Changing America one election at a time.

What an exciting week we’ve had: meeting, training, fundraiser – a whirlwind of activity, all of it inspiring and thought-provoking.

Starting with the monthly meeting: We heard from Reps. Greg Harris and Ann Williams on what the General Assembly has been up to this session, with a lot of discussion on budget issues particularly; we heard from Raja Krishnamoorthi, candidate for Congress in the new 8th Congressional District (Joe Walsh doesn’t live in the 8th anymore …), and not the least we tried out a new venue (the Lincoln Restaurant), which was terrific (many thanks to the Lincoln and it’s patient waitstaff).

We also voted to endorse Ilya Sheyman, candidate for Congress in the 10th Congressional District. We’ll be talking more in the next months about campaign activities we can participate in (block in some time now for the 4th of July parades), but now it is the end of the quarter, and the most helpful thing we can do for Ilya is throw him some dough so his end-of-the-quarter financial reports look strong. To that end, we’ve created an Act Blue page for NDFA donations – more candidates will be added as we endorse:

https://secure.actblue.com/page/ndfa2012

Feel free to click on it, take it out for a spin, make sure it works, add to Ilya’s numbers: every little bit counts. If you want to know more about Ilya, his website is: http://www.ilyasheyman.com/

DFA brought the Campaign Academy to our area this weekend, sponsored by NDFA, the Tenth District Democrats, and the Sheyman for Congress campaign. We had a marvelous time listening to campaign professionals teach us the nitty-gritty of campaigns: how to figure out where exactly your “50% + 1” voters are going to come from, how to fundraise (call time!), how to budget, strategic planning, how to develop a message, how to recruit and retain volunteers – great trainers, great content, and especially great activists participating. Besides our own NDFA people, there were activists from a wide range of Chicago neighborhoods, all over the suburbs, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Florida … very thrilling to see such a wide range of people collected in one place, all intent on winning Democratic campaigns. Of course, the other highlight was the speech by Dr. Howard Dean – the man who started so many of us on our path to reclaim the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party: who reminds us that it’s not just more Democrats but better Democrats we need to elect.

We also had our fundraiser Saturday night, hosted by Alderman Joe Moore and Barbara Moore (who has announced a campaign for commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District). Dr. Dean spoke twice there, and was thoughtful and inspiring both times. I don’t have the numbers yet, but we’re quite pleased with the success of the event, both in terms of attendance and money raised: thank you to all who contributed and attended.

Finally, I want to take a moment to thank some people whose hard work made these events possible: Mike Wood, as chair of the training committee, put an extraordinary amount of work into the planning and logistics of the Campaign Academy: thank you. Sandra Verthein headed up the group of people who worked on the fundraiser with Dr. Dean: thank you. Neither of those events would have been nearly as successful without their hard work. I also want to thank a group of volunteers who helped on these events: Mary Koczorowski, Frank Palmer, Lisa Ginsburg, Barry Aldridge, Cynthia Fox, and Toscha Mintert: thank you so much. If I’ve left someone out, it’s my error and I apologize: we could not have done it without the help of so many.

Thanks to all who attended our many events this past week: the conversations and work we do together makes change seem possible, and that gives us all hope to continue to fight the good fight.

And remember to give to Ilya if you can: https://secure.actblue.com/page/ndfa2012