Introducing the ActBlue Campaign Newswire

ActBlue is launching a new service today for journalists and bloggers.

We’re launching the Campaign Newswire in response to repeated requests from members of the media and the blogging community to share with a broader public some of the trends we see here in the course of our work with more than 3000 campaigns.

Journalists often come to us looking for the ‘next big story’ in politics, and campaigns often tell us they like the free media that follows from our quarterly stats posts. The Campaign Newswire is an effort to serve both the journalistic and campaign communities, and we hope it will be helpful to all.

Beginning next week, we’ll release a report each Tuesday with an insider’s look at statistics from campaigns across the country and up and down the ballot, featuring the week's top ten campaigns. We've put up a preview today, for your weekend reading!

We invite you to subscribe to the Campaign Newswire RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/ActBlueCampaignNewswire.

We hope this service is useful to you. We’re eager to hear your suggestions for how to make what we’re doing more helpful to you and others.

Please write to us with any feedback, big or small, at press AT actblue.com, or call us at (617) 517. 7602. We’d love to hear from you.

Introducing Melissa!

So, we've been quiet here for awhile.  The last post on the ActBlue blog was an announcement that we're hiring.  Well I'm pleased to announce that ActBlue has now hired.  Soon we'll introduce all of our new staff, but as the resident blogger I figure I'd show my colleagues how it's done by posting my own introduction.

My name is Melissa Ryan and I'm the new Netroots Coordinator here at ActBlue.  My job is to reach out to bloggers and the netroots community.  You'll be hearing a lot from me on the ActBlue blog and maybe your favorite political blogs too, particularly state specific political blogs.  I now have accounts on each of the 50 state network blogs where I look forward to contributing to the discussions.

Previously I blogged at Connecticut Local Politics & MyDD.  I've been a volunteer for my local Democratic party and campaigns including serving on my local Democratic Town Committee and most recently organizing pub quiz blograisers for CT-04 challenger Jim Himes.  Before politics took over my life I worked in the museum field.  I have a degree from the Mannes College of Music in voice. 

Monday marks the return of Stats Week.  We'll provide an overview of 2007 for ActBlue.  It's also a way to highlight the work of everyone who contributed or raised funds through their own pages last year. 

I look forward to working at ActBlue, especially since 2008 promises to be such an exciting year for Democrats nationwide.  In the meantime if you have a question or just want to say hello, drop me a line at melissa@actblue.com.

Introducing Christine!

Hi! I am Christine Khaikin, the newest member of the ActBlue Team. I want to take this chance to introduce myself and let you know how I can help you now that I am part of ActBlue! I am so excited to be here, working with this great group of people to get Democrats elected. I graduated from Emerson College in May with degrees in political communications and media studies. I care a lot about progressive politics, and a lot about technology in democracy and I am so lucky to be combining those passions while working at ActBlue.

I am here to help people use ActBlue to raise the most money they can for the candidates they care about. I'm going to be working a lot with California, Oregon, Iowa and Texas and hopefully other Western States. If you are from one of those states and you need help with your ActBlue fundraising, or you want to start raising money through ActBlue please e-mail me. I can't say enough what a pleasure it is to be a part of the ActBlue team and to work for democrats around the country.

If you need help with anything, or you just want to say hi, e-mail me at christine@actblue.com

ActBlue Now Acting Green

As a partisan Democratic outfit, we at ActBlue are aware of the science behind Global Climate Change. We also recognize that as we grow as an organization, we'll naturally consume more resources and energy.

As such, we're trying to do our part as we fix up our office to reduce our consumption. Today, we got in our first shipment of dimmable CFL bulbs. Running at 23 watts (equivalent to a 90 watt incandescent bulb) these new lights have six time the lifespan with one fourth of the energy usage and will pay themselves off in energy savings in just under a year.

We're not changing our name to ActGreen but at least we can do so in practice around the office.

Above, ActBlue's President Benjamin Rahn inspecting the latest CFL shipment.

ActBlue Moving to New Offices

Last month when ActBlue turned 3 years old, I made this remark.

# of months until ActBlue outgrows its 600 sq foot office: 1 (that's over $40,000/sq.ft. of productivity!)

Tomorrow, we're moving! With over 7 people (or more when people visit) in one place, we're happy to be moving down the street to a larger space. The walls got some fresh paint (rocky mountain blue to be specific) though furniture is sparse.

More space for more hires for more productivity means that we at ActBlue will be able to better (and more comfortably) serve Democrats across the country.

Below are some pictures of us moving out of our old space. 

3 Great Numbers ($25 Million is one of them)

1) $25 Million - the total on the front page which ActBlue passed last Friday. And to think it was only late March when we passed $20 Million.

2) 176 - the total number of campaigns and committees we disbursed checks to this week.

3) $7 - the sum of our winnings in bar dollars after placing 2nd in Trivia Night at the Thirsty Ear Pub. This comes after placing 6th with only a skeleton crew last week so watch out YearlyKos...we've been practicing.

We'll leave it up to you to ponder which of these numbers most excites the ActBlue Team...

Half a Foot of Checks

It's a full week after our End of Quarter checks went out but we still had a huge stack to distribute. Below I've posted a picture of the 160 checks going out to campaigns across the country that received money in the last week. That's half a foot of Democratic money!

P.S. Do you like our Smart Woman ruler?