I just wanted to do a recap of a great event I went to last night in support of Charlie Brown and Jerry McNerney - Of course both of them gave great speeches, but one person who really got the crowd going was Pete McCloskey (R)former congressman from who is supporting both Charlie and Jerry because, as he said he is 'embarassed by what the Republicans have become'. Mainly though, he had some pretty exciting statistics and info to share about how the GOTV effort on election day literally put him in office - I think it's great info for anyone working on any of our races across the country.
It was taped for the Will and Willie show on Air America (sorry I don't know exactly when it will be broadcast)
See more details below
Some local comedians opened the show - 'Of course Democrats support stem cell research, they're hoping it will help grow them a spine' - da,da,dum
Then Aimee Allison who is running for local office in Oakland, did a great job of reminding everyong how important all the school board, and city council, and supervisor races across the country are. She said all that many Repubs that are in office now are there as a result of being elected at the local level since 1972 and we have to put more people in office. She also said, that it's at the local level that communities are really getting affected by this administration (i.e. in Oakland with the soaring crime rate due to budget cutbacks by the Feds).
Then Pete got up to talk, and let me be clear, he had nothing but unwavering support for Jerry McNerney's campaign to oust the Reoublicn eco-criminal. He also said he will support any Democrat that he thinks can help change things.
What he talked about that was amazing was that in his first race (1967) just a couple of days before, the numbers showed he would get about 32K votes vs. 34K for his rival, but on election day - everyone he knew - volunteers, old friends, people he had served in the military with, etc. showed up at various precincts, and about noon - got the rolls to show who had voted and then hit the streets. He said that between 4pm and when the polls closed, they brought him an additional 15K votes, and he won!! We can do the same for all of our races..if we each just turned out a few extra voters, we can do this.
He also mentioned the importance of getting to folks the weekend AFTER absentee ballots are mailed.While they are still sitting there to be filled out.
So if you are event considering doing some canvassing or volunteering on election day..I think this would potentially sway you that you CAN make a difference.
The room (or should I say theater because it was at the beautiful Grand Lake Theater in Oakland) - was buzzing after he spoke.
Both Charlie and Jerry, followed and just built on his message and spoke to their efforts to take back Congress.
In my title I mentioned Repubs (McCloskey) and Tigers and Wes Clark??
Tigers, because on Oct. 3, my beloved Detroit Tigers will play their first play off game in 19 years, and I won't be watching. Why? Because I'll be standing w/Charlie at The Blue Goose Fruit Shed in Loomis having franks and beans - while Bush his charging $2,000 a head to in support of Doolittle. Earlier in the day he will be supporting Pombo.
And Wes? One of Charlie's staff told me last night that the General is on board and had decided to come out to CA in support of Charlie on Monday the 2nd!!
Thanks for reading and please if you are in the Bay Area, check out the upcoming events for Charlie and Jerry - we can win these races! - and in Indiana, and Michigan, and Florida, and Nebraska, etc. etc. - you gotta believe that YOU can make a difference. Like Patrick Murphy said in his add - You can't change Washington, until you change who you send to Washington.
http://www.jerrymcnerney.com/
http://charliebrownforcongress.org