lessons learned

Lesson Learned During Spring Break #1: I’m still waiting on my techno-utopia. Wireless internet access, while now readily available, doesn’t help much when trying to post through a recalcitrant Blogger. And there’s little that is more frustrating then writing up a long post on a thumbnail-sized PDA screen and then having the entire thing disappear into the void when Blogger crashes.

Lesson Learned During Spring Break #2: I still have my non-technological musical utopia. If only something could be done about the traffic, South by Southwest week in Austin would showcase a perfect world. Music everywhere, all kinds, all day long. Cosmopolitan liberal internationalism in Texas: sitting in an Irish pub on St. Patrick’s Day next to a band from Iceland. Bumper stickers, signs and sidewalk rants expressing non-wingnut opinions. If only something could be done about the traffic.

Lesson Learned During Spring Break #3: Judging from the attendance at the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico, many citizens are willing to entertain the notion that the government has participated in a Big Lie for fifty years. Question: Why are so many of those same citizens afraid to face the actual reality that the Emperor W is without a doubt lying to them about everything?

SPACEDARK

OK folks SPEAK UP!

PTS is going to call and try to interview those running for mayor.

This is your chance to give us a question to ask 'em.

Just click "Comments" below and submit.

Or, you can email: panhandletruthsquad@yahoo.com

________________________

Dunno about you, but I have FRIGGIN' HAD IT with the 24-7 Terry Schiavo stuff, so just keep one thought in mind while listening to the main strean media and the Rethugs bloviate. . .

Shrub signed a bill as Gov kicking a 6-year old, whose mother was poor, off of life support.
CLICK HERE to read all about it.

Letter to the editor anyone? john.kanelis@amarillo.com

-Prodigal Son

Hold on there Mayoral Candidate

PTS is going to interview the mayoral candidates.

Click "comments" below and submit some questions that you would think would be good.

-Panhandle Truth Squad

Aargh!!!!

More on this in the regular Monday column, but today the Texas House of Representatives passed HB3, Speaker Craddick's tax deform law, by a vote of 73-68. All but one Dem voted against, though there are actually 2 villains. Again, more on that later. The major negative feature of the bill is that it raises the state sales tax by 1%. This is a very regressive tax that hits the poorest hardest because low and middle income people spend a much greater proportion of their income on taxable items than do wealthy people.

In exchange, the cap on school district property taxes will be lowered to $1 per hundred valuation. If your school district is already maxed out, this will lower your school district property tax by 1/3. If your district isn't at the maximum, though, the benefit will be less. Again, the largest benefit of this change will go to those with high-value property.

Beyond that, as a result of HB2, the school finance law that passed the House last week, the schools get virtually no new money (and it may soon be net negative because of inflation and new mandates). According to Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston), HB2 will very likely be altered in the Senate. Meanwhile, please call the offices of Rep. John Smithee (R-Amarillo, 372-3327), Rep. David Swinford (R-Dumas, 374-8787) and Sen. Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo, 374-8994). Note both Smithee and Swinford supported HB2. Seliger has yet to vote on it. Please do not be rude, but tell them you do not support this change in tax policy, and that you plan to vote on this issue at the next election. Leaving your name is optional. If they give you a reason for their vote or any other response, please share it with us.

DEMOPHOENIX

Better and Better

A quick heads-up PTS'ers. We have switched to haloscan for our comments.

It is now MUCHO easier to comment on posts, and on that note let's test it out!

Yesterday, I proposed that we interview Matt Darby for Mayor. Demophoenix had an even greater point as did Iman. . .

We should interview ALL the candidates, and we need some ideas for questions so click "Comments" below and let us know what to ask these guys when we call.

-Prodigal Son

March 19

We have all seen the bumper sticker: "Think globally, act locally." This week is an opportunity to do just that. Saturday, March 19 will be the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This is a time for reflection upon what has transpired in the past two years and, regardless how we came to this point, what the prospects are for the future. First, let's do some global thinking.

