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).

I’ll review the effects of Prop 50 on Congressional races. And we’ll all have some bubbly.

Today’s results repudiate MAGA and the Republican Party. The high-propensity voters for an odd-year election pushed future governors Abigail Spanberger (VA) and Mikie Sherrill (NJ) to double-digit wins. Prop 50 may win by 30 points. Zohran Mamdani is on track for just over 50%: he would have won even under a ranked-choice system. I do hope he appoints Republican loser Curtis Sliwa to run the city’s zoos: the man has six cats and can’t be all bad. We won the Georgia Public Utilities Commission seats by about 25 points. We won the Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention elections by almost 50, notwithstanding the desperate pleas for totally-unnecessary contributions some group demanded this morning.

Our work for the Virginia House of Delegates paid off. Entering tonight we held a 51–49 majority. We flipped 13 seats, including 6 of the 14 labeled “Lean Republican”. Michael Feggans won by double digits. Jessica Anderson (we sent postcards) and May Nivar (we sent money) were two of the flips, defeating Republican incumbents.

It wasn’t all good news, though. Republicans flipped the mayor of Berlin, New Hampshire, population 9248, by thirteen votes, pending a recount.

We still have terrible problems, both structurally and tactically. But tonight we punched MAGA in the face. Champagne will be served at the next IE meeting.

And not Oct 28, as the original version said. Just trying to make time fly!?

Please email me for the location.

alternative actions

1. join the Friday protests 5:00-6:00 at College and Ashby
2. eleenson2@gmail.com is looking for people to take shifts on campus for student GOTV for Prop 50
3. We have lawyer postcards. Let us know and we’ll put some in our Ridwell box for you.
4. Canvas your neighbors to make sure everyone is turning in their Prop 50 ballots. The sooner the better.
5. Voteforward (votefwd.org) has lots of suggestions. We can print letters for you if needed.
6. Encourage your friends to listen to and support Substack news including The Bulwark and The Contrarian.

Look on the bright side; we don’t have to worry about meetings in conflict with San Francisco Giants playoff games…

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. — probably Benjamin Franklin

Naomi and I went to the Indivisible convening in Sacramento. Nice train ride. We’ll be reporting on the meeting, which had its amusing aspect in that for legal reasons, we couldn’t endorse Prop 50. Definitely some good get-out-the-word ideas.

Of course, protest at College & Ashby this Friday, every Friday, 5:00–6:00.

California Indivisible is concentrating on the Newsom redistricting ballot measure, which will be Proposition 50 on the November ballot. Naomi and I are attending a statewide Indivisible meeting in Sacramento this weekend. We assume getting this passed will be Indivisible’s major project through November.

Sally and Jane reported some disappointment with the orientations at La Peña that we mentioned earlier. Many additional opportunities to help immigrants and melt ICE will happen. Judy reports that volunteers will be on corners where ICE is doing raids. (She borrowed our button-maker to do some for these volunteers to wear.)

We started postcards for Jessica Anderson, Virginia House of Delegates, district that includes Williamsburg. This would be a flip. We lost in 2003 by less than 1000.