Changing America one election at a time.

We were reminded at the meeting Tuesday night that there are less than 100 days left until the primary. It will come before we know it … which makes it all that much more important to get out to support for our candidates from now until Election Day.

The meeting on Tuesday was very dynamic: lots of great candidates, lots of great questions, lots of great discussion. We saw Kelly Cassidy, who is running for state representative in the 14th District, and four candidates from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners race spoke to us: Commissioner Patricia Horton, Kari Steele, Stella Black, and Patrick Thompson all participated in our panel discussion. Thanks to all of them for coming out to speak to us; it was a most enlightening evening.

Following the candidates presentation, we voted on candidates whom we have seen previously: Alonso Zaragosa and Will Guzzardi, both of whom survived through the challenge period without having their petition signatures challenged and will be on the ballot in the March primary (congratulations to them on that great victory: Mr. Berrios is known for his fierce petition challenges), were adopted by an overwhelming vote in favor: David Igasaki and Nate Lefebvre will share the liaison duties for Alonso, and Carl Nyberg took on the role of liaison for Will Guzzardi. Next, we voted on endorsements: John Arena was endorsed in his race for committeeman, and Rudy Lozano Jr. was endorsed in his race for state representative of the 21st district. Following that, there was a lively discussion about whether we should vote on more candidates: but given the lateness of the hour, those votes were postponed until the January meeting.

A side note: one of the things I most enjoy about our meetings is the participation of all who attend. Questions from our members are generally thoughtful, informed, and gently (or not) hard-hitting, and the discussions over our endorsement/adoption votes are consistently engaging. Thank you to all who come and participate: without you, this would be dull stuff indeed. It’s very satisfying to have so many committed people participating and engaging in the process. Very few softballs are lobbed at either the speakers or those who are attempting to lead the process, and this makes for results that are all the better for it.

So … on to the action items and ways for you to participate in our process:

First, the events (all of which are “campaign-related activities” and count toward voting membership):
Ald. Muñoz’s campaign is looking for volunteers to help out with the challenge to his petitions for Clerk of the Cook County Court. If you’re able to help out, please respond to this email and I’ll put you in touch with the campaign.
We will be having our first NDFA Action Day for Will Guzzardi (candidate for state representative, 39th District, challenger to incumbent Toni Berrios) this Sunday, December 18. We’ll meet at the campaign office at 3101 W. Diversey Ave. Contact Carl Nyberg, carlnyberg116@gmail.com for more details or to confirm attendance.

The next “action” for Will Guzzardi will be a Holiday Fundraiser at Revolution Brewery, 2323 N Milwaukee Ave, on Tuesday, December 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. If you haven’t had a chance to meet Will yet, this is a good opportunity in a fairly informal setting to meet and ask questions – and should be quite a lot of fun as well. The suggestion donation is $25 (quite reasonable, as political fundraisers go).

For those of you eager to travel to the suburbs to help out Raja Krishnamoorthi, there will be a phone banking opportunity on Saturday, January 7th from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm in the campaign office, 350 North York Road, Bensenville.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, Janaury 10th: though the line-up is not yet set, there are still many interesting candidates to see, and we are guaranteed a lively discussion over who next to endorse.

We will be having two Action Days in January for Ilya Sheyman: the first on Saturday, January 14th and the next on Sunday, January 29th. These will involve car pooling up to the Highland Park office, where a variety of activities will be available: canvassing, phone banking, data entry, etc. We’ll have more details in later emails, but we’d love to see you join us –

Second, the fundraising plea:

Unfortunately, in our current system, it does take money to run a campaign. Since it’s the end of the quarter for fundraising, you can bet that all of our candidates would appreciate a little dough thrown their way, if you can afford it: and honestly, amounts in any size are always welcome. If you can spare a little to give to some great candidates, please consider donating through the NDFA Act Blue site: https://secure.actblue.com/page/ndfa2012 (see the "contribute to our candidates" button to the left for another way to the fundraising page). This allows our candidates to know that NDFA is sending a little love their way.

Thirdly, the easiest action of all – click to be a supporter of our candidates on Democracy For America’s website. This is part of the process by which DFA makes its decision on who to endorse – and yes, they do endorse across a broad spectrum of races, so please take the time to support all these candidates (and while you’re there, you might consider giving a little support to Elizabeth Warren or Donna Edwards or Darcy Burner or Raul Grijalva or Terrell Barnes [running for DuPage County Board]). Our candidates can be found at:

Will Guzzardi: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/campaigns/4336-will-guzzardi-for-stat...

Debra Shore: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/campaigns/4248-friends-of-debra-shore

Ilya Sheyman: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/campaigns/4173-sheyman-for-congress