Today, everyone can agree on some things. First, the reasons the government originally presented for the war were not true. Second, while the invasion itself was a military success, the occupation has been a quagmire in which we are unable to even identify the insurgents, and most analysts believe that our occupation is increasing insurgent numbers. Third, we have now lost over 1,500 U.S. service personnel, and the rate of loss is greater today than it was in the months immediately following invasion. Fourth, the Iraqi people have indicated a desire for some kind of self-governance, and indicated this with a strong turnout in the recent election. Fifth, Saddam Hussein is in prison, and most Iraqis consider this a good thing. The unknowns include the ability of the Iraqis to defend themselves from the insurgents without outside assistance, the nature of the government they are trying to create, and the stability of the multiethnic state of Iraq within its present borders once we depart.

I assert that there is no longer any legitimate question about whether or not we need to leave. Everyone is in agreement on this. The only remaining questions are (1) how soon should we leave and (2) what is necessary to permit withdrawal? Some believe that nothing is necessary, as the Iraqis are able to manage their own affairs, so that the time for withdrawal should be now. Others believe that, having broken the country, we have a responsibility to give the Iraqis every opportunity to develop their own security structure before we turn it over to them. Certainly, if we believe the comments made by almost all of the Iraqi leadership (both the interim government and the leading groups from the election), they do not want an immediate U.S. withdrawal. On the other hand, even if that opinion is given both credence and authority, surely there must be some limit to our occupation, and surely the success of any successor Iraqi government depends in the first place upon its independent ability to maintain security. So, at the outside, the length of our stay depends only upon the length of time required for sufficient development of Iraqi security forces.

Some might insist that part of our mission is to assure that the successor government is democratic and not antagonistic to the West. But this is foolish. We can insist all we want, but if there is no internal will to have that kind of government, it would quickly fall following our eventual withdrawal and lengthening our stay will only increase resistance. Similarly, we have no way to assure that the current state of Iraq will be cohesive enough to survive. So, we are left only with the issue of internal security. Let's say that recruiting, training and equipping of Iraqi forces should require somewhere between 6 months and, at most, 2 years. Why should we not state today, publicly, that we will be gone in no more than 2 years (and hopefully considerably less)? The objection that a date certain will provide the insurgents with a target that they can just wait for shouldn't make a difference, because by that time the Iraqi forces will be fully capable of handling that. If, given such a deadline, the Iraqis cannot defend themselves, it would be either because we were incompetent trainers, or they were unwilling trainees, and in either case success is unlikely no matter how long we remained. If the Iraqi government is able to find replacements for our troops in an interim peace-keeping role, for example from other Muslim states, then there could be a much more rapid U.S. withdrawal. So, the worst case scenario regarding our continued occupation is that we stay 2 years, and there is no reason not to announce that now.

Regardless which withdrawal plan outlined above you endorse, the time has come to clearly tell our government that they need to commit to withdrawal. This brings us to our local action. The Panhandle Peace Coalition is a group of local citizens committed to ending the Iraqi adventure. This group is sponsoring several activities you should participate in (again, no matter which withdrawal plan you favor). First, on the eve of the anniversary, Friday, March 18, you are asked to visit Congressman Mac Thornberry's office, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 906 S. Filmore, Suite 520. Please sign the guest book and spend a few minutes politely telling the staff why we need to initiate a withdrawal plan from Iraq, and which plan you favor. You might want to inquire as to what plan the Congressman favors. Second, the group is sponsoring the "Question War" film series, on the second floor of the main library every Sunday (except Easter), from 2-5 p.m. The film this Sunday, March 20, is Rumsfeld's War, a PBS Frontline documentary. Following the film there will be a discussion. That evening, a procession will depart from the library to local churches affiliated with national organizations that have publicly issued statements opposing the war. Those statements will be read aloud at each church. You are welcome to participate in all of these events.

DEMOPHOENIX

Matt Darby for Mayor 2005!

Why? Because of this type of crapola from the AGN's ghost editorialist. Running a mayor's race shouldn't be a bad joke

Specifically this smarmy comment, "A young man is running a write-in campaign as a publicity stunt for a low-powered AM radio station. He doesn't deserve anyone's attention, let alone his or her vote."

Really? I guess we should just go ahead and vote for the candidate the AGN wants like good little unquestioning wasps . . .

Just me boolsheeting around here, but maybe we NEED to support this guy as a write in, interview him for PTS, etc.

