Action item mostly accomplished: Sixty postcards for Randy Villegas, CA–22. Sixty postcards for Virginia referendum on temporary gerrymandering (their version of Prop 50). If successful, VA would swing four seats to the Democrats. Postcard stamp scarcity is upon us again!?

Via Bruce: The Tri-Valley Democrats are having a Governor candidate forum on Zoom at 6:30 pm today. [Everyone is looking for the candidates mired at the bottom of the polls to give up, to avoid the disaster of Republicans taking both of the top-two slots while six or seven Democrats split the rest. The two most recent polls I have seen had the Republicans in first and third, but one had Eric Swalwell in second while the other placed Katie Porter there.]

Also via Bruce: Leah and Ezra of National Indivisible have special interest in CA-22. A call in partnership with Central Valley Matters is scheduled for March 30, 6:00 pm. Zoom link.

Sally brought the latest sample Vote Forward letters. Too long, as usual. My hope is they are the (losing) part of an A/B test.

Link to Bay Resistance.

Current list of March 28 No Kings events near here.

• 11:00–12:00 West Berkeley (San Pablo & University)
• 11:30–3:00 San Francisco (Embarcadero Plaza), 12:00 march to Civic Center Plaza, 2:00 rally at Civic Center
• 12:00–2:30 Oakland (Frank Ogawa Plaza)
• 1:00–2:30 I-80 Pedestrian bridge
• 1:15–2:30 March from Cal Campus (Zellerbach Plaza) to MLK Park

Events are also listed for Albany, Kensington, Piedmont, El Cerrito del Norte, Richmond, Alameda, Lafayette, etc.

No meeting on 3/29. We’ll be recovering from the 3/28 marches!

Beware the Ides of March.

Despite popular demand, I will not be giving an incoherent two-hour slurred disquisition on the State of the Elmwood, featuring athletes devouring cold McDonalds burgers.

Tonight I went to a fundraiser for Graham Platner, the unconventional candidate running for the U.S. Senate from Maine. First he has to get past current Maine governor Janet Mills (age 78) in the primary, then gold-medalist concern troll Susan Collins in the general. A poll today has him ahead of both by double digits.

Platner has charisma. He was a Marine non-com, with some of the mien and voice (deep, a little rumbly) that you’d expect. On the other hand, he used to sing in community theatre musicals, which is why he thinks he doesn’t get nervous speaking to crowds. Of course, he was facing a very friendly audience. He’s a long-time Berniecrat, in a rural area that’s usual hostile to Democrats (although his parents were Democrats). He explained how an economic populist message will win, focusing on how the working class has not shared in recent economic gains. Basically, he has the education and worldliness that most of his peers lack to reject voting MAGA out of mere resentment. He says that he has a larger volunteer network, per capita, than Zohran Mamdani did. He also mentioned that, like Mamdani, the Democratic establishment had its heart set on another candidate, which Platner attributed in considerable part to the malign influence of money on elections and the accommodations the DSCC and other D.C. Dems make to obtain it.

Platner is outraising Mills 2 to 1, but Collins will be getting massive PAC money. I don’t know if Platner will need it, though. I think all the Democratic Senate candidates will have deep pockets.

Everything seems to be heating up a little, including resistance to the Orange Fascists. We can win the election in November, but first we have to make it that far.

Protests continue every Friday, including today, College & Ashby, 4:15–5:15 pm. We will move them later once we have more daylight. Last week we gave out 600 flyers. I ordered more for this week.

Those of you who don’t know where meetings are held, send me an email.

UPDATE: By popular demand, the current flyer. (We have it printed double-sided and sliced.) Note that the next major No Kings rallies will be March 28.

From our colleagues at CVM:

California gave our country hope on Nov. 4th — and now the country needs us to step up again! Central Valley Matters (CVM) volunteers were thrilled to see the great turnout by young people and Latinos across the nation. We are laser focused on CD-22 — a congressional district that is young (median age 30 years old) and 73% Latino, where folks on the ground are angry and energized now more than ever! On December 4th at 5:30 PST please join CVM to hear the latest updates from powerhouse Central Valley insiders to learn why your support truly matters.

District 22 is held by David Valadao. With the Prop 50 redistricting, it’s a toss-up, but if we get people registered and to the polls, demographically it’s Blue. Link to sign up for the fundraiser. Alternatively, link to ActBlue for donations.

Indivisible Elmwood takes a holiday break…

We met in good spirits from the Prop 50 win and Virginia election results. As a quick recap, everyone we worked for in Virginia won: Michael Feggans by about 15 points, May Nivar by over 10, and Jessica Anderson by about 5. Those last two are part of the 13[!] flips in their House of Delegates.

I went over the Prop 50 implications. Republican Young Kim’s seat (CA–40) is now a Republican sink, no longer competitive. In return, Doug LaMalfa (CA–01) and Kevin Kiley (CA–03) are now in bright blue districts; they are toast. So is Ken Calvert (CA–41), whose district is completely redrawn and who now finds himself in Kim’s district. The competitive districts we have to work to flip are Darrell Issa (CA–48) and David Valadao (CA–22). Democrat Adam Gray (CA–13), who barely won in 2024, has been helped a little, but it is only leaning Democratic. Josh Harder (CA–09) is safe. His district moved from Lean to Solid Democratic. Save your money.

I promised the link to the Thursday national Indivisible zooms. Here.

There was some rain on the parade, when the Coward Caucus in the Democratic Party gave up on the shutdown. As Coward Angus King said, “Standing up to Donald Trump didn’t work.” Truly Churchillian in its adamance. Here are phone numbers of this crew, so you can express your appreciation. Coward Jeanne Shaheen was apparently the leader, and speaks of looking forward to working with the Republicans on the ACA extensions. Today the Republicans said the starting point would be abortion bans. Shaheen’s own daughter, who is running for Congress, called the cave a big mistake [gift link]. Thanksgiving at their house is gonna be a blast.

Here are their excuses, and a list of all senators’ phone numbers. (The numbers all start 202-224, which is abbreviated to 4).