Tuesday night we officially kicked off our campaign to restore honest, effective leadership to Western New York. Thanks so much to those of you who were able to come out to Clarence Town Park and celebrate with me last night. For those of you who couldn't make it, I hope to be able to meet and talk with you in the future. In the meantime, take a look at the Powers for Congress web site, and tell your friends and family. We had a great time, and I believe everyone could feel the energy building up around us.
We've received a lot of great support over the past few weeks. Earlier this week, we had 180 supporters contribute on our ActBlue page. Since our kickoff event, that number has climbed to 195. With the end of second quarter fundraising rapidly approaching, we'd like to see that number climb to 200 by the end of the quarter, midnight on June 30th. With all the kind words you've all given me so far, I know this is a goal we can meet.
I was especially glad to have the opportunity to lay out for my fellow New Yorkers the reasons why I'm running, and the type of effective leadership that I'm going to take to Washington, DC. As I said in my speech Tuesday night,
No party and no president has a monopoly on good ideas. I firmly believe with all my heart that Western New York isn't looking for rank, we're looking for leaders that are right. Leaders who lead by example. Leaders that take what's best from those they serve and move everyone forward. Leaders who can get results because they understand how to lead. That's the kind of leader I am.
The problem is that Washington seems to think that leadership is about blind loyalty. Blind loyalty to Party. Blind loyalty to president. The system is putting blind loyalty before competence. What about competence? Getting results? Completing the mission? In any walk of life, that's how you should rate your leaders. Put competence and results before blind loyalty. Here at home, it's time we start doing that. It's time we start looking to our leaders for more than their loyalty to the folks that outrank them. Time to start demanding competence and results.
We only need five more donors to get to our goal of 200 by midnight, June 30th. Also, you can now become part of our fundraising team by setting up your own Powers for Congress fundraising page on ActBlue.com.
This is a really exciting time for Western New York, and I look forward to working together with all of you to restore hard-working leadership to District 26.