The gang over at Wampum is holding a pledge drive to subsidize the amazing work they do with the Koufax awards.

This year, we’re holding our fundraising drive earlier, for a number of reasons. One, we’d like to spread it out over a greater length of time, as not everyone is flush with cash at the same time of the month. Also, we don’t want to compete with the holiday season, when wallets are already overstretched (even more so this year, with rising energy costs.) On our end, we’d like to plan for our added expenses up front, so we don’t end up with unexpected disruptions like we did last year. Lastly, fundraising during the awards itself always has felt weird to us, as we fear that some might see an opportunity for vote buying by donations from nominees. By holding the drive in advance, we feel we can avoid any appearance of such conflict of interest, so to speak. If you want to rig the election, it will take a wicked large check to stand out in our easily distracted minds.

The awards have always meant to be fun and informative. This year, our plans are to hold them on my and Eric’s end while joining in relief/reconstruction efforts along the Gulf Coast (where we had planned to spend December and January even before the disaster occurred). Our goal is to help to keep the pressure on, even if the media is engaged elsewhere with missing white women and the like.

While a few people have recommended we move to a more technical format such as the Wizbang Weblog Awards, with their limited, “committee” selected nominees and push-button (Freepable) voting, we believe that an open nomination and voting process, though cumbersome, is best in highlighting the great talent and diversity in the Lefty blogosphere.

If you’re able (and we recognize a lot of people are strapped these days), we hope you’ll consider dropping a few quid in the pot to support this year’s awards. And remember, the nominating process opens in Mid-December, so start scanning your favorite blogs now for deserving posts, series and comments (yes, we’ve had a few already via email.)

Anything you can do to help, please chip in.