Post-Convention Week Wrap-up

Again, I have been slacking on the blog, so apologies! Democrats had an exciting week last week, and we were all busy enjoying the Convention and running our own Convention events at home. Our Watch Party was a huge success with a turnout of over 130 people and over $170 dollars raised for the Adams County Young Democrats! On behalf of the Young Democrats, I'd like to express our deep gratitude for making it an amazing night and starting us off with a bang! We also made the front page of the Hanover Evening Sun, and you can read the article about the event here.

John Palinski, Obama campaign field organizer, speaks with Warren Steen, member of Adams County Democratic Commitee

Also, over the course of the week, the Obama campaign ran a voter registration drive at Gettysburg College. With the help of local volunteers, we registered 335 new Adams County voters! This far exceeded the initial goal, and huge congratulations are due for Obama field organizer John Palinski.

This afternoon our local candidates participated in the Lake Meade Labor Day regatta. They appeared on beautifully decorated parade boats that went up and down the lake. Thanks to everyone who came out in support!

We are still looking for more Northern Adams County team members to make phone calls and organize, so to all interested parties, we will be meeting at the East Berlin headquarters at 6:00 pm on Friday. Hope to see you there!

Blog Reports from the Democratic National Convention!

As some of you know, the Adams County Democratic Committee is fortunate to have two of our members, Patricia Manning and Roger Lund, in Denver as Obama delegates. Committee chair Roger is maintaining a daily account of the convention on a blog run through the Hanover Evening Sun. I urge everyone to visit it through this link and offer your feedback and support. This is a great opportunity to let local readers know just how many Democratic supporters we have!

Gettysburg Hilton Convention Watch Party

And the winner is...

Congratulations Senator Biden on being chosen as the VP nominee!

Developments!

First, I'd like to apologize for not updating the blog as frequently as I'd like. I've been incredibly busy these past couple of weeks, but haven't we all! It's because of very exciting reasons, though, which I'm going to share with you.

A couple of weeks ago, Kate Plakas of Gettysburg approached me about joining the newly formed Adams County Young Democrats. There hasn't been a solid organization in over two years, and she rebuilt the group from scratch. I was honored that she asked me to be her Vice President, and naturally I accepted. Since then, we've been planning a great event that I want to encourage ALL Democrats to attend regardless of age.

On Thursday, August 28th at 8pm, we'll be co-hosting a Convention Watch Party with John Palinski, our Obama Field Manager. The Hilton Garden Inn in Gettysburg has been amazingly cooperative in setting space aside and offering us an LCD screen to broadcast Obama's nomination acceptance speech. We're going to supply snacks and there will be a cash bar on the premises. Neil Clifford has agreed to make an appearance, and we're still waiting on word from Phil Avillo and Bruce Tushingham. This is a perfect opportunity to energize the local base of ALL ages and make a good showing. We're working on getting press coverage from multiple sources. With this we can let the region know that we have a united, strong, organized and enthusiastic party. If you'd like more information, you can contact me through the comment function or email the Adams County Young Democrats directly at acyd@adamsdemocrats.com.

The other announcement I'd like to make is that the Adams County Democratic Committee has graciously appointed me as precinct leader for East Berlin. There is still room for one more committee member from this precinct, though, so if anyone is interested or knows of someone to suggest, contact either me or Roger Lund.

Also, last week we had our first Northern Adams County team meeting at the East Berlin headquarters and Warren Steen has stepped up as our team leader. The idea is that Adams County is far too spread out and diverse to tackle in a centralized fashion, so the committee and John Palinski have decided it's best handled by dividing the county into quarters. The Northern region encompasses all of the 193rd state house district, which is all Neil Clifford's territory. Every Friday at 6pm we will be meeting at the headquarters to discuss campaign strategy and organization. Our goal is to make 25 calls a week to area voters so that we can ID them for the Obama campaign as well as for our local candidates. We'd also like every team member to register 2 voters a week if possible. To pick up call lists, stop by the office and one of our volunteers will assist you. You can either take the lists home with you to call at your leisure or you can make your calls out of our office. It shouldn't take any longer than an hour to make 25 voter contacts. It's definitely not too late to join our team! We look forward to seeing you.

Abortion Hoax Warning

This evening when I was eating dinner, my mother told me that abortion was outlawed in New York state. I was alarmed and in disbelief, but still preparing to make a visit to our friends in the north and stage some kind of dramatic protest. I asked her how she found out, and she told me that she received an e-mail alert from MSNBC with the news. When she went to the website to find out more, there were no links to the story. I decided to channel surf the major news networks, but still no word of it. By this point, I grew quite skeptical and decided to let google solve the mystery for me. Apparently a network of hackers thought it would be amusing to send out a slew of fake news stories to people who receive MSNBC e-mail alerts. Other headlines among the many included abortion outlawed in California, Elizabeth Taylor found murdered, and McCain gives up presidency. My recommendation would be for anyone who gets these alerts to unsubscribe and in the future, don't trust them if you receive any more. To find out more about the hoax, check out this blog.

DFA Gettysburg Forum Wrap-up

From the Hanover Evening Sun:

"U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-Spring Garden, and his Democratic opponent, Phil Avillo, R-York, tackled issues ranging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to global warming as part of a Wednesday night forum held by the Gettysburg Area Democracy for America.

It wasn't a sparring match between the two opponents, merely a chance for both to explain their platforms and answer some questions from audience members.

Both candidates began their 20 minutes inside Valentine Hall at the Lutheran Theological Seminary with a brief introduction, followed by their views on the role of Congress with regards to Middle East policy and on the regulation of carbon emissions.

More...

It's great that the local press came out to the event, but I'm yet again disappointed in the attention paid to the other down ticket candidates. Neil Clifford and Bruce Tushingham were together one half of the forum, but they only received a few sentences of press coverage. In fact, it wasn't even mentioned that they were at the forum until the end of the article. It's settings like the DFA forum that allow the public to become familiar with state candidates, yet when the press skims over their statements and presence, it defeats the purpose.

In his speech to the attendees, Neil Clifford stressed points on his strongest issues--labor and the environment. He spoke about the importance of strong union jobs to grow and sustain the local economy. He also discussed the opportunity for renewable energy in the region, most particularly hydro power through our various creeks and lakes. For his opposition to nuclear power, Clifford also received an enthusiastic applause.

When Bruce Tushingham took the podium, he discussed the need for property tax relief, especially for seniors who live on a fixed income. He said his plan would be to take the state's surplus and use it towards tax relief for all of Pennsylvania's home owners. The Evening Sun's article failed to mention this point, and it's too strong of one to go neglected.

This is why I can't stress enough for the local press to get involved and provide coverage of these local political events. If one reporter neglects a fact, odds are another one won't. The more the merrier.