Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

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).

Spread the Word about the Republican’s Disastrous Proposed Debt Ceiling Spending Cuts (Action Item)

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Speaker Kevin McCarthy has a sign mounted on a tripod titled "Debt Ceiling Cuts" listing Student Loan Forgiveness, Veteran Healthcare, Child Healthcare, Daycare, Housing Assistance, Train Safety Inspections, Head Start, Pell Grants, Covid Relief, TANF, Environment Protection Plus Medicaid and Welfare Work Requirements. McCarthy also has 4 dogs standing between him and a non-plussed Pres. Biden and says to Biden "And you have to kick these puppies."

As America comes dangerously close to defaulting on our debt obligations, which would have catastrophic economic consequences, Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to demand an incredible 22% domestic spending cut.
You can help pressure Republicans to back down from tanking the economy by (1) retweeting some of the latest posts from the White House Twitter feed and (2) making sure your friends and family know just how much harm such massive cuts would cause, especially to the most vulnerable Americans.

Some specific effects:

  • “Thirty million fewer healthcare visits. Fewer staff, increased claims backlog, longer wait times for benefits. Almost a $30 billion shortfall for veterans funding.” Military Times, 4/24/23
  • “…kick 300,000 children out of child care and Head Start, slash nutrition services for more than 1 million seniors and turn off the heat in 5 million low-income homes.” MSNBC, 4/23/23
  • “…make healthcare more expensive and less accessible for 2 million vulnerable people who rely on community health centers.” MSNBC, 4/23/23
  • Education Secretary Miguel Cardona “said the budget cuts would hurt students and student loan borrowers in part by eliminating loan forgiveness, ‘pulling 60,000 educators and support staff from schools’ and ‘derail(ing) the response to the youth mental health crisis in this country.'” USA Today, 4/25/23
  • “…make college more expensive by reducing the maximum Pell Grant award by nearly $1,000 for the 6.6 million recipients, as well as 80,000 who will no longer receive those grants.” MSNBC, 4/23/23

Early Voting Has Started, Here Are All Your Voting Options!

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graphic showing a ballot being submitted via insertion into a box with a narrow slit at the top. into

  • Early voting for the Democratic Primary (which in Charlottesville more or less determines the winners of the November General Elections!) started Friday May 5 at the Registrar’s Office and runs through June 17 (Monday-Fridays, and there will be Saturday voting on 6/10 and 6/17).
  • Register now through 5/30 at your Registrar’s Office, or online, or at a registration drive.
  • Do same-day registration when you early vote 5/31-6/17 at your Registrar’s Office.
  • Vote on Election Day 6/20 any time from 6am-7pm at your local precinct (when you use same-day registration at your precinct, you vote with a provisional ballot, which will be counted unless there’s some other problem).
Related Notes
City Council approved some changes to precinct boundaries and polling locations that took effect on April 7, in time for the June primaries. Around May 1 the Registrar’s Office sent postcards to all registered Charlottesville voters; if you didn’t get one, or have any questions about voting or your voting status, call the City of Charlottesville Registrar at 434-970-3250 (Albemarle readers should call the County Registrar at 434-972-4173).
Whenever you cast your ballot, bring an ID that meets Virginia’s criteria (see lists of acceptable IDs in English, Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese). If you don’t have an ID, or forget to bring one, you can sign a form affirming your identity and you’ll still be able to vote a regular ballot.

Forums for June Primary Candidates

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Photo of April 26, 2023 VA House of Delegates forum, (L-R) moderator Karen Combs and candidates Amy Laufer, Kellen Squire, Dave Norris, Bellamy Brown, Katrina Callsen.   Graphic reading Candidates Forum in white letters with red stripes and white stars above and below the words - all set against a blue background for a red white and blue American flag effect

House of Delegates — We held one on April 26 (photo left, video online here) at the Jefferson School, co-sponsored by the Albemarle Dems.
City Council — We’re holding a forum for this race on Wednesday, May 24; time, venue, and other details are still being worked out.
State Senate — The Executive Committee decided last month not to organize another forum.

 

REPORT: Executive Committee Meeting (4/24/23)

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Six cartoonish (faceless) people sitting around a meeting table

Our first in-person Executive Committee meeting since before the pandemic (not counting some hybrid meetings) was held in Rives Park, and the weather thankfully cooperated. Highlights:
Jason Vandever gave a Treasurer’s Report; we’re well within our budget.
We discussed sending a postcard to registered voters in town to make sure that they know about the June 20 Primary.
The precinct lines for Charlottesville have been redrawn, as the City does every 10 years, and when this happens it poses a few temporary but interesting technical challenges we deal with, e.g.:
  • two precincts no longer exist;
  • there are two new precincts that technically have no one representing them, because the precincts did not exist at the time of our last reorganization (and our bylaws don’t address this scenario!);
  • some Precinct reps no longer live in the precincts that they represent due to the redrawn lines;
  • Mike Cameron and Mary Ann Harris have found a very few errors in the VoteBuilder database that put people in the wrong precinct (we’re advising the DPVA’s tech team of these).
To deal with this short-term, it was agreed that:
  • A proposed amendment to the bylaws will be presented for the May 22 Full Committee meeting.
  • In the meantime, precinct leaders will develop an ad hoc reorganization to handle the upcoming election.
We’re looking for suggestions on how to schedule the May 22 Full Committee meeting. We need a quorum to approve the change in the bylaws, so turnout is important, and it’s possible that a Zoom meeting would get a higher turnout. On the other hand, if we have another park meeting, we can invite the Primary candidates to chat with people before and after, and that could help drive turnout. Members are encouraged to share your views with John McLaren: cvilledemschair@gmail.com .
Nancy Damon updated us on the progress of our upcoming June 2 Summer Bash fundraiser (see below!), on the lawn at the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center. Our goal is $10,000; so far we have $8,000 in sponsorship pledges… please pitch in and help us reach our goal!
There was broad agreement that our party should host an information forum on the City’s zoning reform process (see below).
Nancy reminded us of the opportunity to once again be a sponsor of (and table at) the Chihamba Festival (7/29). The Festival is also hosting a fundraising ball on June 3, and it would be great if local Dems attended that event too.
Based on feedback from the State Senate candidates, who told us there have already been five informational forums scheduled, we decided not to hold another one of our own.
Madison Cummings reminded us of the Albemarle Dems fundraiser May 7, 6-8pm, at Greencroft. In the past, a good number of Charlottesville Democrats have attended this event, and we encourage people to attend this year as well! Rep. Jennifer McClellan will be the guest speaker.