Today, BlogPac is thrilled to announce our first endorsement in the Blue to Bluer campaign: Paul Newell for New York State Assembly. Newell is running against New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the Democratic primary, which will take place on September, so we will have a lot of time to grow familiar with Paul, and work on this campaign. You can visit Paul's website here.

Throughout Blue to Bluer, BlogPac will be relying on local bloggers for their insight. In the case of this campaign, here is the nomination I received from Phillip Anderson of The Albany Project:

Every two years, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) releases it's "red to blue" list of top challengers for Republican-held U.S. House seats.

Five years ago, starting with his Presidential campaign and continuing with his tenure as DNC chair, Howard Dean introduced the idea of a "fifty state strategy" to the Democratic Party. The basic premise of the fifty-state strategy is that in order to truly revitalize the party Democrats needed to organize everywhere in the country, no matter how red or how blue a district may be, and not just in a select few "swing district" districts.

Last night, CNN’s John King had the following to say about media reports of delegate counts:

"I think the best thing for us to do as analysts going forward is take the super delegates out of the equation for a moment. They might matter hugely at the end. But over the next several days and weeks, just look at pledged delegates, because that is what the elder statesmen of the Democratic Party will be looking at. And he is beginning to open up a lead there."

Now, on the front page of CNN’s Election Center website, for the first time pledged delegate totals are shown separately from the overall delegate totals. Victory! Thanks CNN! Most of all, thank you BlogPac members, since all of this is almost precisely how 655 of you requested that CNN report delegate counts back on Friday. It might seem small, but winning is still fun. Sign up for BlogPac’s email list at Blogpac.com, and join in the fun.

Regardless of who you support in the race for President, in a race as important as this one for the Democratic nomination, the media owes us a fair and accurate reporting of vote totals, including delegate totals. It's highly likely that unelected superdelegates will end up choosing the Democratic Party nominee, so how they are treated in media coverage is especially sensitive.

It's important that media outlets distinguish between pledged delegates, who are chosen by voters and caucus goers, and so-called superdelegates, who are unelected and independent. A pledged delegate is someone representing voters and caucus-goers and they will vote for the candidate for whom they were elected to vote. A super delegate can make their own decision, and change their mind. John Lewis just did so today, changing his vote (but not his endorsement) from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

Blogpac-supported candidate Donna Edwards defeated Congressman Al Wynn in Maryland's fourth Congressional district on February 12, due to an unprecedented collaborative effort between the netroots and the progressive movement.

Congratulations everyone!

Problems with the Democrats? Oh yeah, you've got them.

They seem to need to be begged to do the right thing, over and over again. They leave us wondering if they believe in what they said they cared about when they were in the minority. What's up with that?

It seems that Congress still acts as if there are conservative supermajorities in both chambers. As someone who did my part and gave 'til it hurt in 2006 to wrest power from congressional Republicans, it feels like a hit to the gut. You probably know exactly what I mean.

One of the many reasons (and by reasons, I mean Democrats who don't deserve the name) for our collective unease is Rep. Dan Lipinski. Look at what Down With Tyranny said about Lipinski, representing the safe, blue, 3rd District of Illinois. The guy is:

This print ad is running in the Georgia Democrat's home town paper.

Contribute to BlogPac Now, and Build Progressive Infrastructure

Five weeks ago, BlogPac put out a call to "find the five best new, grassroots progressive infrastructure projects in America, and provide those projects with the money, exposure, and connections necessary to get off the ground." Originally, I had scheduled the announcement of the winners for the contest on Thursday, August 2nd. However, due to the sheer volume of submissions, over 100, and to the high quality of many of those submissions, it took us a much longer time to reach a decision than I had originally envisioned.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the BlogPac Infrastructure Contest selection process is virtually finished,  and the announcement post is virtually written. While I had promised an announcement of the winners today, I have to wait to tie down a few remaining loose ends, including final legal approval for all of the grants the judges have selected.  Until that comes, and two other loose ends are tied down, I am unable to make the public announcement. But, at this point, we are 99.9% done. I expect to make the announcement tomorrow before noon. This is entirely my fault, and I apologize for the delay.  I have a tendency to sign on for more work than I can finish on deadlines that I have promised, and this is another case of that happening.