Help Take Back Richmond!

Monday, October 1, 2007

(ACDC)

Report from the Chairman

Peter Rousselot

Volunteer for Critical House and Senate Races. Join the 21/51 Campaign today!

We need 21 seats to obtain a majority in the VA Senate and 51 in the VA House of Delegates. We have great Democratic challengers fighting to take over Republican seats in nearby Fairfax and across the state, and they need our help.

As most of you know, Democrats all across Virginia are joining forces to help retake majorities in the VA Senate and House of Delegates. Retaking these majorities is absolutely crucial to advancing Governor Kaine’s agenda in Richmond and to influence the redrawing of Congressional and Legislative District lines after the next census. The 2007 VA legislative election is the critical moment to accomplish these things. All Arlington Democrats will benefit from these majorities, and that’s why we need to do our part in helping achieve them.

We are helping in this effort in a number of different ways. I am going to focus on two of them: (1) phone banking at ACDC HQ in Arlington and (2) canvassing for Democratic legislative candidates in nearby legislative districts. We have set up a website jointly with Alexandria at www.2151virginia.org . Volunteers can sign up there. Many surrounding campaigns and committees have asked for our help, but we can only give it if we get more volunteers. We need you!

Our Arlington 21/51 Coordinating Committee and Arlington Young Democrats are organizing phone bank nights every Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday until Election Day. It’s easy to do because you can phone bank right here in Arlington at our Arlington Democratic Headquarters: 2009 14th St. N., Suite 612. Our headquarters is an easy walk from the Courthouse Metro, and there is ample free surface parking behind the building in the evening. Many readers of the Voice are old hands at phone banking. Many of these campaigns outside of Arlington do not and will not have enough volunteers in their own localities to match the Republicans, but with your help they will! Please volunteer now in this vital effort. The calls you make from Arlington will make the crucial difference in many of these extremely tight races.

The 21/51 Committee and the AYD’s also have organized canvasses to knock on doors in Fairfax County -- and will continue to organize these events for all of us to join. A schedule of canvasses and carpooling opportunities is posted on the ACDC website: www.arlingtondemocrats.org under “21/51 events.” In addition, contacts with key races in Fairfax County and elsewhere have been established, and any Arlington volunteer wishing to help a specific campaign can be connected quickly, and helped to find tasks that he or she wishes to do for that campaign (envelope-stuffing, office work, canvassing, phone banking).

The Arlington Young Democrats have played a leadership role in the 21/51 effort so far. AYD has contributed the vast majority of the money and probably 80% of
the volunteers. Especially with the opportunity to phone bank right here in Arlington, it is time for the rest of us---the young at heart---to step in and do our part. To help lead the way, many of our Arlington elected officials have volunteered to canvass themselves and to recruit volunteers from their own individual campaigns.

We have a month to go before Election Day: November 6. Come spend a few hours phone banking or canvassing with us. You will know how much you are helping Democratic candidates when we see wins in these critical races posted on Election Night. We often don’t know how much our seemingly small contributions make at the time we make them, but they are what make the big successes happen.