Delighted to note that my CrowdPac fundraising has broken $2000! The goal is to raise $5000 through CrowdPac for the campaign, ideally by March 1, both for immediate needs, and to demonstrate that even for a small local campaign like library board, I’m a candidate that can turn out people in support. If I do want to run for anything bigger down the road, proving that now will be a huge help to getting support from larger donors, Democratic orgs, etc.
They say it takes money to make money. On the one hand, that’s often frustrating, especially for those of us who would like to see less money in politics overall. But it does make a certain amount of logical sense. You need money to be able to get the word out about your campaign — marketing just costs, in ways that are very hard to avoid.
And people want to know that any money they donate won’t be wasted. They want to be sure you really have a shot, and one way to test that is to see whether you were able to raise money in the past. It’s one of the few real indicators of whether you’re going to be a viable candidate. (This is, incidentally, also why publishers are more willing to spend advertising money on their ‘sure thing’ authors than on the newbies they’re taking chances on…)
It’s honestly a little tricky making clear how much I’ve raised in these intervening months, since in addition to the CrowdPac fundraising, I’ve also gotten some money via check and PayPal (over $1500). But what’s nice about CrowdPac is that it’s very visible and easy for people to see how things are going. That’s why I’m setting the goal for $5000 through CrowdPac (and about $6500 overall). Hope it isn’t too confusing that way!
So that’s where we are right now — almost halfway through the fundraising, which feels like a milestone. If you’d like to see me on the library board in a few months, OR running for something else down the line, now would be an excellent time to donate. Endorsements are also gratefully accepted, and sharing the word on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Anything that makes it clear that there’s broad-based support for my being in office is tremendously helpful!
#runningforoffice