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Joined by a handful of Democratic state officials, the grassroots organization Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) announced today it will be targeting “bad Democrats” who are affiliated with ALEC to drop their association with the group. According to PCCC, there are 26 states with Democratic lawmakers that belong to ALEC. South Dakota state Sen. Angie Buhl said the group’s corporate agenda “is the antithesis of what we stand for as Democrats.”

The foundation, run by the co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and his wife, contributed more than $375,000 to ALEC in the past two years and was the target of an online petition launched today by the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee that garnered more than 23,000 signatures in a matter of hours.

The petition, started by the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee, echoes a letter Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Charles Schumer (N.Y.) sent to the Justice Department last month. In less than a week, nearly 55,000 people have signed the petition urging the Justice Department to investigate whether employers who ask for their workers’ Facebook passwords are breaking the law.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee shows what that process looks like in a new video posted Wednesday. The clip shows progressive candidates nationwide attacking the Ryan Budget and using it to build support with seniors.

Earlier this month, PCCC member and minimum-wage worker, Eva Lister, testified before the Connecticut General Assembly to share with legislators what a minimum wage increase would mean for Connecticut working families. Days later, the body’s Labor Committee passed a bill that would increase the minimum wage to $9.25/hr. Today’s polling shows that voters want legislators to pass $9.75 or higher.

A group of progressives is already trying to draft a replacement for retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, in an email to members on Tuesday, attempted to line up backers for Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is set to announce some surprising fundraising numbers this morning — and the key is that the group’s totals this cycle have already surpassed its 2010 numbers, even though 2012 is just getting started. The PCCC’s fundraising does tell us one important thing about the state of the Dem base right now — it is in fact very energized when it comes to supporting candidates who unabashedly articulate a strong progressive platform. There seems to be a hunger for such candidates among grassroots Dems across the country.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has started an online poll asking NC’ians what they think regarding a run by Rep. Brad Miller (D-13) for Governor.

Shortly after Miller’s announcement, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee sent an email to all of its members in North Carolina asking them if Miller should run for governor, while highlighting his congressional efforts to protect consumers from banking abuses. So far, over 97 percent of respondents have urged Miller to run for governor, according to PCCC spokesman Neil Sroka.

“Brad Miller authored the bill in Congress that would break up the big Wall Street banks and prevent future bailouts,” the PCCC email to members reads. “He also fought to make it easier for North Carolinians to ‘move our money’ from big banks that gamble away our money to smaller community banks.”

Adam Green, co-founder of the grassroots group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said the legislation’s delay shows that “people power works.” His organization helped about 43000 people call their congressmen in opposition to the bill.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s petition logged 225,000 signatures on its joint petition with Reddit and Craigslist. Protestors made over 40,000 calls to Capitol Hill. The bill caught the attention of mainstream media sources, even dominating the New York Times’ homepage. Nineteen senators now oppose PIPA, including seven who formerly co-sponsored the bill. OpenCongress’s Protect IP Act Senate whip count currently shows 33 senators supporting PIPA, and 39 opposing it.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow highlights the Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s successful partnership with technology innovators to take on SOPA proponents.

Digerati spearheaded by online sites including Wikipedia, Google and Reddit launched global opposition to two bills in the U.S. Congress they believe would threaten Internet commerce and creativity. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, went dark Wednesday, along with many other sites including Reddit and about 340 others whose proprietors are members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Conor Kennedy from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee told RT that if passed, the bill would simply allow big shots from the media industry to wipe out any competition – and not in a fair way. “No one is opposed to bills that fight piracy”, Kennedy said. “But at the same time we need to be aware that large corporations are going to be able to use these laws to drag their fair competitors into court instead of competing with them in the marketplace. For small innovators that don’t have access to money for legal fees yet, that just spells out the end of the internet as we know it.”

