"Texroots" rolls out first endorsements

[PDittie]

(If you use this link, I'll get credit for your help. That means bragging rights only, but will also show everyone the *ahem* power of DU.)

Texas Progressive Alliance Launches ‘TexRoots’ Fundraising Initiative
Blogs, Bloggers Unite To Raise Funds For Texas Democratic Candidates



The Texas Progressive Alliance today launched ‘TexRoots,’ an online fund-raising campaign designed raise funds for Democratic candidates in Texas via the internet. The launch of ‘TexRoots’ is the first major coordinated fund-raising effort by Texas blogs of its kind.

The Alliance, a group of weblogs and weblog writers united to promote Democratic and progressive candidates and causes, launched ‘TexRoots’ (which works with the nationally-recognized fund-raising tools of ActBlue.com) Monday with solicitations for three Texas candidates: Hank Gilbert, candidate for Agriculture Commissioner, Juan Garcia, candidate for Texas House of Representatives in District 32, and Shane Sklar, candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Congressional District 14.

The candidates were selected by the more than 20 member blogs of the Alliance and comprise the first set of what is likely to be as many as five groups of candidates solicited for prior to the November general election. Candidates selected for this and future TexRoots solicitations were picked after a number of factors were considered including the strength of the candidates and their Republican opponents, the candidate’s use of the internet and blogging, and the demographics of the districts of the candidates.

“This first group of candidates comprises a good cross-section of regions, ideologies, and ballot races,” said Anna Brosovic of Arlington, founder of the Alliance and author of Annatopia.com. “We have a statewide candidate, a congressional candidate, and a candidate for Texas House of Representatives which we believe are worthy of the intention of the Netroots,” Brosovic continued.

“These particular candidates range from a career military officer trying to upset one of the state’s most entrenched, out-of-touch Republicans in the Texas Legislature to a conservative Democrat opposing the only Congressman in Texas to vote against Hurricane Katrina aide, to a former high school agriculture teacher opposing one of the Trans-Texas Corridor’s greatest allies. It is really a diverse group,” said Karl-Thomas Musselman of Austin, another founding member of the Alliance and owner of BurntOrangeReport.com.

TexRoots came into being earlier this summer, when the Alliance’s member blogs launched a fund-raising drive to activate ActBlue in Texas. After raising $5,000 for this effort, the bloggers have worked behind the scenes for several weeks in anticipation of today’s announcement.

“We are pleased that we have been able to raise the funds necessary to activate this important fund-raising tool. Netroots money has made the difference between merely being competitive and winning in races all across the country, including here in Texas. We are pleased that, through TexRoots, we can do our part to ensure Netroots support and funding for many of our Texas’ Democratic candidates,” said Charles Kuffner, a Houston blogger who writes OffTheKuff.com and is another founding member of the Alliance.

TexRoots follows a formula similar to the popular Netroots Candidates fund raising solicitations launched earlier this year by national blogs such as DailyKos and MyDD. However, TexRoots focuses only on Texas candidates.

Solicitations are made by individual bloggers at Alliance member blogs. Typically, member blogs will put up a post discussing the candidates and inviting readers to contribute to fund-raising efforts online. More than 20 Texas bloggers from the Rio Grande Valley and Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth and East Texas participated in Monday’s launch.

The Texas Progressive Alliance post aggregator (all posts by members) is here.

A list of TPA blogs:

The Agonist
Annatopia
Bay Area Houston
Brains & Eggs
Burnt Orange Report
Capitol Annex
Casual Soap Box
Common Sense
Corked Bats
District Sixer
Dos Centavos
Eye on Williamson County
Greg's Opinion
In The Pink Texas
The Jeffersonian
HoustonDemocrats.com
Just Another Blog
Kuff's World
McBlogger
Marc's Miscellany
MindSpeak
Musings
North Texas Liberal
Off The Kuff
People's Republic of Seabrook
Pink Dome
The Red State
Refinish69
South Texas Chisme
Texas KOS
Truth Serum
Wyld Card
Half Empty
View From 22

[theredstate]

1. I gave but

I used my http://www.actblue.com/page/texroots?refcode=theredstate">link. :P

[PDittie]

2. You are hereby authorized to do that

but nobody else is.

:P back atcha

[PDittie]

3. More about Hank and Shane and Juan:

Shane Sklar is running for Congress in Texas' CD14. His opponent, 19th Century Republican Ron Paul, has voted against hurricane disaster relief for his Gulf Coast district, believes that only 5% of African-Americans have sensible opinions, and wants to eliminate Social Security. The Lone Star Project recently wrote the following about Sklar and Paul:

Shane Sklar has put together a professional campaign team and quickly built an impressive profile as an unapologetic conservative Democrat, with real world experience in agriculture, business and in government. He displays in-depth knowledge of the district, an eagerness to be an “advocate congressman” and an astute understanding of how difficult a task he has undertaken. These qualities contrast nicely with Paul, who has earned his reputation as an elderly, obstinate ideologue more concerned with tilting at personal ideological windmills than responding to District needs.

Hank Gilbert is running for Commissioner of Agriculture against Republican Todd Staples. Hank is an incredible statewide candidate who knows the issues and, even better, knows what needs to be done to address and solve those issues. Burnt Orange Report described him in the following way:

Hank's the kind of guy you talk to at a feed store, or on a skeet shoot, or on a cattle drive. Not that I've ever been any of those places -- but I've seen movies, and I can imagine. What I know outside of the movies, though, are the issues that matter -- how droughts are affecting our farmers, how the quality of food I buy at the grocery store is determined by regulations overseen and fought at the Commissioner's level, and how the Trans-Texas Corridor is preparing to destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of irreplacable Texas farmland...

He's natural. He's authentic. He's a real Texan with real concerns about our state and its people, and he's not about to let politics get in the way of imporant public policy. Hank Gilbert is pure Texas -- and he's ready to be our next Commissioner of Agriculture.

Juan Garcia is running against Republican incumbent Gene Seaman for the Texas House in HD 32. The race is one of the most closely watched in Texas, and is one often cited as one that could turn Democrat in November. As BOR reported in July, Seaman has already lost numerous supporters to Garcia, who raised over $200k during the last reporting cycle. As the local paper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times recently reported in a well-researched article about the race in HD-32:

Democrat Juan Garcia has raised more than twice as much money as Republican incumbent state Rep. Gene Seaman since January.

"He is probably going to be a serious contender," Nueces County Republican Party Chairman Mike Bertuzzi said.