Tricounty DFA Update: Meetups Next Week! Gillibrand Endorsements Coming and more
Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying this great New Year. In this update:

1. DFA Meetups (or Linkups) Next Week In Glens Falls And Saratoga And Across The 20th CD
2. Endorsement of Kirsten Gillibrand On The Agenda In All Meetups
3. Forum On Voting Machine Technology With Bo Lipari of NYVV in Saratoga
4. Governor Dean Breaks Fundraising Record


1. DFA Meetups or Linkups Next Week, In Glens Falls And Saratoga And Across The 20th CD

Next Wednesday, January 11, there will be DFA Meetups or, as we now call them DFA-Linkups, in Glens Falls, in Saratoga Springs and in other locations across the 20th Congressional District.

The Glens Falls meeting will be held at its usual location, the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe in downtown Glens Falls at 7pm.
The Saratoga meeting will be held at it's usual location, DFA Link-up Host's Pat Friesen's at 36 Thoroughbred. (I believe her usual time is 7:30.)

2. Endorsement of Kirsten Gillibrand On The Agenda In All Meetups

There will also be simultaneous DFA Meetings by Democracy For The Hudson Mohawk Region, Democracy For Columbia County, a new Meetup in a new location by Democracy For Dutchess County, and Democracy For Otsego Delaware. If you are farther afield from the Tricounty Area, go to DFA-Link at http://www.dfalink.com/search_groups.php for more details on these DFA groups. There may also be some more venues by next week -- stay tuned.

For the first time we have a common agenda item in all of our 20th Congressional District Meetings -- we are going to make an historic, and first for DFA, joint endorsement of Kirsten Gillibrand in her race for Congress.

The 20th CD has a possibly unique number of DFA groups -- as far as I can tell, no other single Congressional District that is also not a state (meaning Vermont) has more DFA groups than the 20th Congressional District. This is an amazing achievement to have built our local DFA coalition up to this point. Most Districts have only one and a number have none at all.

Our joint endorsement will be a first -- no other coalition of local DFA groups has ever done anything like this before, all together, for maximum impact. We hope acting together will help bring national attention to Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign. If you want more info, Kirsten has a website up now if you haven't seen it: http://www.gillibrand2006.com

There will be more information on what we can do to remove John Sweeney and all the Republicans' friends like Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff from the people's house, including a special field program -- the campaign intends to hold house meetings all across the district, making contact with thousands of voters. We are all going to have real stuff to do that will really make a difference!

3. Forum On Voting Machine Technology With Bo Lipari of NYVV in Saratoga

There will be a forum on voting machine technology in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday January 10th at 7pm in the Saratoga Public Library Community Room. The meeting will feature a presentation by Bo Lipari, of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, on the different types of electronic machines available and their advantages and drawbacks. This event is sponsored by Saratogians Voting Verifiably.

As we know from the November event in Glens Falls, Bo Lipari makes a tremendous presentation. If you are interested at all in these issues this is a "must attend" event. The integrity of our votes is a hugely important matter at the core of our democracy.

4. Governor Dean Breaks Fundraising Record

At this time last year we in DFA were working to get Governor Dean elected Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Events have vindicated DFA -- the Governor just broke the fundraising record for an off year -- $51 million. And that does not mention the many millions more he has raised for state parties -- unlike Terry McAuliffe when the Governor goes to a state event, he does not grab the money, but leaves it to build the state and local parties.

One of the people now praising him is Donnie Fowler, who ran against him for the chairmanship last year. Fowler just made a remarkable and gracious statement -- and he also explains why some Washington insiders in the "consultantocracy" are still unhappy: http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/1/5/16212/21836

This excellent National Journal article is worth checking, too: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/5/153738/4426

Also, Drew has been putting up some really interesting posts on our blog at http://townmeetingday.blogspot.com on the definition of fascism and by Texas populist Jim Hightower.

Thanks everyone!

See you all next week!


Larry Dudley
Glens Falls
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 2:46 PM