy Kuhl
--NC-08: Robin Hayes
--NC-11: Charles Taylor
--OH-01: Steve Chabot
--OH-02: Jean Schmidt
--OH-15: Deborah Pryce
--OH-18: Joy Padgett
--PA-04: Melissa Hart
--PA-07: Curt Weldon
--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
--PA-10: Don Sherwood
--TN-Sen: Bob Corker
--VA-Sen: George Allen
--VA-10: Frank Wolf
--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
--WA-08: Dave Reichert
--FL-16: Joe Negron
--FL-22: Clay Shaw
--KS-02: Jim Ryun
--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
--TN-Sen: Bob Corker
--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

Ohio Wins "Pick a Progressive Party Contest"

2006-10-17T11:22:00.000-05:00

E-mail from the Progressive Patriots Fund, hot off the presses:

All the votes have been counted, and I'm proud to announce our winning state Democratic Parties. Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia received the most votes from the Progressive Patriots community, so I'm proud to contribute $3,000 to each of these states' Democratic Party organizations to help fund their efforts to get out the vote in November.

There are some very exciting races going on in all these states. Each has a crucial Senate race that we need to win if Democrats are going to retake control of the United States Senate – the Progressive Patriots have contributed to Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, Bill Nelson, Bob Casey, and Jim Webb individually, and it's great to see that you've voted to help their state parties with their voter mobilization efforts in the coming weeks.

In addition, there are 81 House races in these five states, including some great challengers that the Progressive Patriots Community has supported, like Lois Murphy, Patty Wetterling, Joe Sestak, Coleen Rowley, Phyllis Busansky, Tim Walz, Chris Carney and Pat Murphy. We have our best chance in years to retake the House, and your efforts will play a vital part in that by directing our contributions to states where there are seats in play.

Tomorrow, we'll start our next round of "Pick a Progressive Patriot" for candidates for Secretary of State. Make sure you stop by our site tomorrow to cast your vote. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

PPF: Get out the Vote, and Keep it Safe

2006-10-09T11:39:00.000-05:00

Dear Ohio,

We're extremely close to our goal of raising $30,000 before Midnight tonight – we only need to raise another $4,823 to make it. Can you help put us over the line?

Contribute today

Your contribution will go directly to helping us elect progressive Secretaries of State who will protect our votes in important states and help state parties run critical efforts to get out the vote this November. Please make a contribution today so we can hold two more "Pick a Progressive Patriot" events in October. Thank you for your support – with your help, I know we'll make our goal!

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

Poll: What do you like most about Russ Feingold

2006-09-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

Say you're at a party and the topic turns to the 2008 Presidential elections. What are the 5 things you'd tell your friends first about the Senator? What's the first thing you'd say? What news item originally got you interested in the movement to draft him for President? Why did you click to this post?

It's difficult to condense the experience of following the Senator's battles in Washington into "5-Easy-Bullet-Points", but getting an accurate read of the landscape is important as we roll into close to two years of presidential primaries.

Let us know what you think. Take the poll now.

Here are a few of the items to choose from:

Opposed to Iraq War from the beginning
Fighting for Universal Health Care, rated 100% by APHA
Defender of public educaion, rated 91% by NEA
Leader in fight against Bush's Torture Policies
Keep Church and State separate: 0% rating by Christian Coalition
Introduced bill to censure George W. Bush
Fought hard against the Patriot Act
Adamant supporter of Fair-Trade, 25% CATO voting record

It's entirely possible that we missed some fairly obvious and significant items on the poll, which is why starting the discussion is so important. After you take the poll, please feel free to give feedback, either here or at the National site.

Your participation is important in our campaign to urge Senator Feingold to run in 2008, so please take a minute to let us know what you think, and take the poll now.

Ohio's Sherrod Brown wins Progressive Patriot Contest

2006-09-26T11:26:00.000-05:00

As Senate races go, this one is hardly a barn-burner: Sherrod Brown will soundly kick the ass of your average corrupt Republican, Mike DeWine this November. While Brown is comfortably ahead, we learned in 2004 that it's important not to take Ohio for granted. Also, it's nice to see that the lefty blogosphere has recovered from the Hackett/Brown imbroglio to such an extent.