Sisemore was not exactly a brain trust, (eh, Spacedark?) and the AGN endorsed him. Was he a more serious candidate?

Dunno about you, but I think it is about time we put up a speedbump to these "Hey lemming you should vote for this person because we are all good white Christian Republicans in Amarillo living in the 1950's and you should know that ignore Dustin camp and besides we know what is best don't question us ever we love established WASPS from the Amarillo Country Club" Automatic Mayoral Candidates or AMC's

Anyone wanna find out what Matt Darby is about? Ask him about his positions on the usual and post his responses to you under "Comments"

Matt Darby KPUR 107.1
P: 806-342-5200 ask for Matt.
E: m.darby@cumulusama.com

-Prodigal Son

Pulling Your Lege

Following the decisions of the enormous PTS meetup this week (kudos to Spacedark for organizing), I'm pleased to initiate a weekly column regarding the Texas legislature. I'm not sure this will continue to be weekly when the Lege is out of session, but we'll see. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive summary each week, but rather a special take on one or a few related issues of relevance to the Panhandle (or whatever has my hair on fire). This will appear on Mondays.

Molly Ivins has often said (and I believe this is originally a Ronny Dugger quote) "No man's life, liberty or property is safe while the Texas legislature is in session." Every two years, the fine ladies and gentlemen we send to Austin gather and attempt to outdo the previous session in proving Molly right. The current gathering of the tribes is certainly no exception. The attempts of the former bomb throwers among the Regressive Republicans to provide some facsimile of governance has them twisting themselves into rhetorical pretzels trying to be antigovernment when they are the government. As an aside, for those who don't know, I'm on a one-person crusade to reframe the R's (a la George Lakoff) by calling them regressive, a much more accurate and conveniently less popular term than 'conservative', and urging you to do likewise.

The list of possible topics for this column is truly overwhelming. Should we discuss HB 2, the school finance bill that just passed the House? Well, yes, but I'll do that another day. How about HB 3, the tax deform bill that is particularly laughable coming from the party that never met a tax cut it didn't like? Very tempting, but again, I'm going to have to come back to that. Charles Kiker has given us a great summary of some of the criminal justice legislation and I hope he will update us as needed on the progress of those bills. What I want to do in this space today is to focus on several bills that relate to election reform.

A lot of folks have worked really hard over the past 4 years on the national level, since the dread Florida fiasco, to improve our elections systems and restore the faith of our citizenry in their accuracy and integrity. If you don't know a lot of what's gone on, I refer you to verifiedvoting.org and blackboxvoting.org, two really great sources for information and action opportunities. Although BushCorp fought it all the way, Congress did finally pass something called HAVA (Help America Vote Act) in 2002. In addition to providing money for states to "upgrade" their election equipment, HAVA requires that voters be able to verify their ballots before they are cast and counted, that all voting machines provide a "permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity" and that the voter must be given the "opportunity to change the ballot or correct any error before the permanent paper is produced." Senator John Ensign (R-NV), who contributed the audit requirements now incorporated into HAVA, explains that the intent of the provision was to provide a voter-verifiable paper trail. However, many proponents of touch screen voting systems are claiming that the HAVA requirement does not mean the system must allow the voter to verify the paper record. This led us to a situation in 2004 where many citizens cast their ballots on touch-screen machines bought with HAVA funds, but that produced no paper record for the voter to see. Numerous instances of machine malfunctions were reported, almost all of which benefitted one George W. Bush. Hmmmm.

So what can be done to see to it we are not slipping into a permanent state of banana republicanism, to coin a phrase? The effort is ongoing at the national level, where several members of Congress, including Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), along with Sens. Boxer (D-CA) and Clinton (D-NY) are leading the charge. A somewhat more modest, but still useful bill is backed by Sen. Ensign. All of these propose to amend HAVA to make its original intent crystal clear, and all require, among other things, that all voting machines have a paper readout that constitutes the official ballot. At the same time, state legislatures, including Texas, are still struggling with implementing the original HAVA legislation, in order to access the HAVA money.

