Democracy for Virginia

News-Press Describes Progressive Determination in Falls Church

The Falls Church News-Press was on hand to witness the remarkable display of determination of Virginia progressives during the campaign leadership training weekend in Falls Church on July 9-10 offered by Democracy for America and co-hosted by DFV.  An article in yesterday's edition describes the scene:

There aren’t many things that could convince somebody to give up a sunny summer day to spend hours in a high school classroom. Just the idea of leaving the beach blanket to sit in an uncomfortable desk under fluorescent lighting is tantamount to punishment.

Yet earlier this month, as the hours ticked away on a glorious July weekend, over 100 people, from teenagers fresh out of high school to senior citizens now earning Social Security checks, showed up at George C. Marshall High School at 8 a.m. and staying all day for two days, sacrificing their free time in exchange for an education in grass roots politics.

During the day before the training, I was on the phone with a candidate for the House of Delegates, talking about the candidate forum planned for the next day.  He said to me, "You're telling me you're expecting more than a hundred people in July to give up two whole weekend days for training on campaign leadership?  Did you bribe them or something?  That's unheard of."

Nope, we didn't bribe them (although we did feed them).  In fact, most participants contributed to cover the cost of the training and to sponsor scholarships for other participants!

Many Democrats and others who fought to defeat Bush are taking this year "off" - regaining their hope, replenishing their bank accounts, re-connecting with parts of their lives that were neglected while volunteering on campaigns.  But here in Virginia, we've had to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get immediately back to work for our 2005 elections.  Seeing so many people gathered together to learn to be more effective volunteers and campaign leaders was a real inspiration.

In addition to the FCNP article, blogger Teddy Goodson (an inspirational and feisty ex-Republican) over at Raising Kaine has been describing her experiences at the training in a series of detailed posts.  Her first three installments are here, here, and here, with more to come.  And lovely Luna over at Liberal Rage has a great writeup, too.

Virginia Blogging Summit

Thanks to the efforts of Waldo Jaquith and Chad Dotson (aka John Behan), the esteemed Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at University of Virginia will be offering the first Summit on Blogging and Democracy in the Commonwealth on August 27.

The mission of the summit is twofold:

1)To promote commonwealth over partisanship among political bloggers in Virginia.
2)To explore efforts to regulate political blogging.

After pasting the first objective above, I had to chuckle when I clicked on over to John Behan's site to create the link to his site and saw that his topmost post read:

Leftist morons like Paul Begala and Howard Dean are trying awfully hard to make sure that the Democratic Party becomes a permanent minority party.

Commonwealth over partisanship, indeed.  ;-)

Seriously, this summit holds great promise, and its success depends on far more than the fine organizers who have put it together - it depends on all of us in the Virginia political blogosphere, from bloggers to commenters to lurkers - participating actively.  From the press release:

"Part of the Sorensen Institute's mission is to promote civility in politics. Bloggers play an important role in educating the voters," explained Sorensen Institute Executive Director Sean O'Brien. "We hope that by bringing bloggers of all political stripes together that we can promote a civil discourse of the important issues facing the Commonwealth."

"It is becoming increasingly evident that bloggers will be playing a significant role in the political process over the next few years," said Chad Dotson, Commonwealth's Attorney for Wise County and the City of Norton. In addition to his duties as a prosecutor, Dotson writes for Commonwealth Conservative, a blog about Virginia politics. "For some time, it has been my desire to see Virginia bloggers step to the forefront in promoting an atmosphere where bloggers can help move Virginia forward on issues important to us all, rather than engaging in partisan bickering. I'm very pleased that the Sorensen Institute is taking on this project, and I look forward to attending."

"Blogs have become a promising medium for involving more ordinary Virginians in the political process," says Maura Keaney, a blogger and board member of Democracy for Virginia PAC. "We've only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of how blogs can be used to inform, include, and empower voters in Virginia."

"This conference comes at an ideal time in the growth of the Virginia political 'blogosphere,'" continued Keaney, "It will allow bloggers on all parts of the ideological spectrum to come together and discuss blogging as a medium before we head into the fall elections in Virginia."

A day packed with serious agenda items will be followed by an evening of bipartisan socializing.   And we all know that's where the real drama will be, right?  Will fans of "leftist morons" like Howard Dean be able to get along with bloggers who call Dean a leftist moron?  Will anonymous bloggers wear paper bags over their heads like the Unknown Comic?  If the stereotype of the blogger is someone who blogs all night in his underwear eating Cheetos in his mom's dark basement, will the entire social event collapse from a collective lack of social skills?  Will blog commenters wait for bloggers to start the conversations before speaking up?

Don't miss the drama.  Sign up!

