美国国家公共电台 NPR Thinking Of Running For Office? A Website Lets You Test The Waters

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

If you're creating a dream juicer or making a film, there are plenty of places to raise money. Think Kickstarter - right? But if you are thinking of running for office, there hasn't been a single place online where you could test the campaign financing waters - until now. NPR's Aarti Shahani takes a look at the first crowdfunding platform for potential candidates.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE¹: Regina Bateson had a good life. She was a political science professor at MIT, on track to get tenure². She was a mom, just had twins in fact. And then the November 2016 election happened. Bateson recalls lying on a rug, infants in her arms and crying.

REGINA BATESON: You know, thinking about how what had just happened - about how Donald Trump's victory was going to affect the way they were going to grow up. So I was...

SHAHANI: What do you mean by that?

BATESON: Oh, you know, I have three boys, actually. They're all little boys. And I don't want them to grow up in a world where bullying³ is the norm.

SHAHANI: That night, she was in shock. Then over the coming days and weeks, that feeling evolved to curiosity. She took a good long look around. And she told herself...

BATESON: This is a time when we all have to stand up and have the biggest impact that we each can. We each need to do the biggest thing that we can.

SHAHANI: The biggest thing - it's a thought a lot of people are having. Bateson started eyeing politics back home. She's a Democrat⁴ from California 4, a stunningly⁵ beautiful district that includes Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park. It's solidly Republican, but she's convinced the incumbent⁶, Republican Tom McClintock, is dramatically out of touch with his constituents⁷. For example, they are very environmentalist, and he is not.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOM MCCLINTOCK: The climate changes rather dramatically over the millennia⁸.

SHAHANI: This is him denying climate change at a town hall meeting in April.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MCCLINTOCK: There is a great debate right now over the...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: No, there isn't.

SHAHANI: In 2008, McClintock won office by a tiny margin⁹, but he's been winning with landslides¹⁰ ever since. Bateson has a theory about why. The Democrats¹¹ who've tried to unseat him have raised roughly $10,000 to $100,000. And that is the problem. It's chump change.

BATESON: And that was where the Internet does begin to factor into the story.

SHAHANI: Bateson wanted to find ways to raise money for Democrats in her district, so she Googled terms like Kickstarter politics. And she got back a site called crowdpac.com. Like other sites, Crowdpac, which is nonpartisan, ranks political campaigns and lets you donate. Unlike others, Crowdpac also lets you explore the idea of running for office without having to commit.

BATESON: So I do remember that they used the word explore. You know, if you're exploring running for office, you should make a site. And you should see how it turns out - you know, see what you think, maybe share it with some people for feedback.

SHAHANI: The night of that town hall, Regina Bateson made a page for herself. It went viral in her district. She got $4,000 in pledges by Day 1 and in just over a month, $20,000. And so the former MIT professor decided¹² to leave her job and become candidate Bateson.

BATESON: If somebody had said to me, you know, you need to make a decision today that you're definitively¹³, definitely running, I would've said no.

SHAHANI: She and her family have moved back to District 4, and she's just wrapped up a campaign event.

BATESON: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: You're exactly what we need. And there are a lot of people - I don't know if you've been in contact...

SHAHANI: Around the country, a handful of political newbies are doing what Bateson did, including Republicans, third-party hopefuls and even other Democrats in her district. These campaigns, which started on a tech platform that lets people explore first, commit later, are testing if the Internet can bring new blood into the tired business of politics.

Aarti Shahani, NPR News, Granite¹⁴ Bay, Calif.

(SOUNDBITE OF FREE THE ROBOTS' "GRANITE ROCK")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

3 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

5 stunningly   

ad.令人目瞪口呆地；惊人地

参考例句：

• The cooks, seamstresses and other small investors are stunningly vulnerable to reversals. 那些厨师、裁缝及其他的小投资者非常容易受到股市逆转的影响。
• The production cost of this huge passenger liner is stunningly high. 这艘船城造价之高令人惊叹。

6 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

7 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 millennia   

n.一千年，千禧年

参考例句：

• For two millennia, exogamy was a major transgression for Jews. 两千年来，异族通婚一直是犹太人的一大禁忌。
• In the course of millennia, the dinosaurs died out. 在几千年的时间里，恐龙逐渐死绝了。

9 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

10 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

11 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 definitively   

adv.决定性地，最后地

参考例句：

• None of the three super-states could be definitively conquered even by the other two in combination. 三个超级国家中的任何一国都不可能被任何两国的联盟所绝对打败。 来自英汉文学
• Therefore, nothing can ever be definitively proved with a photograph. 因此，没有什么可以明确了一张照片。 来自互联网

14 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。