Five Days....

Written by: Richard Erwin on Nov 2, 2006 8:40 PM EST

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

How desperate is Dave Reichert?

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Darcy-Reichert 49-47 in latest poll...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 30, 2006 9:07 PM EST

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

The latest poll by RT Strategies/Majority Watch has flipped theire previous numbers.  Reichert was ahead in their early October poll by three points, but Darcy has, in their latest poll, taken a two point lead.

 

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[Eastside DFA] Ten Days...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 28, 2006 11:52 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

If you haven't started walking your precinct, you need to do so. If you haven't started already working a phone bank, you need to do so. And all final media buys will be considered over the weekend, so if you haven't given to your candidates until it hurts, you need to consider doing so, and do so before Sunday
passes by.

The Eastside stands at a crossroads. We have a real, solid chance to have all three folks we're supporting for the state legislature win ther races. And Darcy Burner is within a hair's breadth of winning the 8th Congressional District.

Here is what we need most from you right now…

1) If you want to help Darcy Burner, they are canvassing precincts Saturday, starting at 10 AM, and Sunday, starting at Noon. The canvassing will happen in waves, so if you want to start at a different time, contact the office and see what is available. They are also phone banking every day, from now until election day, between 10 AM and 9 PM. Call
425.454.0622 and talk with Mina, Emma or David.

Darcy's campaign office is at:
12443 Bel-Red Road (where Banner Bank, and their cannon, is)
Suite #383
Bellevue, WA
425.454.0622



2) If you want to help Dale Murphy's campaign (41st LD), contact his campaign manager, Sam Ross, at 206.661.5346. This is a very, very close-fought campaign, and Dale can win this election to the state legislature with our help.



3) Eric Oemig's campaign (45th LD) is doing the following:

Saturday 10 AM - Canvass neighborhoods
Sunday Noon - Canvass neighborhoods
Every evening phone bank starting at 5:30 PM

Starting Thursday, November 2, they will be waving signs at major intersections.

Contact them at 425.968.8798 for details.



4) Deb Eddy's campaign is doing the following:

Monday-Thursday: GOTV Calls (Extremely Important) 4-7p.m.
All Week: Banner Holding (4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.)
Yard Sign Captains: Place Signs on Roads
Saturday/Sunday: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Door Belling
This Saturday: Park and Ride, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
(Pass out Literature with Deb Eddy)

Contact them at (425) 281-4227 or (425) 454-0443


We're almost there. And we need everyone we can get to turn the Eastside "Progressive Blue".

Don't fail us - do your part today.

Rich Erwin
Co-Organizer, Eastside DFA
HM: 425.614.0989
WK: 425.373.2844
CEL: 425.260.9267

API phone banking on the Eastside for Darcy - volunteers needed!!!

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 21, 2006 3:04 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

Folks;

If you are fluent in any API language (Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, etc...), or have friends and/or relatives that can help, we're assembling API-specific phone banks starting this coming Monday at:

O'Shea Barnard Martin, P.S.
10900 NE 4th Street, Suite 1500
Bellevue, WA 98004

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (10/23, 10/24, 10/25)
5:30 PM - 8:30 PM

If possible, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could arrive at 5 PM so that we could prepare you before starting.

We'd also appreciate if you could "reserve" your spot so we know how many will be available for each evening. You can simply reply to this note, or contact me at the phoen numbers listed below.

I'm looking into whether Thursday or Friday may also be on the schedule for this week, so if these are better days than the ones solidly scheduled, please let me know so immediately. (This will give me ammunition to show the need for phone banks on those
evenings.)

I know we all have busy lives - I'm a full-time single parent with a demanding job at Boeing - but 61% of likely API voters are still undecided at this time regarding the Darcy Burner-Dave Reichert race. The race at this time is too close to call, so every vote
counts. The API community will be instrumental in deciding the outcome, as the API community becomes a key constituency within the Eastside in general and the 8th Congressional District in particular.

