Why We Need Your Help Now, Not Later

You may be wondering why you have been receiving all of these solicitations on December 31, 2013, when the next election date is November 4, 2014. Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I can tell you why I'm asking for your help today. I'm asking because our campaign starts next week.

I admit that we do things a little differently from most candidates. One very successful elected official once gave me this advice: "Do nothing but fundraising until the last month before the election, and then spend everything on 30-second ads."

That's not the way that we do it. We call voters. We knock on doors. We collect petition signatures. We hand out campaign literature. We sign up absentee voters. We help people get to the polls.

And it all starts next week. The first week of January.

In Florida, you can buy your way onto a Congressional ballot, for around $10,000. Or you can collect several thousand voter petitions. In each of my last three House races, my opponent wrote a check to get on the ballot. We, in contrast, collected the necessary voter signatures. And then doubled that amount. Because every signature to put you on the ballot is a sure vote in November.

Last time, we started sending out our door-to-door campaign canvassers in March. This time, we're not waiting until March. It takes a long, long time to reach out to 700,000 people individually. We're sending out our folks starting next week, when the weather in Orlando is cooler, and there are more voters at home.

If we reach out to our voters in January, February and March, it doesn't matter what kind of stupid nonsense the Koch Brothers try to stick in their ears in October. They're ours.

So I could tell you that our Federal Election Commission fundraising period ends tonight, and we have to show good numbers to strike fear into the hearts of our opponents, and . . . whatever. But that's not what I'm saying to you. I'm saying that we need your help now, because:

It's Showtime. Our campaign is about to begin.

And now you may understand why we have been emphasizing monthly contributions as much as we have. We love our volunteers, but we can't get many volunteers to slog through 90-degree heat in Orlando in mid-August. We pay our full-time canvassers. And we're not going to have to pay them only in January. We're going to have to pay them each month between now and the 2014 election. The campaign needs you to pay us, so that we can pay them. Starting next week.

Let's put this in perspective. Think of all of the times that you've seen a filthy negative ad on TV, and said to yourself, "God, I hate that type of campaigning." Well, here is one campaign that reaches out to the voters, eye-to-eye, hand-to-hand, just like candidates used to.

We need your help – and we deserve it. Please contribute today, and make it monthly if you can.

Let's show all those other suckers how it's done.

Courage,

Rep. Alan Grayson