Congratulations to Sherrod Brown and thanks to Russ Feingold for furthering the discussion and getting resources out on the ground. Remember, remember the seventh of November.

Announcing the "50 Blogs for Feingold Patriot Action Team"

2006-09-21T13:25:00.000-05:00

Here's something fun and easy we can do to help the good Senator fight the good fight: vigorously participate in on-line activism as a "Patriot Action Team."

As noted in an earlier post, the Progressive Patriots Fund, Russ Feingold's Leadership PAC, has created a pretty cool community action system. We've set up a community therein, hereby christened the "50 Blogs for Feingold Patriot Action Team." (Yes, yes, I know that's a mouthfull, but the only workable acronym I could come up with was M.O.O.N.B.A.T., which seemed counterproductive.)

So, what, not-to-put-too-fine-a-point-on-it, can we do? Well, you're reading a pro-Feingold blog, so you might be interested in clicking the picture and joining in on the current campaigns. There is a petition for Single-Payer (Universal) Healthcare and a (potentially nasty) letter to Bush on his regieme's illegal wiretapping program. Point, click, type, click and you're good to go.

Also, if you have a blog, we'd be thrilled if you could help us spread the word by putting the button on your pages. For the artists out there, I'd be thrilled to make available alternative logos via our free image repository.

To paraphrase Howard: working together, we can make a lot of noise. To further paraphrase Howard: "Yeehaw!"

The Latest Progressive Patriots Contest

2006-09-20T14:35:00.000-05:00

Senator Feingold has a new "Pick a Progressive Patriot" contest, where voters choose from a field of Senate candidates, and Russ gives some fundraising support to the candidate who wins.

Usually I vote in these things on an ideological basis, i.e. "Which candidate do I like the most?" But this time, control of the Senate balances on such a knife-edge that it makes sense to be a little practical and a little rigorous.

In short, I was looking for the race that was the most money-starved and the most competitive at the same time. Now, let me let the disclaimers fly:

Just about any time you apply math to politics, you have to make assumptions and decide how you want to weigh things. I picked one of an infinite number of models, and make no claim that it's "right."
For poll results, I used Chris Bowers' numbers from the MyDD Senate Forecast 2006 where possible and from Pollster.com otherwise (except Mississippi which is apparently broken on pollster)
For the money results, I used the most recent (June 30, 2006) data available from opensecrets.org.
It's unlikely that I transcribed all these numbers without one or more typographical errors. If you spot one, please leave a comment.

State	Democrat	Poll Dist.	Money Dist.	Score
MO	McCaskill	0.2	2.56	63.89
VA	Webb	1.2	16.50	11.46
TN	Ford	0.4	.67	4.17
MT	Tester	3	4.40	0.49
MS	Fleming	37	172.29	0.13
OH	Brown	4	1.78	0.11
RI	Whitehouse	3.2	.72	0.07
ME	Bright	40	70.15	0.04
CT	Lamont	7.4	2.16	0.04
MD	Cardin	7.2	1.94	0.04
UT	Ashdown	42	53.37	0.03
NV	Carter	12.8	4.48	0.03
WY	Groutage	33	29.12	0.03
PA	Casey	9.8	1.81	0.02
AZ	Pederson	8.8	1.39	0.02
TX	Radnofsky	20	6.58	0.02
MN	Klobuchar	11.6	1.17	0.01

For the nerds: Poll distance is simply a positive number representing the difference of the two candidates polling numbers. Money distance is how many dollars the Republican has for every dollar the democrat has. So, for example, Lott has $172.29 for every $1.00 that Fleming has (DSCC, where are you?!?). The score function is simply the money distance divided by the poll distance squared.

So, enough methodology spam. What's it all mean?

Claire McCaskill is runing neck and neck in Missouri. She's being outspent by $2.56 for every dollar she has. She could certainly use a little nudge from the Progressive Patriots Fund.

