Tonight's the Night
Tonight, over 1000 Americans made the decision to invest the time necessary in beginning the process of creating a local infrastructure on-the-ground in each and every one of the fifty United States. By all accounts, the 50 State Strategy National Organizing Kick-Off is already a tremendous success. As we get closer to the hour in which Democrats across the country will gather in each other’s homes and local establishments, here are a few stories from some of the local event organizers:
Monica in Rochester, New York
Our Rochester meeting will welcome about 15 people. Some of them will be the activists left standing, so to speak, from hard-fought campaigns this fall. DFA-Rochester's leader, Tom Janowski, a campaign manager and member of his local Democratic committee, is my co-host and our digital photographer. County Leg candidate Ted Nixon, a member of his local Democratic committee and a brave man who teaches French to eighth graders every day, will be supplying the speaker phone. ( Mine died during a critical test.) Tonight we are also going to meet some new folks, Democrats from around the county who saw the meeting on the website and are driving some distance to hear Governor Dean. It's my pleasure to host; the request came over Governor Dean's signature, and that was all the push I needed.
In the most recent election, our success varied by towns, but county-wide, we fought them to a draw. The names switched, but the number of Democratic and Republican seats in our leg did not change. This is a matter of grave concern locally. We have strong feelings that we must organize at the grassroots level even more efficiently and effectively, and we need to raise our money there, also. The program outlined in the PowerPoint presentation, which we will be presenting low-tech on cards, is an excellent overview of what it will take. We have good, strong ties with our local and county Democratic committees, and we can make them even stronger. Can't wait until 7:30!
Feeling that in fact we do have the power,
Monica Gilligan, Secretary, Brighton Democratic Committee
Sue in Lubbock, Texas
I've had some experience with conference call house parties; they are a lot of fun and great for organizing. That's why I jumped at the chance to host a meeting tonight where we roll out the 50 State Strategy. This is a great program, a great event and I am very excited to participate. We've needed something like this for so long here in West Texas where we are overlooked and isolated. Everybody who lives in a conservative town like Lubbock can probably understand what that feels like. We never see a presidential political ad on TV, our primary comes late, etc. Connections, that's what we need -- have a party with a conference call--what a brilliant way to be connected, to be a part of the Party.
Because I want to support the DNC and Governor Dean in every way I can, I bought a Democracy Bond. We all need to do everything we can to help the Democratic Party succeed. I'm going to be selling those bonds! My guests are coming over in two hours. I have the all the host materials downloaded. I've been to Kinkos to copy a handout of the power point presentation. I've got the name tags ready to go and a sign up sheet. I also have voter registration materials for people who need to register. I have five Democracy Bond packets printed out and ready. I have my computer set up to enter volunteer information online. A friend is bringing over a laptop and projector for the power point presentation. I expect to have 15 people, maybe more. I'll report back later with a picture.
Susan in Monmouth County, New Jersey
Here in coastal Monmouth County New Jersey we are licking our wounds and we are celebrating. We are certainly celebrating Jon Corzine's tremendous victory! That is the best news we have here! (And personally we are very invested since my daughter, my two friends and I were in just about every photograph used in the campaign literature and our picture is the first one you see when you click on www.corzineconnection.com right now!)
However, we are very upset about our losses. In spite of arrests of many Republicans, we were unable to win the county freeholder(county commissioner in the rest of the country) or the state assembly or our local town. We had wonderful candidates and all of them were close races. We know that in a large part, the bias of our local newspapers against Democrats had a lot to do with the losses. But, we have to be able to get our Democratic message out in spite of the newspaper coverage. It seems to me that if we did a better job of getting our message out, we would win!
I think that Gov. Dean is way ahead of the curve with the Democracy Bonds! The Republicans are controlled by and the spokesmen for big corporations because that's where their money comes from. It's wonderful to think that the Democrats are controlled by people like all of us--p eople who are working hard and trying to pay their taxes and raise their families. I bought a Democracy Bond quite a while ago--and am going to buy another. We--the everyday Democrats--need to be the "special interests" of the party.
Maybe it sounds corny, but another reason we are excited about hosting a kick off session is that we love to meet new friends and "put the party back in the Democrats!" Imagine my surprise when I checked my email a few minutes ago and eight people I don't know are coming to my house tonight! I guess I had better get busy and make some cookies! Susan Folta, Ocean Grove, NJ
Patrice in Camas, Washington
My partner and I decided that we want to make an investment in democracy, an investment in the Democratic Party and an investment with our friends in grassroots movements in Clark County. For this reason, we signed up to host a DNC organizing party toinight. We're excited about the powerpoint presentation, which we shared last night at the Clark County Democrats meeting. It describes power coming from the grassroots -- and I think that's right. We're looking forward to hearing from Howard Dean tonight and we're looking forward to more information coming directly from the DNC.
A few months after the election la st year, Howard Dean came to speak in Clark County. He told us that we needed to donate to political causes because otherwise the money only comes from large corporations. My partner and I have taken his advice to heart. We have a Democratic VISA card that pays 1% to the DNC, we've signed up for Democracy bonds which will charge a specific amount each month, and we are both involved in the local Clark County Democratic party and in various progressive causes in the local area. We work on local campaigns as much as we can and contribute what we can.
Our participation and donations have already paid off locally. We had a lot of progressive victories in our recent election in Clark County and in Washington state. We elected a wonderful Democratic County commissioner, Steve Stuart in a hard-fought race. We voted to stand behind the gas tax passed by our state legislature last year to pay for infrastructure improvements all over the state. We voted against letting insurance providers write our laws abou t malpractice. In the primary we supported the local public transportation. The only sad point locally was losing the Ft. Vancouver library bond, which has to have a super-majority, by 59.4% when we needed 60%.
The most wonderful thing about being involved in local politics is the friends that we have made. Before we were politically active, we thought partisan politics would be "political" in the bad sense of the word. Instead we have found wonderful people to work with -- wonderful people who are also trying to make a positive difference to America. I feel more connected to my community now than I have ever felt before.
I'm looking forward to tonight, to seeing friends and fellow volunteers and to meeting new people who want to do something for democracy. I appreciate the DNC making this possible.
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