$50,000 in my race would mean a victory for all progressives and Iowa would be more blue. But the best things would be to get ride of one of the worst. Obama does not need Steve King kicking him around for the next two year. Iowa does not need the further embarrassment of Steve King. We can send him home with media money. We will deliver the vote but we must have the name ID. Please go to actblue and help. Rob

Dennis Shulman is great, and I donated to him a while back on the Open Left Act Blue page.

Absolutely, there are plenty of terrible Republicans out there. We need to support the good candidates who step up to the plate like Shulman.

Dennis Shulman is a great candidate.  There is only a syllable between Shulman and Shuler, but the difference will mean a great deal to all of us.  Blue Dog Heath Shuler was a Rahm Emmanuel/DCCC project.  He is worse than having a Republican in that seat, because he gives "bipartisan" cover to atrocities like the FISA vote.

Shulman would not follow that lead, I am confident.

Neither would Rob Hubler, and I am pleased to see a real candidate show up and talk about his race here.

Reminds me of this.

Again thanks. Let me tell you a little about the 5th in IA. 40% don't have high speed internet. We have 4 media markets to cover district. I have been campaigning 21 months. Raised 230,000 and have a great field operations. 50% of the people are rural and get news from radio and weekly newspapers. Berkley Bedell and Tom Harking, progressives, represented the district. There has not been a democratic campaign in the past 10 years that has spent over $90,000. Tom Harking and Gov. Culver got 47% of the vote in the district. they had minimal campaign, not much media and little time in district. Our campaign will get at least 47%. Another $50,000 media in Sioux City will give us a victory with Obama's performance here. Polling data supports we can win. I am the progressive that can send King into civilian life and give us all a chance to concentrate on the direction the nation is going. Since DCCC will not send money to our campaign, even thought they recognized we can win, we have to depend on you all out there. Thanks again.

There is going to be some discussion of this going up on DKos tomorrow between 11 and 12 eastern.  Look for it if you want to weigh in.

Hey this is Rob again.  I can't say if these other races need it more and how much they need -- I wouldn't say another candidate in a tough race doesn't need money.  All races do.

I can say that IA-5 is a winnable race.  We released some polling shortly after labor day.  I know there were a few articles up on daily kos and elsewhere about it.  It showed that voters were within 2 points on the congressional race -- 38 to 36.  That's a huge undecided.  It also showed King had a very high negative and couldn't break a 50% approval rating -- so he couldn't get the majority support to win.

We are in a position to win.  Being named to the DCCC "emerging races" reflects more recent polling and the effects of our field program out here.

I hope that helps and that you'll decide to support.

Thanks

Everyone has to answer that individually.

I do know that even the expert rankings are wrong sometimes. In 2006, who would have predicted that Lois Murphy would fall short against Jim Gerlach in PA-06, but Carol Shea-Porter would defeat Jeb Bradley in NH-01? No one.

I can't say where it will happen, but somewhere in this country Republicans who never saw it coming are going to lose on November 4. The NRCC is going in to defend people who've been safe for years, like Lungren and Shadegg.

To answer your specific question about Hubler vs. Tinklenberg, I have no idea who is more likely to win. I am certain, however, that $500,000 is plenty for Tinklenberg to have going into the final stretch, so I feel that additional contributions to his campaign as of today will not yield the best bang for the buck.

I do not want to take anything away from him--I'm sure he's a good guy, and I am glad the netroots fundraising was so successful for him.

with whoever gave this comment a "1" rating.

This is not a trollish comment. This person raises valid questions.

that I really don't think Tinklenberg's media market is so expensive that $500K would be inadequate for the final two weeks.

If he'd had $500K dumped into his bank account two months ago, he'd probably have been able to use the money more effectively. There's only so much you can spend in the last two weeks.

He comes up with some amazingly offensive things to say.

One of my personal favorites was when he bragged about getting the House to scale back the SCHIP funding (State Children's Health Insurance Program) as a "key moment" for him:

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles /2008/06/29/news/local/0c6700f4b752aa838 62574770000a40d.txt

And he was one of only eleven members to vote no.  Later he showed up in Cedar Rapids and talked about New Orleans as he was touring flood damage there.  Allow me to share:

"This is Katrina," King said. "I have walked into and out of those buildings (in New Orleans), and I tell you, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference....I haven't yet absorbed the magnitude of what happened here," King said. "To do that, you've got to be on the ground and talk to real people."

Maybe Mooselini can tell him who those real people are.  But it takes some serious stones to say this after voting against emergency relief for Katrina victims.