I am still not in the full swing of things in regards to the newsletter since I am preparing for a conference next week and Jacob's birthday was this last week. I will say that in the NYC runoffs, the candidate I expected to win (John Liu) did win, and the candidate I hoped would win but didn't expect to win (Mark Green) lost. I will have endorsements for November soon. We sure have a lot of ground to cover in NYC elections, don't we?

Despite my lack of time, I am still keeping things fairly up to date here, complete with calenders, news articles, highlights of progressive candidates, etc. in many areas I cover. So keep reading and keep up the activism. It may not always seem this way, but things have been moving (slowly) in the right direction.

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Amazing. From a dKos diary penned by Rob Miller, the Democratic challenger of the heckling Congressman Joe Wilson:

Hello Kossacks! And thanks so much for your unbelievably generous support of my campaign:  together we've raised over $1 million in small contributions--in less than 48 hours. I honestly cannot believe what YOU have done, and I can't possibly let you know how grateful I am.

[...]

I served our country in Iraq--twice--because I believe that when your country comes knocking, there is no higher calling than service. It is the same reason I ran in 2008, when nobody gave me a chance, and I managed to get over 46% of the vote against an entrenched incumbent (while being outspent by more than 4:1). That was a higher % than our President got in my district.

So here I am running again in 2010. Just as determined to bring real representation--let's call it adult representation--to the people of my district, many of whom lack jobs, healthcare, and sadly, hope. Working together, we can change that.

Well over $800,000 of this total came through Act Blue in small contributions -- an average of $36.55 per donor at present -- from me, from you, and from thousands of other grassroots activists all around the country. And with the polling already showing Miller leading Wilson (though within the margin of error), it's hard to see how this isn't going to be one of the more competitive and interesting races of the 2010 cycle.

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Voters apparently aren't reacting well to Congressman Joe Wilson's shocking lack of decorum in attempting to shout down the President of the United States.

Wilson trails Democratic challenger Rob Miller 44-43 in a PPP survey conducted Thursday night and Friday morning. Last year Wilson defeated Miller 54-46.

62% of voters in SC-2 disapprove of Wilson's actions while just 29% think they were ok. By a 48-41 margin Republicans think what he did was fine, but independents are opposed to it by a 66/25 margin and Democrats are 84/10.

According to the survey, Barack Obama's approval rating now stands at 50 percent in the district -- a seeming bump from the 45 percent of the vote he garnered in the district in November 2008. While there is no telling whether these sentiments will last all the way until the next election day when Wilson will face the voters, it is clear that he is in some serious trouble with his constituents.

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Roughly 24 hours ago, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina took the unprecedented and despicable act of heckling the President of the United States. In the time since, Wilson's challenger Rob Miller has raised more than $600,000 from 17,000 supporters. This is the way our democracy is supposed to function -- thousands of Americans making their voices heard, rather than a small few in the crowd trying to shout down the voices of others. So kudos to those unwilling to back down in the face of the hecklers.

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In the time since the despicable heckling of the President by Republican Joe Wilson, the Congressman's 2010 opponent Rob Miller has been fundraising like gangbusters. When I first looked at his Act Blue page last night, he had pulled in a couple thousand dollars; at present, Miller has received $159,784 in contributions from 4,589 supporters -- a remarkable expression of grassroots disapprobation for Wilson's shocking lack of decorum. If you, too, want to make your voice heard, head over to Act Blue today and show your support for Rob Miller.

Update [2009-9-10 12:6:59 by Jonathan Singer]: In the few minutes since I posted this, Miller has pulled in another $50k.

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