Organizing for America | John W in OC: Now it's time to get to work

Post from John W in OC:

Now it's time to get to work

By John W. - Nov 6th, 2008 at 6:48 pm EST

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After the rejoicing and the first good night's sleep in a long time, it's time to get to work, in oh so many ways.

As both John McCain and Barack Obama said in their speeches Tuesday night, it's time to come together as Americans and get to work on the problems facing our country. I'm really encouraged by the words of cooperation that are coming from the Bush administration to make this a smooth transition. The election is over, and it's time to put the bitter words behind us. We're not "fake" Americans or "real" Americans, we're all Americans. Let's get back to being neighbors, colleagues, and family... I'm thankful my family was all together in this campaign.

Second, as those of you who donated to the Obama/Biden campaign know already from Barack's email Tuesday night, the Obama/Biden administration will be calling on all of us to help rebuild our nation. For those of us who were incredulous when Bush told us to just go shopping while our troops deployed to Afghanistan, this is a welcome change. I don't know how we'll be asked to serve, but it may be as simple as the changes we were asked to make in California during our energy crisis: insulate, turn off lights when you're not in the room, install CFL lights. California cut 30% of its electrical use that summer without changing our quality of life.

For the many of us who have been working tirelessly to bring change to Washington, it's time to focus on our business, time to get back to producing the products and services that are at the heart of our economy. It's time to get back to our community organizations and our churches. It's time to get back to training our dogs.

But for those who can help, there remains work to be done for this year's election. While the Presidential election is over (aside from a little counting in Nebraska, North Carolina and Missouri) there are still a few Congressional races in play.

The Georgia Senate seat currently held by Saxby Chambliss will be going to a runoff on December 2, and the Jim Martin campaign is going to need all the help it can get to beat Saxby. Without Obama on the ticket, the turnout will likely be lower in the runoff election, so Martin will need every bit of help possible. Chambliss is the epitome of the Bush/Rove style of politics (he won office in 2002 by painting the triple-amputee Vietnam Veteran Max Cleland as a terrorist and coward). If you have $10 to spare, would you consider sending a few dollars to help Martin win?

Donate at ActBlue

Up in Alaska Mark Begich is waiting for the remaining ballots to be counted in his Senate race against convicted felon/incumbent Ted Stevens. In Alaska, there's real urgency because state law requires that all ballots be counted within 10 days of the election. His staff are working hard to make sure that every box of ballots is counted, and as of last night the vote counts were suspiciously low. His team definitely needs help... if I wasn't so drained, I'd be flying to Anchorage tonight. Here again, they could use a few spare dollars.

In Minnesota, they're still counting ballots and there is less than a 500 vote gap in the Senate race. Al Franken will be involved in an automatic recount for the Senate seat currently held by Tom Coleman. His campaign staff didn't get to go home yesterday - they're still keeping up the press presence, so that Coleman can't make it look like he has won. While this is no longer the Al Franken Decade (for those old-school SNL fans), they could still use some help.

And then there are two house races involved in close counts. In Washington's 8th congressional district, Darcy Burner is within a few hundred votes with over a quarter-million votes to count. And here in California, Charlie Brown looks like he can take the 4th CD from Tom McClintock. Both of them need to keep their offices open a few extra weeks, and any little donation would help.

ActBlue is a donation aggregation service - you can make a donation of just $10 and spread it across these five candidates. Diane and I used them to support many races across the country - and have a fridge full of thank you cards from the campaigns.

Donate at ActBlue

As Barack said, "Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."

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