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The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

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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

Full Committee Meeting (Monday 5/22 at Forest Park, unusual 6pm start)

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Six cartoonish (faceless) people sitting around a meeting tableOn Monday May 22 the Full Committee will meet, weather permitting, at the Forest Hills Park picnic shelter, 1000 Forest Hills Park Ave., starting at 6pm; the unusual start time gives primary candidates a final Full Committee opportunity to informally meet and chat with members before the primary. Please bring your own chair and an extra if possible. If rain (or snow!) is forecast, we’ll email everyone to switch to Zoom.
Tentative agenda item highlights (after the candidate time ends):
  1. Assuming we can get a quorum (so please attend if you can!!), vote to amend our bylaws to reflect precinct redistricting necessitated by the 2020 census (details in last month’s newsletter). The proposed amendment language, with full explanation, is here.
  2. Volunteers will be needed to staff current polling places and the two old polling places (Alumni Hall and Tonsler) on Primary Day to answer voters’ questions and thank them for coming out to vote.
  3. June 2 Summer Bash Fundraiser report (see below).
  4. Charlottesville City Council Candidate forum on May 24 (see below).
  5. June 26 picnic with Albemarle Dems (see below).
  6. Zoning info forum (see below).

Executive Committee Meeting Monday 4/24 6:30pm

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Six cartoonish (faceless) people sitting around a meeting table
We’re trying to find an outdoor location that will hold 20+ people with some social distance, we’ll email everyone Sunday or Monday with a Zoom link and a physical location if found.
Agenda highlights:
1. Meet the officers of Rally PVCC (see below), a new PVCC student organization aiming to mobilize students to become more engaged in the civic life of the greater Charlottesville community
2. Final list of candidates (and thanks to all who helped, see below)
3. Discuss logistics for various Candidate Forums (see below)
4. Decide whether to hold an informational forum about the Draft Zoning Plan revisions (see below)
5. Update on our June 2 Summer Bash fundraiser (see below).

New Organization Profile: “Rally PVCC”

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A new student political organization is forming at PVCC!
PVCC student Mara Cox took a “Women in American History” course from Prof. Jennifer Tomas in Fall 2022 and, in a class discussion, was really surprised how many of her classmates didn’t realize there was an election coming up that year (didn’t follow current events much at all). Though political decisions impact almost every aspect of students’ lives, from housing costs and food insecurity to health care and transportation, and understanding of the world, most of her classmates were intimidated by politics and political discussion. And in an unrelated Geology Club author event,  Timefullness author Marcia Bjornerud emphasized that addressing climate change and other challenges requires scientists to get involved in politics, and politicians willing to learn and value science.
Putting those two threads together, Mara decided to plunge into political work herself, and that was the beginning of Rally PVCC.
Photo of the founders of Rally PVCC: Emily Moss, Mara Cox, and Justin Roberts
Founding officers of Rally PVCC: (L-R) Emily Moss, Mara Cox, and Justin Roberts
Though the club will be welcoming to all, the three founding officers all personally fall on the progressive end of the political spectrum:
        • Mara Cox (co-President) – Mara, now 33, was working in the food service industry before illness and pandemic boredom led her to start reading about evolution, which led to a passion for geology that brought her to college (at age 31) to study geology and hopefully go on to teach geology at the community college level. She started the Geology Club at PVCC, which is now the most popular student club on campus!
        • Justin Roberts — Justin is a member of Charlottesville DSA who’s done anti-eviction work with its Housing Justice Committee (canvassing tenants facing eviction, court watch, etc.). That work, particularly talking 1:1 with the housing insecure, has galvanized his desire to build working power in Cville. He’ll be attending VCU in the fall.
      • Emily Moss (co-President) — Emily was born and raised on California’s Central Coast, where she was active in local politics. She previously attended design school and worked in product design and brand/media consulting, but her passions for climate justice, human rights advocacy, and politics in general have led her to “switch gears”; she’s attending PVCC to earn general credits to transfer to UVA and then plans to attend law school!
      The group is now chartered by PVCC, with Prof. Tomas as faculty advisor. They’re planning to hold an event in late April or early May (maybe even a City Council candidate forum!?), while school is still in session, to build some momentum for a big launch soon after Fall semester begins.
      Their focus over the past 5 months has been soliciting opinions from other students about the mission and structure of the organization. That process is still ongoing, but a general concept has started to gel; a club without partisan labels, litmus tests, or any set agendas that would help educate students about political issues and encourage students to become more civically engaged in their communities (Charlottesville) and in the political process. To do this, the club would be a safe space where any student who was interested in learning more about issues could come and engage with other students (and potentially outside community members) in a safe space.
      Please reach out to Rally PVCC at rallypvcc@gmail.com if:
      • you or a friend/family member might be interested in keeping informed about their events and programs
      • if you’d be willing to act as a community resource for them (e.g. as a potential speaker, or advisor to students in an area you’re knowledgeable about, etc.)
      The Cville Dems are looking forward to working with these very sharp and energetic founders to help build a vibrant student organization at PVCC. We’re confident that, as its members learn more the serious issues we’re all confronting, they’ll find themselves largely aligned with Democratic Party values and policy prescriptions.
      Note– shoutout to PVCC student Torrance Malone for connecting us with this group!

A Word about “The Former Guy”

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Cartoon of Pres. Trump in a jail cell (only a cot and commode) wearing an orange prison jump suit holding a coffee mug reading "Lock Her Up". The caption reads "The Indicted Presidents Club".It’s a sad day for America when an ex-President is indicted.

But we’ve had plenty of sad days given all the illegal, unethical, and immoral actions perpetrated by ex-Pres. Trump (and somehow he’s still the leading Republican candidate for 2024!!????).

So for many of us, yesterday’s sadness was long long overdue.

Voter Registration Team is Ready to Rock and Roll!

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Voter registering at a Cville Dems tableWhat’s that bright spotlight beaming up into the nighttime sky… is it the Bat Signal? I don’t think so (get real, this is Charlottesville!).
No, it’s our call to our mighty Voter Registration Team, alerting them that the team will be starting up again around mid-April!
  • Existing team members: look for a Signup Genius email soon!
  • Extroverts not yet on the team: it’s fun to be out talking to people in the spring, and there are few things more satisfying than signing up a new voter! If you might be interested, email Suzanne: suzemichels@gmail.com
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