Pound the pavement, then party with DFV

For ordinary Virginians who really care about politics, Saturdays from now until November can be really packed with political activities, but it's important to fit in occasions for fun, too!

Tomorrow, for instance, Lowell will be driving nearly 6 hours at the crack of dawn to report on Tim Kaine's debate with Jerry Kilgore...in West Virginia.  Waldo and other bloggers will be at home all morning to live-blog the event.  Democrats around Virginia will be attending debate "non-watching parties" at locations throughout the Commonwealth in the morning.  Many groups such as the Falls Church City Democratic Committee will head out to canvass neighborhoods. Progressive activists working with America Votes coalition partners will be participating in Day of Action events for this year's Virginia elections at locations around Virginia as well as in DC.

All that work should be rewarded with some relaxation and fun, so we're looking forward to Saturday night's Democracy for Virginia House Party in Alexandria.  It'll be a casual potluck event, a great way to relax and meet new friends after a day of political action.  Special guests will include two inspiring Democratic candidates for Virginia House of Delegates.  We hope to see you there!

DFA Training & Candidate Forum in Falls Church tomorrow!

We're now expecting over 175 people to gather in Falls Church for an intensive-two day training program in campaign leadership for grassroots activists - an amazing testament to progressive enthusiasm and strength here in Virginia.  When that many people are willing to give up two beautiful weekend days during the summer to gain political skills, it's a vivid sign that ordinary Virginians are willing to go to extraordinary lengths stand up and fight against right-wing extremism and for sensible leadership for all Virginians.

It's going to be a great weekend of intensive skill-building workshops and networking opportunities.  It's not too late to join us - we hope to see you there!

In addition to our full training day tomorrow from 8:30 - 5:00, our group of fired-up, newly trained activists will have an opportunity to meet with a number of great Democratic challengers for House of Delegates tomorrow night at our Candidates Forum.  If you can't make it for the full two days of training, you're still welcome to stop by and join us for the forum from 5:30 - 7:00PM to meet some inspiring, courageous candidates.

Democracy for Virginia and DC for Democracy Candidates Forum for Virginia House of Delegates
Candidates scheduled to appear include David Poisson, Dave Marsden, Bruce Roemmelt, David Bulova...and other special guests will stop by throughout the weekend!
Saturday, July 9   5:30 - 7:00 PM
George Marshall High School, 7731 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church

We hope to see you there!

DNC Chairman...and this weekend's training

The cover story of this weekend's Washington Post Magazine was a profile of DNC Chairman Howard Dean.  It's a fascinating piece, and the latter section contains great personal details about Dean that most media profiles have completely ignored.

I think this exchange, which occurred with a group of students at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is most emblematic of what Dean hopes to achieve as DNC chair as well as what inspires many of us working with Democracy for Virginia:

Also, Democrats must contest races in all states, at all levels, in all years, not just presidential ones. "It is disrespectful not to come to Tennessee and Mississippi and Alabama as well as California and Michigan and Ohio . . . We need to come to Tennessee because what you could think of Democrats by watching [Republican] ads is all you're going to think of us unless we show up and make our case in person."

A young man stood up and asked what he could do to help the party, other than give money, which he didn't have. Dean bobbed on his feet, delighted with the question, because it allowed him to show off his best side -- the side that grew a presidential candidacy from a small Vermont operation with seven employees into a national campaign with 600,000 supporters.

"The number one thing you can do is run for office."

[Class giggles]

"I'm absolutely serious. I am not kidding."

The class grew quiet. Here was Dean as a Johnny Appleseed, sowing civics in the young. While Democrats have conceded parts of the country considered hostile, Republicans have left no office untested, he pointed out. The result is that Dems have no farm system, no ability to find young political talent in red states and groom it.

Run, he urged the students. Run for county road commissioner. Run for city council. "If you don't have people running for offices like county commissioner, who do you think is going to run for Congress a generation from now?

Dean has said that if you can't run for office yourself, the next best thing is to be a leader on someone else's campaign.  Or be an occasional volunteer.  Or give money.  But just voting is the bare minimum of what is required in a democracy.

Democracy for Virginia is working to help train and support a new "farm team" of candidates and campaign leaders in Virginia.  Over 100 grassroots activists were trained in May in Charlottesville.  We've teamed up with Latinos for America, DC for Democracy, and Democracy for America to host another DFA Campaign Training, this time in Falls Church.  Over 150 people have already signed up for this weekend's training.  We hope you'll join us!

Support DC for Democracy - rally for DC voting rights tomorrow!

DC for Democracy, our ally in DC (and co-host of our upcoming Campaign Training for Grassroots Activists in Falls Church on July 9-10), is organizing a rally for equal voting rights for DC tomorrow on Freedom Plaza at 12:30.  Related activities will also be occurring all morning.

