Winning in the November 7 Local Elections: Thursdays 4-7pm at Ix Art Park
We’ll be meeting every Thursday 4-7pm for “Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” at the Ix Art Park on the Brazos Tacos lawn, weather permitting. Come when and for how long your schedule and mood dictate; it needn’t be every week or the entire three hours! This week we’ll be writing postcards to newly registered City and County voters; if you can, bring a chair to sit on and a clipboard or something similar to write on.
There are lots of different ways to help over the next few months, do what’s most comfortable for you: door knocking, phone calling, voter registration, postcard writing, etc. For questions, please contact Mary Ann Harris: harrisma49@gmail.com .
For the past three years, we’ve been fortunate to have so many dedicated people join us at Ix Art Park to eat, drink, chat, and pitch in together to help our Democratic candidates win. In 2022, we had 100+ volunteers who attended at least one time, with many attending almost every week. If you’ve joined us before, please join us again. If you haven’t tried it yet, come on down and meet fellow Dems and enjoy yourself while working for a big win on November 7!
Mary Ann Harris, Nancy Damon, Suzanne Michels, Noemi Paz, and John Shepherd have been planning goals and volunteer opportunities to help hold the Senate and win back control of the House of Delegates! As in the previous years, the group will be:
- Writing postcards and making follow-up phone calls to newly registered voters. That combination has been very successful, resulting in this group voting at a consistent 75-80% rate in 2021-2023.
- 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.
Local Elections: Canvassing with the Albemarle Dems
We’re partnering to ensure we win our local races (with several uncontested City races, it makes sense to shift our efforts!):
State Senate: Creigh Deeds is favored to win our crucial Senate District 11, but the district has some very conservative areas, and we can’t be complacent if we’re going to keep this seat. His opponent, Phillip Andrew Hamilton, is quite a piece of work; among other claims to fame, he’s publicly misgendered his own 12-year-old, claiming that school teachers had poisoned his child’s mind into being non-binary. This is not someone we want representing us; please donate to or canvass for the Deeds campaign!
House of Delegates: Amy Laufer (our Albemarle County neighbor running in a competitive District #55 race) and Katrina Callsen (running unopposed in our District #54)
- Charlottesville City Council: Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook
- Charlottesville School Board: Amanda Burn, Shymora Cooper, Chris Meyer, and Nicole Richardson
- Albemarle County Board of Supervisors: Bea LaPisto-Kirtley, Ann Mallek, and Michael Pruitt
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Allison Spillman Albemarle County School Board: Rebecca Berlin, Judy Le, Ellen Moore Osborne, and Allison Spillman. A special note about Allison’s race: she’s running against Meg Scalia Bryce, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia-Bryce is (a) very concerned that the ACSB has been treating LGBTQ kids with respect and support, and (b) is very offended by its anti-racist curriculum. Scalia-Bryce has been winning the fundraising race by a wide margin, and we can’t let extremists like her start taking over our local schools. Please help Allison’s campaign any way you can, especially via donations and canvassing help.
If you’d like to canvass locally (figure roughly 3 hours):
- On a weekday, please email karencombs6522@gmail.com .
- On a weekend, use SignUp Genius to participate in one or more of the coordinated canvasses we’re doing with the Albemarle Dems, see the table below.
Sign up using this Signup Genius link!
Maps: Combs’ Office Mudhouse Crozet
Note: yellow highlights show “Weekends of Action” emphasis
Big Picture: Winning Locally Is NOT Enough
Republicans control the House of Delegates and the Governor’s mansion, and Dems barely hold the Senate; if Republicans take the Senate, then Virginia will become Florida, which means forced childbirth laws, schools teaching whitewashed history, “don’t-say-gay” laws, and other measures to erase LGBTQ youth.
We can’t let this happen; all Dems need to help in some way. Here are four non-local races where our help can make a difference:
The state party’s political staff say that two must-win races are Senate District 17 (Delegate Clint Jenkins looking to move up) and Senate District 24 (incumbent Senator Monty Mason running in a redrawn district). These races aren’t in the neighborhood, but if you can send a few bucks, it can help us retain the Senate!
In not-too-distant HD-57, Western Henrico/Eastern Goochland, Charlottesville native Susanna Gibson is running in a no-incumbent, competitive district; we need to win this seat to have a chance at a House of Delegates Democratic majority. January 6 insurrectionist John McGuire represented about 55% of current HD57 voters in the old HD56, so we have MAGA voters to beat!
Lily Franklin is running for the HD-41 seat, around Blacksburg. Charlottesville Dems know her well from her excellent work on the Josh Throneburg campaign, and she’s exactly the sort of person we need in the House! She’s in a right-leaning district, but we believe Lily has a fighting chance if we pull together. The “Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” group will be helping her campaign, possibly including a road trip to knock on doors there.
Whatever you choose to do, please do something to help the good guys hold the Senate and regain the House! Thank you!
And re: bad guys (elections matter!): our former 5th District Representative, Republican Tom Garrett, now running unopposed for VA House of Delegates District 56, was back in the news yesterday re: his bitter divorce proceedings with allegations of spousal abuse, attempted suicide, and thoughts of having his chief of staff killed.
Successful “Summer Fun in the Sun” Picnic with the Albemarle Dems (7/30/23)
75 people turned out on July 30 and did have a lot of fun… and got to hear good, short speeches from most of our local candidates!
The Albemarle Dems were super well-organized and had everything running smoothly and brought plenty of good food; thank you Karen Combs and crew!
John McLaren coordinated getting gas grills (thanks to Rodney Beard and Jules Tatum for providing the equipment and transportation) and Martha Donnelly (game buyer extraordinaire), Emily Little, and Dan Doernberg organized the games, with cornhole provided by Josh Throneburg and Jason and Tom Vandever.
Erin Monaghan took the games and miscellaneous other things to our storage locker for the next picnic (everyone said we should do this again, and hold more joint events with Albemarle!).
Creigh Deeds
Amy Laufer
Recent Cartoons by Clay Jones
