“I’m appalled and I bet you are too.” That’s the subject line of a recent email from Pat Murphy, who is running to unseat an Iowa congressman. Yet it was directed at Washingtonians rather than his would-be constituents in the state’s 1st congressional district

That’s because Murphy is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Rod Blum, the Republican congressman who thinks D.C. needs a recession so bad that he tweeted it twice.

“Some Democrats in D.C. reached out to us and asked how can we help get rid of this guy,” said Michael McLaughlin, Murphy’s campaign manager. So they decided to reach out to other Washingtonians and request a donation.

“If you are appalled that a Republican Congressman from Iowa wants you and your neighbors to suffer through a recession, making a donation to get him out of office is your best opportunity to fight back,” Murphy wrote yesterday.

A Ward 5 resident, Paul Jones, was inspired by the message and took up a pen keyboard to implore fellow Washingtonians to donate. “I’m sick of the dysfunction in Congress and I want the same rights and representation as every other American,” Jones wrote in a second email that was sent out by the campaign today. “The best way for us to fight back against this disrespect is to elect more champions for D.C. to Congress and ensure that Congressmen that want us to lose our jobs, lose their job.”

According to McLaughlin, so far the campaign has raised a “bit of money,” and they’ve had emails back from about a dozen people. “We’re running a pretty grassroots campaign out here, so every bit helps,” he said.

Murphy, the former speaker of the Iowa house, is running against Monica Vernon, a Cedar Rapids city councilwoman, for the Democratic nomination (she has also been tweeting about Blum’s absurd comments). Whoever wins will seek to unseat Blum in one of the most competitive House races in the country.

The congressman is unrepentant, though. “I want those jobs and tower cranes in eastern Iowa instead of Washington, D.C.,” Blum told The Gazette in a statement. “Of course I’m not popular with the entrenched ruling class.”