Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Mom on the Spot: McCain Seattle HQ!

Drum roll: the Moms4McCain blog will be featured in an upcoming issue of AllYou magazine, sold by subscription and at Wal-Mart stores (some features online here). They are doing a feature piece about first-time political activists (yours truly!) and I was honored to participate. More details are forthcoming soon!

In preparation for the article, I spent today at a photo shoot at the local Republican HQ, meeting some great local volunteers and talking with the Washington state coordinator about McCain's path to victory in our state. Yes, Washington is usually blue. But don't count us out yet. McCain is within 10-13 points, and strong down-ticket candidates include rightful Governor Dino Rossi, local law enforcement hero-turned-Congressman Dave Reichert and top-notch Attorney General Rob McKenna. Like New York, Washington is psychologically divided between big-city Blue Seattle and the less-urban but more-plentiful 'Red State regions' to the east. I am optmistic that McCain's no-nonsense policies and heroic history will have unique appeal throughout the Evergreen State.

Whether these races go red or blue, it was enlightening to see the political gears turning behind the scenes. It was truly inspiring to me, at 31, to meet volunteers and workers a half-generation younger than myself, speaking eloquently and passionately about their candidates and their cause. The very gracious folks in the Reichert office helped out as a group of total strangers dragged a camera crew into their office, and even offered me some of their lunch.

Free lunches aside, I really encourage you all to get involved - if only so you get to SEE a campaign office 'up close and personal' and see the sweat these volunteers put in for their candidates. Blogging and online work is an important part of the effort but it's not the only part. Take a minute and get involved with the McCain campaign and grassroots movement, and support other local candidates in your area.

If you're not sure how to get involved, when or where your talents can be used, please contact me at moms4mccain at yahoo.com and I'll help you find a home.

3 comments:

Addiction Medicine Plus said...

Your Blog is excellent! Congratulations on your AllYou magazine item. mc

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Anonymous said...

An Action Item we can make happen if we work together:


However we each decide to vote in November, this summer many Hillary supporters want to show their continued support for Hillary and their anger at the DNC and many Democratic leaders for pushing Hillary out of the race.

Many Hillary supporters have already made the symbolic gesture to switch their registration from Democrat to independent. (That won't necessarily influence how they vote). In honor of Independence Day (July 4) we are encouraging other Hillary supporters to do the same -- as an organized effort that reflects and respects the differences among us.

To be effective, we need to tell the Democratic Party and the media that we are doing this. BUT, we don't want to lose our opportunity to vote in Democratic primaries for Congress that will be held between NOW and November. Those states include:
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, NY, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

For example, many Massachusetts voters are very unhappy with Sen John Kerry's strong, early support for Barack Obama, especially since the state of Massachusetts was solidly for Hillary. As a result, Sen. Kerry is facing his first primary opposition in more than 2 decades: Ed O'Reilly, a very liberal Democratic who (ironically) is criticizing Kerry in some of the same ways that Obama criticized Clinton -- such as voting to allow Bush to deterimine if the US should go to war in Iraq. It appears that the combination of anger about his support for Obama, and anger from Obama supporters who see Kerry as not liberal enough, has resulted in a challenge. Some Hillary supporters will want to send a message to Kerry by voting for O'Reilly. We hope that Hillary suppporters will also ask O'Reilly about his views on election fraud during the presidential caucuses, etc. Meanwhile, for more info see http://www.edoreilly.com/

THEREFORE: I propose that each of us write to Democratic Party leaders before July 4 to say some version of the following:

1. I am an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Clinton for president and am very disappointed in the undemocratic decisions of the DNC and Party leadership that undermined her campaign.
a. The DNC took four Michigan delegates that Hillary had won and gave them to Obama
b. The DNC punished two states that Hillary had won big, Florida and Michigan, by cutting their delegates in half, but did not punish two states that Obama had won which also held their primaries earlier than the DNC rules allowed.
c. Despite the extremely close race, the Democratic leadership kept telling the media and Hillary herself that she should get out of the race. Their behavior was insulting and unfair.

2. That is why I am changing (or have just changed) my registration from Democrat to Independent (OPTIONAL: you may want to add: but only after the Democratic Congressional primary is held in my state)
3. OPTIONAL: Some of you may want to say: I will not give money to the Democratic Party until I see an acknowledgement of the need for real change, such as eliminating undemocratic processes, such as caucuses. The caucuses are much less democratic than primaries, and in 2008 there was a great deal of election fraud, with many caucus participants not living in the precincts or even the state where they caucused.
4. OPTIONAL: Some of you may want to say: I will not support Barack Obama because he did not win the popular vote, and he was selected rather than farily elected. Those of you who plan to vote for Barack Obama can say so, or just not mention your voting plans.

We ask that those of you living in states that do NOT have primaries coming up change your registration before July 4. Those living in states that have primaries should wait. I have attached a calendar of Congressional primaries.

REMINDER: Your registration does not affect how you vote in November. It also does NOT influence how the media polls show Democrats are going to vote or have voted UNLESS you choose to tell pollsters how you are registered. That's up to you.

We had planned to ask you to write to the DNC, but the DNC has now been taken over by the Obama campaign. They have moved their operations to Chicago and the DNC web site is now all about Obama (see http://www.dnc.org/).

So, instead, please contact YOUR U.S. Senators, your Congressional representative, AND the following Democratic leaders or DNC members. You can send to all of them at once if you'd like to, except Harry Reid needs to go through his web site:

Al Gore: Kalee@carthagegroup.com;
Nancy Pelosi: sfpelosi@yahoo.com; john.lawrence.mail.house.gov;
Steny Hoyer: Ben.Abrams@mail.house.gov;
Senate Democratic Committee: info@dscc.org; press@dscc.org;
House Democratic Committee: info@dccc.org;
DNC: ausman@embarqmail.com; james_roosevelt@tufts-health.com;
mame@thereileygroup.com; gss1@aol.com


Harry Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

To actually change your registration, google your state voter registration info. It's easy!
For example, for Maryland, http://www.elections.state.md.us/voter_registration/index.html
DC: http://www.dcboee.org/voterreg/vic_index.shtm
California: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm
NY: http://www.elections.state.ny.us/
NJ: http://www.stevens.edu/student_life/voter-reg-form.pdf

Please let me know if you do this. Email: cristi@clintons4mccain.com

Unknown said...

Congratulations on your appearance in AllYou! I'll definitely keep my eye out for the issue.