Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Events

“Turn-Out-the-Vote Thursdays” Resumes 8/10!

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Poster using a wide variety of different letter and background colors used with the words "Turn out the Vote Thursdays phone bank grab a bite at a food truck write postcards to voters"Turn-Out-the-Vote Thursdays will resume on Thursday, August 10, 4-7pm, on the grass at Ix Art Park. It’s a friendly group, with plenty of time to chat and catch up while we work, and we’ve added the extra hour (4pm start) to accommodate as many people’s schedules as possible.

Mary Ann Harris, Nancy Damon, Suzanne Michels, Noemi Paz, and John Shepherd have been planning goals and volunteer opportunities for November’s election (less than four months away!).

As in the previous election cycles, the group will be:

  • Writing postcards and making follow-up phone calls to the newly Charlottesville registered voters signed up by our Voter Registration Team. That combination has been very successful, resulting in voting at an 80% rate in 2020 and 2022, and at a 75% rate in 2021.
  • Distributing “walk sheet” name and address lists of Dem-leaning people for our campaign canvassers to visit.
  • Sending some specific issue-message postcards (a new idea we’re considering).
  • Writing postcards and phoning Albemarle residents we’ve registered.
  • Writing postcards and phoning for campaigns near Charlottesville; we really want to win control of the House of Delegates and hold the Senate!
  • Perhaps organizing a canvassing trip or two!

Consider one or more of these options and hopefully join in on whichever one(s) sound good to you!

Please contact Mary Ann Harris with any questions: harrisma49@gmail.com

2nd Annual Summer Bash Fundraiser is just Days Away!

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The 2023 Summer Bash, our annual fundraiser, will be an outdoor event with Lynlee Thorne, Political Director of Rural GroundGame, as our guest speaker. Last year we had a great time, and having the event right before the June 20 primary also gives us the perfect chance to chat with our City Council, House of Delegates, and State Senate candidates.

1-panel Cartoon showing a young white boy and young black boy standing behind a table labeled "Fundraiser". The black child is holding up a sign reading "HELP"

Date: Friday, June 2
Time: 6-8pm
Cost (includes dinner!): $25 per person (only $15 if this is your very first Bash!)
Location: on the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (JSAAHC) lawn, 233 4th St. NW
Food: fried chicken or vegetarian dinner options.
Event sponsorships by our members are our main source of funding for everything we do: supporting campaigns, writing to newly registered voters, providing scholarships, and generally encouraging people to exercise their rights as citizens.
There’s still time to be a sponsor, at a level of your choice:
  • $100 or $250 (both include 2 dinner tickets)
  • $500 (includes 4 dinner tickets)
You can also buy two tickets and bring a friend…or bring your whole precinct! And you can always donate purchased tickets so some newcomers can afford to come (e.g. if you’ll be out of town or just want to treat it as a donation).
Our speaker, Lynlee Thorne, lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley on a small farm with her 2 young children and a menagerie of livestock. She has served as Chair of her local Democratic Committee and as campaign staff for multiple local and statewide campaigns over the past 5 years, including multiple statewide coordinated campaigns and local races. Both farming and being a rural Democrat require a long-term commitment to hard work, perseverance, and cultivation of resilient communities, which Lynlee brings to her work with Rural GroundGame.

Images of two pieces of fried chickenGraphic showing the word VEGEGARIAN surrounded by a dozen or so colorful vegetables

Cville Dems’ Charlottesville City Council Candidates Forum (5/24 Report)

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The event went very well, with approximately 75 people attending in-person or via Zoom. The five candidates (Michael Payne, Lloyd Snook, Dashad Cooper, Natalie Oschrin, and Bob Fenwick) made opening statement and then addressed questions and shared their thoughts on a wide variety of topics, e.g. top priority if elected, fuel efficiency and carbon emissions reduction, affordable housing, transportation, housing development in the Rivanna River floodplain, gun violence, and more.

The recording of the forum is available here (welcoming remarks end at 3:30).

Thanks to the candidates for showing up for another forum, to Lewis Combs for nicely moderating, to John McLaren for organizing, to Suzanne Michels and Nancy Damon and Erin Monaghan for assistance at the event (probably others!?), and to Buford Middle School for hosting!

Note: last night’s forum was the last one we’re sponsoring before the June 20 primary. We held a House of Delegates Forum on April 26 (recording is online here) at the Jefferson School, co-sponsored by the Albemarle Dems, and the Executive Committee decided in April that a Cville Dems State Senate forum wasn’t needed since quite a few others were already scheduled.

Forums for June Primary Candidates

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Photo of April 26, 2023 VA House of Delegates forum, (L-R) moderator Karen Combs and candidates Amy Laufer, Kellen Squire, Dave Norris, Bellamy Brown, Katrina Callsen.   Graphic reading Candidates Forum in white letters with red stripes and white stars above and below the words - all set against a blue background for a red white and blue American flag effect

House of Delegates — We held one on April 26 (photo left, video online here) at the Jefferson School, co-sponsored by the Albemarle Dems.
City Council — We’re holding a forum for this race on Wednesday, May 24; time, venue, and other details are still being worked out.
State Senate — The Executive Committee decided last month not to organize another forum.

 

Don’t Myth This!

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Graphic with white capital letters "FA" in the middle and then to the right there are two sets of additional letters - slightly above are the letters "KE" to make FAKE and slightly below the letters "CT" to make FACTThe Virginia Department of Elections has a helpful Mythbusters page where you can see common misperceptions and misinformation (and get the real facts!).