I teach at Berklee College of Music here in Boston.  Yesterday, I ended the regular instruction early and have everyone 2 things:  a copy of my paper "6 Reasons you should vote EVERY TIME" and a voter registration form.

I gave them a brief talk on each of the points in the worksheet.  Told them how to get absentee ballots if they were registered to vote back home, and told them that if they were already registered, they could give me the form back or just leave it on their desk.

There were 19 students in the class, of whom 15 are U.S. citizens.  6 of those did not take the forms (which could mean they're already registered to vote); 9 did.  I plan to do the same activity in my other classes later this week.

It would be more effective of course if this weren't a solid blue state, but I figure that if you get college kids to vote they're likely to keep voting wherever they move to in the future.

I'm on the political committee of the state chapter of an organization which will remain unnamed for now.  Suffice it to say that it is a large non-profit which endorses candidates, and would be one of the groups which you would consider a member of the progressive coalition, even if we do slip up and support the occasional Republican.

Yesterday at our meeting something happened that froze my blood and suddenly it all made sense why we keep losing.

As a local (Boston, MA) financial supporter of an peace and anti-nuclear weapons group Council for a Livable World, I was invited to a meeting in which members of the CLW board met with Ohio congressman and senate candidate Sherrod Brown, an interview after which CLW would consider endorsing him.

I should state that I have given money to Paul Hackett, and, if I lived in Ohio, was leaning to voting for Hacket, though I thought either one would make a fine senator.

Wesley Clark just sent an email to all of his supporters urging them to sign an online "virtual March on Washington DC" petition against Global Warming.

You can sign the petition as a "friend of Wesley Clark" here.

I'm in Massachusetts, but I think everyone can write to Kerry, as he represented all of us in the last election.

Not claiming that this letter is particularly brilliant, but feel free to steal/modify it as you see fit.  I bolded the last sentence for emphasis here, but not in the actual letter.

I sent a very similar letter to senator Kennedy.  

By the way, you can email Senator Kerry here.

My wife and I (from Boston, MA) have been in Columbus, OH since Thursday, helping the Kerry campaign bring Ohio home.  The campaign calls us "Kerry Travelers," and there are a ton us us here in Columbus.  A surprizingly large number of people from California, as well as just about everywhere else:  Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Texas, etc.  So many volunteers that in Columbus alone they now have a main office and 7 satellite offices, as well as the Dem. Party HQ and the state Kerry HQ, and that's not counting ACT or the other allied groups.

Based on what I'd been seeing so far, I truly believe that Kerry is going to win Ohio solidly.

...by the Hartford Courant, which is the big newspaper in CT.  Pity they endorsed the two other Republican incumbents for re-election.  Their congressional endorsements can be read here

When we selected Tony Knowles of Alaska to be one of the dKos candiates, I genuinely thought that we'd net him around $20000-25000, and that this would represent roughlyl 2% of his take.

Just a FYI that if you live in a swing state, or in an area with a competitive race, there's a good chance that your local Kerry (or whoever) office has a "wish list" that includes computers (as well as other more mundane stuff).  There's a lot of data entry work to be done, and it's wildly inefficient for them to purchase computers when they'll be done with them in a month.

Outraged at the news that the OH Sec. of State was not going to accept new voter registrations which weren't printed on the proper width of paper, I just called the OH Dem. party.

The person answering the phone replied that the board of elections had told them than they would be accepting all voter reg. forms.

Was this person confused?

Did we just win?

What's going on?

Now that the Lord of the Rings movies have all come out, if you want to see a cataclysmic struggle vs. the Forces of Malicious Stupidity for the future of the Free World, you've got to settle for the presidential debates.

Join us at our place to watch the first debate together at our place in Allston-Brighton (Boston), MA!

I volunteered yesterday at the Kerry campaign in Boston, MA.  Most of us, including myself, were calling voters in Florida to identify supporters.  Others were calling MA volunteers, urging them to go canvass in NH this coming weekend.

But they had a very cool little gimmick after I handed in my 3 completed call sheets...

This post is a basic "How To" guide for folks who are new to canvasing, or have thought about doing it but are nervous about it.  

While this is for Kerry, I'm sure that it's 95+% similar to canvassing for any other candidate.  The rap is assuming that you're canvassing registered independents, or people of unknown leanings.  Obviously it changes if you have more information about them.

Canvassing in general is substantially more effective than phone banking:  you reach probably twice as many people per hour, and typically get to talk to around 30-40% of the people on your list, as opposed to calling in which you talk to maybe 10-15% on the list  (and many people on a phone list will never ever be reached because they screen their calls and/or have cell phones).  It's also easier to register people to vote, and persuasion is much more effective when you're there in person.  So I urge you to give it a go!

Third in a series about my experience of going to Columbus OH from my home in Boston MA to volunteer full time for the Kerry Campaign, August 19-29.

Part 2 highlighted ways in which intelligent volunteers could get the OH Kerry campaign on the right track.
Part 1 was focused on the critical undersupplying of basic material at the Kerry campaign.  It looks like the lion's share of our money has been used to buy air time.  The local offices need us to make up the slack, buying them office supplies, stamps, and sometimes even bumper stickers!

This diary is more positive than the others, and is focused on our struggle to keep Nader from wrongly getting onto the OH ballot.

Party in Boston!

Any Boston-Area Kossacs are welcome to come to a party thrown by my wife ("2.5 Cats" here on Kos) and I this coming Friday, September 10, in Allston (Boston) 7:30 PM.  We'll having a service auction to raise money for U.S. House candidates, many of whom are among the dKos12, and folks will talk about their personal (political or non-political) heroes.

For details and directions, email me starfurry@worldnet.att.net

Part 2 in a series about my 11-day stay in Columbus OH (from Boston, MA) to volunteeer.

Part 1

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about the parties is how many of their employees are kids fresh out of college--people who have clearly never before been in a major campaign.  As a result, they made, and continue to make, amateurish mistakes.  In particular, there was an obsessive focus on making their quota of numbers (number of people polled on a daily basis, to report to the state HQ) to the neglect of actually getting votes.

Jim Sullivan, the fire-breathing progressive Democrat running to unseat Republibot Russel Simmons in CT-2, just mailed me the results of an internal poll as part of his asking for more money.  The 2nd district of CT covers the less thickly settled Northern and eastern parts of the state, including the cities of Norwich, Storrs, and Willimantic, and is currently the most Democratic district in the country to be represented by a Republibot (Bush got 40% in 2000.).

I went from my home in Boston, MA to Columbus, OH August 19-29 to volunteer full-time for the Kerry campaign.  This diary is first in a series of what I learned.

You can still contribute money to helping elect John Kerry!  And in a more effective way than simply donating to the DNC.