Changing America one election at a time.

Once again, it’s time for our monthly meeting. During the summer, we conducted a survey of our members asking what our priorities should be for the upcoming campaign season. Using those results, at the August retreat for voting members we set a few goals: one, to help to flip the Congress back to Democratic control; two, to prioritize state legislature races (Springfield needs all the help it can get); and three, to run independent committeemen. Both at the Retreat and through the survey, members expressed strong opinions about the need to be active in these races if we want to see our government make positive change across all levels of government.

The meeting will be on Tuesday, October 11, at 7 pm (6 pm for optional social/dinner hour) at the Lincoln Restaurant, 4008 N. Lincoln Ave (just off the Irving Park Brown Line stop; parking available in the rear off of Irving Park). Speakers will include:

Will Guzzardi, running for state representative in the 39th District which starts in Logan Square and goes west to Portage Park (roughly). Toni Berrios is the incumbent.

Alonso Zaragoza, running for committeeman in the 31st Ward (Joe Berrios is the incumbent)

Paula Basta, running for state representative in the 14th District, which encompasses Rogers Park and Edgewater (again, roughly). We also invited Kelly Cassidy, who is also running in the 14th, but a scheduling conflict prevented her from joining us this month: we’re hoping that she will attend a future meeting.

We will also have endorsement votes on the following candidates: Raja Krishnamoorthi (running for Congress in IL-08), Tammy Duckworth (running for Congress in IL-08), Ald. Ricardo Muñoz (running for Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court), and Ald. Michele Smith (running for re-election as committeeman for the 43rd Ward). If you are a voting member and will be unable to attend the meeting, please send me your proxy votes by 5 pm on Tuesday, October 11. Votes received after 5 pm will not be counted.

How do you become a voting member? Voting members have attended three meetings and done three campaign-related activities within the last twelve months. What’s a “campaign-related activity?” Collecting petition signatures counts, as does attending a fundraiser, canvassing, phone banking , office work – showing up and doing the work of getting our endorsed and adopted candidates elected counts (but it only counts for candidates who are currently endorsed or adopted by NDFA). Currently, we have two candidates: adopted: Ilya Sheyman, running in the 10th Congressional District (contact: Mary Koczorowski, minidiva121@aol.com) , and endorsed: Debra Shore, running for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. In order to vote at the next meeting, please report all campaign-related activities to northsideDFA@gmail.com by 8 pm on Sunday, October 9.

Finally: a couple of “Save the Dates” – our next NDFA Action Day for Ilya Sheyman’s campaign is Saturday, October 15 – we’ll be leaving to go up to Highland Park from the Pier One parking lot at Broadway and Berwyn at 12:30 pm. Also, we’re planning a social outing to see Democracy Burlesque’s new show, Hypocrisy Now! on October 25 – we’ll meet at Hamburger Mary’s on Clark in Andersonville at 6 pm for dinner beforehand, and proceed upstairs for the 7:30 show. Details for both events – and so much more! – will be available at the meeting on Tuesday.
See you there!