Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

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Voter Registration Time = VR Team Time!

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Graphic showing 5 fingers, index finger pointing at the viewer, with 4 blocks of rectangles reading "We" "need" (both white letters on blue background) "You" (white letters on red background) "To Register Voters" (black letters on white background)Our wonderful voter registration team, led by Suzanne Michels and Barbara Shenefield, registered voters for the Democratic Primary up to the last minute; now registration moves to the Registrar’s Office (see above for times). The VR team will be at the Ix Market the next two Saturdays to educate folks about where to vote and who’s on the ballot.
There are few things more satisfying than signing up a new voter! You can visit this online signup form to see what dates we need people. We’d love to have more folks pitch in, and if you’re even a little bit of an extrovert, you’ll enjoy it! Or email suzemichels@gmail.com if you might be interested.
On a related front… we’re looking for volunteers for the June 20 primary so we can staff a table at each polling location (and the two discontinued ones, Tonsler and Alumni Hall), to thank voters for coming out and hand out information about upcoming events, newsletter, volunteer opportunities, etc.

Bon Voyage Bekah Saxon!

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photo of Bekah Saxon holding her VEA namebadgeBekah Saxon has moved from Charlottesville to take a job with the Connecticut Education Association, after many many years of great work here:
  • Her “day job” was organizing teachers with the Virginia Education Association, where she earned a major victory in March when the Charlottesville School Board became only the fourth division in Virginia to give its employees collective bargaining rights.
  • She served for years as Secretary (a stalwart on the Executive Committee, providing context and history whenever she could), as party co-chair 2020-2021 with Sharon Cannon Webb, and a fierce Voter Protection advocate who helped organize our local efforts in recent years (and our ace logistics person on Election Days, spearheading the gathering of materials to give to arriving voters and water bottles and other supplies for our volunteers).
We wish her and her very civically engaged wife Charlene Green (leaving later this year) and their amazing son Max the very best in this new phase of their lives… but both will be terribly missed locally!
Anyone who might be willing to help cover Bekah’s Voter Protection duties (even very short term!) should contact John McLaren at cvilledemschair@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

Meet the Candidates running in the June 20, 2023 Democratic Primary

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Round graphic saying "Virginia is for Voters" put out by Virginia Department of Elections

Here are the candidates running in all three Democratic Primary races (see a sample ballot here):

House of Delegates District 54 (vote for only 1)

Charlottesville City Council (3 seats, vote for not more than 3)

State Senate District 11 (vote for only 1)

Note: as a matter of policy, the Cville Dems don’t take sides in primaries, but we’ll continue to share information about these races through June in an even-handed way.
We’re tracking these races on our website and giving candidates some access to our social media… and we’re offering each candidate some space towards the bottom of each newsletter for campaign information/graphics.

REPORT: Full Committee Meeting (5/22/23)

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Six cartoonish (faceless) people sitting around a meeting table

The Full Committee met at the Forest Hills Park’s picnic shelter. The highlights:
1) A number of candidates came early to meet and chat with members pre-meeting: Dave Norris, Bellamy Brown, Katrina Callsen (House of Delegates candidates), Michael Payne, Lloyd Snook (City Council candidates), and Amanda Burns (School Board candidate).
2) We had a quorum and were able to approve two bylaws changes necessitated by the City’s changed precinct lines (see last issue for explanation). Thanks to Dave Chapman and Erin Monaghan for crafting the approved amendments.
3) Jason’s Treasurer’s Report focused on our June 2 Summer Bash Fundraiser (more above!). Lynlee Thorne, Rural GroundGame’s Political Director, will be the guest speaker. So far, we’ve received or have pledges for $12,000, getting close to our current $13,000 goal. To purchase tickets, donate, or get more event info, please go to https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2023summerbash .
4) The voter registration team continues to do registrations and rights restorations at IX Park (Saturday mornings) and other locations (see below).
5)Jim Nix reported that the City Registrar’s data shows early voting turnout is good: 670 votes already cast and over 1,500 mail ballots sent out.
6) Date and location of our Charlottesville City Council Candidates Forum (held last night at Buford) was announced. We noted the 6/4 Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Assoc. candidates forum (see calendar above).
7) For our Monday June 26 picnic with the Albemarle County Dems we just have to organize a few games (see below).
8) The 5th District Dems hosted a summit for all committee chairs on April 29, focusing on committees that are operating in a “sea of red”. The 5th District’s Fall Extravaganza is scheduled for September 30 at the University of Lynchburg.
9) The Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) will hold its annual fundraiser on Friday 6/23 in Richmond. Rep. Bennie Thompson (of January 6 Commission fame!) and Paul Begala are announced speakers. For info and tickets go to bluecommonwealthgala.com .
10) DPVA has determined that the party will use conventions to select delegates for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, so we can look forward to local committee caucuses next year!
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