ActBlue — A Few Technologists in Washington

A Few Technologists in Washington

by stomv

2
Supporters 810
Raised $
Distributed among the recipients below

The candidates below are all doing something interesting related to science and technology, and you might find their stories particularly interesting. Few of these races are expected to be “down-to-the-wire”, but by financing the technological good guys, we’re reminding the rest of Congress that there is a big picture in technology, and it’s not necessarily the Sony flat screen showing Disney movies streamed over Comcast broadband.
If you know of any candidates working extra hard for good technology policy, please let me know.

Jerry McNerney

CA-11 (Map)

Jerry McNerney knocked off seven term incumbent Richard Pombo 53-47 in California’s only district to elect a challenger. McNerney’s tech connection: he’s a Ph.D. engineer who’s spent the last 20 years working on wind power. Dr. McNerney doesn’t just appreciate and advocate for good technology—he’s spent a lifetime developing it and working with it directly!
It’s expected that the GOP will spend quite a bit of money in the next two years trying to take back CA-11 by eliminating this scientist from the House. Help McNerney stick around for a while.

Raised on this page: 0 0
Raised across ActBlue: 793 32,010

Rick Boucher

VA-09 (Map)

Update:
Rep Boucher was reelected with relative ease. It is expected that he and Rep Zofgren will continue to work for good technology legislation.

Incumbent Rep. Rick Boucher is the House’s geek rock star. He advocates fair use, fought against the anti-P2P legislation, and constantly battles against the DMCA, spam, and the erosion of civil rights and liberties in cyberspace. He’s even guest blogged for Lawrence Lessig. His district includes Virginia Tech.

Raised on this page: 0 0
Raised across ActBlue: 2 105

Zoe Lofgren

CA-16 (Map)

Update::
Zoe Lofgren was reelected, and is expected to continue her work on fair intellectual property legislation, aided by a Democratic majority in the House.

Rep. Lofgren is on this list at the (indirect) recommendation of Professor Lawrence Lessig. I asked him for more recommendations, and he pointed me to IPac, a political action committee “dedicated to preserving individual freedom through balanced intellectual property policy.” Therefore, Zoe Lofgren is the intellectual property representative of this list.

Raised on this page: 0 0
Raised across ActBlue: 1 1

Deval Patrick

MA-Gov

Update:
Deval Patrick won the race. Having just moved into the corner office, it remains to be seen if his campaign support for Cape Wind will translate into support getting the project in the air.

Technology isn’t just 1s and 0s. Deval Patrick makes the Technologists list because he’s supporting the Cape Wind Project off the coast of Cape Cod, MA. This project would use wind turbines to generate enough electricity to power 70% of the needs of Cape Cod, but has generated opposition because seemingly tiny masts would be visible on the horizon on clear days, “marring” the view from million dollar vacation homes.
Deval Patrick understands that technology can be used to help keep America’s environment clean, reduce energy prices, and help free energy supply from the grasp of foreign nations.

Raised on this page: 0 0
Raised across ActBlue: 0 0

This election has ended.

Pete Ashdown

UT-Sen (Map)

Update:
Tough to run as a progressive in Utah. Pete Ashdown ran a decent campaign, and helped to bring a smidge of attention to copyright issues.

In 1993 Pete Ashdown formed XMission, Utah’s oldest ISP. He’s on this Technologists list because, unlike incumbent Hatch, Ashdown really ‘gets’ copyright.
On his website he writes: Congressional extensions on copyright have been repeatedly pushed by interested businesses to the point where the public interest is damaged. Copyright should protect artists and creators when they take action to request it. Instead, it is abused to the point that innovation is held back and very little falls into the public domain.
The public has an interest in seeing works move into the public domain after a reasonable period has passed for commercial gain. Abandoned and orphaned works should default into the public domain instead of being locked up indefinitely. (source)

Raised on this page: 0 0
Raised across ActBlue: 55 1,276

This election has ended.

Russ Feingold

WI-Sen (Map)

Update:
Senator Russ Feingold successfully defended his seat, winning by 12 points. He will surely continue his work to undo the problematic parts of the PATRIOT Act.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D) will defend his seat against Republican Tim Michels. As the only senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act, he gets a listing here. Feingold’s vote reminds us that responsible use of technology includes not using new electronic capabilities to violate civil liberties.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
—Benjamin Franklin

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This election has ended.

Total: 00,000