California State News

Vol. 1, No. 5--December 4, 2004

In San Mateo County and Santa Clara County, we were faced with a billionaire Republican trying to buy an assembly seat by outspending our Democratic candidate more than 5 to 1. In the end, the Republican spent over $6.1 million dollars, an unheard-of amount for an assembly seat. But DFA activists from our San Mateo County DFA group and the Santa Clara County (aka Silicon Valley) group rallied to our candidate and helped to win this key race. We built our candidate's website, we hosted house parties, we organized visibility events, we walked precincts, we made phone calls; we pulled out all the stops to keep our CA legislature firmly in Democratic hands.

Our San Mateo County group also had a very successful tabling operation that registered a huge number of voters. And we sent activists to work in the Presidential race, going to Florida, Texas, Nevada, and elsewhere. Our most recent Meetup was a huge success with a large turnout.

In addition, we are actively working on gaining greater influence on our local Democratic institutions and are regularly sending more people to the Democratic Central Committee meetings. We also took a significant role in our county Democratic party election campaign effort and are becoming known as the people to go to if you want to get something done or want people-powered activism.

Rob Dickinson
Chair, San Mateo County Democracy For America
Steering Committee Member, California for Democracy

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