DCDL

the blog of DC Drinking Liberally

October 13, 2005

Help a Virginia Candidate Saturday

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DC for DemocracyThe Virginia election will be upon us before you know it. Saturday our friends at DC for Democracy are giving you an opportunity to help the Democrats in Virginia by volunteering for Dave Marsden, a candidate for the House of Delegates.

Here’s the latest message from DC4D:

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October 4, 2005

Virginia: The Bluening

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It’s only five weeks until the Virginia election, and there are plenty of opportunities to help the Democrats win. One way to get involved is to get on Tanya Tarr’s e-mail list and volunteer at the events she’s organizing. I met Tanya at the Running for Change kickoff in July, and she’s enthusiastic about making Virginia bluer. She quit her job to work full-time for Democratic victories in Virginia this year, and if you’re interested in helping she’s got something for you to do! Below is her latest e-mail about upcoming events. Write Tanya at tanya.tarr@vavictory2005.org to get on the list.

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September 23, 2005

DC for Democracy Happy Hour, Antiwar Rally

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Our friends at DC for Democracy are having a happy hour tonight in preparation for tomorrow’s march and rally. Some of us from DCDL will be there too. Join us!

As many of you know, this weekend there will be a large anti-war rally here in D.C., which many members of DCfD — and Democracy for America — plan to attend. To help everyone connect at what will likely be a very large event, we have organized a happy hour for Friday night and a meeting point for Saturday morning. Details are below.

‘Social and Serious Drinking’ Happy Hour
Friday, September 23, 2005
7:00 p.m.
Marty’s
527 Eighth Street, SE (two blocks south of the Eastern Market Metro stop on the Blue and Orange lines)

Join DC for Democracy and Democracy for America members for an evening of “Social and Serious Drinking” prior to the anti-war rally at Marty’s on Barracks Row.

Meeting Place for DCFD & DFA Members Attending Anti-War Rally
Saturday, September 24, 2005
meet at 11:00 a.m., walk to rally 11:30 a.m.
Freedom Plaza (opposite the Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, NW)

We hope to see you at these events!

And don’t forget about our efforts to elect progressives in Virginia for 2005. The single best way to get Congress to change its views on our issues is to let them know their jobs are at risk in 2006. A strong showing in 2005 will show them — and the media — that this is possible. Help set the narrative for 2006 by bringing in change in 2005.

Join the 2005 Virginia Action Team by signing up here!

September 9, 2005

Six-PAC Fundraiser Saturday

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Six-PAC, a political action committee whose strategy is to support progressive candidates in the closest state and local races, is holding a fundraiser tomorrow, September 10, at 9pm at Childe Harold, 1610 20th Street NW (near Dupont Circle). This year Six-PAC is supporting four Virginia candidates: Creigh Deeds, David Bulova, David Marsden, and Hilda Barg. For more details on the fundraiser, see the Six-PAC event listing.

(Via e-mail from NEXT.)

August 3, 2005

Paul Hackett Fights the Good Fight

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Suppose you’re a political novice running for Congress in a special election. And suppose you’re a Democrat running in a district where only nine months ago the Republican candidate won by 72 to 28 percent, and the Republicans have had similar margins for at least the three elections before that. Now suppose you called Bush’s “bring ’em on” challenge “the most incredibly stupid comment I’ve ever heard a president of the United States make”, referred to the president himself as a “chicken hawk”, and said “I don’t like the son-of-a-bitch that lives in the White House” — causing the Republican National Congressional Committee to pour advertising dollars into your opponent’s campaign, promising to “bury” you. What percentage of the vote would you expect to get?

Well, if you’re Paul Hackett, in Ohio’s second district Tuesday, the answer is 48 percent. Not enough to win, alas, but an amazing total. Look at that again: he took the Democratic share from 28 percent up to 48, when the RNCC was going all out to bury him. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he’s a veteran just back from Iraq and that he got lots of publicity and funds from liberal blogs throughout the country. But there are a lot of districts where Democrats don’t need to gain 20 points to win — 5, 10, or 15 will do.

