Monday, July 28, 2008

Obama Doesn't Sweat. He should.

Camden Democrats,
Everything points to an Obama victory this November, and maybe not just a victory, but a landslide. There’s only one thing that can stop this, and the link that Jim Norris has passed to us deals with the reality of Republican voter suppression. Think it won’t happen? Think Florida ’00. Think Florida & Ohio ’04. Then read the series of articles by Greg Palast.
http://www.gregpalast.com/obama-doesn%e2%80%99t-sweat-he-should/

We will win this election hands down if we get out and register new voters and voters who have become disillusioned and allowed their registration to lapse for whatever reason. The Republican Party, that bastion of democracy, can only win if they can prevent people from voting! Now that’s democracy in action isn’t it? When we are conducting our registration drives, we must remember to do it by the book, but first make sure it’s not the Republican book. Also, when someone tells you they were unable to register for whatever reason, make sure they do not take it lying down, and make sure it is publicized! We can only win this election if it is conducted in a fair and legal manner. Stay alert, do it right, and make sure everyone else is doing it right. Republicans don’t try to eliminate just certain voters; they try to reject huge blocs of voters, so if they can find just one or two discrepancies, they’ll go after an entire bloc that’s similar in any way. They have disqualified huge numbers simply because people had the same name as a felon. Keep your eyes open, and don’t let them get away with it this time! This is OUR time!

Dave Southern
Chairman, Democrats of Camden County

Final totals

Camden Democrats,
Click this link http://camdendemocrats.org/Primary%202008%201st%20CD%20100%25.doc to view the final totals of the primary votes for the 1st District Congressional seat currently held by that embarrassment, Jack Kingston. I liken Kingston to the sheriff, Bill Smith, because they both make Camden County look like the southern stereotypes in The Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit. This part of the country will never fulfill its potential until and unless we get rid of that image. So, Democrats of Camden County, our focus is clear; if we can be instrumental in getting rid of Bill Smith, and with the momentum building from the primary, then we surely should be able to send Bill Gillespie off to Washington and put Kingston back in Savannah, even though he doesn’t fit in there anymore either.

Look over the final numbers from the primary and take ten seconds to gloat because we’ve not seen Democratic numbers like this for many, many years here in the 1st District. Know that the spread could have been much larger if not for the cross-over votes in Camden, Glynn, and Ware Counties. All this is good news, and we’ve not even begun to kick in the impact from voter registration drives. This should give us the motivation to get off our duffs, get out the vote, and get Bill Gillespie to Washington!

Joanne Reich has stepped up to the plate again, and will be hosting another Meet and Greet for Bill in September. The one she hosted in the Spring was the most-attended event Bill has had yet, and this one will be even bigger. I will keep you well-informed as more details are firmed up.
Get involved in Reeney Adams’ voter registration drives, and volunteer for the various committees already gearing up for the final sprint to the White House and congressional and Senate wins. What a celebration we’re going to have on November 5th!

Dave Southern
Chairman, Democrats of Camden County

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Bill Gillespie's Campaign votes = 32,733 -- Beats Jack's

Camden Democrats;
What a great primary day Democrats had in Camden County, the First Congressional District, and the entire state of Georgia. When was the last time we were able to say that!!!!

We all know there was a huge cross-over vote here because of the Sheriff’s race, but some real good came out of that. First and foremost, we now have a real sheriff in town, and I think that Sheriff TOMMY GREGORY is well aware that Democrats played a very big part in his victory. Tommy is very open about his ties to the Democratic Party, and he knows he has many friends within this party. In fact, on a proportional basis, he has more friends within the Democratic Party than he has within the Republican Party. Looking at it another way, he has many more political enemies within the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. But come November, all those Democrats who crossed over to ensure his victory now can come home.

Another interesting race determined by cross-over’s was won by Jeff Chapman in the state senate. The Jekyll Island issue determined the line in the sand, but it was cross-over Democrats who tipped the scales in Chapman’s favor. Preserving Jekyl is the big plus here, but keeping another negative, mean-spirited right winger out of the senate was just as important in the long run. I hope Terry Carter ran out of money conducting one of the meanest campaigns I have seen in a while. He accused Chapman of “voting with the Democrats”, as if that is a bad thing. Instead, it was not alienating the Democrats which helped Chapman win the day.

As a result, Democrats have some political capital in two important positions.

As you can see from the notice below, some of the biggest news comes out of the 1st Congressional District vote, where our good friend Bill Gillespie actually drew more total votes in the primary than our embarrassment of a congressman, Jack Kingston. Now consider that two of the most important counties in the district had the huge cross-over votes just talked about. I think I heard there was also some cross-over issues in Ware County. All those cross-overs will be solidly back in the Dem column where they belong come November. Plus, we still have a huge registration drive to come over the summer. All this adds up to the potential for one incredible Democratic victory up and down the ballot in November!