Most Texas Panhandle counties utilize optical scan technology, which generally meets most of the requirements already, so why should we worry? Three reasons. First, if Texas gains access to the HAVA funds, counties could opt to "upgrade" to touchscreen machines, and then we'd have the same problems as many other jurisdictions. But, second, even if our machines never change, we still have to live in the same state with a lot of voters using touchscreen machines, and it's in our interest to see that those votes are properly recorded as well. And, third, even if the election recording devices (the optical scan machines) are ok, there is ample opportunity for hackery (all senses of the word apply) of the county central tabulating computers that compile all the results from each precinct, so there needs to be additional controls on those machines, including making the source code (programming) public, so that any changes could be detected.

So, what's the Lege up to? At this writing, four bills have been introduced regarding election machines, HB 166 (Pena and Hochberg), HB 1289 (Leibowitz), HB 2259 (Baxter) and SB 94 (Shapleigh). All of them require what is advertised as a "voter-verifiable paper trail". HB 166 and SB 94 are companion bills with identical wording. The key is that none of the bills makes the paper record the official ballot. This is important for purposes of a recount, since any "recount" using an electronic device without a paper record is a sham. HB 1289 and HB 2259 both solve that problem, making the paper record superior for recount purposes. But none of the bills solves the biggest problems, in that any errors, whether malicious or not, cannot be discovered unless an election is close enough to demand a recount, and none of the bills deals with the issues surrounding private companies owning the source codes either for the recording machines or the central tabulating computers. The kicker: all of the authors except Baxter are Democrats. The good news is that we can influence them. Write to Reps. Pena, Hochberg and Leibowitz and Sen. Shapleigh and tell them to alter their bills to conform to the principles of verifiedvoting.org, and preferably to conform to Rep. Holt's legislation. Without that we can get fancy new machines that Bolivia would be real proud of.

The Lege is also up to mischief regarding voting requirements. Following the lead of national Regressive Republicans, they have introduced bills to require additional forms of identification, even for voters who have their registration certificates with them (HB 516, Brown; HB 1293, Nixon; HB 1293, Kolkhorst; HB 1706, Denny; HB 2309, Denny). Essentially, all of these are Jim Crow light and should be fought tooth and nail.

At the same time, there are some bills we can support. HB 899 (Alonzo) would allow voters who are unable to find their correct voting location to vote at a central location (believe it or not, this was one of the problems in Ohio, where the Secretary of State ruled, after the fact, that votes not cast at the correct location were not to be counted; that after numerous incidents of voters being misled or not helped by county election officials). HB 963 (Gattis) would allow a voter to vote on election day even though they had requested an absentee ballot by signing a statement that the mail-in ballot was not received. HB 1382 (Jones) would require counties to inform any citizen when they were removed from the voter rolls for any reason. HB 2073 (Alonzo) would allow same day registration and voting(!). HB 1555 (Alonzo) includes a variety of protections for minority voters.

So, maybe Molly Ivins had it right. The Lege is not a place for the faint of heart. But the point of this exercise isn't to whine and encourage y'all to cry in your beer. The folks we elect, even the ones with the R's behind their names, do respond when they hear from constituents. Sometimes, it even counts when they vote on legislation. Click here for a directory of state legislators and their addresses and phone numbers and use it.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."--Theodore Roosevelt

DEMOPHOENIX

Kiker: bills before the legislature

From Charles W. Kiker:

Patricia and I recently spent 8 days in Austin lobbying in the legislature and networking with like-minded or similarly minded people there. We were in Austin as representatives of Friends of Justice of Tulia and in cooperation and coordination with ACLU of Texas. . .

More of Charles Kiker's account of lobbying & networking on the flip side:

methinks the police chief doth protest too much

Grits for Breakfast fact-checks Canyon Police Chief Bobby Griffin's "claims" of innocence against the statistics of racial profiling as measured by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.

pts meetup tonight!

Don't forget . . .

7:30 pm
Starbucks in Wolfin Village

See you there!

fun with city politics

Our favorite newspaper wants us all to know that one of the mayoral candidates isn't really taking the race all that seriously. Apparently Matt Darby, a local "on-air personality" (really, was the term disc jockey so stigmatizing?)

filed Monday as a write-in candidate for Amarillo mayor simply as a gimmick to get attention for his radio station.

That's fine with us; in fact it gives me someone to vote for. (Oh, come on. One thrown away vote won't hurt anything. You don't think the mayor of Amarillo actually does anything, do you? I mean, Trent-effing-Sisemore handled the job.)

