Candidate Recruitment Its already time to begin the search for next cycle's Democratic talent and we will help you identify and recruit the next generation of Democratic leaders.
We are joined by South Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director and DFA Trainer Jay Parmley. Jay will walk us through the process of finding & recruiting quality candidates to run in your area. We'll look at targeting districts/races, scouting candidates, setting expectations, and offering up resources and incentives.
We just wanted to remind you about Monday's Florida Listening Tour stop in Broward County.
It will be the final Listening Tour stop in Florida -- and I hope you can make it to share your ideas and help shape the future of Organizing for America in your neighborhood.
Your effort has been crucial in getting us this far. With the health care debate heating up, we can't let up -- it's just too important.
Ashley Walker Florida State Director Organizing for America
Paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee -- 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Remember this date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009. We will look back on that day as the moment when the fight for real health care reform began in your neighborhood -- perhaps even in your own living room.
On June 6th, in thousands of homes across the country, we'll gather to launch our grassroots campaign for health care. We'll watch a special message from the President. We'll build the teams and draw up the plans for winning health care reform the same way we won the election: Building support one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time. And we'll put those plans into action.
These kickoffs are so crucial that President Obama will join confirmed hosts and attendees on a live conference call.
There's no prior experience required. We'll send you the details for dialing into the President's call and provide you everything you need to make your meeting a success.
After the election, people gathered at over 9,000 meetings across every state to set priorities for health care reform. Our voices were heard. Now the race is on to make sure Congress produces a plan that reflects the President's call for reduced costs, guaranteed choice, and quality care for all.
To make that happen, we need to build a groundswell of support in every district and every state, and we have no time to lose. All summer we'll be reaching out to our neighbors, knocking on doors, serving in our communities, and building a grassroots network strong enough to win.
These gatherings on June 6th are just the beginning of a battle between those who fought and believe in change and those who would protect a broken status quo. The stakes for our country could not be greater.
Some call this strategy pie-in-the-sky. They say we'll never have enough volunteers to make a real impact; that you need insiders and Washington lobbyists to make a difference. But you and I know firsthand how wrong they are. Starting June 6th, it's once again time to show this country how bottom-up change is done.
Please sign up today to host or attend a kickoff near you.
These kickoffs will be both effective and fun. You'll meet likeminded supporters in your neighborhood, share stories, enjoy good company and a shared mission, and know that no matter what this effort requires of us, if we work together we'll be ready to face it and persevere.
I look forward to joining you and the President to chart our course.
David Plouffe Organizing for America
P.S. -- This week, President Obama asked us to send in our personal health care stories. Hundreds of thousands of people have already responded, and the stories are simply incredible. Here are just few that help remind us what we're fighting for:
I am a single parent and have lost my teaching job effective in June. I'm scared to death because my son has a serious pre-existing condition (Neurofibromatosis) and can't go without medical insurance. However, my employer has just informed me that continuing my family coverage under COBRA will cost $1,400.00 a month! That's a house payment for me. Or three times my car payment! How can I keep my family covered without going under financially?
--Cathy Apple Valley, Minnesota
Since I lost my job in 2006, I have had no health insurance. After paying for insurance through my employer for 30 years, I have no major medical. But now that I am approaching 60, I may need insurance more than ever. I have not had a mammogram for three years because it would be too stressful to find anything suspicious. Risky but true.
--Kathy Macon, Georgia
My husband isn't getting enough hours at his job to qualify for health insurance so we have been looking around for a provider. He has a pre-existing health condition (non-epileptic seizures) and he is being denied left and right. We don't make a lot of money, about $23,000/year and we can't afford to not have insurance, in case he needs to go to the doctor. And it looks like we can't afford to have it either. We are stuck.
Last week, Congress passed President Obama's budget. It's a budget that works for ordinary Americans, and it's all thanks to people like you.
Members of Organizing for America spoke up and asked Congress to lay a new foundation for American growth by passing a budget that invests in energy, health care, and education -- and that's exactly what they did.
But as the President said on his hundredth day in office, we should be pleased with our progress so far, but not satisfied. There's so much more work to do, and to get it done we need to keep growing this movement.
Please take the next step by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper -- share your story about how you helped pass this budget, and invite folks in your community to join in.
I have an announcement. After four exciting years in Washington, I'm hitting the campaign trail again! Only this time, I'm campaigning to help President Obama win health care for all.
During the election, President Obama proposed a health care plan that would give every American the freedom to choose between keeping their private insurance—if they have any—and choosing a universally available public health insurance option like Medicare.
But for-profit insurance companies and HMOs are already working hard to strip this public health insurance option from any upcoming health care bill. They don't want us to have a choice, and they'll stop at nothing to kill real reform. Trouble is, some in Congress are siding with the insurance companies—and against what's best for the rest of us.
Today, we draw a line in the sand. A public health insurance option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans. And to show that we mean business, we all need to tell Congress we won't settle for less.
If 250,000 of you sign this petition, I will personally deliver it to Congress. Clicking here will add your name:
Here's our message to Congress: "Give America a choice. We support health care reform that allows individual Americans to choose either a universally available public health care option like Medicare or for-profit private insurance. A public option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans and its inclusion is non-negotiable. Any legislation without the choice of a public option is only insurance reform and not the health care reform America needs."
