Live Blog: $10,000 Crooks And Liars Matching Fund For Debbie Cook
By Howie Klein Wednesday Oct 22, 2008 3:00pm
Gus Ayer was the Mayor of Fountain Valley in Orange County when he first became a good friend of Blue America's. Today he's a senior advisor to Debbie Cook's congressional campaign. The other day we were talking about the difficulties a progressive challenger faces in a red district, especially with a DCCC seemingly so dedicated to electing lots and lots and lots of dull, go-along-to-get-along Blue Dogs. Debbie's neither a Blue Dog nor someone who goes along with anything she hasn't gone over thoroughly from every angle. As of September 30th, her opponent, Dana Rohrabacher, had $497,388 left to spend on a blitz of negative media. Debbie, who is getting zero help from the DCCC, is left with $30,284. Several Orange County Democrats pooled their money and came up with a $10,000 package that they are challenging DWT and Crooks & Liars readers to match today. Gus is joining us in the comments section here from 3-4pm PT to discuss the campaign. Here's his take on what's happening right now:
Dana Rohrabacher’s handlers have been keeping him out of the public eye because they know he’s really crazier than Michelle Bachman. He might talk about the Iraq war going badly because Bush picked the really handsome generals instead of the smart ones, rant about the threat from asteroids and the need for a “Death Star” in space, or start shouting about feminists, environmentalists, Mexicans and Chinese ruining America, or terrorists killing your family at Disneyland.
By contrast, Debbie Cook really represents the values of the district, an athlete who married her college sweetheart, and followed a progression of small business owner, PTA President, environmental activist, environmental attorney, then eight years on the City Council and as Mayor of Huntington Beach. She’s smart, driven, decent, and surprisingly modest, and for the last three years, she’s been working to educate local and regional leaders on Peak Oil and renewable energy.
Debbie doesn’t mince words about women’s issues, marriage equality, getting out of Iraq, or the need for single payer health. But her passion is energy and the need to act now to leave fossil fuels before they leave us.
We’re riding a wave of change here in Surf City, and Republicans panicked when they finally did internal polling and showed the race within the margin of error. We’ve gotten great response to our ads on cable, and we can still increase our buy for the last week. We’re on track to knock on almost every door in the district before the election more than once, and we’re getting tremendous support for GOTV from every environmental group, the unions, the nurses, PDA, and DFA.
We have targeted mail ready to go to hit the low-propensity voters and remind younger voters, women, seniors, veterans, Latinos, and Vietnamese that Rohrabacher is a ZERO while Debbie is a HERO. Every dollar you give today goes out the door to communicate to voters.
A series of donors have made a $10,000 matching dollar for dollar pledge.
And donating will allow them to keep this ad up on TV:
So please join me in welcoming Gus Ayers to C&L.
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Debbie's one of the best candidates Blue America has this cycle. Something I forgot to mention in the post is that you can buy ads for her directly through the Blue America/SaysMe.tv alliance. It's fun.
Sorry if the answer is obvious to others - I'm looking for a link to donate to Debbie. I usually just read and don't post. Could you point me in the right direction to send her $? Thanks for a good diary.
On the very top of all C&L pages is a box that says Blue America. You can always donate there. To make it easy, here's a link.
Thanks for the link. I'll have to donate from home this evening. Good luck to all on the campaign.
Thanks for the post.
Please note that my last name is Ayer.
I'm not a terrorist, and I have never lived in Chicago.
Hey Gus, are you still on the City Council?
One of Rohrabacher's surfing buddies is running hit mail pieces against me, crazy pieces that refer to a speech I made about advanced transportation, and claiming that I want to eliminate free parking in Fountain Valley.
The same Sacramento political consultants who are ripping off Dana Rohrabacher are taking this clueless guy for a ride.
My extreme right-wing fringe in-laws live in H.B. I've gotten to see Bush's Christmas cards ("thanks and keep those dollars rolling in" cards) to them every year. Think I'll donate some $ to Debbie on their behalf. Their heads will pop.
The landlord in our strip mall told us that he disagreed on every issue with Debbie, but tha he had voted for her because she had been polite and respectful to him/
We'll take every vote.
It's also important to know that Rohrabacher's work on asteroids and alien invasion from space is far preferable to his vicious attacks against brown people and Chinese immigrants.
Is she going to protect us from Asteroids and Martians too? Was this brought up in the debate?
Did not come up in the debate, although Mr. Rohrabacher blamed aliens for every problem we have, including health care, the financial crisis, and gum disease.
I liked yesterday's debate when he said that he was against gay marraige.
Debbie said no one wants to get civil unionized.
That makes Debbie who she is, and why I've taken a year out of my life to volunteer for her.
Gus, we've all been reading that the race is a dead heat. Is it really possible for Debbie to win in this district and knock Rohrabacher out of Congress? Would she be in danger from his pals in the Taliban if she wins?