Internet entrepreneurs – including Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of news sharing site Reddit, and Brad Burnham, whose Union Square Ventures has backed firms including Twitter and Foursquare – held a press conference hosted by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in Washington on Tuesday as the tech community fights to put a halt to Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect IP act (Pipa), two anti-piracy bills being scrutinised in Washington.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is hosting a discussion on the SOPA House bill and the PIPA Senate bill at 12:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday January 17. Tech innovators, along with progressive and conservative experts, will talk about the measures aimed at addressing online piracy, which have sparked controversy. Critics of the bills say they would reduce freedom of speech and threaten innovation.

The most instructive number inside a new Public Policy Poll survey of Illinois’ 10th District Democratic primary may be 64. That’s the percentage of voters who favor a “progressive,” compared to the 25 percent who’d like a “moderate.”

The spread would appear to favor Ilya Sheyman, who has the backing of Howard Dean, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and MoveOn.org, the two groups that paid for the poll.

In the north suburban Illinois Tenth House Democratic primary contest, a new poll taken by a group backing Ilya Sheyman shows Sheyman ahead by two points of Brad Schneider but in a statistical tie. John Tree, who jumped in the race late, is behind. The poll shows the situation before the March 20 Illinois primary very fluid: 49 percent are not sure who they want.

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) can breathe a sigh of relief: a potentially formidable primary challenger, attorney Glenn Ivey, has decided to exit the race. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an outside liberal group backing Edwards, celebrated Ivey’s decision.

“This is great news,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green. “Donna Edwards is a bold progressive leader and a true fighter for working families. We were proud to endorse her early and were ready to make this race a top priority. We look forward to working with Donna to ensure many progressive victories in 2012.”

Elizabeth Warren raised $5.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, a campaign aide confirmed to The Hill. It’s the best quarter of fundraising by any Senate candidate this cycle, and beats Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in the fourth quarter by $2.5 million. Warren said she has $6 million cash on hand.
Over $600,000 of Warren’s campaign cash — including almost $200,000 of her fourth-quarter haul — came from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the group said on Wednesday. The liberal PAC was one of Warren’s earliest supporters and launched a movement to “draft” Warren into the race in 2011.

Armed with Politifact’s strange ruling, the campaign of Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) attempted to get advertisements sponsored by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which rapped Bass for voting to “end Medicare,” pulled from two New Hampshire television stations, WMUR and WHDH. Here was the first critical acid test of this Politifact ruling. However, as Greg Sargent reported yesterday, officials at the two stations found the Bass campaign’s assertions wanting.

Earlier this week, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee aired a TV ad, timed to the GOP presidential debate, attacking GOP incumbent Rep. Charlie Bass for voting to “end Medicare.” The Bass campaign sent letters to two stations that air in New Hampshire — WMUR and WHDH — demanding the ads be yanked. Crucially, the Bass campaign repeatedly cited PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year designation to bolster its case.

Both stations refused.

It’s not the general election yet, but we already know what one key issue will be: Medicare. Republicans in the House voted to basically end Medicare as we know it, a position Mitt Romney fully embraced in December. Progressives think it’s never too early to remind voters where Republicans stand on the issue.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America are raising money to air an ad on the issue during the two debates this weekend. The ad, which aired this June, is aimed at New Hampshire rep. Charlie Bass who voted for the Ryan plan — and who endorsed Mitt Romney.

The first major test of the activist progressive fundraising machine for the 2012 elections is developing in North Carolina, where a Republican-engineered redistricting plan will likely pit Democratic Reps. Brad Miller and David Price against each other… Few progressive fundraisers are eager to publicly criticize Price. But the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, an influential liberal grassroots organization, has made Miller’s reelection a top priority for 2012, raising over $10,000 for him thus far… “Re-electing Reps. Brad Miller and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) will be a top progressive priority of 2012. Like Elizabeth Warren, Brad Miller is a bold fighter for holding Wall Street accountable, and in this era of Occupy Wall Street ascendency we absolutely cannot afford to lose his voice in Congress,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green.

After President Obama decided not to fight to make Elizabeth Warren the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency she had conceived and gotten off the ground, most of official Washington assumed she would return to Harvard and teach law. But the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and National Nurses United had another idea: they wanted Warren to run for the Senate from Massachusetts. The PCCC push, and an early endorsement from the nurses, created an old-fashioned draft campaign. And it worked.