The fight is heating up over whether or not to include the public health insurance option. This is going to be the biggest fight in the debate over health care reform. It would take the power away from the private insurance companies that have driven up costs and denied coverage for years—and they're dead set against it.
But I've seen firsthand what people power can accomplish. And I know I can count on MoveOn members to help lead the charge.
Now is our moment to stand up. Together, we can generate broad-based support for a public health insurance option. We will need to canvass our neighborhoods, call our elected leaders, and arrange meetings with members of Congress in the coming months.
Our goal today is to show Congress that we are many and ready to fight. Can you click here to stand with me?
After you add your name, spread the word to your friends, family, and co-workers. Send a personal email and include a link to the website, update your Facebook status to tell people about the campaign, write a blog post about why you support this campaign—we need all hands on deck to win this fight.
Thank you for all you do.
Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Obama for America A New Foundation for Growth — Call Your Representatives
Veterans of the BarackObama.com will surely recognize the big red button at the bottom of this post: Make Calls. This time however, we're not asking you to call voters -- we're asking you to call your representatives in Congress. We need you to let them know that you support the commitment that President Obama made to health care, education and renewable energy in his recent budget outline, and we need you to ask them to support the President's plan as well.
Here's a sample script that you can use for your calls:
Hello, my name is __________ and I'm calling you from __________ (city or town).
I'm calling today because we are in the grips of the worst economic crisis in generations — and President Obama needs the support of every member of Congress to create jobs, fix our economy and rebuild and renew America.
The President has proposed a budget that is honest, responsible and invests in the priorities we need to get our economy moving again and create jobs now and in the future, including:
Renewable energy to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil
Making Health Care more affordable for every American by cutting costs
Improving education so our children are prepared for the jobs of the 21st Century
Can I count on Rep./Sen. _________ to support the President's plan?
Once you've finished, be sure to record the results of your calls. And feel free to also let everyone know how your calls went in the comments below. . .
CLICK HERE * Be sure to watch the video on the last page, you must be online and click on the picture
Canvass Training
CLICK HERE * Be sure to watch the video on the second and last page, you must be online and click on the picture. The last video shows how to use my.Barack.com system for canvassing and phone banking.
Beginning today, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party’s machinery
Beginning today, the White House will harness every part of the Democratic Party's machinery to defend President Obama's budget and portray Republicans as reflexively political, according to party strategists.
A participant in the planning meetings described the push as a successor to Democrats' message that Rush Limbaugh is the Republican Party leader. "We have exhausted the use of Rush as an attention-getter," the official said.
David Plouffe, manager of Obama's presidential race, helped design the strategy, which includes the most extensive activation since November of the campaign's grassroots network. The database—which includes information for at least 10 million donors, supporters and volunteers—will now be used as a unique tool for governing, with former canvassers now being enlisted to mobilize support for the president's legislative agenda.
Others involved in the planning included White House senior adviser David Axelrod; the DNC chairman, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine; and DNC Executive Director Jennifer O'Malley Dillon.
The plan follows the private complaints of some Democrats that Obama let the GOP get the better of him during the debate over pork in the budget bill he just signed, and growing concerns among some Democrats that charges of big spending could stick to the president.
Starting this week, President Obama will be "engaging directly with Congress more, and speaking more forcefully on behalf of his budget," a top adviser said.
On Sunday morning, three top White House officials will appear on network interview shows to describe brighter days ahead for the nation's economy, and make the case that the budget is an important part of the president's overall recovery plan.
And officials throughout the party plan to hammer the idea that Republicans are just saying "no" to the president's budget plans without offering their own alternative.
House Republicans, who released an alternative to the stimulus bill, say they'll issue their own budget proposal in the next few weeks. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in January in his opening remarks to this legislative session: "During the 111th Congress, Republicans will strive not to be the party of 'opposition,' but the party of better solutions."
The Obama grassroots network—now known as Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee—has launched an e-mail pledge drive on MyBarackObama.com in which supporters sign their e-mail address to the statement: "I support President Obama's bold approach for renewing America's economy."
The pledge drive was announced with a video called "Ready for the Fight." Plouffe e-mailed supporters over the weekend with a challenge labeled "The next few weeks": "In the next few weeks we'll be asking you to do some of the same things we asked of you during the campaign—talking directly to people in your communities about the President's ideas for long-term prosperity."
This is not an easy message war for Democrats. Obama's budget calls for the largest deficit in U.S. history and a doubling of the national debt to $23 trillion in 2019. That is a big, juicy target for the GOP, which plans to hit this theme relentlessly all spring.
Republicans were successful in making earmarks, which accounted for only a sliver of total spending, the centerpiece of debate over the omnibus spending bill. The GOP sees sky-high deficits as similarly easy to explain to the public.
So the Democratic allies—the administration, congressional leaders, outside groups and the DNC—are uniting for the new push.
We need over 1.2 million voters to sign petitions.
FairDistrictsFlorida.org is a nonpartisan state committee working to reform the way our state draws legislative and congressional district lines by establishing constitutionally mandated fairness standards.
FairDistrictsFlorida.org aims to bring fairness to redistricting and give voters a real voice in choosing their representatives.
We can amend the Florida Constitution to make the legislature follow fairness standards in redistricting.
We need over 1.2 million voters to sign petitions.
Get active! Sign the petitions! Get others to sign! Volunteer and Contribute!
