OK, I suspect this will get shot down pretty quickly. But, let’s say we get through all the states and Puerto Rico and we still don’t have a Democratic candidate with enough delegates.

How about if after that, the Democratic Party allows Florida and Michigan to hold their primaries? That way, both candidates could compete and you could get the Democrats from those states back in the process. Maybe the primaries could be held as winner takes all states. Or even better, whomever gets more votes across both states wins the nomination. Wow, that would be an exciting night!

A couple of years ago, members of the local chapter of DFA in Flagstaff formed a 527 called DFA-Flagstaff. They have become an influential activist group in Northern Arizona. The group has had success with numerous events like screenings, festivals, voter registration drives, GOTV and radio ads. This group has now created and produced a series of voter education TV ads. You can view these three ads through YouTube.com: ad 1, ad 2 and ad 3 (or go to the group's web site to view higher resolution versions of the ad).

Poll and how you can help are below the fold.

(I Tivo'd the Monday Night Football game and it is currently half time. So, these impressions are based on the half time and don't include any of the pre-game festivities.)

I'm being driven crazy by the NFL and ESPN's attempt to portray New Orleans as a city that is once again shining. They keep talking about how happy everyone is that the team is back and how important the game is to the city. They keep talking about all the great things the NFL has done for New Orleans. It's a freaking stroke-fest! (More Inside)

Embattled Republican Representative Rick Renzi from Arizona CD-1 has already made the 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress list. Now, he has shown us exactly how much his vote costs, $26,000. Renzi is the only member of Arizona's congressional delegation not to back Arizonan John Shadegg for majority leader in favor of Roy Blunt.

Details past the fold...

Mike Caccioppoli is running for congress in Arizona CD-1 as a Democrat. Yesterday, he called for the immediate firing and arrest of Bill O'Reilly for O'Reilly's dangerous remarks made with regards to San Fransisco. Caccioppoli is correct, O'Reilly's comments are as dangerous as shouting fire in a crowded movie theatre. Caccioppoli's press release is below the fold:

It's been six months since the last time I did it and I feel so much better. Don't get me wrong, there still are days that I want to do it. But most days I feel so much better without it.

My addiction had become a problem. I wasn't proud of it. I would try and hide it from others. It started out as something I was just checking out. I heard people talking about it and thought I would give it a try. I thought it was different, interesting. I had no idea how easy it would be to get hooked.

Before I knew it, I was doing it once a day and then two or three times. I really didn't think it was a problem. I thought I could quit any time. But then I tried to quit. Wow, I was shocked. That's when I discovered the power of the habit.

Answers to what I was addicted to and how I stopped are below the fold.

I am the web developer for a Democratic Party county web site in Arizona. I am tasked with adding functionality that allows us to take online credit card contributions.

At this point, I have decided against setting up a merchant account in favor of using a third party service. The one I am considering is http://digitaldonation.net. Is anyone familiar with them or have some other recommendation? Do you have any other advice on this issue?

Thanks!

Have you noticed how each holiday is beginning to look more and more like the 4th of July? First it was Veterans Day. All the right, white and blue draped over everything. Then it was Memorial Day. I was shocked when I saw Target selling fireworks for that holiday. Isn't Memorial Day supposed to be something where you mourn for those who have lost their lives?

I happen to do some consulting work for a company that sells personalized stationary. This work gives me a sneak peak into upcoming holidays. And I can tell you that the next holiday that is about to go through patriotification is Christmas. I saw a card that has a flag-draped Christmas present that said something like giving you the gift of freedom. Another card has a Christmas tree decorated with American flags. What else will we see during Christmas? Certainly red, white and blue lights will decorate trees. Instead of luminarios will we see bottle rockets? Will Santa come dressed in combat fatigues? Will frosty's coal eyes get replaced by security cameras?

Don't know about you, but I'm sick of it. Care to rant along with me about your patriotic theming of Christmas and any other holidays?

OK, this might be a strange post and I may get pelted for it. But I feel like this is a community where one can go for help.

