Monthly Message
March 2010
Fellow Democrats
One election down, three to go. And whatever you read here earlier about a busy election year, understated what's happening. Four of us attended the County Chairs meeting this weekend and came away with two important lessons. The first is that this year's elections will occur at a time when voters are feeling discouraged and deeply uneasy. Virtually everyone knows someone who has lost their job or suffered economically. Our political leadership, particularly at the national level, seems to have convinced themselves that it politically dangerous to act on the courage of their convictions, even though that is exactly what is needed to clean up the mess of the last eight (some would say thirty) years.
The teabaggers, in the rich American tradition of Know Nothing movements, have now appeared on the political horizon. They have convinced themselves that unvarnished greed, denial of facts and barely disguised racism represent the way forward. They are well bankrolled and have thus managed to capture a good bit of (not very insightful) media coverage. We need not let the teabagger narrative dominate the nation's political discussion. Our focus must lie with the second lesson of yesterday's meeting which is that we have a great message, a message we need to repeat over and over in every possible forum. It is not a complicated one:
-
respect for the dignity of every human being,
-
a realization that we share good fortune when we have it and an expectation of help when we don't
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a commitment to the reasonable resolution of conflict whenever possible
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an understanding of the world as it is rather than the way we wish it to be
However we communicate this message is less important than our obligation to never stop and never apologize. You don't even have to be a paid up Democrat (though it helps) to get the word out. But letters to editor, conversations with neighbors, friends and family, working on campaigns, and keeping yourself informed, it's all important. There's plenty to do as well, even more than usual in the coming weeks:
Feingold Canvass
Saturday March 20
Go to russfeingold.org for more information.
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner/Silent
Auction
Saturday March 20 530PM Northern Edge, Lodi
Join the Columbia County Democrats for their annual fundraiser and silent auction. This annual event helps us support candidates, have a campaign headquarters and keep getting the word out.
The
Keynote speaker is Representative Tammy
Baldwin, and we featuring Assemblyman Fred
Clark, State Senator Mark Miller and candidates
for statewide office.
Consider
a donation to the silent auction as well—the
silent acution is what makes this even such a
great fundraiser. Contact Charles Bradley at
608.742.7644 to arrange your donation.
You
will probably get your invitation in the mail
on Monday. If it does not come by
Wednesday, please print off the newsletter from
our web site at
ColumbiaCoDems.com.
April
Membership Joint Meeting
Thursday April 1, 700PM Baraboo Civic Center, 2nd floor 124 2nd St. This joint meeting with the Sauk Democrats will feature Peter Rickman, chair of the 2nd CD Democrats who will talk about the nuts and bolts of party administration, decision making and platform creation. We've worked closely with the Sauk Dems in the last few years and we're hoping this joint meeting will help cement our already close working relationship.
Election
April 6th—all day and you can vote at your leisure up to two weeks ahead of election day. We've noted many times before that the historically low turnout for spring elections makes every vote extremely important. Make yours count!
Lastly: make sure
you've renewed your 2010
membership.
Democratically yours,
Ray Frey, Chair
February
2010
Fellow
Democrats:
We are less than three weeks
from the first of four elections this
year. As inspiring and fun as the 2008
campaign was, the 2010 elections look to be
more consequential. Far more offices,
especially in Wisconsin are in play.
They're the elections that will determine
voting districts for the next ten years,
as redistricting for U.S. House,
Wisconsin legislature and country board seats
follows after this year's census. Most
importantly, they represent our best chance to
achieve the change, in detailed and meaningful
ways, that we voted for in 2008. It's
abundantly clear that one or two years will not
be enough time to undo the damage, to push back
against entrenched, well funded, interests, and
to fashion the necessary policies to restore
fairness, inclusion and, frankly, sanity to
this country and this state.
Political
analysts will trot out their well worn
narratives to explain or predict ourselves to
us. They'll tell us that the party in
power loses seats in the midterm. They'll
tell us that the tea party movement represents
some form of authentic voter anger.
They'll tell us that the Democrats don't have a
clear message. Their
time would be better spent predicting the
results of the Super Bowl (Colts by ten.)
What they almost never find time to note is
that our votes go to candidates who have the
best chance of effectively representing our
most deeply held values. Despite efforts
from Republicans and various pundits to claim
that our values are misplaced, our message
misguided and our intellects misinformed, we
needn't apologize for our values or our
message: we value our individual
freedoms, we recognize that our most pressing
problems require a shared solution and we
expect that some reasonable portion of our
shared resources need to be devoted to
improving life for all of us. Our job as
political activists is to make sure we elect
candidates that have the wit and the courage to
stand up for those values and the skill to
communicate that message effectively to
voters. The wider meaning of the
Massachusetts Senate race, for example, has
probably been overstated by those
aforementioned political analysts. I tend
to think that the lesson is far simpler:
there are no slam dunks in
politics. If we want to win, we need to
have great candidates and we need to work hard
to elect them.
