PDA 2006 Election Video
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OBAMA:
For the past six weeks, we've been organizing Obama phone banks to Texas from Santa Cruz County, California. For the weekend prior to the primary, we planned eight phone banks with 100 volunteers. We had 65 volunteers phoning last weekend and 40 more over Presidents Day weekend. These were the first in the nation into Texas because we have close relationships with the field staff there (formerly in California).
Pretty good numbers for volunteers with no office and no campaign budget! A lady phone volunteer, 85 years old, gave me two big hugs and a $100 bill to pay for pizza.
Too bad our Obama Latino and Asian communities outreach in California was so weak. Hillary showed up in Salinas for the UFW endorsement and we lost CD-17 by 3,500 votes. The Latinos in California voted 65% for Hillary, the Asians, 75% in the Bay Area. The Edwards folks came over to Obama one week late (at the East Bay DFA group, the day after the Super Tuesday 2/5 election, 75% supported Obama, most said they would volunteer). We expected the timing would be tight after the South Carolina blowout.
PDA SANTA CRUZ/MONTEREY BAY:
Our PDA Chapter meets Sunday, March 9, right after the Texas Primary ... perfect timing. We have consistently attracted 16 people to our meetings, but newcomers came to our last one. We hope to get 30 people to attend.
In February, we had a staff person from McNerney's office defend his position on the McGovern bill (Jerry voted No) while our members grilled him politely. Perfect. Bill Durston called in on my cell phone. It worked OK, but a land line would be better next time. We will make decisions this month to support one local race (Jane Parker for Monterey County Supervisor--a key race against evil developers).
I will see if there is a consensus to support Bill Durston with our volunteers. I hope folks are enthusiastic about Bill, but we may need an appearance to seal the deal. April would be a little late to support, but not bad if we are mobilized to start volunteering right away. Bill is still an unknown to the members (only a few have heard of McNerney, too ... we are in the backwater). I hope to see us deliver twelve volunteers to one campaign for maximum impact. The closest point of the Duston/Lungren district is two hours away, though the McNerney district can be reached in just one hour. I don't want to start with phone banks because they are more difficult and draining for volunteers than is canvassing--we can add them later.
We have assembled a core team to serve as the Steering Committee, but have not met yet. I signed up 30 folks to PDA in Monterey County, but only two have driven the 50 miles to attend meetings. One (Doug Amblor) is willing to organize monthly meetings down there.
SIERRA CLUB:
In my spare time, I am running the endorsement process for our Monterey Bay area (two-county) Sierra Club Chapter, with 7,000 members. They want a volunteer operation, but have a history of unresponsiveness, probably due to haphazard organizing efforts. I'm in a position to make a difference--with a green light to organize--but there is still resistance from some folks who have their comfort zone ... so will proceed with caution.
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