My local Kerry meetup group is planning an entry for Kerry in our 4th of July parade. This is a big event in an important swing state. We are taking a light approach and are planning on having a kazoo marching band. We also are going to have someone dressed up as Kerry flanked with two people dressed up as secret service agents. Should be a hoot!

Anyway, I need to find a Kerry mask that looks good as soon as possible. All I have found thus far is this one and it is hideous. Have you seen anything better?

(Side Note: If you read my previous entry on the AZ Nader recount and were wondering why I never posted further numbers, let me just say that I was contacted.<g>)

Kos is correct that volunteers are working in Phoenix this weekend to examine each of the names entered on Nader's petitions. I was given permission to blog the current numbers.

Total Number of Reviewed Petition Lines: 7618
Unregistered Names 3942
Party: Democrat 911
Party: Republican 1572
Party: Independent/Other 1151
Party: Libertarian 24  
Party: Green 18

The first thing to get excited about is the number of unregistered names. That is a very high number. But on further review some of those will be marked as OK as the name checks go deeper.

I think even more fascinating is the fact that almost twice as many republicans are trying to get Nader on the ballot. This cofirms what we have suspected, that the effort in Arizona to get Nader on the ballot is largely a spolier effort by the republicans.

If people are interested in these numbers, I will post again tomorrow. (That is if I don't get locked out before then.)

I have been told that they will be able to review all the signatures before the deadline passes. So how about heading over to the Arizona Democratic party web site and make a donation and tell them thanks for their effort this weekend!

I'm sure most of you have heard about TrueMajority's Pants on Fire float. I was lucky enough to have the float in my town. I hope posting about this isn't inappropriate but the week has been so hard a have a strong desire to share and vent.

The week started out fantastic. We had Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's here for the day. We had great press coverage and an excellent turnout. But then during the week we started driving the vehicle around town. Most responses were great but I'm shocked by some of what I feel are terrorist actions taken against us.

The first was when the vehicle was parked downtown in front of a theatre. Someone in a gold SUV drove past and shot with a paint gun 11 times at the float and driver. Then the most shocking event happened in the middle of the day at a busy stoplight. The driver was stopped for a red light when someone jumped out of a pick-up truck, ran up to the float and yanked a speaker that was attached to the float with a metal bracket. They broke the bracket, stole the speaker and sped away.

Now the house that had the float parked at it for one night has been egged two nights in a row. The last time was just two hours ago. Oh, and we also got pulled over by the police twice. I won't be sleeping well tonight. Sorry for the vent!

As if my log-in name didn't state it clearly, I live in Flagstaff, Arizona. A small TV market with a population of about 50K. In this state, we feel that we are one of the states that could go either way in the presidential election.

To help Kerry, we would like to possibly raise money and use our own money to run anti-Bush ads on our single TV station. We were thinking of running some of the MoveOn.org contest ads. But appending to them that the ad was paid for by local citizens.

Anyway, how could we as cheap as possible create an organization that could legally run these ads? Would we need to form a 527? Would we find ourselves priced out of the creation process because of legal fees? Any thoughts, ideas or stories to share?

Thanks!

Paul Babbitt the democrat running against the one-term republican in Arizona Congressional District 1, picked up an important endorsement yesterday. The AFL-CIO has formerly announced their endorsement and support of Paul Babbitt. The AFL-CIO promised in the coming weeks to be out there and start their battle for this seat that is definitely a pick-up opportunity.

You guys would be proud of the local former Dean now DFA meetup crowd. We represented about a third of the attendees and we hope to really make an impact on this election.

If you didn't catch it, on Tuesday, our first poll numbers were released. You can read my entry here. And for background information on this race, read my diaries.

The Social Research Laboratory at Northern Arizona University has released the first poll numbers for the congressional race between one-termer, rubber-stamping Republican Rick Renzi and the Democratic challenger Paul Babbitt. Overall, Rick Renzi holds a lead with 49% of the vote compared to 38% of the vote for Paul Babbitt and 12% undecided. (To read about the background of this race, please see my diaries.)

Although the horse-race numbers are not as good as I had hoped for our guy, reading through the full poll offers much to be optimistic about. The size of the congressional district is huge. It is bigger then any other district in the country where the state has more than one congressional district. That together with the fact that Paul Babbitt has yet to mobilize his force, combined with Renzi being out there all over the state, gives me great hope that Babbitt will be able to turn those numbers around.

