A Personal Message from Jim Babka
First, I want to express profound gratitude to the 253 persons who directly responded to our appeal for funds last Friday. We raised more money from this request than any other in the past two years. Thank you!
This support saved us from having to make severe cutbacks. As a result, all of our projects are moving forward, and you’ll see the fruits of this work soon. In fact . . .
This Dispatch reports major good news about one of those projects.
All the work we’re doing this month, including the progress I’m about to share with you, has been funded by less than 2% of the subscribers to this Dispatch. Most important among this group are our monthly pledgers. If you’d like to count yourself among our sponsors, you can make a contribution, or start a monthly pledge, on our secure contribution form.
We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Progress . . .
We aren’t surprised that incumbent office holders aren’t rushing to adopt the Downsize DC Agenda. They love their power, and each of our measures places a restriction on that power. Even so . . .
Our relentless pressure is working! We’ve already forced the Incumbents to respond to us by offering up phony, watered-down alternatives. But much more is possible . . .
There are many ways, as yet untapped, for us to apply increased pressure, without necessarily exerting more effort. For instance . . .
We can persuade challengers to use our ideas to whip incumbents.
Challengers are easier to reach, and more open to persuasion. They are . . .
* hungry for support, not complacent
* less tainted by internal corruption
* and they still dream of making a difference
We’ve already announced that Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate, Rand Paul, has agreed to sponsor all six of our bills. Look for video titled, “Rand Paul & DownsizeDC.org” on Page 3 of his Video Gallery,
* The Read the Bills Act
* The One Subject at a Time Act
* The Write the Laws Act
* The Enumerated Powers Act
* The Fiscal Responsibility Act
* The Free Competition in Currency Act
But Dr. Rand Paul was only the beginning. I recently met with two more great challengers. Both . . .
* have raised more than $100,000 in their respective races
* are medical doctors
* have May 4th primaries
These candidates happen to be Republicans. That’s not important to us. Candidates of all parties are encouraged to sponsor the Downsize DC Agenda. Let’s meet these two candidates . . .
Candidate #1: B.J. Lawson
Dr. Lawson attended Duke University. After earning his engineering and medical degrees, B.J. started a successful, Durham-based, software company, Mercury MD.
Lawson is favored to win the 4th District primary.
Subscribers to the Downsizer-Dispatch may remember his 2008 campaign. Despite incredible Democrat turnout he still scored the largest percentage of any Republican challenger in that district’s modern history! But . . .
Barack Obama also had long coattails in that election. The reverse is true this year. It will be an anti-Obama, and anti-Democrat election, just as 2008 was an anti-Bush, and anti-Republican year. B.J. should benefit from this change.
His campaign has passed out tens of thousands of copies of the Constitution, and will continue to do so through November. In addition, he has inspired other candidates to promote our Downsize DC Agenda, just like he does.
Candidate #2: James Taylor
Dr. Taylor is a practicing anesthesiologist. He earned chemistry and medical degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has formed three corporations in his field.
James is running in the 6th District primary against a vulnerable incumbent. There are multiple candidates. To win a North Carolina primary, a candidate must capture at least 40% of the vote, or go into a run-off. James is hoping to force a run-off, which he believes he can win. Since the district is solidly Republican, the primary is the main event of the election season.
James is a Ron Paul fan who volunteered for BJ Lawson’s 2008 campaign. I passed one of his billboards on I-40, after I left our meeting. He says he’s gets an enthusiastic response when he presents the Read the Bills Act and the One Subject at a Time Act to the voters in his district.
Even More Challengers
This is only the beginning. In fact, we’re already hearing from many other challengers who want to promote our bills. Most of them have little chance to win, but their voices can still have an impact. These challengers will help us increase the pressure! And . . .
We’re hard at work on software tools that will empower you to make this happen in your community, starting with . . .
A Challenger’s Web Page
Each candidate who contacts us and completes the necessary form, or candidate video, will earn the privilege of appearing on this web page.
You’ll be able to scroll and check, by state and district, which candidates for Senate and House, respectively, have sworn to introduce, or co-sponsor, our Downsize DC Agenda.
This page will require some web design, database creation, and modest programming to make the system simple to update and maintain. We also have to assign a staff person to manage this project.
The most effective way you can help us build this new web page, along with other powerful new tools that we have in the works, is by starting a monthly pledge. If you’re curious about how we fund ourselves, consider these details . . .
* Pledges can be as modest as $3 per month.
* The average pledge is $15/mo.
* We have several DC Downsizers pledging $50/mo.
* One person is pledging $250/mo.
Pledgers make visionary planning possible.
But to pursue this project to completion, and to pay expenses not covered by our loyal pledgers, we need to raise close to $2,000. That means we need one-time donors as well.
Once again, every amount counts!
But one of the two most frequent comments we get from donors is, “I wish I could do more, but…” You might be in a position to do “the more” that these other donors cannot. If so, we ask you to consider giving $2,000 or $1,000 or $500.
If you haven’t yet contributed this month, please help us build this and other high leverage tools.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.