Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Internal Cville Dems

The Campaign Roles We Need to Fill

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Graphic showing 5 canvass roles (Confirm Captain, Sign-in Captain, Phonebank and Canvass Captains, Staging Location Director, and Training Captain) with small stylized cartoon thumbnails above each.

Canvass and Election captains are needed and will volunteer on a weekly basis at the Coordinated Office until the election, especially weekends and the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) days, i.e. Nov. 2, 3, 4, and 5. You can catch up on training information through the Coordinated Office. The roles are:

  • Confirm Captain: calls volunteers who have signed up to canvass, calls to remind them, and leaves a message if necessary.
  • Sign-In Captain: signs in volunteers, gets their name, phone, email, also tries to persuade them to sign up for more days. Keeps tally and reports numbers to the Staging Location Director (see below).
  • Phonebank & Canvass Captain: passes out packets (gets folks to punch in number to Minivan) and keeps track of how many packets go out.
  • Training Captain: tells volunteers how to canvass, goes over script, and how to use Minivan and other canvassing info.
  • Staging Location Director: helps with setup and teardown, helps other captains when needed, gets numbers from Sign-In and Canvas Captains, is responsible for sending the numbers to HQ within 30 minutes (the deadline is important). HQ will call back within 10 minutes to confirm the numbers. This person is also the point of contact with HQ.

There are also more minor roles for large events.

Volunteer! Lots of Options Every Thursday 5-7pm

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Flier with a photo of several dozen Dems working during "Turn Out the Vote Thursdays”. The headline reads "Want to get involved?" and then says "Get out the Vote is every Thursday! Brazos @ IX Art Park 5-7pm"

We’re less than one month away from Election Day — there’s still plenty of time to help our Democratic candidates!

We’re at Ix Park from 5-7pm on Thursdays, gathering by the picnic table outside of Brazos Tacos. Our postcards have been written and mailed, and now we’re:

  • making phone calls to people we’ve registered to vote and to whom we’ve sent “remember to vote” postcards
  • phoning and canvassing for the Coordinated Campaign.

Bring a blanket or chair so you can sit on the lawn under the trees. If you want a drink or snack while you’re working, you can sit at a table on the patio of Brazos. And, if you want to avoid the heat or rain, you can grab a table inside Brazos.

REMEMBER: If you can’t come on Thursday, but want to help get Kamala, Tim, and Gloria elected, check out the opportunities for canvassing and phone banking with the Coordinated Campaign (office address 1410 Incarnation Dr, Suite 203).

  • Canvassing With The Coordinated Campaign:  Every Saturday, the Coordinated Campaign will send canvassers out at 10 am, 1 pm and 4 pm. Every Sunday, they’ll send canvassers out at 1 pm and 4 pm.  Canvassers will be sent out from the Coordinated Campaign’s office. To sign up in advance, go tohttps://www.mobilize.us/timkaine.
  • Phone Banking With The Coordinated Campaign: Every Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 pm,, the Coordinated Campaign will hold phone banks at its office.  Every Tuesday at 5:30 pm, they hold a phone bank. To sign up in advance, go tohttps://www.mobilize.us/timkaine.

Let’s keep the major national momentum going here! Volunteers are signing up and working at record rates for the Dems, and we need everyone’s assistance. Here are some pictures from last week (including Cville Dems Co-Chair Josh Throneburg posing with artist Julia Farill, who has made lovely Kamala Harris posters, bags, and more!):

Photo of Josh Throneburg at left and local artist Julia Farill stand together at Ix Park. Julia is holding a poster she created with an original portrait of Kamala Harris; behind Harris’ head is the word "VOTE".     Photo of Cville Dems volunteers working hard in small groups to get out the vote on the grounds of Ix Park on a sunny September day. A Tim Kaine campaign poster is partially visible in the foreground.

Bo Sacks’ (Newsletter) Retirement

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Photo of Bo Sacks standing next to someone wearing a lifesized Mickey Mouse head.

Bo Sacks is a newsletter producer extraordinaire: in 2010, he was inducted into the Publishing Hall of Fame, and he still puts out the world’s longest running e-newsletter, “Heard on the Web: Media Intelligence.”

Bo has been a steadfast member of the Cville Dems volunteer family, laying out and sending out our newsletter biweekly for the last 12 years. And before moving here, Bo was also a good Democrat in upstate New York, where he served as Vice Chair of the Columbia County Democratic Committee for nearly 8 years.

Bo’s decided that a dozen years was a good term to serve, and he’s decided to retire from his volunteer gig with our newsletter.

We wish you the best Bo; we appreciate all you’ve done over that long run, and we’ll miss your great contributions to the Cville Dems!

Meet Our Newest Intern, Kushaan Soodan

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Photo of Kushaan Soodan, wearing a blue collared shirt and a blue jacket, standing in a meadow with hills and forests in the background.Kushaan Soodan is a second year UVA student from Great Falls, VA. He’s looking to major in Public Policy and Economics at UVA’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Kushaan is deeply interested in learning about youth engagement in politics and community organizing.

He’s involved with UVA’s International Relations Organization, where he’s helped staff and organize Model United Nations conferences for high school, university students, and the broader community.

Outside of politics, he enjoys playing tabletop games and is an avid Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) player. After graduation he hopes to pursue a career in public service with the federal government.

We Need Canvassers!

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A woman standing in her front doorway is talking with another woman who has come by to canvass her neighborhood.There’s a big need for canvassers this election season.

Canvassers leave the Coordinated Campaign office with names and literature:

  • Every Saturday: 10 am, 1pm, and 4pm
  • Every Sunday 1pm and 4pm

Please pick up canvassing sheets with names and addresses and campaign literature at the office:

Charlottesville Democratic Coordinated Office
1410 Incarnation Dr., Suite 203
Charlottesville, VA 22901

We’re using the space for canvassing and other activities related to electing on November 5:

  1. Gloria Witt for the Fifth District congressional seat now occupied by Bob Good (Good lost the Republican primary to another MAGA extremist more loyal to Trump than Good was)
  2. Senator Tim Kaine to retain his seat by defeating yet another Republican MAGA extremist Hung Cao (e.g. anti-abortion, pardons for January 6 insurrectionists, etc.)
  3. Kamala Harris as our first female President!!!