Welcome to Democracy for Virginia: A Work in Progress

Welcome to our collaborative work in progress, Democracy for Virginia. As passionate and committed supporters of Howard Dean's campaign in Virginia, we fervently hope that the activism and commitment of our network of Dean volunteers and activists in Virginia can be a catalyst for long term long-term positive change in our local communities, in the Virginia Democratic Party, and in our country.

Our remarkable network of Dean activists in Virginia can serve as a foundation for long-term progress if we stick together and continue to build on our strengths as a group. Many new groups, such as the Virginia Grassroots Coalition, have grown out of the Dean campaign in Virginia. Groups throughout the state have continued to work together on local and regional races. We hope that this Web site (and, eventually, an associated organization) can help us to stay connected and work more effectively.

As former supporters of Governor Howard Dean's presidential campaign, we recognize the need to continue the fight to put "people-power" back into the political process.

We feel that to maintain the energy and enthusiasm that was critical to the Dean movement, this must be achieved in way that is as "bottom up" as possible.  We must collect ideas and efforts from everyone.  Communication needs then become vital among such a large group of people as ourselves.  To begin this statewide effort, we have established a web-site and web-log (or "blog") as a communication clearinghouse for our efforts.  By developing a plan, clear and measurable goals, and organized and well-known working events, we can work toward the realization of successful Democratic campaigns in the state of Virginia.

We hope that our website and blog can be useful from many different vantage points:

• to provide information on Virginia politics, including issues and races of interest
• to provide a destination through which to set and track measurable goals related to progressive and Democratic activism in Virginia
• for candidates to request support (volunteer or fundraising).
• for volunteers to learn about and identify the candidates or issues they wish to support.
• for volunteers to post or retrieve specific event information relative to a candidate or issue they support.
• for volunteers and candidates or issue representatives to communicate and coordinate ideas and events

We hope that this blog will serve as the home of the beginning a state-wide, people-powered conversation. We welcome your feedback on both the Web site itself and on your ideas for the future of Democracy for Virginia.

Please use the comments thread below to discuss your thoughts about the Democracy for Virginia web site and your hopes for a Democracy for Virginia organization.

Please let us know if there are links to local Dean-related organizations or Web sites that we should include. We hope to recruit at least one author from each Congressional District or region in Virginia who will be willing to post entries about local races and opportunities for political activism around Virginia. If you are interested in writing for Democracy for Virginia, please email us. You are also welcome to email us at democracyforvirgina (at) yahoo (dot) com with any feedback or suggestions in addition to those you leave in the comments thread below.

As Howard Dean has said, fundamental change does not happen quickly or easily. We all know that democracy is not a spectator sport. If we stay together, grow stronger, have fun, and set measurable and achievable goals, our power as a group will be felt in Virginia for years to come.

Julie Ide & Maura Keaney

Comments

[NorfolkDem]

Julie and Maura :

Thank you for starting this site! I think it is a great way to get a conversation going around the state. If we can bat around some ideas here on Democracy for Virginia, maybe we will be in better shape to plan a statewide summit some time in June or July.

I hope that someone from Charlottesville will be willing to volunteer to post lots of information about Al Weed's race! I will be supporting Bobby Scott, who is closer to me, of course, but I think Bobby's re-election is all but guaranteed and I'd like to help out on Weed's race if I can.

Thanks for the information you provided below about some of the Congressional districts. I learned a lot. I wish I knew enough about my own to add anything useful It would be really great to have one for each area of the state.

I can't wait to hear about all the great things going on in Virginia.

[Mary]

This is really great. I also think it would be great if we could plan for a state-wide meeting in person. Maybe we could do it at the State Convention in Roanoke in June?? I know not all o fus are going to Roanoke as delegates, but anyone can attend the convention.

If not, maybe we could meet somewhere close to the center of the state...Charlottesville, maybe?

And I second NorfolkDem's suggestion. In addition to supporting our existing Democratic congressman for re-election, I hope everyone around the state gets behind Al Weed!

[sarahj]

Greetings! The site looks great and I really like the multiple links. I notice that CD 10 and 11 are not listed?? Thanks to Jennifer Boysko's emails, I'll be working more or less intensely on the James Socas campaign in the 10th. I'll be glad to try to write about it for you. Volunteers needed for canvassing, lit drops, flyering. and eventually phone banking to work with the campaign and/or the regular Dem structure in the District,contact: 703-848-1654. He is socially progressive, fiscally conservative, very straightforward and direct. Campaign will be very field oriented. Help send Frank Wolf home!
There has been some interested expressed by the Moran campaign in trying to get a joint office in NoVa with the Kerry campaign. Might be an opportunity for us to join in in the fashion that Julie had been discussing. Moran's manager is even looking at our old Dean space!
I like the idea of a state-wide get together although I won't be able to attend the State convention due to a major conflict. And I think it's good to have Dean--whoops!, sorrrry,--DFAV gatherings with visibility at regular Dem venues, remind them that we are still together and here without being too in-your-face about it.
Thank you Maura and Julie for all your hard work getting this going! You two are awesome! Techies for Dean!

[Carrie in Limbo]

First of all, congratulations to all of you who have created such a interesting, informative and (frankly) lovely website.
I have just one quick question as I familiarize myself with your blog.

I'm not seeing any link to the Kerry campaign. (Don't misunderstand...I'm a Dean girl from wayback.) Is there much activity in VA for Kerry? Is Democracy for Virgina getting involved in the presidential race or are you keeping it local?

