Lest we forget, next week not only brings us the long awaited Iowa caucuses but it also marks the end of the year and, with that, the end of the fundraising quarter. Many campaigns are no doubt inundating your inboxes with fundraising asks and I hope you'll consider supporting one or more of our many excellent candidates running next year. I wanted to draw your attention to just one of them.

As I've been home in Connecticut for the holidays, I was lucky enough to meet CT-04 Democratic challenger, Jim Himes, who we all hope will be sending Chris Shays, aka the last Republican left in New England, packing in November. I definitely left the meeting impressed with Himes and excited that we can finally defeat the faux moderate right-wing enabler Shays.

To give you just a sense of the challenger we have in Jim Himes, go check out his liveblog over at FDL from earlier today. An excerpt from his post:

I came across Rockwell's "Freedoms" paintings some time ago, and I was struck by "Freedom from Fear". The paintings, of course, were based on Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms". Fredom from Fear . . . imagine! The administration has used fear--fear of attack, fear of people who look, pray or think differently, fear of immigrants, fear of change--for so long that it's now part of the background noise. I was in Bridgeport for a meeting with community activists a few weeks ago, and a burly African American man stood up to talk passionately about the fear he feels, the sense that government has devoted itself not to giving people like him a leg up or a catch should he fall, but to the narrow interests of people who really don't need its help.

I think a big part of distilling the progressive message in the face of universally bungled government will consist of taking seriously the notion of Freedom from Fear, and addressing the anxiety I sense around my district by pointing out that government once not only protected the vulnerable and the needy, but did great ambitious things that benefited all of us.

Amen!

The Himes campaign is looking to reach 500 Q4 contributors by the end of the quarter Monday night. Can you give him some love at his ActBlue page and help put him over the top? Also can't hurt to join the Himes For Congress Facebook page to keep plugged into what is sure to be one of the top tier congressional races of 2008.

What other candidates are you contributing to this quarter? Let us know in the comments with links.

[editor's note, by Todd Beeton]I should have been more specific, their goal is 500 contributions for the 4th quarter by midnight Monday. As of this update they have 456, let's help them over the top at ActBlue.