11 February, 2008

Organize a Community / Run a Campaign


The unconscious democracy of America is a very fine thing. It is a true and deep and instinctive assumption of the equality of citizens, which even voting and elections have not destroyed. - G. K. Chesterton




If you're looking to get the best hands-on training in the country for how to run an electoral campaign, join our friends from Burlington, Democracy for America, in Berkeley on March 1-2 (yes, the national organization is coming to our neighborhood, including DFA Chairman Jim Dean and Executive Director Arshad Hasan!).

Jerry McNerney Beat Richard Pombo in 2006 to win the 11th Congressional District seat with a tremendous grassroots-powered campaign. Did you know it was DFA training in Stockton that fired-up and organized those grassroots, and DFA’s then Training Director Arshad Hasan who ran the Get Out The Vote campaign with 1,000 volunteers on the ground?

Matt Lockshin (of the "Say No to Pombo" blog) sure does. He attended that training, then ran Abel Guillen's campaign for a seat on the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees using a page-by-page plan he developed from his DFA Training Manual. Abel and Matt ran a local grassroots-powered campaign and won that race! (Matt is happy to discuss campaigning with you and can be reached at 510-495-7206 or emetbloom@hotmail.com).

You have the power, now learn the skills! The Democracy for America Training Academy is coming to Berkeley for two days of exciting campaign training.

How many votes will it take to win in June and November? How do you find the perfect message and get it out to voters in your district? How will you raise enough money to pay for it all?The DFA Training Academy will help you answer these questions and more.

At the DFA Training Academy, top campaign consultants with decades of experience give you the skills to run a winning campaign. Topics include: field planning, voter contact, fundraising, communications, volunteer recruitment and more.

Attendees will also get to hear directly from some of the most exciting 2008 candidates in their area and get a copy of the DFA Training Manual packed with over 180 pages of campaign info.
Refreshments will be provided throughout the day and a social event will be organized Saturday evening so you can mingle and network with other activists in your area.

If you harbor a dream of running for office yourself one day, know someone else you'd like to recruit to run and support, or if you just want to be the most effective political activist you can be, this training is for you!

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