Someday Voters will be able to hold their elected officials Accountable

The first step in holding our elected Congress members accountable is to develop a Standard.
An early Standard is illustrated at My-Representative.org Evaluating Congress Members based on the actual Legislation that they Sponsor and Champion is a reasonable method.

I'd like to invite others to expand on this topic with me.

In the mean time we will continue with the existing method of polarizing voters and fighting Party Wars over the districts with a no clear majority of voters registed with one party.

Spring Quarter's Last Day: Get Them To 50K!

by Adam B

Wed Mar 31, 2010 at 07:11:04 AM PDT

As your inbox no-doubt has confirmed for the past 48-72 hours, today is the last day of the fundraising quarter for federal candidates.  Whatever's in the door by today will be reported publicly on April 15, and will be a major marker in determining which Democratic incumbents receive serious challenges and which will be seen as too strong to topple.
Starting last Monday, over 430 of us have raised nearly $44,000 already for 21 vulnerable House Dems who stuck to their principles and passed landmark health care reform, many of whom have now been targeted (with gunsights) by Sarah Palin and her PAC.
We need to keep them strong: can you help us get to 500 contributors raising $50,000 for these stand-up Democrats by midnight tonight?
Give what you can -- $20, $30, $50 is fine if that's what you can do, and spread it out how you see fit.  Be generous today, because the message your contributions make today counts much more than anything you can give tomorrow.
Who's on the list?  Let's review:
* * * We are fundraising for the twenty-plus-one most vulnerable Democrats who voted both for health care reform and against the anti-choice Stupak-Pitts amendment.  Between these efforts and ours in November we've raised more than $75,000 already to show these Democrats that we've got their backs.
What we are demonstrating to Democrats in vulnerable districts is that when they stand with our party and for progressive causes, the netroots will have their backs. And they noticed. Several of them have called or emailed me personally to thank all of you for your efforts, including Members who have never had anything to do with the netroots before now.
We need to support these courageous Democrats.
Listed below are the twenty Democrats (plus one) who have cast the toughest votes for health care reform -- for HCR last Sunday, and against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment in November, and whose districts are toughest based on Partisan Voter Index.  A few of them voted "no" the first time around (Boyd, Markey, Kosmas, Murphy), but we should welcome them into the fold and thank them for supporting health care reform now.
These are the Democrats whose districts are most likely to oppose them for what they have done to make health care affordable for all.  It's up to us to demonstrate to these often-moderate candidates that when they stand up for progressive causes, progressives will stand behind them.
I believe it's especially important for those of us who've decided to turn the spigot off when it comes to Democratic party institutions based on their multitude of failures to take this opportunity to demonstrate what we're capable of doing for specific candidates who are taking risks to make progress happen.
Here's who you should be supporting -- these Democrats (listed by District, Name, PVI), elected in Republican and swing districts (and mostly in the past three years), for whom every close vote for reproductive freedom and health care reform can become the next opposition campaign ad:

AZ-01 Kirkpatrick, Ann R+6 *
FL-02 Boyd, Allen R+6 *
CO-04 Markey, Betsy R+6 *
AZ-05 Mitchell, Harry R+5 *
AZ-08 Giffords, Gabrielle R+4 *
 
FL-24 Kosmas, Suzanne R+4 *
NY-19 Hall, John R+3
FL-08 Grayson, Alan R+2
MI-07 Schauer, Mark R+2
NY-20 Murphy, Scott R+2
WI-08 Kagen, Steve R+2
CA-11 McNerney, Jerry R+1
IL-08 Bean, Melissa R+1
IL-11 Halvorson, Debbie R+1
IL-14 Foster, Bill R+1
MN-01 Walz, Tim R+1
NY-23 Owens, Bill R+1
NH-01 Shea-Porter, Carol R+0
NY-01 Bishop, Timothy R+0
OH-15 Kilroy, Mary Jo D+1
VA-05 Perriello, Tom R+5 * **

* These members are on Sarah Palin's target list.  Let's especially have their backs. ** Technically, Tom Perriello shouldn't be here: he voted for the Stupak Amendment the first time. But he has also voted for ACES and the stimulus bill despite being a freshman member elected by less than 1000 votes in an R+5 district -- McCain and Bush both carried it -- so if you're willing to make one exception, Perriello is the exception you should make.

The overwhelming majority of these twenty Members were elected in 2006, 2008 or, in the case of Scott Murphy and Bill Owens, 2009.  As the most recent additions to Congress, almost every one of them is on the NRCC's primary target list for 2010.
We need to protect them for having done the right thing.  We need to show that when Democrats act courageously in the interests of our country, progressives will have their backs and support them.
So please, visit the WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK v2.0 ActBlue page and spread some sugar around today -- $3 each? $5?  $10, $20 or more?  That's up to you.  And then promote it on your Facebook page, your Twitter feed and your own diaries.  I don't own this list, and I don't need to take any credit.  Please promote it yourself however you want.
If politicians in tough districts see that national support exists when they do the right thing on a big vote -- and there may be no bigger one than the one they cast on Sunday -- they will feel more comfortable doing it again the next time.  They won't have to worry about losing some donors over these pro-choice and pro-health care votes if they've gained our loyal support instead.  And when the NRCC and Sarah Palin target them, they will be able to fight back.
Give now.  If you have given to some of these candidates in the past, give to the rest today.  Show them, right now: WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK.

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