Ben Schaffer, the president of Media Mezcla, a Democratic online media firm, immediately noted "the absurdity that is her website."

"Fiorina parallels her campaign to the eternal struggle between cats and dogs," he went on. "She also seems to be suggesting that if you like cats and night then move along, you're probably a Democrat."

What's weird about this site is not that it has technical problems, as some have suggested. Sure, it does lack content and graphically resembles a Macy's circular. But I was most surprised by its lack of strategy. That there is no compelling reason for her candidacy is not surprising, but it's surprising they didn't try to come up with one anyway.

The closest they get is some idea that the election is about "good vs. bad" -- and while many politicians do see their own advantages in this simplistic way, few of them are naive enough to think that's a sufficient message.

It's Your Money NYC is a fully searchable database of the New York City budget, including earmarks (or as they are innocuously called here, "member items"). You can search by keyword, sponsoring council member, the group that received the money, amount of grant, and more.

This is a brand new level of transparency for New York City government at the time when we need it the most. Please take a look at the It's Your Money NYC site and let us know what you think.

Update: A writeup over at The Observer.

(And because of the way we handle contributions, he paid the lowest possible credit card fees and no commission to us.)

So, who wants to be the next record holder?

Mark Green for Public Advocate of New York City

Campaign Engine is the software platform supporting all contributions, events, and email broadcast for this site.

It's great to be working on this project personally, as my very first involvement in New York City politics was handing out flyers for Mark Green in the previous century!

Go Green!

As you may know, the Maldives is a tiny archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the smallest Muslim nation in the world, and has been ruled by a dictator for 30 years, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. In 2008, free presidential elections were held for the first time in many people's lives. We had the opportunity to work with a leading candidate for president, Dr. Hassan Saeed, a former attorney general and chief justice.

The very newness of it all made it somewhat difficult to tell who was a likely voter, so the approach was to go after everyone! We set up a database containing just about every human in the country (about 350,000). Addresses in the Maldives are complex, because there are no streets or street numbers: just a house and an island. Houses have names, not numbers, rather like English country manors. And people's legal names are different from our expectations in the U.S.: a person might have three names (Abdul Abdullah Abdul), or two names (Abdul Abdullah), or even just one (Abdul). We created a custom version of Campaign Engine to handle this different structure.

In a field of 6 candidates including the incumbent dictator, Dr. Saeed ultimately achieved third place. In a runoff round, however, Mohamed Nasheed won against the dictator, and the free elections were a success.

We will continue technology consulting with Dr. Saeed throughout the year as he builds a new party from scratch in this new democracy. This has been an exciting project and I am pleased to be a footnote to history.

I am also proud to say that Jeff Merkley has been elected as Oregon's junior Senator. Jeff will be a progressive voice for Oregon and for the nation, and an excellent partner for President Obama. It has been a great experience to work with his team this cycle.

Congratulations are also in order to Senator-Elect Daniel Squadron, of New York's 25th State Senate District. This was also a special campaign for me personally, as I live in the district Daniel will be representing in Albany! I know we can expect him to be a leader in the New York Senate, which will also be under Democratic control for the first time in forty years.

Rounding out the night for us, San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi earned a second term in a broad showing of support for his progressive record.

So, a great night for America, and a great night for Media Mezcla clients. We're three for three for the evening. And did you hear -- President Obama?

Congratulations Daniel!

Congratulations to Mayor Sam Adams, of Portland, Oregon!

In fact, he goes on to boldly state that "I will NOT FUNDRAISE for any candidate who does not pledge to stop direct mail" to those who prefer not to receive it.

While Markos has called upon web site vendors such as ActBlue to enable an opt-out checkbox for contributors who don't wish to be contacted via snail mail, there's good news for Campaign Engine clients today.

In the version of Campaign Engine you already have, our Form Designer allows you to add a custom checkbox to your contribute, volunteer, email signup, or any other form, by which your supporters can opt out of paper mailings. That status will be marked in their records and with every export of your list.

It's just a question of creating the field and dragging it onto your form. That's the simple approach we take to solving these real-world problems.

If you're currently a Campaign Engine client, please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have. If you're not a Campaign Engine client -- we'll be standing by to make sure Markos will still fundraise for you.

The site offers public education on health and fire safety, as well as provides the Foundation with online fundraising and communication capability.

The site is now live, at www.fdnyfoundation.org.

The new web site can be found at www.jeffmerkley.com.

We're pleased to announce that Media Mezcla's Campaign Engine platform was rated 4 out of 5 stars. We beat a field of bigger and better-known competitors, whose names you'll recognize in the chart below.

We know we owe this to you, our clients, and we want to thank those who participated. And to all of you, I hope you'll continue to enjoy what is now officially among the best campaign software available!

The full PDF survey can be seen at www.personaldemocracy.com/company_reviews

The first event scheduled is a meeting with DNC Chairman Howard Dean, coming up on May 18. I feel like we've come full circle, as of course it was the Dean presidential campaign that started us out in campaign software to begin with.

Thanks to the Colorado Dems for their support.

To support attendees who wished to purchase their tickets over the phone rather than online, we developed a custom interface for phone operators to work with Campaign Engine's ticketing module.

Congratulations to Ohio's first Democratic governor in 16 years.