(I love hearing about people working in the trenches. – promoted by David Dayen)
I do NOT officially speak for the Bill Durston For Congress Campaign.
I am only one of the multitude of constituents in the California Congressional 3rd District volunteering time and efforts to a very inspiring and grassroot-supported campaign to wrest this district from the stranglehold of an absentee representative. I also happen to be a “blogger” with a strong conviction that this District (nay, our country) deserves able representation by people of integrity, virtue and passion imbued with strong desire to lead us out of the political quagmire that has beset our country for the past several years.
CA-03 is one of the ostensibly “Red” and Rethuglican “Safe” districts, and the incumbent is one of the most apparently-privileged “untouchables” you find in such “safe” districts.
A little note on the GERRYMANDERING that put people like Dan Lungren in power.
Not since CA-03 was redistricted to compensate Dan Lungren after his disastrous loss in the 1998 gubenatorial elections to Gray Davis has Dan Lungren ever faced any serious political threats to his sense of entitlement. He even represented the CA-03 for a long time without bothering to actually live in the District, and sparingly bothered to engage the constituents at all. That changed in the 2006 elections.
Although the Bill Durston For Congress campaign in ’06 did not get into serious gears until very close to the elections, the grassroot support and the efforts of so many volunteers who wanted to do everything possible to effect changes in the District ensured that the results were competitive. In the previous election, Dan Lungren won by a whopping 28% margin (62% of total votes), even without the benefit of incumbency. In 2006, however, Dan’s margin had been reduced to 22% (59% of total votes). – this in spite of the power of incumbency and the treasure chest of campaign funds he had amassed in the two years he had been in congress.
How did this happen? You may ask. It happened because of people like the ones I present to you below – the enthusiastic volunteers who crave real change, believe in the 50-state strategy, do not agree that there is a “safe” Republican district that cannot be made competitive and wrested away from the enablers, and who are will to put their time, money, feet, fingers and all they have in a movement to turn ever RED part of California BLUE this time around.
Why are we starting early this time? Well, one of the lessons learned from our last campaign is that we started late, and played catch-up all the way through, garnering momentum all the way to election night. Because we started late, the “mo” couldn’t carry us all the way.
This time around, it’s personal. Personal as in YOU. If You live in CA-03, or have the ability and capacity to reach out and help out, the campaign NEEDS YOU NOW. The campaign needs you help spread the word about our veteran candidate and to help level the monetary playing field by ACTING BLUE.
More importantly, IF you live in CA-03, the campaign NEEDS you to help do what the selfless individuals listed below are doing for the BILL DURSTON FOR CONGRESS campaign. The movement is afoot, please hop onto the train and pitch in however you can.
Now presenting……the able volunteers from BILL DURSTON FOR CONGRESS campaign’s call-a-thon held today (October 13th, 2007):
Dr. Bill Durston himself.
Diane – Bill’s wife.
Marilyn (Chief of Staff) – and David.
Ali, the magnanimous (and very passionate) host of our Call-A-Thon and several other events.
Susan – Ali’s wife, without whom many of us will probably neven have been brought together to rally around our extremely strong candidate.
The rest of the gang, in no particular order of preference:
Chow Time – did I mention that Ali is the best cook in town? Just checking 🙂