If we let voters know how Rohrabacher stands on education, Social Security, veterans, energy, choice, jobs, and every other serious issue, the voters are angry and want to throw him out.
The media has never covered him,and he only has the crazy base supporting him.
Would never have ranked a gerrymandered district in
California as competitive.
When I was first involved in politics, in 1972, I would have ignored this district based on the results from the 2006 election.
But this year, with this candidate, it's viable.
Rohrabacher rents in Huntington Beach and owns a townhouse in Washington DC. Does that mean if he loses, we're sending him back to Washington anyway?
The best bet is that he'll end up on hate talk radio somewhere, just like B-1 Bob Dornan, the last Congressman we exiled from the OC.
But somewhat of a fox.
What was the funniest moment of the debate? I read that people were laughing at him. Did he make any of the kinds of bloopers he's famous for? Will there be another debate? I remember Debbie telling me she wanted to do a series.
Rohrabacher kept attacking Debbie because she had listened to the business people and investors in her district, and gotten great feedback from people in the finance industry.
Unlike Rohrabacher, she understood that the Bush/Rohrabacher regime had brought the nation close to financial meltdown, and supported the revised rescue package.
Republicans and business owners in the district have been coming in every day and thanking her for understanding how disastrous the economic climate has become under Bush and Rohrabacher.
Totally inappropriate but....
Hey now!
Howdy doo!
She should move to Carlsbad and would make a strong run on that numb skull Bilbray. To Blue
She's the Mayor of the largest City in the district, and a hero in the environmental community.
Isn't Nick Liebham looking pretty good to take out Bilbray there?
Bilbray is, well, a Billbray.
Gus, can you explain how this $10,000 matching thing works? Here's the donation link. And what could the campaign do with that much money this late in the game?
For mail that exposes Rohrabacher and for a bigger cable buy.
We have 18 donors who have pledged a match to every dollar that comes in today.
A few are in shaky handwriting from women who probably can's afford another $100.00.
And Jon in Van Nuys just donated $25 a couple minutes ago!
Now we're getting Huntington Beach homeboys donating. Thanks Michael!
I heard her on with Tom Hartman and she's terrific, plus her opponent is another Bachman. We should tell people to divert some of that angry Bachman money to Debbie Cook.
Jeff M. in Kentucky here, passing along $25 to Debbie Cook to help the cause. All you folks out west keep a good thought in our struggle to oust Mitch McConnell, and good luck to all.
This would have been a lot more effective if they hadn't mentioned the thing about asteroids. Setting up an improved system for detecting and calculating the orbits of asteroids so that they can be deflected is actually a very good idea. Asteroid impacts are about the only global catastrophes that we can potentially prevent.
They way the ad mentions asteroids reminds me of McCain's remarks about the "over-head projector" in the debates with Obama as well as his comment about paying millions of dollars to study "the DNA of bears in Montana"
I'm an astrophysics PhD student, so I get particularly annoyed when people belittle science.
We really need to get Rohrabacher out of here. I live in HB and the guy is a squid. It's not about issues for him, it's about $$$. I've seen him out in the water and he is a total tool. Debbie will be very committed to our district.
If anyone knows how to get her on talk radio or Keith Olbermann, let her tell her story. Get the word out people! Let's turn Orange County Blue!
Growwl!!! She's got Debbie Harry eyes.
...check out this guy's positions:
http://www.lawsonforcongress.com/issues/good-...
What a shock, eh?
The rest of them are equally as amazing, too.
MILF ;)
I was watching Rep. Dana Rohrbacher(R) speak at a Conservtive Leadership conference on C-Span2. I think the day was June 19th. I saved this thanks to TIVO. A member in the audience asked Rohrbacher:
"What can be done or what advice could you give that could possibly save the Republican Party?"
Rohrbacher's response: "We should quit checking with big business before we make our decisions. We should start figuring out what is in the best interest of the American people, and if some big business man doesn't like it, tell him to take a walk. We are..we are right now coupled at the hip with big business. For example, we have big business men who are involved in big China trade. We have built China into a monster that is threatening your generation. We have built their economy. We have built them up into a powerful force giving them technology. And the most important thing we can do to rebuild the American people's faith in us is to say, look we were wrong in siding with big business on things like China. You know big business wants cheap labor. That is what to...Who do you think is behind this drive to the legalize the status of 12 to 20 million people. You know..it’s ahh...that's the most important thing I can say. The people have to know that we are with them and we have to demonstrate are watching out for them and we care about rather than caring about these very wealthy powerful interests."
Sure didn't stop him from voting with Big Business. Oh wait, he is up for re-election.
Hi everyone,
I live a stones throw from ol' Dana's district and I grew up in Huntington Beach. I see Ms. Cook's ads on cable and I am so glad we have a chance to get rid of D.R. He is such a piece of work, time for him to go! I wish it could have been 100 or a 1000 dollars though. Let's send him and his surfboard sailing out to sea forever.
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