The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which backs Elizabeth Warren, Keith Ellison, Kara Eastman, and Cynthia Nixon, has also endorsed District 1 Senate candidate Allison Renville from Sisseton. Renville is one of 127 progressive candidates in state and local elections to win PCCC’s nod:
“Our 2018 Champions across the country are committed to solving big problems affecting their communities,” said Marissa Barrow, a spokesperson for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Selected for their bold vision, these candidates are highly capable leaders ready to make change” [Alison Renville for District 1 Senate, press release, 2018.05.31].
Renville is in a three-way primary against Rep. Susan Wismer of Britton and Thomas Bisek of New Effington. The winner next Tuesday becomes Senator, as Republicans fielded no Senate candidate in the strongly Democratic District 1.
It’s hard to say whether PCCC’s endorsement will affect the primary outcome. Their cash could: according to the campaign finance reports, the flow of campaign cash in the 3.5-county District 1 race has been pretty thin:
- Allison Renville: raised and spent $2,779.50 (pre-primary, filed May 21).
- Susan Wismer: raised $2,250 (supplemental report, May 29), spent zero (pre-primary, 5/16).
- Thomas Bisek: raised $1,810 (supplemental, May 29), spent $263.79 (pre-primary, May 21).
Of course, even if PCCC’s endorsement came with cash, it would be hard to turn that money into signs or print ads. At this stage, any infusion of cash would have to go for radio time (if Kristi, Marty, Dusty, Shantel, Neal, and Henry haven’t bought it all) or food and fuel for volunteers or paid staffers to call and knock and drive voters to the polls on Tuesday.
That endorsement is really too late to do any good. What was their point in waiting so long?
Who exactly is the PCCC?
Never mind. Googled it and remembered the story about Aaron Swartz.
Debbo, are the newspaper’s endorsements that come this week too late to do any good?
The primary is this coming Tuesday, right? So candidates only have a few days to make use of the endorsement. The endorsers ought to name names at least a couple weeks prior.
True: if a bear endorses me in the woods but no one hears it, did the endorsement really happen?
I guess newspaper endorsements just a few days before the election can have impact, because they go directly to a big audience. An endorsement from a PAC or any other non-media group needs some media push to matter—it’s got to be paired with some money to get the endorsement into the hands/heads of voters, whether through newspaper/radio ads, social media push, or postcards.