For those of you who haven’t heard, Vernon Jones and Jim Martin will face off in a run off to be held on August 5th to determine who will be the candidate to take Saxby Chamlisss’ seat in the US Senate. More to come on that.

This is all great stuff, and we need to carefully and thoughtfully digest it to see how we use it to our best advantage. We took last Saturday off as a reward for our hard work over the Fourth of July, but this Saturday we need to get down to some real planning so we can build on Barack Obama’s momentum, and the great strides made yesterday. Everyone is welcome beginning at 9:00am at the Kingsland Democratic office in the Dollar General shopping center, on Route 40, .7 of a mile west of the intersection with Route 17. Stop at the Taro Coffehouse at the red light on your way and pick up some coffee and goodies and support our good fellow Democrat, Judith Holmes.

Whew!
Dave Southern
Chairman, Democrats of Camden County

************************************************************************************
From: Bill Gillespie [mailto:bill@billforgeorgia.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:45


Ladies & Gentlemen, Many thanks for your donations, support, encouragement, friendship and votes! We can not be happier. This will send shock-waves (already started). We will have National support! The votes clearly show that people want leadership, vision and results. Jack hasn't earned the opportunity again. The real fight begins today. We can do better and deserve better!

Again, my sincere thanks!

BILL.

Results below -- by county and party.

http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/election_results/2008_0715/

Monday, July 7, 2008

Why Are You Voting Democrat?

Dear Young Democrat,

On this Fourth of July, whether you are a student a month into a much needed summer with no classes, a young worker excited to have a long weekend to celebrate with friends, or a young family looking forward to fireworks with the kids, you might notice that this year's patriotic celebrations have a little extra hope and optimism attached to them. You see, this year the Fourth of July falls exactly four months before Election Day 2008.

Already, 2008 has proven to be the year of the young voter as a Young Voter Revolution sweeps the country. During many of the primaries and caucuses young voter turnout doubled, tripled - and in some cases - quadrupled compared to the numbers we saw in 2004. Even in deep red states like Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee, more young voters cast ballots for Democrats than Republicans.

Why are you voting for Democrats this November?Tell your story at www.whYDA.org.

The opportunity our generation has to sweep Democrats into office up and down the ballot in every state in the nation is unprecedented. Turning this opportunity into a reality, however, will take a lot of hard work. We need to do everything we can to convince our friends and family to vote for Democrats come November. With everyone gathering together to celebrate our nation's independence, I can't think of a better weekend to get started.

That is why YDA picked this holiday weekend to unveil our newest project. A web site designed to encourage a community of young voters to share why they are voting for Democrats and why they think others should as well. We call it whYDA.org (get it?), and in order for this to be an effective community building and persuasion tool, we need you to visit and tell your story.

Why are you voting for Democrats this November?Tell your story at www.whYDA.org.

At whYDA.org you can submit videos and written testimonials and share them with your friends. We are going to do everything we can to publicize submissions, and the best of the bunch will be used as a part of our large scale paid campaign operations to convince undecided young voters to cast their ballots for Democrats.

To introduce whYDA.org, we've put together a short launch video. Check it out below, spend some time on whYDA.org, and start putting together your submissions.
http://www.whyda.org/whyda-vids.html?task=videodirectlink&id=4

Now it's your turn. Get involved. Submit a video and tell your story.
Rest up and enjoy the fireworks; the next four months are going to be exciting!

Sincerely,
David Hardt
President,Young Democrats of America


Regularly Scheduled Monthly Meeting

Democrats;
Just a reminder that Tuesday, July 8 at 7:00pm is our regularly scheduled monthly meeting. We will be reviewing our very successful July 4th weekend. As usual, The meeting will be in the annex building next to the county library at Gross Road and SR40 in Kingsland.

We have a lot of GOOD news with you. I expect to see a lot of new faces at the meeting as a result of our activities on Friday and Saturday. We will also be looking to fill key spots on the upcoming campaign team. Please give some thought to any tasks you are excited about, and what you have skills for. I always considered the July 4th holiday as the real kickoff to a campaign, and this year seems that is especially so. Please join us on Tuesday evening and meet all your new friends.

