Internet political fund-raising has taken the next step. Forget just raising money for one candidate--ActBlue is a site where you can "bundle" a whole set of candidates together, based on whatever agenda you feel like (True Majority Senate Races, The Dean Dozens, Afro-Netizen's Top Picks, etc.) Then a visitor can contribute to all of them with one click, plus their credit card info. And what's more, you can "syndicate" the online contribution system, so that it appears as a form on your website or even an email. Put these features together, and you've effectively allowed anyone to make their own PAC. The system is built for funding Democrats only (sorry Greens) and so far it just has national-level candidates in it, but it's a huge step in the right direction.

The Boston Phoenix has some history and details:

Donations already total about $250,000, in fact, and are rising fast -- over $100,000 came in last week alone. As a result, ActBlue has sent checks to 125 different campaigns, some of which are taking notice. "They are our primary contribution-collection system," says Tim Tagaris, communication director for Jeff Seemann, an underdog congressional candidate from Ohio.

Wired pointed out that "Groups like RedState.org, Blogs for Bush and others are helping individual Republicans raise funds at the grass-roots level. But ActBlue is different, because it allows people to target their candidate of choice rather than the candidate selected by a fund-raising organization".