Don’t Forget to Donate

If you’ll look to your left, you’ll see a banner supporting Wampum’s Mary Beth Williams for Maine state representative (campaign site here). Today, there’s an interesting profile of her candidacy, with a lengthy discussion of the role of blogs in campaigns this year, in the Portland Phoenix. (Atrios, Kos, and Stirling are quoted at length in the article.)

At one point, the reporter asks an interesting question:

… the question still bears asking: At what point does the nationalization of local races tip the scales of influence from a candidate’s flesh-and-blood constituents to her readers in the blogosphere? What happens to representative democracy if funding is decentralized to the point of every candidate raising more money from a diffuse virtual constituency than from the actual human beings in his or her district?

Great question. And there’s one easy way to learn the answer: click on the Mary Beth Williams banner to the left and donate (via PayPal). Angry Bear (the blog — Kash and I, that is) are matching up to $100, so don’t forget to give. Many small donations are better than a few big ones, so $5 and $10 should do the trick. End your contributions in .89 (e.g., $5.89 or $10.89) so Mary Beth can keep track of donations from Angry Bear readers.

AB