Jim Webb is running neck and neck in Virginia, and being outspent by $16.50 for every dollar he has by his opponent, who shall remain ignominous. He, also, could use a little nudge.

Harold Ford, Jr in Tennessee. is outspending his opponent by 23 cents on every dollar, and running within a half a percentage point. This is a historically astonishing result.

There's a lot more to say about this, but I'm going to close for the moment with one final point. The MyDD Senate Forecast has the Republicans maintaining control of the Senate by 51-47-2 (or 51-48-Lieberman, if you prefer). A win in any of the above three races would make it 50-49-Lieberman. If Lamont also wins, it'd be 50-50. Things are close folks, very, very close.

Article Review: "Meet the Next President"

2006-09-19T15:02:00.000-05:00

Well, after a long trip halfway around the world at 12 miles per hour, I'm back. I, for one, am curious as to whether a) my fingers still work, and b) I can still speak English. Let's see, shall we?

Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner wrote an article yesterday on Russ in his "Meet the Next President" series, which is available here. Here are a few of the more zippy bits:

Russ admits to an occasional urge to say "I told you so" on his vote against the Iraq War Resolution, but adds "Yeah, but I was taught it’s impolite to do that.” He continues to say that the electorate "...would strongly prefer a candidate who had the judgment that’s right in the first place."
More on the IRW: "I just had this sick feeling that people were buying into this out of fear, rather than rationality..."
"Feingold says Clinton, the early favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination, is 'absolutely' too timid on the Iraq war issue. "
“He is, I think, the one Democrat who can say he’s 100 percent pure,” says columnist David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register.
Russ is getting a bit more expressive on whether he'll run. To wit: "And I don’t know if I’m going to run, but I guarantee you, I wouldn’t choose not to run because I don’t think I can defeat [Hillary]. If it was one-on-one, given the issues that I’ve taken, I think I’d have a shot. It would be an upset, but I’ve been out there in many, many states and people are looking for an alternative"
A funny bit on his nay vote on the USA-PATRIOT Act: "'When I went down to the well, I didn’t know what they were going to call it,' he says. 'Then I saw that it was being called the USA Patriot Act. So I gulped a bit and realized I was going to be the only one who voted no.'"
On Warrantless Wiretapping: "I believe what the president did here was an impeachable offense."

Well, the fingers work (even the tricky Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V combos!), and I'm pretty sure I've made it through this post without inadvertently lapsing into Swahili or anything. Perhaps by tomorrow I can even generate some (gasp!) original text!

Take Action: No More Illegal Wiretapping!

2006-09-20T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Progressive Patriots Fund, Russ Feingold's Leadership PAC, has created a pretty cool community action system. Just yesterday, we set up a community to act as a conduit for the "50 Blogs for Feingold" project. Let's get active and make our voices heard.

Push Bush on his Illegal Warrantless Wiretapping Program

Customize your own message on this topic and show your support for Russ by sending it through the PPF system.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush,

The court recently declared your domestic warrantless
wiretapping program to be illegal and unconstitutional.

I believe that we can fight terrorism while protecting our
rights and freedoms, and that's why I agree with Senator
Feingold: we need to bring this program back within the law.

You don't run this country, Mr. President. We the people do.
Wehave spoken on this issue and you continue to disregard
our wishes. Thus, you've forced us to teach you a hard
lesson come Election Day. I'll take great joy in delivering
you a Democrat-controlled Congress on Janurary 3.

Maybe you'll start listening then.

Sincerely,
Your Name

Plus, you'll get free stuff! Yes, yes, it's true. You'll get this carefully crafted message back from the White House:

From: comments@whitehouse.gov
Sent : Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:02 PM
To : haus...@hotmail.com

We've identified this mail as junk. Please tell us if we were right or wrong by clicking Junk or Not Junk

On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your
correspondence. We appreciate hearing your views
and welcome your suggestions. The President is
committed to continuing our economic progress,
defending our freedom, and upholding our Nation's
deepest values.

Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the
White House cannot respond to every message.
Please visit the White House website for the most
up-to-date information on Presidential initiatives,
current events, and topics of interest to you.
In order to better receive comments from the
public, a new system has been implemented. In
the future please send your comments to
comments@whitehouse.gov.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

While reading this moving response, you can almost hear ol' W. telling you that he "'preshiiates" your insights. And this line: "The President is committed to continuing our economic progress, defending our freedom, and upholding our Nation's deepest values" is priceless, isn't it?

So, act now and Push Bush on his Illegal Warrantless Wiretapping Program

Feingold's Latest "Pick a Progressive Patriot" Contest

2006-06-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

We're about halfway through our fifth Pick a Progressive Patriot contest, and here is a report on the candidates we've helped so far this cycle. Your contributions made this possible, and we need to continue supporting progressive Democratic candidates if we want to take back Congress this November. Can you contribute $100, $50, or even $25 to help us bring back a Democratic majority?

Contribute now

Since we formed the Progressive Patriots Fund, I've made it my goal to help elect more people to Congress who share our values, people who will fight for good government, fiscal responsibility, and social justice. Because of your support, we've contributed to over 47 candidates from 29 states. These include great Congressional candidates like John Courage and Bill Winter and Senate candidates like Bernie Sanders, Jon Tester, and Jim Webb. We've also contributed to incumbent Senators in tough races, like Debbie Stabenow and Robert Menendez. And this month, you'll choose which Governors receive support from the Progressive Patriots Fund. I hope we can support dozens more candidates before November, but we can't make it happen without your contributions. Please consider making a contribution to the Progressive Patriots Fund today.

Contribute now

In addition to financial contributions to candidates, I've also been traveling around the country to help candidates in person. I believe in a 50 state strategy, so I've traveled to Texas for John Courage, Washington for Maria Cantwell, and Pennsylvania for Lois Murphy, as well as 12 other states where Democrats are in key races. This is a year where we can take back Congress if we talk about the things we believe in, and I'm fighting for candidates who will do just that. Please consider contributing online so we can keep fighting for a progressive Congress.

Contribute now

Please make sure you vote in "Pick a Progressive Patriot" if you haven't yet, and ask a friend to vote if you have. We'll be announcing the results Tuesday morning. Thank you for all the support you've given to me and to our candidates. I know that with your hard work and dedication, we'll win in November.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

"Fightin' Russ" Feingold on C-SPAN Tonight

2006-06-04T15:56:00.000-05:00

Cheers to Mark on the Feingold08 Mailing list for pointing this appearance out:

ON ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Feingold & Warner in N.H.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner (D) address the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual covention. It takes place at St. Anselm's College in Goffstown, New Hampshire. New Hampshire is expected to hold the nation's first presidential primary in 2008.

ON SUN., C-SPAN, 6:30PM ET

If you miss it, you'll be able to catch it streaming at The Road To The White House Site.

Welcome Aboard South Carolina and dKos Straw Poll

2006-05-27T12:43:00.000-05:00

First off, cheers to Jesse Buck for starting the South Carolina for Feingold Blog
last week. Over the next few days, we'll incorporate it into all the appropriate feeds, widgets, and so forth.

Second off, thanks to Patrick at Iowa For Feingold for the heads up on the Daily Kos May/June Straw Poll and Fantasy Straw Poll. If you haven't already, please take a minute to stop by these polls and support Russ.

On a personal note, in nine days I start taking a battery of exams for a U.S. Coast Guard license, and preparation is taking up 12-14 hours a day. After demolishing the exams, and a suitable period of celebratory worship of Bacchus, I'll be back here in full force.

Progressive Patriots Fund: Support Leonard Boswell

2006-05-17T18:03:00.000-05:00

I am writing you today to express my strong support of one of our greatest Democrats in the House of Representatives, Congressman Leonard Boswell.

Recently, I spent time in Iowa with the congressman. Over the course of the weekend, I learned how special a man Leonard Boswell is. He's a decorated veteran, an intelligence expert, a farmer, a family man and a strong Democratic leader.