Opportunity
is at the door. Several county board
seats are up for grabs, in contrast to 2008
when only one was contested. This can
only be good for a county board that has let
complacency and lack of transparency lead it
into some bad decisions in recent years.
Even with this renewed interest though, turnout
in these elections tends to be low and some of
these contests are likely to be decided by
single vote margins. It is important that
you vote and even better if you can help out
candidates from your district. Look for
some familiar names on your ballots--your
ColCoDems are getting active and involved and
you can too.
We
won't be stopping after the spring elections
either--with the races for governor, lieutenant
governor, attorney general, Wisconsin
legislature, U.S. Senate and U.S. House the
pace will only pick up. As the
Massachusetts Senate race made clear, we can
take nothing for granted; Senator Feingold, one
of Wisconsin's most popular politicians noted
this months ago about his race this year, that
he had no intention of taking his reelection
for granted and planned on campaigning harder
than ever. This warning applies to every
race. Let's get to work.
Your
political calendar is starting fill up as
well:
General Membership
Meeting
February 11, 6:30,
Pardeeville Library: General
membership meeting. We'll be joined by
Amy Handler from Wisconsin Progress (their
motto: "Don't get mad, get elected") who
will talk about how they support progressive
candidates for local offices. We're also
at the time of year when we can develop and
forward resolutions for possible inclusion in
the state party platform and also when you can
sign up to attend the 2nd CD convention.
Bring your ideas (under 100
words)
Spring Primary
Election
February 16, all day.
Vote!
CCA Training
February
27/28: The Democratic Party County Chairs
Association will be holding their annual
training in Stevens Point. Though
intended primarily for county party officers,
anyone is welcome to attend. If you think
you might be interested in being involved in
party leadership in the future, this training
could give you a running start and in any event
will add skills to your political
toolbox. For details, contact Chuck
at cdgoranson@gmail.com
Jefferson-Jackson
Dinner
Saturday, March 20, 5:30 at the
Northern Edge Restaurant in Lodi. Representative
Tammy Baldwin keynotes. Once again
Sen. Mark Miller will make the
introduction. Assembly Representative
Fred Clark will also speak. Expect to meet
local and state candidates, silent auction (get
those
items you want to donate to Charles Bradley,)
fun. $30.00 Watch for your mailer
at the end of the month.
Be
sure to get your 2010 membership in soon and
enjoy the many benefits of membership in
America's best political
party.
Democratically yours,
Ray
Frey
Chair
R_frey_65@verizon.net
January 2010
May this message
find you having enjoyed a delightful holiday
season and ready for a wonderful new
year. With the beginning of 2010 the next
election cycle begins in earnest. Though
so-called off-year elections tend not to
generate as much interest from the electorate
or the media, we've noted many times in recent
months that the elections this year are
especially important. For one thing there
are far more offices in play in Wisconsin and
in Columbia County than was the case in
2008. Locally we'll see races for several
partisan county offices, all of the county
board, several school board seats and two state
Assembly seats. Statewide we have
contests for governor, lieutenant governor,
attorney general, and the U.S. Senate.
This represents a very large number of contests
and candidates to contend with in coming months
and though they are split between spring and
fall elections, we'll need to stay focused and
mobilize early.
The
experience of 2009 has presumably made it clear
that Republicans will resort to virtually every
obstructionist tactic to stall meaningful
change. For example: when Senator
Franken introduced an amendment that would
allow employees of defense contractors to sue
their employers in cases of sexual assault or
discrimination, thirty (out of forty)
Republican senators voted against it. Is
there anything else we need to know about their
values or their tactics? If bipartisan
solutions are becoming ever more unlikely (and
it is hard to believe otherwise,) then our task
will be to construct an unstoppable majority so
we can get the people's work done. It's
not going to be particularly easy, especially
in a year when voters are restive, uncertain
about their own futures and the future of the
country. We do, however, have a message
that does not depend on fear, displaced anger
or misplaced jingoism; it's about equity, good
governance and responsibility to future
generations. It's not a message that we
can proclaim without hesitation or
embarrassment, without deference to entrenched
interests and without worrying that it's too
complicated for voters to understand. It
is a message of hope, possibility and
change. We need to keep the offices we've
already won and win more, but it's going to
take all of us and we'll have to work very hard
to succeed.
It
all starts this month. The Columbia
County Democrats will be kicking off this
important election year with a Political New
Year Social Event on Saturday January 23rd
600PM to 900PM at Margo Miller's home in
Portage. We'll send out another notice
soon, but mark your calendar now.
Bring snacks/munchies to share and a
beverage of your choice. There's likely
to be lots of good political talk, a chance to
acquaint and reacquaint and hopefully just
fun. I look forward to seeing all of you
then.
Democratically yours,
Ray
Frey
R_frey_65@verizon.net