Our room is going to cost over $2000 for five nights, and it’s going to cost close to another grand to get to Philadelphia and back, especially factoring in meals and incidentals along the way. Since we can’t afford to spend that much money on this trip, I need to master the dark art of political fundraising.

Early yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon I received an email blast from Matt promoting his gofundme page. That amplified the nudge that Cathy delivered on Monday night to get my page set up this afternoon.

The process wasn’t much different than most other pseudo-social-media sites I’ve encountered. Fill in name, email, and other basic info; respond to the confirmation email and you have an account. There’s a place where you can choose your campaign’s URL (“obbie2dnc”). Before your campaign goes “live”, you’re asked to write a fundraising pitch and provide a photo.

Once it was set up, I sent out an email blast to the group:

Hi all…

Now that I’ve been elected as a Bernie delegate representing Wisconsin’s 3rd District, I must begin the uncomfortable process of groveling for money. I enjoy promoting and discussing the issues a lot more than fundraising, but until we can get Big Money out of politics….

https://www.gofundme.com/obbie2dnc

In the spirit of the Bernie campaign, if 100 people each donate $30, then we’re covered.

If by some miracle I raise more funds than my goal, the excess will be shared with other Bernie delegates from the 3rd CD.

Thanks a lot for all of your support.

That was sent out at about 1:20 this afternoon, and by 1:30 the first donation arrived. Thru the day they trickled in: $15 here, $27 there (nice touch!), and by the end of the day I had my first $100.

All right, only $2900 to go.