cash machine

As I write this we are two weeks shy of election day and friends, I both want it to be here and I want to savor every last day.  Yes, we’re tired.  Yes, the anticipation is low key killing us.  But also, it’s been a season full of meaning and learning and new friends and unfamiliar hazards and besides whatever will I do with myself after this is over?

But until then - the newsletter must go on. This one is about MONEY and I’m not even going to ASK YOU FOR ANY.

Way back in April, at a community event with other candidates, someone running for office (not city council) said “Money is the currency of our democracy”.

This person was on defense for accepting massive sums of out-of-state money so I suppose they had backed themselves into this particular corner. This statement, for them, amounted to a justification.  Money = Votes and they needed votes. Simple as that.

It was not long after hearing this that we started raising money for Lisa, as a team.  The small donor program is an incredible piece of policy and we have ZERO complaints, but it favors those with large local networks, and Lisa’s network is large but international.  Coming up with 250 verified individual Portland donors in a few months during a busy summer with 100 candidates in a race most people weren’t paying attention to was NOT EASY. Once we got the match, fundraising stopped being the focus of the campaign.

And so let’s talk about that whole money is the lifesblood thing, because generally yes, campaigns cost money.

And while you can certainly go check out this site to see what everyone is spending $ on, including us, here is a simple breakdown of where our money is going (not all is spent yet):

Big glossy mailers.  Those large format mailers assaulting your mailbox right now? They can cost upwards of 40k each. No judgment from us, but they didn’t seem worth the endless harassing of small donors we’d need to do to include them in our strategy.  

Hired fancy consultants.  Maybe we’re crazy or naive or both, but we opted for Lisa to present her authentic brilliant self, tell the truth (all the time), and not smooth out every edge and/or game every angle.  It’s not that we don’t sit around talking about strategy, (WE DO) it’s just that we opted not to farm those decisions out.  

Advertising on Meta or X.  Full transparency, there was, some, uh, debate about this one.  Early on, Lisa drew this redline and despite pressure from me and other staff and well, basically everyone, she held it.  Lisa believes that these platforms contributed to the undermining of our democracy in recent years.

I’m sharing all this because contrary to what others may think, we feel GOOD about the amount we raised and how efficiently we spent it despite the fact that our total raised relative to other candidates kept Lisa out of forums, and prevented some institutional actors from taking us seriously.  Their loss, in my honest opinion. 

And for the record, Lisa holding her line on Meta/X  advertising despite lots of outside pressure (and endless sh*t from me) because she won’t compromise her values just to get votes…this is a GOOD thing for an elected official. Something I’ve said from the very beginning when describing Lisa to friends and family and fellow activists, “even if we don’t 100% align on every issue it doesn’t matter because she’s incorruptible, and we need more of that.”

Maybe incorruptibility is a low bar these days, but I believe it’s more rare than we’s like to think.  Campaigns are HARD, the exposure can be excruciating, the stakes feel SO HIGH.  It’s easy to see why people backslide on their values; the opportunity to do so is perennial; the rewards are power and access.

Again, we’re not judging the fundraising champions out there, especially those people powered progressive campaigns led by Mitch, Candace, Angelita, Tiffany and others!  We ❤️ them too. We just want to offer a little transparency in order to push back on the whole money is the lifesblood thing, because we think there’s more to democracy (and campaigns) than cash.  It's that simple. - Jenn