That thought is backed up by the numbers. When respondents were asked to name Rick Renzi, their congressman, 71% could not. Yet, 75% of the respondents feel that they know "some" or "a lot" about Mr. Renzi. 85% of the respondents could not name Paul Babbitt as the Democratic candidate running for congress in this district. And 54% of respondents said they know "nothing at all" about Paul Babbitt. To me, these numbers speak of a very soft group of likely voters who have yet to tune in to this race at all. If the Babbitt campaign can raise enough money to get Paul known to the voters, I think that we can take this seat from the Republicans. So show your support for this congressional seat and send some money to Paul today. Please add 3 cents to your contributions so the campaign knows it is coming from the blog world.

More Numbers Inside.

The 1st congressional district in Arizona is one that we should all be watching closely this election year. The seat is help by a one-term republican in a district that has more Democrats then republicans. The challenger is a popular figure in the district and will not have to suffer through a damaging primary. (Read my diaries for more information about the campaign.)

According to the Arizona Daily Sun (go halfway down page), the first poll on this race is being conducted by NAU and the results of that poll will be released on April 13th. I hope to attend the announcement and bring the results to this space.

I expect at this point that the incumbent republican will have about a 5% lead. Even though he is not popular, his name is well known throughout the district. The district is huge with an area about the size of Illinois. So we greatly need contributions to the campaign to help the campaign get the message out throughout this large district. Please contribute before the end of the quarter and remember to add 3 cents so that they know the contribution is coming from blogs.

In Flagstaff, Arizona we had 36 attendees not counting the kids. It was a head-spinning meetup with so much going on. But it was also a strange mix of party regulars and the new grassroots movement. We had speakers talking about local races, clean elections, redistricting issues and I talked about our local congressional race.

We are forming a voter registration sub-comitee and a la Dean, at the end of the meeting we hand wrote letters to the redistricting comittee. Pretty empowering!

I've shared in my previous diaries information about the Arizona 1st congressional district. In this district democrats are in the majority, yet we are represented by a Bush rubber-stamping republican. The CD is new. This is only the second election for this seat and the challenger has a great chance of taking this seat from the republicans.

Internal polling by the Babbitt campaign indicates that the race is very tight but we greatly need your help. The republican has had Cheney and Rove already in Arizona fund-raising for him. So he will have a vast war-chest to skew the media coverage.

As the 3rd quarter is ending, please take a moment and donate a few dollars to Paul's campaign. It is very important that we show national donors in this quarter that this is a viable campaign and that we can compete with the republican's dollars. So please donate before the end of the month.

Last night, former Dean supporters and others gathered for the first ever Paul Babbitt for Congress meetup. For those of you who don't know, AZ1 is going to be a very competitive race. This is absolutely a seat that the democrats can pick up.

The seat was created in 2002 and a carpetbagger Republican came in from Virginia with all the help of the extreme right to take the seat. The Republican won in a district that has more Democrats than Republicans. The Republican won against a weak democratic candidate who had to go through a fracturing primary, who still only lost by 3%.

But this time around, we have a strong local candidate, Paul Babbitt. Paul has lived here all his life, has been the mayor of the largest city in the district, Flagstaff, as well as the County Supervisor for years. To learn more about Paul, please view my diaries.

I wish all of you could have been at the meetup last night. The enthusiasm for taking the seat was something you could see in the air. Twenty-two supporters showed up for the event and we are ready to write editorials, canvas, assist in rallies and do whatever it takes.

But we are going to have to compete with the Bush money machine. Cheney is coming to Phoenix, which is not even in this district, to raise money for the Republican incumbent. So we have the people, the ideas, the candidate and the opportunity but what we really need from progressives is a little money. Please take a moment to send whatever you can to Paul Babbitt's campaign by clicking here. And if you do donate, please add 3 cents to the donation, for example make $20 into $20.03, so that they know the contribution is coming from progressive blogs. Thank you so much for your time and let me know if you have any questions.