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Do You Donate?
It has been a while since I really thought about this, but since I am home with nothing better to do at the moment, I started thinking. How many of us donate to our political choices? When I get really fired up about a candidate, I have been known to donate. Recently, though, I can’t say that I have felt any compelling reason to donate.
I came across this site: WinRed.
Just for fun, I thought I would look across my own state and see how many BIPOC (that’s newspeak for non-white people) were running as Republicans who could have donations contributed via this website. I found quite a few, more than I thought I would, if I’m being honest. More than that, many of them are women. Women veterans.
Well, howdy!
Have you looked at ways to help your party of choice in elections, either through direct donations or by this website? If so, do you like to help people in other races or just your own locality?
I’m actually kind of excited at the idea of having more diverse people up front in the GOP’s view, particularly since many of them are women and veterans.
On the downside, I’m loath to donate via the general Committee because I feel like they regularly misuse my money and then harass me for more in two years.
What do you think? Direct donations? Huge websites? Donating to individuals in your area or doing some strategic donating on a national level? As for me, I just give money to people I like, regardless of where they are.
Published in Elections
Individual candidates, when I can.
The national committees can go get bent.
Remember those guys that broke up a terror attempt on a train in France? One of them, Alek Scarlatos, is running for Congress as a Republican. He has a chance to flip the seat. I’m supporting him.
Direct donation to the Trump Campaign. No donations to the RNC, and all my local candidates are D. Ewww! I normally don’t donate to a candidate for whom I cannot vote.
I don’t donate to people I can’t vote for either, since it is annoying when other people do it. But more and more I’m thinking that if it’s not against the rules and other people are doing it, why not? Nothing says I can’t and if the Dems are getting out of state money, the Reps might as well.
Originally I read “cannot” in terms of “they won’t get my vote” not “They’re not running where I can vote for them”.
Money is fungible, so really where it comes from doesn’t matter. It’s the same as buying products you support. If there’s a candidate you like, you should probably send them money and hopefully it’ll make the national committees pay attention as to which candidates they ought to be supporting.
Direct donation to a candidate.
Many times I get e-mails purporting to be in aid of a certain candidate. But when you look further, it’s some group that may or may not have ANYTHING to do with the candidate. They are just raising money on the person’s name.
So if I want to support them, I find their campaign website and give there.
Direct donation to young, compelling, principled candidates in competitive races. Most campaigns use a service to process money and generate mandatory reporting and donor profiles. WinRed is sure the biggest and if you use it once your name will be sold to dozens of other candidates. If you have a burner phone, this is the time to use it.
Never give one of the many blood-sucking parasites any money.
It only encourages them.
The one thing I find particularly difficult is finding good information on the races below the Presidential level during the primaries and often local races even after the primaries. Here we had 5 Republicans for our House seat, 2 men and 3 women. The men didn’t seem to be trying too hard in terms of getting coverage or donations, so dropped them off. The 3 women all seemed to be pretty close copies in terms of the websites and one set of candidate questions I could find. How the heck do you make a good decision on who to donate to when you can’t get any info?
Luckily, there was only 1 person running for the local races. So that’s easy. Oh, except for the one where no one was running. My wife apparently wrote my name in.
So if you want to donate to my campaign, uh, well, let me know.
No, I haven’t ever donated, and I doubt I ever will.
One, I don’t trust politicians. Donating to a campaign is an act of trust which it’ll take a better class of men before I think is warranted.
Two, I don’t think politics matters nearly as much as we act like it does.
Three, I don’t think money makes nearly as much a difference in politics as people seem to believe.
And four, by donating my cash I’m also donating my name, address, and related information, which will inevitably by bartered to other groups who will use it to also hit me up for cash.
Everything you say is true, but number four is what gets me. That and spamming my credit card info into the internet.
It is mostly the nonstop calling. I could do without it.
About 30 years ago I gave money to the Libertarian party. Now look at em. Money well spent I say.
I would donate extra if my info was not shared. I am getting constant, insistent spam from Trump campaign people.
Wait until the Dems control both houses and the presidency and tell me that.
I made a political donation at holiday time, but my dollars are stretched these days. Like you, I’ve been prompted to step up, but to local church and other faith-based organizations, and to veterans. My sister inspires me – she has the faith of the woman with the two miters – not kidding. She will give here and there as she can, and she is literally blessed 10-fold, in ways I won’t describe here. So donate where your heart prompts you – good post!
Thank you so much. I had used the ActBlue website before. I am glad to see that WinRed is getting the kinks out. I gave to Mitt Romney and John James, our candidates in UT and MI. There are a couple upgrades I would suggest.
First, list all candidates. I could not find the MD or MA Governors. I want to max out for Larry Hogan.
Second, allow giving to state legislative candidates. I can do that on ActBlue.
Third, with ActBlue I can put a message on my Facebook page that I just contributed money to candidate X, and readers can also contribute to candidate X. I would be happy for people to see that I had contributed to Mitt Romney.
Fourth, allow contributions to anyone running, including if they are running against an incumbent. I maxed out and gave $2,600 to Bill Weld, but was not able to do so through WinRed. (I also gave $1,000 to Mark Sanford before he dropped out.) Until the election, WinRed should not take sides.
Did he go back to Argentina?
No. It is too bad that he did not run for SC-1.
Is it really? I guess I’ll have to take your word for it on that one.
The Dem is likely to win otherwise.
Is it though? Is it really? Because abusing campaign funds in order to see your mistress doesn’t strike me as something a Reagan Republican, like yourself, would approve of and financially support.
Ah. I just figured that someone who wanted a Republican Party free of Trump wouldn’t be supporting someone who was caught in an extramarital affair.
Politicians, direct donation only, preferably to someone I can look in the eye when I hand him the check. One of the benefits of living in a rural area is the increased opportunity to do that.
The church gets my regular donations because I know exactly where the money goes. United Way? forget it. Red Cross? nope. People United for This, That or the Other Thing? No way. I’ve been in the non-profit world and I know too much. Which is one reason I’m no longer in that world.
I hope they’re not coming after you for it.
How do you know that he used campaign funds to go to Argentina? If he had, he likely would have been prosecuted. Please provide documentation for your assertion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/us/19sanford.html
Ask and ye shall receive. Knock, and the door of the closet of skeletons shall be opened.