[Maura in VA]

Hi, NorfolkDem, Mary, Sarah, and Carrie! It's great to see you posting here.

Sarah, we will have links to every Congressional District once we have content up for each one - the ones that are listed on the left are the only ones that have content just yet. We're looking for authors from all over Virginia - would you like to be an author for the 10th CD?

Carrie, you raise a good point about campaign links. It hadn't even occurred to me to put up a Kerry link - I figured everyone knew how to get there! :-) But it's probably a good idea to have a list on the right side that links to all of the major Democratic candidate's Web sites - John Kerry, Bobby Scott, Rick Boucher, Al Weed, Andy Rosenberg, Jim Moran, James Socas, etc....

Ugh. I just realized I typed the names of seven men in a row. We've got to work at recruiting and supporting more progressive women to run for office here in Virginia! :-)

To answer your question about the Kerry campaign here in VA, Carrie, there's not much going on from the official campaign, but there's a good amount of grassroots activity around the state that we hope will benefit Kerry. I don't believe Kerry has any paid staff here in VA or an office, and it may well be that VA gets written off as too red (which I think is a mistake). I do believe that working intensely on congressional races in red districts like James Socas in the 10th and Al Weed in the 5th, will benefit Democrats across the ticket. A lot of local DFV/DFA groups in VA are focusing on local voter registration drives and in working with groups such as ReDefeat Bush increase voter registration in swing states.

[Carrie in Limbo]

A little off topic, but...
Click my name to go tp the Bush campaign website. It turns out that the "W" in his name ACTUALLY stands for "women."
I think that's a funny name for a WASP. But that's beside the point. I think that even though almost without exception, all the people running for office are men, at least there are elected officials (well, kinda elected, appointed, whatever) with the WORD "women" in their names. I think that's a great step for us gals.
Perhaps Virginia should start promoting the fact that the "F" in Kerry's name stands for "FoxyLady."
I think we could attract a lot of the swing voters with that info.
Just a thought.

[Bo in NH/VA]

Hi Y'all,

Maura, seems like this is indeed a great success thanks to the link Alison posted.

It really is a fatal mistake to outrule VA and write it off as too red. With a blue governor, a very close senatorial election, and every single Republican incumbent challenged, it is clearly bluing up somewhat and I really think Kerry stands a chance here. Especially if Al Weed and James Socas win - or at least force the incumbents to run a tough campaign and spill out their poisonous special interest warchest, we can show the nation VA progressives are a big force out there!

I'm with Carrie's "just a thought" on promoting "FoxyLady" as Kerry's F initial! Swing voters would hurl right over to our side of the road! WE WILL DO THIS!

[Bo in NH/VA]

Interested in a Democrat picking up a seat in a solid red district in the rural south of VA?

This is Al Weed, who, with our progressive help, will defeat the slimy Virgil Goode! Weed has actually put up a fundraising bat (Not a beautiful bat like ours, but still a thermometer) and he needs to raise $100,000 by June 30th. Thus far, the bat reads $7,000.

We can help Al beat Goode in the 5th! We can send another progressive Democrat to Washington, and end the corrupt Republican control of rural Virginia!

End the ignorance and irony of GOP rural control,
Send a progressive voice to Washington,
Donate to Al Weed - they even take little cash.

That's my new Al Weed verbal commercial...

[DaveinFranklinCo]

Hi all, (and sorry for the long post)

Congratulations and thanks go to Julie and Maura for their initiative and inpsiration with this website. I hope to contribute when I can, but I'm not much of a blogger.

For those who aren't aware, there will be a stateweide Meetup for DFV on Friday evening, June 4th in Roanoke, VA at the Hotel Roanoke. This will be followed by a "unity" Meetup of all Meetup participants (Dem party, Clark, Kerry, etc)and will be followed on June 5th by the state party convention. We are targeting 7:30pm as the start time (the "unity" Meetup is at 8:30). I'm coordinating the first (DFA/DFV) Meetup and have compiled a tentative agenda. I've had 20 positive responses so far, so I'm estimating 40-50 of us by the convention.

I had considered feeding people and wanted to keep it frugal (in tribute to Gov.Dean's JCPenney suit) but buffets at the hotel would have run from about $35@ and up (+drinks) and downtown Roanoke restaurants were looking for about the same to reserve a private room. Then, talking to party officials, I was enlightened on convention proceedings... Friday night there will be dozens of hospitality suites with food & drink all courtesy of our great Party!...So, we don't have to worry about food- just run around the hotel and freeload until 7:30. Then come to the meeting (Room will be posted).

This will definitely be a working (not social) meeting, but all DFA/DFV folks are welcome and the bigger the numbers, the better. I hope that there will be representatives from every Dean Meetup in the state. (If my guess of 40-50 turns into 100-200 think of the impact it will have on the party leadership; some of them will be addressing us at our Meetup).

If you are coming please email me(remove the obvious) with your name, city, contact info, as well as the name and contact info for your Meetup host/coordinator. Thanks, and keep working...

[Bo in NH/VA]

Anybody got any news from their district conventions???

[Brenna]

Hello,
I wanted to see if I could talk to your group was doing (in general terms) and how it was doing its fundraising. I'd love to compare notes.

Thank you,
Brenna
co-chair
Tidewater for Democracy