Hi everyone. I'm writing today to announce the kickoff of a 2-week fundraiser here at MyDD to help sustain our efforts through the primaries, the conventions and November 4th.

Over the last year, and in recent weeks in particular, we've been trying to enhance the quality of this site by increasing the on-the-ground reporting around the country. As you might have noticed, we've been spending more time traveling -- Todd and I have been in New Hampshire and Nevada and elsewhere -- to try to offer the best electoral coverage we can. In the coming weeks, too, we have plans to continue this trend, with reporting from not only Super Tuesday states but also from other key nominating contests from coast-to-coast.

We've also been offering coverage and breaking stories not always caught by the establishment media. Mitt Romney has been hitting John McCain for having approached John Kerry about running on the Democratic ticket in 2004. That story was first reported here on MyDD. When John Edwards was on ABC's "This Week" two days before the New Hampshire primary, George Stephanopoulos asked Edwards about words he had spoken in an interview on MyDD. When Barack Obama passed $10 million in online fundraising during the second quarter, you heard it here on MyDD before you heard it anywhere else. These are just a few examples over the past few months.

But we can't do this without your help.

For both Todd and me, MyDD is an important source of income, one that helps us pay for flights and hotel rooms around the country, whether in early nominating states, the states yet to choose their delegates, and even Denver for the Democratic National Convention (and perhaps Minneapolis for the RNC). It also helps enable us to devote the many, many hours a week we both spend writing and researching material and organizing for this site.

With it still seemingly unlikely that either party's nominating process will be over a week from Tuesday on February 5 and a real potential that there will remain closely fought battles on both sides -- perhaps even up to or through the conventions -- we believe it important to try to continue to improve on what we are doing here at MyDD. This goes not only for complex delegate race that will determine which candidates will face each other in the general election, but also for the general election on the presidential level as well as the congressional, gubernatorial and statewide levels.

Over the next two weeks, we'll be telling you more about some of the exciting things that will be happening at this site over the coming year. But for now, let me thank you in advance for helping out. Whether you can afford to contribute $10, $50, $100 or more, you can make an immense and important difference in helping MyDD prosper and flourish.

So if you like what you get out of MyDD and want to see more of it, please help us today by making a contribution towards our 2-week fundraising goal of $10,000 to sustain our efforts through election day in November.

Thanks, Jonathan.