To my friends in the Kos community: I know you care about electing progressives, and I care about electing progressives, so that's why I am ringing this alarm bell. No one is fired up to vote on November 4th, turnout could be a record low and I’m getting hit by a massive independent expenditure in my campaign for State Senate. One wealthy conservative is trying to buy the election for my opponent. In a race that is going to come down to just a few votes, big money may decide this race. Here is how the L.A. Times recently covered the race:
In the state Senate race for California's 26th District...a single donor has spent more than $1 million trying to elect Allen. That's considerably more than all of Allen's other supporters combined, and it's nearly as much as Fluke has raised in total, from about 5,000 individual contributors.
The donor is Bill Bloomfield, a wealthy businessman and Republican-turned-Independent who last made political waves two years ago with his self-financed effort to defeat Rep. Henry Waxman.
But his support for Allen, an attorney and member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board, is in a whole different category, both for the overall amount of money he's put into the race and for the proportion of the campaign's total spending that it represents. And he's not letting up: Over the course of two days last week, Bloomfield spent more than $139,000 on Allen's behalf.
And the LA Weekly also weighed in:
Ben Allen and Sandra Fluke are running a hotly contested campaign for the 26th State Senate district, which covers much of West L.A., Santa Monica, and the South Bay. But so far, both of their campaigns have been outspent by one man: Bill Bloomfield.
Bloomfield, a retired businessman, has spent nearly $1.3 million* supporting Allen, including $710,000* in the last month.
*Numbers updated to reflect an additional $140,000 since the post was written.
Yeah – the same day the reporter wrote a story about how much money this mega-donor has spent on my opponent, he made
another six-figure donation to my opponent.
The Daily Kos community has been amazing and with me every step of the way: since Rush Limbaugh attacked me two years ago, when I spoke at the DNC, when I made it through my primary earlier this year, and when I moved on to the general election. We can absolutely win this, but I need your support to get there. Will you to stand with me one more time? Can you donate $5, $25, whatever you can TODAY?
I know it is easier to be fired up when it’s a presidential year, and I know this is going to be a tough year for Democrats across the country. But it is on us to be our own champions. If we get demoralized, if we stay home, we will lose. I’m doing my part to take our progressive values into office, but I need you to stand with me.