Maybe Howard Dean isn’t so crazy:

As I’ve said all along, our strategy for victory is a simple one. Show up. Not just in a battleground state. Not just in 18 of 50 states. Not just show up in blue areas, and not just show up around election time. Show up in every state, in every election, in every community….

July 31, 2005

Endless Campaigns Reach the Local Level

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We’re used to having presidential campaigns that start years before the election and go on forever, but city elections haven’t been that way — until now. I was out getting groceries this afternoon and found that the area around the Cleveland Park Metro has been plastered with signs for a DC council candidate. I wondered for a second whether I had missed the announcement of some sort of special election, but no, Jonathan Rees is just getting a head start on the primary election that’s coming up on September 12. That’s September 12, 2006. I know that several mayoral candidates have already declared, but putting up signs 13 months ahead for a council race, especially one that’s not even citywide, is going a bit far. Rees has been spamming the Craigslist personals (including a “test question” about arranging a threesome) and other web boards for several weeks now, but this is the first actual sign I’ve seen.

Then there’s the content of the sign. The biggest words other than the candidate’s name are “and I will vote no”, part of Rees’s version of Bush the Elder’s “no new taxes” pledge. In fact, the sign is entirely about his antitax positions (complete with a depiction of a taxpayer in handcuffs) and gives no hint what other positions he might have. Is this guy really a Democrat, or is he just running as one because the Democratic primaries are the real elections in this city?

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July 29, 2005

Saturday Road Trip to Virginia Beach to Help a Democratic Candidate

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At tonight’s DCDL meeting Rene, a regular, told us all about a road trip he’s taking Saturday to help turn a small part of Virginia blue, and he wants to invite anyone who’s interested to go along! He and some friends are leaving at 8:30 Saturday morning to head down to Virginia Beach to volunteer for a candidate and have a beach party.

Supriya Christopher is running as a Democrat for the open House of Delegates seat for District 84, in Virginia Beach. She’s the first Indian American — in fact, the first Asian American of any kind — to run for a seat in the Virginia legislature. She’s been an officer in the US Army Signal Corps, and her husband is a Navy pilot serving in Iraq.

If you’re interested in going (or want more information), contact Gautam Dutta (e-mail gautam{at}aya.yale.edu) right away, to reserve your place with Rene and the gang!

June 17, 2005

Turning Virginia Blue

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Did you know that every four years since 1977, Virginia has elected a governor from the party that is not in the White House? That’s a good omen for candidate Tim Kaine and the Virginia Democrats this year. And NEXT is looking for people to help keep the streak going. NEXT was known in 2004 for organizing bus trips from DC to West Virginia for volunteers to register and mobilize voters for the Democrats (and helping to increase Democratic turnout by nearly 40 percent in the two counties they visited).

Now they’re setting their sights on Virginia, according to their latest e-mail announcement. They don’t seem to be updating their website as well as they should at the moment, so I’ve copied the message below.

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June 12, 2005

A Few Comparisons

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Rox Populi has a good eye. Starting from a post by Ezra Klein, she’s taken graphs of unemployment, who voted for Bush, and who has died in Iraq.

While she didn’t draw explicit conclusions, a few things do leap out at you:

This suggests a couple of questions to me.

  1. Did people essentially vote their jobs in the 2004 election?
  2. Is it part of the Rove strategy to reward Republican-leaning regions with more jobs?
  3. Does military recruitment depend on unemployment?

I ask these questions for two reasons. The first is that the notion of political games being played with people’s livelihood is outrageous. The second is that if military recruitment is being gamed to regions that didn’t vote for Bush, then… I just don’t know what to say.

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DCDL is a blog by Washington, DC-area members of Drinking Liberally. Opinions expressed are the writers’, not those of Drinking Liberally, which provides no funding or other support for this blog.

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