If you work in DC, please consider spending your lunch hour with other great progressives at this rally!

More information from Team DC Democracy, an alliance of organizations working for equal voting rights for DC residents, is available here.

DFA Richmond Phone Banking for Tim

Meet at Kaine HQ for DFA Night phone banking - spend time with DFA friends while helping elect Tim!

Monday, June 20, 2005 at 6:00 PM
Kaine Campaign HQ (Coord. Campaign HQ)
6010 N. Crestwood Av.
Richmond, VA 23230

Hat tip to Kathy at My Own Backyard, central Virgniia's best progressive blog.  :-)

Get Involved Tomorrow! (Saturday)

It's a good thing that the weather forecast is looking good for tomorrow (until early evening potential thunderstorms...) because there are many great opportunities to get involved in political action tomorrow!

Canvassing with Tim Kaine
First of all, Tim Kaine himself will be canvassing in NoVA tomorrow!  DFV volunteers will meet at the NoVA Coordinated Campaign HQ at 9:30.  If you'd like to join us, RSVP here.

America Votes Day of Action
Other DFV volunteers will be joining our allies in the America Votes coalition for June Day of Action Events around the state.  As part of the America Votes Day of Action, Democracy for Virginia will be running a phone bank in Annandale from 10AM - 1PM.  If you'd like to join our phone banking team or any other America Votes events in Virginia tomorrow, sign up here.

Democratic Unity Rally in Williamsburg
Join Governor Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Leslie Byrne, Creigh Deeds, and other great Democrats from all around the Commonwealth in a celebration rally to kick off our efforts to win in November!  The rally will be held in Bicentennial Park at the corner of Newport and Henry Streets in Williamsburg.  RSVP here.

Of course, there are many other great opportunities to get involved in House of Delegates campaigns tomorrow, too - please feel free to share them in comments if you're working on a House campaign!

Campaign Training in NoVA - Reserve your space now!

Democracy for Virginia activists are working today to begin to build a "farm team" of future candidates, campaign leaders, precinct captains, and trained progressive activists, allowing us to recruit and support strong candidates of conviction who will articulate and stand up for core Democratic values in every race for elected office in Virginia. 

Some say this is an impossible goal, but that doesn't mean it's not worth aiming for.  To that end, we teamed up with Democracy for America and Latinos for America to offer our first 2-day Campaign Training for Grassroots Activists in Charlottesville last month.  Nearly 100 Virginians invested two full days, from early morning until evening, to work together to learn the fundamentals of running a campaign.  Attendees came from all over the Commonwealth and included teenagers and senior citizens, long-time party volunteers and newly energized activists, first-time campaign staffers, four candidates for Virginia House of Delegates, campaign leaders and staff members from 8 House of Delegates campaigns, DFV leaders and people who'd never heard of us, and at least 6 people who say they're considering running for office in the future after learning more about the fundamentals of campaigning.

Building on the phenomenal success of our first event, we've teamed up again with our allies at DFA and LFA to offer a training weekend in Northern Virginia!

Campaign Training for Grassroots Activists

Saturday, July 9 - Sunday July 10

8:30 AM - 5:30 PM

George Marshall High School

7731 Leesburg Pike

Falls Church, VA 22043 (map)

Cost: $50 per person (for TWO full days!) or $20 for students/attendees on fixed income

Seats are filling up quickly - reserve your space today!

Steve Ybarra Reflects on DFA Grassroots Campaign Training

Steve Ybarra, elected Vice-Chair of the DNC Hispanic Caucus and Chair of the Pacific Region Hispanic Caucus, was one of the many experienced trainers at the DFA Grassroots Campaign Training in Charlottesville last weekend, which was attended by over 80 grassroots activists from around the Commonwealth.

In a recent column on HispanicVista.com, inspired by his visit to train grassroots Democratic activists in Virginia this weekend, Steve Ybarra writes:

One of the things that I learned during the Dean Campaign was that there are lots of Americans who want to be involved in the political process.  These are people who have jobs and work to feed their families and find out that the skills that they have are transferable. Washingtonian types are afraid of these folks because they do not follow the rules, including the one that all money must go into media campaign coffers.

These Americans want to talk to the people who live near them, and as neighbors, pray with them and play with them.  Ordinary Democrats have frustrations because they have no real outlet to get local state and county parties organized nor can they figure out how to run their local political lives.  Democracy is all about the basics.

So what is the answer?  Let us get on the road and get Democrats working to take over school boards, county commissions, city councils, and parks and recreation boards, and then we will get rid of these incompetent people at the top.

The entire article is reprinted with permission after the jump.