Webathon: The week that was

Videmus Omnia has a webathon wrap-up posted at C4P. It describes how the effort got started, explains why the fundraising goal was set so high and rolls the credits. We have only a few things to add.

Conservatives for Palin is proud of the endeavor, and justifiably so. After all, C4P contributors did all of the planning and heavy lifting. Although the good folks involved in that site and this one don't always see eye to eye on everything, when they notified us of what they intended to do, there was never any question that we would lend a hand. We share the common mission of supporting Gov. Palin in whatever she chooses to do. As Team Sarah's Bill Collier posted:

"This is not about any one website. This is about helping Governor Palin, and at the end of the day, the story should be that many groups and websites rallied to help an honest and decent public servant."

Among those many websites, we want to give a shout out to our fellow Bloggers for Sarah Palin member sites which fully participated in the webathon. They are: Caffeinated Thoughts, House of Eratosthenes, Republican Catholics, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's Accomplishments, Texas for Sarah Palin, The Book of Sarah and The Spyglass.

The webathon has raised six figures worth of donations for the Alaska Fund Trust so far. There is still the remainder of this day for more contributions to come in. Many donors prefer to wait until the last day of a fundraising effort to make their contributions, so expect that thermometer to keep climbing. Considering that the maximum allowed contribution was only $150, that's some pretty good grassroots fund-raising. In just a matter of days, AFT should release the hard numbers on how much it has raised since the legal defense fund was organized at the end of April. No matter what the percentage of the total is that was raised by the dozens of bloggers who joined C4P in the webathon, they can all be proud of their efforts.

Update: With Sunday's contributions, the Webathon raised $115,585. That's over $16K a day. Not too bad, not at all.

- JP

Bloggers raise money for Palin defense fund

A coalition of bloggers is appealing to supporters of Gov. Sarah Palin for donations in a week-long effort to raise more than $500,000 to help her pay her legal bills.

Spearheaded by web site Conservatives4Palin, the bloggers launched their fundraising webathon Monday in a coordinated effort to help retire the Alaska governor's legal debts.

The webathon is using professional-quality videos which call the ethics complaints filed against the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate "petty politics and frivolous attacks" and a "thermometer" graphic that displays how close the bloggers are to reaching their goal.

The legal fund, called the Alaska Fund Trust was created in April to cover Governor Palin's expenses in defending herself against those allegations.

In a telephone interview with Anchorage television station KTUU Monday, Fund trustee Kristan Cole says the webathon is having an impact:

"Any time the governor is mentioned, the volume goes up tremendously and so the volume -- given this new information going out this morning, and the videos that are on the Web site -- we have seen the volume go up tremendously as we do anytime the governor is mentioned,"

According to the thermometer graphic displayed on the bloggers' websites, $54,645, or about 11 percent of their goal of $500,000, was raised on the first day.

"We are happy to help in any way that we can," Rebecca Mansour, one of the site's main contributors, said. "This is a completely grassroots effort. We are just trying to get the message out just to help them advertise."

Although Cole declined to say how much money has accumulated in the fund so far, she said the fund's first disclosure report, scheduled to be released next month, will reveal that information.

- JP

Ruin an ankle-biter's week: Join the Webathon!

Our friends at Conservatives4Palin are spearheading a grassroots effort to help Governor Sarah Palin retire the six-figure legal debt amassed while she was defending herself from a series of frivolous and politically-motivated bogus "ethics" complaints. Though all fourteen of the ankle-biter complaints have been dismissed, in the process of defending herself, Gov. Palin accrued well over half a million dollars in legal bills.

Sarah Palin has two fund-raising organizations. SarahPAC is her political action committee, and the Alaska Fund Trust (AFT) is the official legal defense fund set up for Alaska's governor and staff members named in complaints filed by her political opponents. While SarahPAC has received a great deal of media attention, AFT has not. What coverage it did receive only lasted for a few days and then tapered off. The legal debt remains and is actually still accumulating as her enemies look for new ways to hit her with even more of their frivolous complaints. Money cannot be legally transferred from SarahPAC to AFT, so it's up to Sarah's supporters to make some noise and raise some cash. This is a great opportunity for the grassroots movement behind Sarah Palin's popularity to flex its muscles.  

C4P decided to sponsor a Webathon from June 15 – 22, 2009, and other blogs and bloggers are joining with our "ordinary barbarian" colleagues to make it a success and give a big boost to AFT.  Simply follow the instructions in the "Grassroots Webathon" banner to the right. Please remember to report your donation so there will be an accurate account of how much the grassroots movement was able to contribute. If we can make a difference, it will demonstrate that there's no limit to what the grassroots can do. Even better, just imagine the look on the ankle-biters' faces when they realize that their campaign to take down Gov. Palin had the opposite effect and only made support for her stronger and better organized. Each person who joins the Webathon ruins another ankle-biter's week. Let's do it!

- JP