But some folks seem to think Matt is walking on thin ice, given that he works at a radio station. Former JP and broadcaster (and we do mean broadcaster, heh, heh) Phil Woodall sez

I think the FCC rules must apply. There's probably a provision that if he continues to be on the air and still continues to be a candidate, then the radio station runs a very big risk of having to allow equal time.

Well, sure, Phil, but, uh, you not only ran a serious candidacy, but actually won, right?

Panhandle Truth Squad is going to come out in favor of letting Matt have his fun. I mean, what's this world coming to if we can't make a mockery of democracy?

SPACEDARK

expatriotic games

It's an open secret that the founding member and individual most responsible for getting this blog going no longer lives in the Panhandle. Prodigal Son is a Texas expatriot currently residing in South Carolina, and he promises to soon launch the South Carolina Truth Squad. While we're eagerly awaiting that, here's a lovely little quote from a South Carolina Republican called Lindsey Graham:

"We don't do Lincoln Day dinners in South Carolina. It's nothing personal, but it takes awhile to get over things."

Oh, my. I think that speaks for itself, don't you?

But, amazingly, some progressives are lining up to defend Senator Graham, most notably the formerly sane Steve Gilliard. Here's what Gilliard has to say about that ugliness:

Graham, who isn't known for playing the race card, is being unfairly attacked. He's not talking about slavery, but the burning of the state capital, Columbia, in 1865. Without context, it sounds horribly racist, but what people don't widely realize is that Sherman's march to the Sea didn't end at Savannah, but continued well into the Carolinas and ended at New Bern, NC in April, 1865. In fact, Sherman's Army of the Tennessee destroyed far more in South Carolina than Georgia. And this is what Graham is talking about. Not some longing for slaves.

And, you know what? About being unfair to Republicans? Don't care. At all. Got bigger fish to fry.

Gilliard drools and scratches himself and tries to convince the orderly that it's time for his next dose of lithium; then he adds:

. . . Union troops were far from unhappy to see Columbia ablaze, since they blamed the state for starting the war. No one in my family was all that upset about it, but I do see Graham's point. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to apologize for, because every South Carolinian knows he's talking about Sherman's March and not slavery.

Hmph. Now I know I ain't no Steve-Gilliard-Daily-Kos-alumnus-- but I am an alum of a graduate course in pre-Civil War history from the ivy-covered halls of West Texas A&M. Okay, them halls are covered with tumbleweeds, but I'm still pretty sure that I know this: South Carolina did start the Civil War.

Even while bending over backwards to kiss Republican hindquarters, Steve Gilliard ought to be able to see the obvious. Even if South Carolina had some legitimate grievance over having their slave-owning, war-mongering state burned to cinders, it wouldn't justify a modern Senator's treasonous comments about a venerated United States president who was tragically assassinated by a supporter of the South.

As I write the last sentence, my inner straw man leaps to his feet, outraged: Treason? he shrieks. Well, now you're being really unfair, Spacedark. You're calling Graham the same vile names you get mad about Republicans calling y'all.

Well, yeah, but I have truth on my side, dude. South Carolina belonged to a confederacy which was waging active war-- not to mention unleashing terrorism before, after, and during the "unpleasantness"-- to overthrow the United States government. The bottom line is that supporters of Civil War-era South Carolina sympathize with an enemy state. And (all together now) what's the definition of treason?

So, what you think, Prodigal? We still buds?

SPACEDARK

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

In the Amarillo Globe-News' new "Satire" section, the Ghostly Voice says this:

President Bush tried like the dickens to soothe relations with European leaders angry at the U.S. decision to take down Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

What's that you say? The Ghostly Voice doesn't joke? You mean they were serious???

SPACEDARK

Call To Action: Bankruptcy Bill

Call your Senator and demand that they oppose this abominable bill. Inform them that this has gotten little public debate and they shold vote against cloture.

Senate switchboard:(202) 224-3121

AMMO:
Ask whomever answers . . .

-Why are senators going after seniors with huge medical bills? This credit card bailout is especially hard on elderly Americans, who are bankrupted by huge medical bills with increasing frequency.