I also learned about how hard Republicans in Washington, D.C., are trying to discredit his good name. Leonard remains the only Democrat from Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives. And as you can imagine, Karl Rove and his Republican attack machine are committed to ending Leonard's career this November. The National Republicans have targeted Leonard as their #1 priority this year. They will be coming at him with everything they have.

We must stand up now and do all we can to help Leonard today!

Already, several national Republicans have campaigned against Leonard. Recently the Republicans boasted of having raised $744,000 to fund their vicious attacks on Leonard!

Please take a moment today and send a contribution of $75, $50, $25 or whatever you can afford to our campaign to stand up for good Democrats!

Very soon we can expect to see a smear attack on our very distinguished, very courageous friend. They will misrepresent his record, attempt to tarnish his career, and throw as many far-fetched accusations at him as possible. We cannot let them get away with it!

The stakes are far too high for us to sit back and let them roll back the achievements we have fought so long and hard for. Working to make the highest quality education and health care available and affordable to all, standing up for a woman's right to choose, and fighting for the highest clean water and air standards possible. All of these are at risk if we let them have their way. We need Leonard in Congress to continue to stand up for the things we believe in!

Your support today will show that we are willing to stand up to Republican attacks. Leonard has spent his entire life serving his community, state, and our nation. It is time for us to stand with him today and do everything we can to keep him fighting for us, for our children and for our country.

Thank you very much, please do all you can.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

P.S. – We have seen the distortions the National Republicans are capable of spinning. Please don’t let them get by without a fight! Show the Republicans you will stand up against their attacks. Send your contribution in today!

Announcing Feingold08 Extension for the FireFox Browser

2006-05-05T06:25:00.000-05:00

This extension to the FireFox browser contains links to approximately 70 web resources of interest to supporters of Russ Feingold for President. These resources include "the National "Russ Cafe" discussion board, the chat room at russforpresident.com, prepackaged searches through many of the leading search engines, all the blogs in the "50 Blogs for Feingold" program, as well as Feingold's official Senate, Senate Campaign, and PAC.

This extension only works with the Mozilla FireFox browser. That is to say that it won't work with Microsoft Internet Explorer or any other Netscape browser. You can get the FireFox browser for free by clicking here.

The extension is available for download at addons.mozilla.org

This is one of several projects in development at RussForge. RussForge is an independent group of techies who support Russ Feingold for President. RussForge is not affiliated with any candidate or committee.

Russ Gear: Check Out the Progressive Patriots Store

2006-04-28T03:47:00.000-05:00

Latest e-mail from Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriots Fund:

I'm excited to announce today the opening of our Progressive Patriots Store. Many of you have emailed me over the past months, asking where you can purchase T-Shirts and other items to support the Progressive Patriots Fund community. Today, we're releasing our brand-new "Don't Spy on Me" gear, featuring our modern reinterpretation of the colonial flag "Don't Tread on Me." We're starting out with T-Shirts and mouse pads, but we're looking for you to recommend other items for us to create in the future.

Visit the Progressive Patriots Store

In addition to our "Don't Spy" line, we've also created a "Restore our Rights" coffee mug. When filled with a hot liquid, the mug reveals the amendments threatened by the President and his illegal domestic spying program.

Visit the Progressive Patriots Store

All our merchandise is union-made in United States, of course. I hope you'll visit the Progressive Patriots Store today; the contributions you make by purchasing Progressive Patriots Gear helps us to continue to spread our progressive message to all fifty states.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

Feingold Debuts "W" Video in Texas

2006-04-20T05:55:00.000-05:00

From The Progressive Patriots Fund

Senator Russ Feingold debuted an innovative ad from the Progressive Patriots Fund last evening in Texas called “W.” This video takes a unique yet serious look at the President’s illegal domestic spying program and Feingold’s resolution to censure the President for these illegal actions. To watch the Progressive Patriots ad, please click here: www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/W.

