crossposted at DailyKos

Hopefully, you’re already on board supporting Debra Bowen as the next representative for the 36th Cong. District in California in the seat that Jane Harman quit from just a couple weeks ago.  (If you’re not yet familiar with Debra Bowen and why she’s worth supporting, take a look here: “Why Debra Bowen”) The Governor today set the election date May 17, just two short months from now.  (If no one gets over 50% of the votes cast, then the top two will go head-to-head in a July 12 election.)

This diary isn’t going to be asking you to donate to her campaign (although there’s an Actblue page for Kossacks to show support here).  Instead of asking you to give money – which, sadly, is a limited resource – I’m going to ask you to donate (in a way) something more valuable which paradoxically you may have an endless supply of:  Weekend Minutes!

For those of you with an internet connection and free weekend minutes, you can make phonebanking calls for Debra’s campaign without any cost to you.  Without coming up with any money to contribute or having to travel to get to this district, you can accomplish the same exact important work that volunteers are doing here locally by phonebanking from your home.  

Whereas Janice Hahn has a lot of the local political machinery behind her, Debra has connection with a wider grassroots and netroot community.  We made sure she got elected as Secretary of State, and her campaign is needing us to step up again for her.

I’ve done some phonebanking from the campaign office using the online system and it’s pretty simple to use since you don’t have to fumble with any papers – it’s all on your screen.  

So if you have an interest in helping out the campaign, an internet connection, and a phone that won’t cost you to make calls, please sign up as a virtual phonebanker for an hour or two each week.  Our contact person at the campaign office is Peter Berg who can be reached at 310-212-6792.  Let him know you are a netroots supporter of Debra’s and want to virtual phone bank and he’ll set you up with an account and you’ll be ready to call.  If you want to shoot me a message over DKos to let me know you’re doing calls, that would be great so we coordinate activities as a group signs on to get involved.  If there’s enough of us doing it, there’s a lot of potential to coordinate efforts with a scheduled DKos phonebank day and combine it with a fundraising drive.  

I’m not especially talented at coordinating something like this, so if you’d like to help out, it would be certainly appreciated, please chime in or send a message.  

I would also request that if you’re a Kossack for Debra Bowen, please rec the diary to send that message and/or chime in with a supportive word for Debra in the comments.  If you’re a supporter, let everyone know it!

(And if you’re local, come to Torrance and make calls from the campaign office, which is just down the street from the Red Car Brewery, which has fabulous beer for a post-phonebanking refreshment.)