The Downballot Project is an effort by the Northwest Progressive Institute to provide in-depth coverage of candidates and issues that typically receive little attention from the traditional media.

Think state legislature, local ballot measures, or some of those statewide executive offices you may never have heard of - like Lands Commissioner, Attorney General, or Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The Downballot Project will run through Election Day, November 2008. It will encompass:

• Podcast interviews
• Photos and journal entries from the campaign trail
• Liveblogging of events and debates
• Video reports

We’re committed to making the Downballot Project happen, but for it to reach its full potential, we need your help. Unlike those big traditional news outlets, we don’t have a lot of professional equipment to do the job.

But with a little investment from you, we’ll be able to deliver high quality multimedia that can bring the candidates and the issues home to Washingtonians, Oregonians, and Idahoans hungry for better political coverage. We need your help to take advantage of the increasing affordability of cameras, microphones, computer hardware, and software.

And the best news is - we’re building permanent infrastructure that will have an impact far beyond just this one election cycle.

For a minimum donation of $30, we’ll send you a FREE Netroots Nation T-shirt with the Evergreen State netroots blogroll on the back. It’s the complete guide to the local progressive blogosphere that you can wear, made of durable cotton fabric by a local union shop.

These shirts will withstand repeated washing without fading - we know because we wear ours all of the time!

To get your T-shirt, click the authorize.net button below to make a donation to the Northwest Progressive Institute by credit card.

We will contact you to ask you what size you want - medium or extra large. (Small is the same size as medium, large is the same as extra large).

OR, mail a check for at least $30 to:

Northwest Progressive Institute
PO Box 264
Redmond, WA 98052

Be sure to provide your address and specify which size….we will mail you back a FREE Netroots Nation t-shirt. As these t-shirts are collector’s items, we only have a limited quantity left. Get yours today!