End Of The Quarter Push

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I'm not going to be able to get to a House roundup today - probably later in the week.  But today is the last day of the 2nd quarter, an important milestone for all candidates, particularly challengers.  If candidates aren't showing significant fundraising strength by the end of Q2, it's not likely they'll be able to get the institutional support they may need to compete against their incumbent opponents.  Here in California we know that we have at least a half-dozen Congressional Democratic challengers and a handful of state legislative seats which have the potential to be in play in November, given strong expected turnout and coattails from Barack Obama on the top of the ticket.  For those who think that California is hopelessly gerrymandered and there can't possibly be any flips from one party to another, let me direct you to this quote from a spokesman for the NRCC, the electoral arm for Republicans in the House:

"This is a challenging environment," she said. "Any Republican running for office has to run basically on an independent platform, localize the race and not take anything for granted. There are no safe Republican seats in this election."

That's true for California as well.  So I urge you to find your favorite Democrat, read up on them, and donate.  Your contribution will never mean more than today.  Calitics has an ActBlue page with some candidates listed, and you can get plenty of information by reading some of my past roundups.  But let me also direct you to some candidate's websites:

Bill Durston, CA-03

Charlie Brown, CA-04

Russ Warner, CA-26

Jule Bornstein, CA-45

Debbie Cook, CA-46

Nick Leibham, CA-50

Hannah-Beth Jackson, SD-19

Alyson Huber, AD-10

Joan Buchanan, AD-15

Ferial Masry, AD-37

Marty Block, AD-78

Manuel Perez, AD-80