Well, it was back to the good old days of a Zoom meeting…

I started with a discussion of redistricting. The national picture is not as dire as we feared. Yes, from gerrymandering we are losing some seats in AZ, GA, TN—but it could have been worse. And we have pickup opportunities in NY, IL, WA, and very much so in CA. Our districts are not gerrymandered, but several of the Republicans who won seats in 2020 that we had taken only in 2018 face more difficult races. They are David Valadao (CA-22 in the new numbering, formerly 21), Mike García (CA-27, ex 25), and Michelle Steele (45, ex 48). These are now all 2020–Biden districts. We might be able to swing 40 and 41 (Young Kim and Ken Calvert), except so far we don’t have serious opponents to them. Bruce Jackson said that the Wednesday state Indivisible call included discussion of finding some serious candidates to run here. We also have Dr. Kermit Jones in CA-03 (mostly the old 04), who will not be facing an incumbent although the district is difficult.

A full spreadsheet is here. (Our WordPress is too cheap to embed PDF, you will have to download.)

Naomi discussed how to start donating. The thermometer is now up for Airlift, volunteers from Marin who will split the money to about a dozen state voter registration groups. We don’t need to give to candidates yet. We need to drive voter engagement. Another, similar group, as Bruce reminded us, is the Movement Voter Project, which is similar but has an even longer menu of groups to choose from. I would be remiss not to mention the Wisconsin Democrats, who, under Ben Wikler, appear to be one of the few state parties to understand a last-minute ad blitz doesn’t cut it any more.

We are starting with action items. You can always check Activate America (née Flip the West) for postcarding or text/phone campaign. We will bring postcards back to our porch. Any ideas for a good half-card design with this slogan?