Please commit yourself to at least three of what could be the most important hours of this election season.

Thanks,
Rich Erwin
HM: 425.614.0989
WK: 425.373.2844
CEL: 425.260-9267
erwinr@yahoo.com

Immediate need for speakers of Asian languages...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 18, 2006 1:04 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

Folks;

As part of our volunteer efforts on behalf of the Darcy Burner campaign, Andrew Tsao and I have been focusing on API (Asian/Pacific Islander) voter outreach in the 8th Congressional District.

With 22,000 registered API voters, the 8th CD is home to one of the fastest-growing minority populations in Washington State - more than doubling within the last decade.

Given that, in the latest poll between Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert, 61% of all undecided voters were API, and the statistical dead heat in which the race stands, the API vote has become critical.

Accordingly, we have been working on developing various initiatives to get Darcy's message out to API voters, and the DNC has decided that these initiatives deserve their support.

One of them is language-specific phone banking: calls with a surname match that speak the language of the potential supporter.

Thus, we have an immediate need for anyone who is fluent in Mandarin, Vietnamese or other Asian languages.

If you can provide time for one or more evenings of up to two hours each for language-specific phone banking between now and election day, please contact myself or Andrew Tsao for details.

Thanks,
Rich Erwin
WK: 425.373.2844
HM: 425.614.0989

Andrew Tsao
CEL: 425.647.9667

DFA Volunteer emergency - Deb Eddy campaign!!!

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 16, 2006 8:24 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

Folks;

We need three people to help hold a very large and impressive banner for Deb Eddy's campaign (it says "Deb Eddy will get you home sooner") for morning and/or evening rush hour over the SR 520 overpass which connects Medina and Clyde Hill to the highway.

Please contact me ASAP if you are available any weekday this week for the above task, and which of the two rush hours are best.

Thanks,
Rich Erwin
WK: (425) 614-0989
HM: (425) 373-2844
erwinr@yahoo.com

Dave Reichert - an independent man...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 15, 2006 11:21 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

'Nuff said.

Have a look, spread the word....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_tTYlnl...

Thanks,
Rich Erwin

We need letters to the editor ASAP...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 15, 2006 3:14 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

Folks;

The Seattle Times, this Sunday morning, has come forward with one of the weakest endorsements I have yet read in their paper, preferring Dave Reichert over Darcy Burner.

We need as many letters to the editor protesting this decision. The rules are simple - 200 words, give them your name address and phone number, and don't give the same letter to the editor to multiple newspapers - if they find that you are, they'll never use it.

Below is my LtE, which just was sent to opinion@seattletimes.com. Let them know what you think as well.

Rich Erwin
Co-Organizer
Eastside DFA



The Seattle Times has shown, once again, that as long as politicians bow down to mammon, or at least to killing the Estate Tax, they'll gladly portray any pig's ear as finest silk.

Endorsing Dave Reichert over Darcy Burner in the 8th Congressional District race is but another example.

This is a man who's voted almost every single time with the Bush administration - the same one that's given us Iraq. Katrina. That takes "passing the buck" to a high art form - if you like your art trashy.

The same man who voted for the detainee bill, which legitimizes both torture and the suspension of habeas corpus, one of our most basic rights, after telling constituents in emails that "I strongly oppose the use of any type of torture on detainees of the United States or any of our coalition partners."

The same man who chairs a committee that still can't figure out how to have police and fire personnel communicate using the same frequency.

I wish Mr. Blethen would just put, on the front page of his newspaper - FOR SALE TO HIGHEST BIDDER - but then that might be too forward for him.

Or, perhaps, too honest.

Richard Erwin
2122 145th Avenue, SE
Bellevue, WA 98007
HM: 425.614.0989
WK: 425.373.2844

Into the home stretch...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 15, 2006 1:27 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

OK, folks this is it.

