Changing America one election at a time.

Happy New Year! Next week we have our monthly meeting: we have Scott Waguespack lined up to speak about his committeeman race against incumbent John Fritchey (we’ve invited Commissioner Fritchey as well, but so far have not received any confirmation one way or another). We’ll also hear from Pete Kalenik, who is part of our Steering Committee, speaking on Local School Councils and how to run for them.

A big part of our meeting will be taken up by votes: we’ll be voting on the state representative race in the 14th District: by member’s request, we heard from both the incumbent Kelly Cassidy and her challenger, Paula Basta – unfortunately over several months due to Rep. Cassidy’s attendance at the veto sessions in Springfield. We’ll be voting on both candidates. If you are a voting member and unable to attend, please send me your proxy votes for both endorsement and adoption for both candidates: there was a concern at that last meeting that we not delay the votes any longer. We’ll also be voting on endorsement-only for the four MWRD candidates we heard last month: Stella Black, Patricia Horton, Kari Steele, and Patrick Daley Thompson. Rudy Lozano, Jr. is also eligible for a vote on adoption, as is John Arena, running for committeeman in a contested race in the 45th Ward. We have one more space open for adoption in this cycle: voting members should consider who (if anyone) they would like to see fill that space.

We’ll also have updates on our adopted and endorsed candidates and their races: Ilya Sheyman in the 10th congressional district, Will Guzzardi for state representative in the 39th District, Alonso Zaragosa for committeeman of the 31st Ward, Rick Muñoz for Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, Debra Shore for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (and just endorsed by national DFA as well: congratulations, Debra!), Raja Krishnamoorthi in the 8th Congressional District (the winner of the primary will run against Joe Walsh, who finally decided what district he wants to represent), Rudy Lozano Jr. for state representative in the 21st District, and Michele Smith and John Arena, running for committeeman in their respective wards.

As the New Year rolls in, we are only 75 days away from the election on March 20. Though thankful to see the end of last quarter’s fundraising emails, it does mean that it’s time to get out and do what we do best: get good people elected at all levels of government.

We have a couple of events for you to consider helping on:

Raja Krishnamoorthi would like help phone banking this Saturday, January 7th. from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm in the campaign office, 350 North York Road, Bensenville.

We have two upcoming Action Days for Ilya Sheyman in the 10th congressional district: taking back Congress from the Republicans is critical this year, and this is one of the closest races in which we have a good chance to take a seat away from them this year. The first Action Day is on Saturday, January 14th: we’ll be meeting at the Pier One parking lot at Broadway and Berwyn and driving up to Highland Park (also, it’s very close to the Metra stop, so if you’d rather take the Metra up on your own please let us know). We’ve set up an on-line RSVP page at: http://www.doodle.com/56sux5uiknzvvasi -- please let us know if you can join us, as we need to make sure we have enough space in the cars driving up. Our second event will be on Sunday, January 29: we’ll have more details about that in a later email.

We’re working on details for more action days for Alonzo Zaragosa and Will Guzzardi, and will have them available at the meeting on January 10th – and sign-up sheets for all Action Days!

I can’t end without a plea for money for our candidates: unfortunately, in our current system, it does take money to run a campaign. Hhonestly, 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 . This allows our candidates to know that NDFA is sending a little love their way.

Thanks so much for all the work you do: hope to see you next Tuesday!