You may remember that two years ago I bought our Feggans postcards, and my name was on the disclaimer required by Virginia state law. This year, Sister District paid for printing and shipping the Nadarius Clark cards to us, which is why their name is on the large disclaimer on the cards’ obverse. However, purchase of the stamps used to mail them is treated as an in-kind donation to the campaign and must be reported. The form to report this online is at Sister District’s website. This means you will be listed as a contributor to his campaign.
Author: Andrew J. Lazarus
Minutes from the June 8 meeting
Although attendance at the Friday protests is down slightly, there was a strong feeling in favor of continuing them. Bring a friend! We are concentrating on getting big turnout for No Kings protests on June 14. The only event listed for Berkeley is at the I–80 pedestrian overpass, but there are marches in both Oakland and San Francisco. Another Berkeley Indivisible group will rendezvous at Ashby BART at 12:15 to go together: we are welcome to join.
Sally is attending a Vote Forward after-action report. Letters do not seem to have been as effective in 2024 as before.
Delegate Michael Feggans campaign: We are going to do a musical fundraiser, coordinated by Tanya Tomkins, to be held Saturday, June 21, 4:30–6:00 pm. Location will be in the Elmwood, given on RSVP. Limited to 25 attendees. Further details will follow soon.
Delegate Nadarius Clark campaign: We got about halfway through our 500 postcards to write. Great job! We can finish next time and return them to the Clark campaign, which will mail them. I’m glad I am not alone in thinking local postmarks are best! Warning: postage rates are going up next month.
Meeting Sunday, June 8 4:00–5:00, usual place
The Lords of WordPress have decreed that to embed our ActBlue thermometer live, we need a much more expensive plan. (Longtime members will recall this used to work. WordPress disabled the necessary feature; thanks, guys. Joys of late-stage capitalism.) So, adjacent is a static version of the thermometer. You will note, we are a ways from our goal. You can fix that by clicking here. At least I can still make a link. As we fill the bar, I can re-paste a new version. Meanwhile, if any of you younger new attendees would like to help me host this site elsewhere, at a place I can use plug-ins, I am all ears.
We received physical postcards and addresses for Delegate Nadarius Clark, who is also running in a Virginia Beach district, near Delegate Feggans’s. Clark won by 6 points in 2023, not a run-away. For some reason, Sister District couldn’t give us postcards for Feggans. Those of you who were with us to talk to Feggans on Zoom last meeting saw a candidate far more fluid and self-assured than in his initial race. Even with the tight 2023 outcome, it was hard not to be optimistic.
And, of course, we will be back out at College & Ashby this Friday at 5:00. Might be time to consider a hat and sunscreen!
SF Chronicle on local Indivisibles
We seem to be a little smaller (some of the other groups report hundreds of members), but of course we make up in quality what we may lack in quantity.
Zoom link for today
If you would like to hear from Delegate Michael Feggans, but can not attend the meeting in person [4:00, usual place], you can use this Zoom link. There will be a Waiting Room. I will open the Room at 4:00; we expect the candidate at 4:15.
Meeting May 25, 4:00–5:00 pm, usual place
With special guest (via Zoom) Delegate Michael Feggans of Virginia.
WordPress would charge extra to allow us to share the .ics file via the website. I will post the Zoom link here closer to the event, in case you can not attend in person. We will be using a Waiting Room.
Although the Republican primary is not until June 17 (Feggans has no primary opponent), his most likely challenger is attorney Tim Anderson, a former Delegate whose website says he voluntarily did not run for re-election after redistricting put two incumbent Republicans in one district. He has raised over $110,000 already, and leads Feggans in Cash on Hand. We intend to help fix this at the meeting. Yes, we will be soliciting donations, none too small (nor too large).
Minutes of the May 11 meeting
Overview of Virginia: we are paired up with Del. Michael Feggans again, and we have in a request for a Zoom with him where we can ask him questions. The campaign is hoping this meeting will also generate some donations. As soon as we know the date for the Zoom session, we will pass it on and everyone can invite their friends. Meeting our candidate is a lot of fun. We committed to write 500 postcards, but as of now, Sister District has no Feggans addresses and asked us to write for Del. Nadarius Clark (running in an adjacent Tidewater district) instead. The 2025 elections in Virginia look good. The Republican candidates are making no pretense of Youngkin-like moderation, and they are arguing amongst themselves over their Lieutenant Governor candidate, who is openly gay. (Their gubernatorial candidate is against same-sex marriage.)
We talked about our Friday protests. People are enjoying them quite a bit. Last Friday we handed out several hundred action flyers—people love them! We talked about adding some new items to the protest and for this week 1) Naomi is putting together a songbook so we can sing together on one corner and 2) Ken will be recruiting for the June 14th protest. We will also add some new button styles and hand out some stickers (very popular to put on laptops). The band will be back though perhaps not this coming week. Everyone should continue to pass on word about the protests. We can always use more participants. We also talked about perhaps in the future adding another flyer distribution point, such as the Downtown Berkeley BART station.
For the action part of the meeting we wrote postcards for next Tuesday’s Scranton City Council election and some of us wrote to the Florida Bar asking for Pam Bondi to be investigated.
Next meeting is May 11, 4:00, usual place
We are skipping two weeks instead of one week, to avoid several conflicts with other events.
👉🏻 The subsequent meetings will be May 25, June 8, and June 22.
Substack
Let me abuse my posting privileges by mentioning again that I have my own Substack now.
Today I wrote about John Roberts and MAGA vs Marbury.
Meeting Sunday 4/20, 4pm, usual place
Looks like it will be a doozy of a week. Don’t forget to do your insider trading.
Indivisible Elmwood 