If you haven't started working for our local state legislature and state senate candidates yet, now is the time and here are the contacts:

Dale Murphy
http://www.electdale.com
(206) 275-0265

Deb Eddy
http://www.debeddy.net
(425) 454-0443

Eric Oemig
http://www.voteeric.com
(425) 968-8798

They need your help, and they need it now. Each are running winnign races, but we cannot for one moment assume we have anything in the bag.

That said, the axis around which most of our races are turning is that of Darcy Burner, running against Representative Dave Reichert, in the 8th Congressional District.

The race is within the 3% margin of error, with the lead being traded back and forth with every poll taken in the last six weeks. And no polls have been published since their debate earlier this week, where she clearly outperformed him.

The NRCC is so scared of Darcy Burner's campaign that they've pulled TV time buys out of races in three other states to redirect funding against her. They spent $425,000 today - just today - buying time for TV attack ads.

GOTV - Get Out The Vote - is paramount at this point.

We need everyone - every single one of you - in the membership, whether a PCO or not, to volunteer for the following between now and election day.

1) We need you to do "GOTV canvassing" for at least one precinct. This is like regular knocking on doors, except this will be only be 10-25 homes of low-frequency voters likely to vote our way. It should take no more than a morning or an afternoon to cover them. We'll have scripts of what needs to be said, walking lists and maps available. We'll also have "endorsement slips" - "crib sheets" of who we have recommended to vote for this November.

2) We need each of you to commit to one two-hour phone banking session. To reinforce our face-to-face canvassing mentioned above, we'll also be calling these same groups of people, especially if they weren't home when canvassed.

3) We need for you to take the day off from work on Election Day and volunteer to work with us. If you can do so, please ask your management now for Tuesday, November 7, off. This is vitally important as we need to ensure we Get Out The Vote.

4) If possible, find one to three low-frequency voters in your neighborhood that tend to believe in our goals and take them under your wing to ensure that they vote on Election Day.

Every vote we ensure for Darcy is that more likely to ensure votes for Deb Eddy, Dale Murphy, and Maria Cantwell. Every vote that we ensure for Darcy is that much more likely to turn away Initiatives 933 and 920, and to pass Initiative 937. And even though most of Eric's district is in the 1st CD, creating and building up the necessary momentum will drive even Eric's final vote tally higher, as we work towards a progressive resurgence in the Eastside.

So, here's who to contact….

Darcy Burner's Office / Coordinated Campaign
Mina --- 425.454.0622
Emma --- 425.454.0661

And if you can't find them, call me instead ---
WK: 425.614.0989
HM: 425.373.2844
CEL: 425.260.9267

Every effort counts, because every vote will count.

Thanks,
Rich Erwin

Two reactions on Tuesday evening...

Written by: Richard Erwin on Oct 11, 2006 12:56 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Eastside DFA

Tuesday night's debate between Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert can be most easily summarized in what they did after the debate.

After Darcy thanked the members of the media panel that asked them both most of the questions for the evening, she traversed the length of the stage at the Meydenbauer Center, then went down the steps and into the aisles, thanking her supporters.

Once Dave had thanked the media panel, he went behind the curtain of the stage, where a small buffet was set for after the event, and huddled quietly with his staff.

And likewise, after Darcy gets elected this November, with your help, she will truly be a thoughtful, open member of the House of Representatives.

But note the words - "with your help."

We have a lot of candidates and issues to fight for this season. We have four weeks left to go. We cannot expect others to do the hard work of outreach, contact, and getting out the vote come election day.

If you haven't walked your precinct, or a precinct, for that matter, now is the time.

If you can't walk, phone.

If you can't do either of the above, give.

We can make sure you're able to help on behalf of any candidate, any issue that's near and dear to Eastside DFA's desires.

But don't let the people huddled in the corner get away with their plans.

Because our future just may depend on your actions.

Rich Erwin
Co-Organizer, Eastside DFA