Announcing Interactive "50 Blogs For Feingold" Map

2006-04-10T18:34:00.000-05:00

The latest widget from RussForge is an interactive map that can help users find their state blogs and e-mail lists. If the state blog doesn't exist yet, it gives some pointers on how to start one up. It's a combination of the current State Blogs Widget and the Google Maps API.

Everyone is welcome to use this widget, and the source code will be available in the public CVS repository, as soon as SourceForge catches up. One easy way to incorporate this widget into your site is to copy this HTML into your site:

Which links a small icon to the interactive map. Update: I removed the JavaScript fanciness on the window opening due to problems with pop-up blockers.

Questions, comments, feature requests, and bug reports are welcomed.

Send $17.76 To Feingold's Progressive Patriot's Fund

2006-04-02T20:13:00.000-05:00

Via Iowa For Feingold via Democratic Underground:

Some people on Democratic Underground decided to show their thanks to Russ by donating $17.76 to his PAC, the Progressive Patriots Fund.

Feingold is standing up to Bush's pre-1776 mentality and fighting for the rule of law. Please show your thanks with a donation or maybe send him a spine card from.

I think this is a great idea and thought I would pass it on.

Russ is standing up for US!

Feingold's "Pick a Progressive Patriot" Competition Begins Today

2006-03-20T15:14:00.000-05:00

Dear oh4russ,

I'm proud to announce that today is the beginning of our second "Pick a Progressive Patriot" event. From the hundreds of candidates you've suggested, I've chosen several great Congressional challengers. Now it's up to you to decide who we should support. Please vote for your favorite candidate, and whoever gets the most votes will receive a $5,000 contribution from the Progressive Patriots Fund.

Vote Now!

It wasn't easy choosing just these candidates. You nominated some outstanding people from all fifty states. But these candidates are all running in tough races against incumbent Republicans who have been voting against the best interests of our country for years. As we've seen in recent months, without Democratic control of Congress, we will have a hard time holding this President accountable for his actions, so I need you to help me identify the best candidates to support in our effort to take back the House.

Vote Now!

If you're not familiar with the candidates in our "Pick a Progressive Patriot" event, you can learn a little more about them by visiting our website. They're all fantastic candidates who I'd be proud to support. With the crucial end-of-quarter deadline approaching, please help me choose who to support next.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

Freep These Polls

2006-03-21T01:26:00.000-05:00

MyDD and DailyKos started their ~~Feburary~~ March straw polls last night. At time of writing, Feingold is flattening all comers at DailyKos. With over 12,000 votes cast, Feingold leads at 48% with Clark in a distant second at 15%. Warner's at 11% and Edwards at 7%. It's a nice feeling to have your guy in first and like two of the next three. Cast your vote here.

MyDD's voting probably won't go into high gear until sunrise on the east coast, but at time of writing, 126 ballots have been cast with Feingold carrying 50%, Warner 18%, Clark 12%, and Edwards 10%. You can vote here. The MyDD polls have weird spurts, this should be fun to watch.

Both of these monthly straw polls have made it into print in the past. For example, this article at The New Republic.

Take a look down the right column for a few other polls that are voteworthy.

A Look At The DailyKos Straw Polls

2006-03-22T16:55:00.000-05:00

Kos posted this article showing the results of the last seven Straw Polls.

I was trying to visualize the results, then gave up, and used a spreadsheet. It's available at RussForge for your viewing pleasure.

There's not enough information available to say how many Clark supporters have switched to supporting Feingold since August of last year. However, a guess of 20% of respondents switching from Clark to Feingold is probably in the ballpark.

There are two pronounced bounces for Feingold. It looks like a lot of "No Freakin' Clue" folks switched to Russ between July and September. Feingold's comments against CAFTA come to mind in that time frame. Any other opinions?

The second big bounce came from November-Janurary (USA-PATRIOT Act?) and Janurary to March (warrantless wiretapping of US Citizens?).

I think one takeaway is that there's a lot of lingering affection for Clark in the Feingold camp. Just my opinion - I think that's our ticket for '08.