We began with an excellent bottle of champagne. As part of our ongoing membership drive, I pledge that all further Trump indictments will also have champagne. If he goes to prison, that day I will splurge for caviar to go with it.

Our fundraising for Michael Feggans of Virginia is only about 60% complete. For this campaign, because we have allied with Sister District, the donation page is ActBlue under their auspices. And to raise a little extra cash…

The auction is back!

and you may look at and bid on twenty lots of campaign memorabilia at this link, which you should share with all your friends. Once again, that link is https://www.32auctions.com/elm2023 .

Sample items — 

Other items: Bruce and I gave reports on Zoom meetings about 2022 campaigns. One was California Donor Table, the other Aaron Frank and Focus for Democracy. CDT had to admit that California underperformed in 2022, and announced the seven districts (no surprises) that they are targeting for 2024. We heard from a number of field organizers. Everyone knows we do better if we engage voters ahead of time. The most interesting point from Focus for Democracy is the large number of net Democratic votes that Working America (a project of the AFL-CIO) obtained in every swing state except Arizona. Frank is very interested in maximizing donor bang for buck, spoke well of them.

Bruce is working on getting us a guest speaker. Details to follow.

CDT has another Zoom session this Wednesday, noon. (One source says 1:00 pm, but the previous meeting was at noon.) Register here.

Bruce and I went to some Zooms this week on how we did and how we are doing.

From Airlift, via Bruce. Sorry for the short notice on the first one. Noon, June 7, a discussion of seven swing House seats here in California. Register Here.

On June 20, 5:00 pm, Simon Rosenberg on Nevada and Georgia. Rosenberg was one of few nationally-known gurus to downplay the 2022 Red Wave, which he correctly predicted would be more of a Red Puddle. Register Here .

(Our Michael Feggans link, which is below, is still active for contributions!)

To the Janowitz/Lazarus Giving Circle,

Friends, we are fundraising for only one campaign this year. 

Flipping the Virginia House of Delegates back to the Democrats this November will help protect reproductive rights in Virginia and help gather momentum for 2024. Democrats hold the majority in the Virginia Senate. Flipping two House seats will give Democrats control of the House to act together with the Senate as a bulwark against Youngkin.

Join us in supporting Michael Feggans (House District 97), a veteran who grew up in the district. The ground game he is building is exactly how Democrats will win in 2024. All donations [ActBlue link] go directly to his campaign. With thanks from us and from everyone working on Michael’s campaign! If you have any questions, or trouble with the link, let us know. 

Naomi and Andy

The thermometer is currently at $275.

Usual place. I don’t have much to present yet, although the rumored debt deal may provide fodder by tomorrow. Others may have material. And I have purchased a bag of Jordanian potato chips for snack.

Bruce opened with a list of potential speakers from Cal, whom I won’t list in case they reject us. Also, books he has read or is planning to read.

Highlight was a Zoom with Michael Feggans, campaigning for Virginia House of Delegates District 97 (part of Virginia Beach). Our Act Blue page for him is here. Our plan is to raise $3500. I can’t get the thermometer to embed until a complete re-vamp of the web site. Bill committed to in-person canvassing in November. The rest of us can donate, write postcards, and phone bank. First time visitor Steve gave us a phone bank pep talk; he loves doing it.

Next meeting in two weeks, in sync with the Turkish election run-off.

We will have a Zoom with Michael Feggans, D candidate for Virginia State Senate. Zoom link will be provided later for people who can not make the meeting in person. In the meantime, we have a special ActBlue page up for donations, here.

As compensation for toying with the schedule, we will have video chat on 5/14 with Michael Feggans, Sister District’s chosen candidate for VA House of Delegates. Join us and bring anyone interested in the Virginia Elections.

There are numerous Internet services that will bridge 2020s technology to 1990s technology (actually, the fax machine dates to the 1920s, with earlier antecedents). My favorite, because it really is free, is FaxZero. Note that there is an option on the main page that brings up the fax numbers of Senators and House members.

Note: Senator Padilla doesn’t receive faxes. No word on whether his office can read cursive.

Sister District is matching local (to us) groups up with Virginia for their odd-year legislative elections. The four candidates they are supporting are Danica Roem, Schuyler van Valkenburg, Joshua Cole, and Michael Feggans. We are particularly looking at Feggans, who is running for the House of Delegate from the 97th District in Virginia Beach. Feggans is an Air Force veteran, a retired Master Sergeant. On paper his views are what we want: pro-reproductive rights, pro-education, etc. Note that redistricting has scrambled the numbers of the districts: the old 97th was a very red rural area. The district is entirely within Virginia Beach and has zero overlap with the old one. It’s 57% White, supported Youngkin 51–48, but supported the Democratic candidates in previous elections by similar narrow margin. We are trying to arrange a Zoom interview with Feggans for an upcoming meeting. His opponent narrowly won the 85th District (similar location) over our candidate Alex Askew by 115 votes. We can do this.

We signed onto a letter from multiple groups asking Dianne Feinstein to retire, and some of us have made similar individual requests.

Bill has remained active with the Central Valley groups trying to get some voter engagement structure, so we don’t give away winnable seats. They have a virtual fundraiser coming up, Thursday, May 5, 5:00 pm.

A wake for EBAA will be held April 30. I’ll attend.

Bruce will read a book for the next meeting.

And I showed that I can connect to an (empty) local WordPress site.