July 20, 2010

Manchin Mans Up

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West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, the most popular politician (and Democrat) in the state, is running for Senate, he announced Tuesday. He hopes to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd. Manchin is popular enough that he has a decent shot at winning the seat, even in a Republican year. West Virginia Republicans were able to add a provision to the special election law that would allow current officeholders—like Rep. Shelly Moore-Capito, the GOP’s top candidate—to run for their current office and the Senate seat simultaneously. Capito is the most prominent Republican in West Virginia, but even she trails Manchin in the polls—by fourteen points, according to Republican-leaning Rasmussen. 

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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