Yesterday's Netroots Call To Action Hits Mainstream Newspapers Today

Today's Los Angeles Times has a news article ("Web Activists Have a Plan For Democrats") by Ronald Brownstein, the paper's Washington Outlook columnist, in which he reports on the Netroots call to action I posted about yesterday. Brownstein reports about the comments of the MyDD users who participated in the action, as well as some quotes from Democratic Congressmembers staffers which sounded pretty similar to what I heard when I made my calls to all the Los Angeles area Congressmembers on the list: (Berman, Becerra, Schiff, Solis, Harman and Napolitano).

At Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)'s office I talked to a female staffer who said that he had flown thousands of miles and attended dozens of events for democratic congressional candidates all over the country. She also said that there were federal campaign donation laws and that Becerra had maxed out his contributions to many of these candidates. When I remarked that I was talking about a transfer of funds to the DCCC, for which there are no FEC limits she just reiterated her talking points that the Congressman had made significant contributions to many candidates around the country. I gave her my name and number and asked her to call me back with a more specific dollar mount of the Congressman DCCC transfer is known.

At Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-29)'s office I talked to a female staffer who seemed pretty excited about hearing from committed constituents. She asked if I had heard about the campaign from moveon.org. I told her, they are joining mydd.com in endorsing the call for safe Democrats to pitch in to help embattled candidates and stop hoarding their cash on hand. She said that Congressmember Schiff had given over $600,000 to Democratic candidates and although he had $1.4 million on hand as of September 30th he has given some of that to the DCCC and is planning on attending a big fundraiser this Thursday to support some Colorado congressional candidates and is planning on bringing "a big check." When pressed on the amount the Congressman would transfer to the DCCC, the staffer said that they didn't want to be held to any specific number but that the Congressman was making efforts to insure a Democratic House majority is elected in November.

Rep. Howard Berman (CA-28)'s office called me back (!) this afternoon and left a message:

"Hi this message is for [MadProfessah]. This is Bob in Congressmember Berman's campaign office. I got a message from you urging the Congressman to give 171,000 (30% of his campaign money) to the DCCC. I wanted to assure you are preaching to the choir. He is giving 225,000 to the D-Triple-C. He has raised another 185,000 for the D-Triple-C and he's still working. He has also raised and given another 170,000 to races around the country. He is also doing everything he can and giving everything he can to make sure the Democrats take back the Congress."

Looks like great media minds think alike, since the New York Times also has an article on this story in today's edition.