Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

REPORT: June 2nd Summer Bash Fundraiser (Featuring Rural GroundGame’s Lynlee Thorne)

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Fundraising Committee Chair Nancy Damon and her group (we thank them all for their great work on this!) gave us this recap of a very fun and successful event (even the weather cooperated!):
We had about 150 people come out to socialize, meet the candidates, and hear our speaker Lynlee Thorne, Rural GroundGame’s Political Director.
Big thanks to:
  • Our 60+ sponsors, at all levels, whose generosity makes all our work possible!
  • Our primary food vendor Soul Food Joint (for the chicken and sides and all their table and chair hauling/set-up/takedown), and to Sticks and Mona Lisa Pasta for some of the vegetarian dishes.
  • To Black Bear Composting for… composting!
  • To everyone who pitched in to help with the cleanup, which included delivering our excess to The Haven, which they greatly appreciated.
It worked out very nicely having Lynlee speak; we got lots of compliments about her organization’s good and important work, and our arranging the chance for them to learn more about it.
As Lynlee explained in her talk, Rural GroundGame (RGG) is a Political Action Committee that provides in-kind assistance to Democratic candidates running in rural areas across the Commonwealth. Our party has tended to neglect rural voters, and that has hurt us badly, especially in state-wide elections. RGG helps candidates in many ways (e.g. supporting canvassing efforts, media coordination), and it’s developing a new online platform and research arm.
For more information about RGG, to make a donation, or to see how you might be able to plug in as a volunteer or collaborator, visit www.ruralgroundgame.org.
                
                 

Draft Zoning Ordinance

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Horizontally-oriented graphic reading "Community Forums" in a yellow handwriting-looking script and "Long-Range Planning" in a standard print font surrounded by a white background and an abstract geometric design
As the City continues to discuss the draft Zoning Ordinance (all three modules are now available), a Cville Dems working group continues discussing how our party might contribute to the process by acting as an additional information channel. If you have thoughts on the matter, please reach out to us: communications@cvilledems.org .
Note: Cville Plans Together is holding a Module 3 open house at CitySpace 4:30-7:30pm on Wednesday, June 14. Members of our working group are planning to attend, please join us!

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.