Regular time, regular place
REPORT FROM VIRGINIA
We’ll have a short ZOOM meeting with a staff member from Sister District to talk about the state of the election. Everyone realizes just how important the Virginia election is. We will also write some letters and review how we can support Michael Feggans. And we’ll drink CHAMPAGNE for the last set of you-know-what’s!
500 POSTCARDS DONE! I’m happy to report that we are checking through the last set of postcards and will be mailing them all on Monday (if you still have some, please drop them by this weekend.)
$3,500 RAISED! We met our goal and finished the auction at the same time. I have been in touch with Sister District about the auction and an anonymous donor interested in political swag bought the whole set for $1,000 bringing our housecleaning to an end and freeing us from having to worry about how to spread the word about the auction.
I am having another meeting with Sister District tomorrow to go over future plans which I will report on at the next meeting.
NEXT MEETING: Since next weekend is Labor Day, we will meet on Sunday Sept 10th, usual time and place.
MEANWHILE all hands on deck:
Write postcards with Postcards4VA.com
Send letters with Votefwd.org (they have tons of addresses)
In 2022, the hate group Moms for Liberty endorsed 275 winning school board candidates nationwide – and they’re just getting started.Funded by millions of dollars in right-wing dark money, Moms for Liberty is targeting thousands of school board seats. Right-wing hate groups are already banning books, terrorizing LGBTQ+ students, and censoring history classes.
A small progressive group fighting back in California seems worth supporting; it’s called The Six Pac (for its focus in 2022 on six potentially winnable races in the state). It’s at https://www.thesixpac.com/
Nationally, Indivisible is kicking off a campaign to counter Moms For Liberty and other reactionary groups who have been targeting school board races. It’s called Our States, Our Fates and will formally launch with a zoom presentation July 20 at 5 pm PST. The session will “talk about how we can not only be effective as individual groups in school boards, but how we can fight back against reactionary and harmful policies at the school board level.” A sign-up link is here.
Phone banking and postcarding for Virginia begins. Sister District is planning to organize something in the East Bay for mid-July. In the meantime… you can join these.
- Sister District Yolo Phonebank for Michael Feggans
- Every Monday, 2pm-4pm PT
- Sister District Sacramento Phonebank for Michael Feggans
- Wednesdays, 2:30pm-5pm PT
- Saturdays, 10am-12pm PT
- Sister District Greater Chicago Phonebank for Michael Feggans
- Wednesdays, 3pm-5pm PT
- Sister District National Phonebank for Michael Feggans
- Thursdays, 1pm-3pm PT
We are also asking for 500 Feggans addresses for postcards. We’ll let you know when they become available.
Vote Forward is doing letters to Ohio against the August referendum-to-stop-referenda. The purpose is to prevent passage of a referendum in favor of abortion rights.
Our auction is up. Tell your friends. Our direct Sister District link for Feggans donations is here.
The world shows no sign of slowing down…
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.
Indivisible Elmwood 