-Why can't the senator support our troops and their families by allowing them to declare bankruptcy if they are medically and financially busted after serving in Iraq?

-Why are senators allowing multi-millionaires to shield their assets but not average families? Under the bill, the very wealthy would be able to shield millions in assets after declaring bankruptcy by setting up "asset protection trusts." Sen. Chuck Schumer has lamented "now we have a bill that says a family won't be protected if it has $50,000, but it will if it has $5 million.

And please call Joe Biden and tell Senator MBNA to kiss his presidential aspirations goodbye.
202-224-5042

-PTS

FACTOID:
The credit card industry raked in $30 billion in profits last year, some of which is clearly being spent to grease the palms of Washington politicians. Bankruptcy hasn't hurt the credit card companies one iota.

Revolution Starts Now

Every tuesday there will be a new dog in the fight against republican lies and deceit.

DemsTV

Check 'em out at noon eastern time today. More on them CLICK HERE

-Panhandle Truth Squad

upcoming

Remember the PTS meetup!

Thursday, March 10
7:30 pm
Starbucks in Wolfin Village

See you there!

burning down the house

Y'all will remember recent postings regarding the Bush administration's plans to viciously destroy Talent Search and Upward Bound-- educational social programs that enable low-income and first-generation students to attend college and enter the middle class.

The Significant Other is currently attending a conference on these programs in Austin. And I'll be posting a lot more about them when she returns. But, for now, I wanted to comment on two comments made by two different academics in two different contexts.

Dr. Arnold Mitchum, President of the nonprofit Council for Opportunity in Education, raised hell-fire and brimstone in his keynote speech at the Austin conference. Mitchum commented that some advisors

say they just want to work with the kids and not get involved in politics.

But the time for such compartmentalism is past. This administration is determined to destroy the educational system As We Know It. So Mitchum concluded:

It is now imperative to get involved with politics; you cannot just work with the kids.

Another academic sees a similar line in the sand in the bankruptcy bill currently hurtling through Congress. Elizabeth Warren, said this (via Atrios) about the bill:

I never wanted to get involved in politics, but the bankruptcy bill now moving on a fast-track through Congress isn’t fair.

Obviously there's a pattern here. The academic liberal mind, trained to see both sides and hence existing above politics, tends not to want to get involved. At least not involved in a door-knocking, phone-calling sense. We want to do the real work. We just want to "work with the kids." Leave the politics to politicians.

But we no longer have that option. If we leave politics to the politicians of this selfish greedhead administration, we will end up with a politics for the politicians alone. The rest of us will be left to shiver in the cold.

And the academic ivory towers will provide no warmth, no solace; for this administration is chopping the invory towers down. If we don't come down from those towers to fight-- now-- there will be nothing left to fight for.

SPACEDARK

Haley Barbour Says He's Against Privatization

Arch-Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is apparently suddenly against privatization. On ABC-TV News on Friday he said, "State money cain't be given to private institutions no matter how good its intentions." I can't find a link, but I double-checked the quote using TiVo, and I'm pretty sure Haley said "cain't".

He was speaking, of course, of his attempt to steal $20 million of tobacco settlement money now going annually to a Mississippi anti-smoking program. He allegedly wants to use the money to shore up the state's Medicaid program, but who knows what nefarious purposes he really has in mind for the money?

The issue, as always with these Republicans, is hypocrisy. Haley Barbour says "cain't be given to private institutions" while advocating the use of private prisons and private jobs programs. And does "cain't be given to private institutions" mean that Haley Barbour is going to fight his buddy George's risky Social Security piratization scheme?

Haley Barbour's duplicitous stance on privatization needs to be highlighted by Democrats.

SPACEDARK

What a Gal!

If you thought Elaine King Miller ran a good race, just take a look at this. (I found it on Harvey Kronberg's quorom report.com, click on Daily Buzz and scroll down to March 1st-"TOP 500 CANDIDATE/OFFICEHOLDER-RELATED PACS IN TEXAS" Link). In the top 500, Kelton was 12th, raising $991,441.00! Elaine was 471st, with a total of $20,393.00. Elaine did an outstanding job on limited resources, and showed us what we need to do - have an outstanding candidate and then GOTV (Get Out The Vote!)

The Liberalator