MoveOn, a giant in the progressive political world and an early endorser of Barack Obama in 2008, warns that it might have to “pull the plug” on key campaigns to help Obama and Senate Democrats if its 7 million members don’t pony up with at least $5.
Without a rush of new cash, MoveOn says it will have to give up efforts to elect Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, help the recall fight against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and energize younger voters who’ve soured on Washington.
“It's like picking which of your kids you love the most. I just can't do it,” said MoveOn in an email plea. “If we can’t increase our budget, we might have to dramatically scale back or pull the plug on some of MoveOn’s most important election efforts this year.”
The homepage of MoveOn, which helped organize the 2004 anti-war movement, includes a “chip in” button preset at $8.
Don’t discount the importance of MoveOn to keeping the Democrats in charge of the Senate and Obama in office, said the email, which provided a little history of the successes of the group:
“MoveOn has an incredible track record in past elections—when we take on a campaign, we get results.
“In 2008, MoveOn was one of the first groups to endorse President Obama, and we then recruited 1 million volunteers who went door to door, made phone calls, and helped provide the surge of grassroots support necessary to elect Obama.
“In 2006, before anyone else was even talking about it, we announced plans to take back Congress from the Republicans. We made over 7 million phone calls to occasional voters to help fuel the Democratic takeover of Congress.
“And in 2004 we organized a neighborhood get-out-the-vote program that knocked on over 4.6 million doors in 10,000 swing-state precincts.
“If we can finish this quarter with a bang, that will give us enough confidence to go forward with campaigns that we'd otherwise have to cut right now.”
