Texas Democrats get support from national Web site

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Senate Democrats in self-imposed exile in New Mexico are getting a hand from an Internet-based fund-raising effort that raised $870,000 in its first four days, supporters said Sunday.

MoveOn.org, a liberal activist group, describes its "Defend Democracy" fund-raiser as a "hard hitting ad campaign to fight back in Texas."

Its goal is to raise $1 million to help the 11 Democratic senators who fled to Albuquerque, N.M., on July 28 to fight a Republican-led redistricting plan. The plan likely would give Republicans a majority in the state's congressional delegation, now dominated 17-15 by Democrats.

MoveOn.org, founded by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs during the Clinton impeachment fight, claims a nationwide e-mailing list of 2 million people.

Glenn Smith, a political consultant representing the group's Texas effort, said almost 27,000 people, including about 2,000 from Texas, have contributed, the San Antonio Express-News reported Saturday.