February 6, 2008

Arkansas Goes for Favorite Son, Daughter

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WASHINGTON D.C. — MSNBC took just one minute after polls closed in Arkansas to call the state for Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side and Mike Huckabee on the Republican one.

Now would be a good time to remind folks that “winning” means different things in the Democratic and Republican races. On the Republican side, winning a state usually (but not always) means taking all of that state’s delegates. That’s because the Republican Party has embraced winner-take-all rules. On the Democratic side, however, winning a state means little because delegates are awarded proportionally at the district and state levels.

For more on this, see my primer on delegates and how they work.

And while we’re on the South, here’s a note on the evangelical vote nationwide. According to exit polls, 33 percent of evangelicals went for Huckabee, 31 percent went for Romney, and 30 percent went for McCain. No romp for Huckabee among that demographic today.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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