Dave Southern
Chairman, Democrats of Camden County

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

4th of July

Democrats,
Everything is falling into place! Polls are showing a widening gap between Obama and Bush McCain. We have such a story for the voters this Fall, but we need YOU to help tell it. The biggest opportunity for us to tell our story is always the 4th of July celebration, and we have planned events to give us the platforms we will need to appeal to huge groups of voters in Camden County:

First – July 3rd the Democrats are sponsoring the “Decorate Your Bike” contest to begin at 9:00am on the lawn of the First Presbyterian Church at Conyers and Osborne streets in St. Marys. The contest is open to kids from 6 to 16. They will bring their bikes and materials and decorate the bikes around the theme of “The Stars and Stripes”. Judging will take place at 1:00pm, and then the bikes will be stored in the Fellowship Hall of the church. At 9:00am on the 4th, the kids will collect their bikes and walk them to the staging area for the parade. The prize winners in each of the six age groups, along with the Mayor’s Trophy winner, and the Grand Prize winner, will march with their bikes in the first contingent of the parade. All other entries will also march in the Democrats contingent. We will encourage every entry to be accompanied in the parade by their parent(s). Immediately after the parade, the winners will be recognized from the reviewing stand by the mayor.

This event is planned as the first of an annual contest, so we want to bring out as many kids as we can. We need YOU to talk it up, and make sure every kid you know has been encouraged to enter their bike. Please help us out with this!!

Second – July 4th is the day we put those smug, smirking Republicans on notice that this year, they have a battle of their hands. Our goal is to have a minimum of 50 marchers in the Democratic contingent, but there’s room for plenty more, and that means YOU! Our Democratic candidates will be with us, including Bill Gillespie, Democratic candidate for the US congress. Bill has identified Camden as one of the key counties for his election bid, so he has spent an inordinate amount of time and resources here, and we need to show him we appreciate his efforts on our behalf. If you’ve never marched with us, you have no idea how much fun we have. You also cannot appreciate how the tide has turned over the past couple of years in terms of our reception from the crowds. People are sick of the right-wing gang running the country into the ground; they want CHANGE, and they’ve been very vocal about it. Come out and enjoy the sound.

The Democratic booth on Osborne Street will be number 77. Almost our total emphasis will be on registering people so they can vote in November. It has been apparent over the past couple of election cycles that many voters have become so disenfranchised by the hi-jacking of our constitution by the right-wingers that they just gave up on the system. Barack Obama has re-energized millions of these people, and added millions more from the younger set and those who never were interested in politics. We MUST get these millions back on the rolls, and back in the voting booth. We will be working the crowd, enrolling as many new voters as possible. We have a huge stack of registration forms which we will assist people in filling out, and if necessary, we will accompany them to the mail drop in front of the newspaper. The 4th of July celebration gives us access to the largest crowds we will see before the election, so we must take advantage of it. We are well aware the Republicans want just the opposite; restrict and reduce voter registrations, particularly new registrants. We have to make sure we do everything by the book, and we will train you how to comply. This has the potential to be an historic day in St. Marys, Georgia, and you should be part of it!

Third – July 5th, from 2:00pm to 6:00pm, is your opportunity to meet the Democratic candidates up close and personal. We are having a BBQ and Social at the River Walk park in Woodbine, featuring Robert Cumming’s own famous barbeque. If you choose to indulge in the pork or chicken BBQ, tickets will be available at the booth on the 4th for $10 each or 2 for $15. Tickets are also available from most Democrats at the same discount. At the door on the 5th, tickets will be $15 each. Candidates will be explaining why we must put Democrats in leadership positions and listening to what you expect from them after they’re in office. Come out, meet the candidates, meet many new fellow Democrats, and bring as many friends and neighbors as you can.

As you can see, this weekend is chock full of ways for you to participate in the greatest resurgence for Democrats ever seen in this area. And, as you are aware, it doesn’t stop in Camden County. Just a year ago, who would have dreamed that Georgia would be considered a battleground state in July of 2008? But it is! But we need YOU to come out, to be seen and heard, and pitch in. You will not be disappointed!.

Sorry for such a long message, but these are extraordinary times, and we must keep ourselves well informed. Thank you for supporting the Democrats of Camden County!

Dave Southern
Chairman, Democrats of Camden County

Strategy briefing for you

We're trying something new today.

To bring you an important briefing on our general election strategy, I shot a short video on a laptop in my office. Our team added in some detailed slides with all of the relevant information.

It's important that you're fully briefed on the opportunities and challenges ahead, and this video details how we're going to put together the organization to win in November.

You've gotten us here, and I hope you'll take a minute to see what your commitment so far has made possible.

Watch the strategy briefing now, and please make a donation of $25 to help us execute this plan:
https://donate.barackobama.com/strategy

Thank you,
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America