Since this is my first post here, let me introduce myself. My name is Ben, and I'm a UPenn grad student living here in Philadelphia. I worked as a DNC fundraiser (along with Anne Dicker, who I'm writing about) and as a MoveOn organizer (with Ray Murphy who seems to post regularly on this site) back in 2004. Since then, I've taken something of a political hiatus before volunteering for Anne's campaign this past week. I have a LiveJournal, but it's read mostly by Minnesotan friends of mine, so I'm posting this here.

I haven't worked or volunteered on a winning campaign in almost ten years, so I hardly remember the winning feeling, but I think I left our "victory party" Tuesday night feeling it. I was excited and enthusiastic and ready to go lit-drop a neighborhood then and there. By beating one machine candidate and coming a few hundred votes away from another, we showed that hard-working, committed, progressive volunteers could be a force to be reckoned with in this city. When Mike goes to Harrisburg, he'll have to know that we can beat him in a two-way race, and I hope that'll make him receptive to progressive lobbying. Vince Fumo has gone from a kingmaker to a last-place-finish-maker. Progressives who voted for Terry because she "had a better chance of beating Mike" should be feeling fairly foolish right now, and hopefully they won't vote strategically in a close three-way race again.

More below...