On Monday, Obama supporters from Rosa DeLauro's district (CT-3) officially thanked her for voting for the House version of the budget earlier this month.
Organizing for America (OFA) Volunteer Pia Pyles hosted the event, presenting Rosa with a "thank you" certificate in appreciation for her support of President Obama's policies.
These OFA-sponsored "Thank You" events have also been held for Congressmen Himes, Courtney and Larson and are scheduled for Senator Dodd and Congressman Chris Murphy.
As they met, Rosa talked about how great it would be if we engaged our network of Obama volunteers to get the word out about stimulus package programs that are available to individuals and we are now talking about possibly working together on a public information campaign. One volunteer had the idea of canvassing older neighborhoods with information on the weatherization program etc.
Rosa and her staff have been busy lately making sure folks are informed about programs available to them and we look forward to helping them out if we can.
Thanks to Rosa for taking the time to meet with volunteers and for once again being a community leader. The idea of collaborating on getting the word out about stimulus package benefits would never have happened without this thank-you ceremony that took no more than 15 minutes - a great example of the power of simple gestures to make change.
Jen Just
unpaid volunteer CT Liaison for OFA (among other things)
There's been a lot of talk here lately about what to do for the Lamont campaign -- all of which I endorse. Today, however, I would like to propose an alternate or parallel effort that will help not just Ned Lamont, but all progressive Democrats in the state, the ones who are running now and the ones who will run in the future.
You see, I have been troubled by the fact that our efforts on phonebanking and canvassing are, in a very real sense, "lost" when we head home for the day. The little nuggets of data each of us, as individuals, generate through these efforts is fed into the gaping maw of the campaign's database operation. The hope is that the intelligence will be put to good use, but you and I have no guarantee of that.
And campaign data operations are notoriously balkanized. In theory, there is an effort by the Party to gather and consolidate voter information generated by various campaigns around the state. But candidates are reluctant to share the fruits of their campaigns' labors. "Why," the reasoning goes, "should I provide my field intelligence to a central clearinghouse where a future primary challenger can have access to it and use it against me?"
That's one way in which your efforts get lost. Here's another: Let's say that at some future date, some brave progressive decides to take on Dodd (not saying that someone should, just trying to come up with a ferinstance) and you decide to back that candidate. Can you use the work you did for Lamont? No. It's "lost." You will have to volunteer for the new campaign and do it all over again.
This message is being sent to folks on the New Haven Democratic Party Meetup list:
We can't remove George Bush, but we can limit his powers in
Congress in 2006. Connecticut Citizens for Sound Government
(www.ctcitizens.org, formerly New Haven for Kerry) is working
toward this goal over the next two years. We start at home,
with the three Republican members of the House: Rob Simmons
(2nd district, Stonington), Christopher Shays (4th district,
Bridgeport) and Nancy Johnson (5th district, New Britain).
Remember, the first vote each cast in the current session
resulted in the election of Tom Delay as the Majority Leader.
Every seat we can change in Connecticut is one less seat for
the Republicans and one more for the Democrats.
We are starting today. The first step is to register more
Democratic voters, then have them vote in the 2005 elections.
We will focus on the 2nd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts.
For the next three months we plan to conduct voter registration
drives in the areas where we stand the best chance of bringing
more people into the fold. In November, we will conduct an
absentee ballot and get out the vote drive using phone banks.
This will accomplish three major results. First, we will get
new voters in the habit of voting. Each voter we register will
be another vote in 2006 and one step closer to reducing Bush's
majority in the House. Third, we will use this as a dress
rehearsal for our activities next year.
Keep an eye out for the first drive.
We can change the government in Washington and we will do it
one vote at a time.
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The New Haven Democratic Party Meetup group is now active as
Connecticut Citizens for Sound Government. Visit www.
ctcitizens.org for more information about our group and
listings of area political events, or contact ctcitizens@gmail.
com.
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