I’ve been so busy with the calendar that I haven’t had time to get up a Georgia post in about two weeks. Sorry about that! Not enough time in the day.
I think a lot of us have concluded that money spent on organizing is better spent than money spent on advertising or TV. Well, here’s a chance to contribute to organizing on the ground in Georgia.
I asked DougJ if he could make us a BJ thermometer for this group, and of course he came through.
America Votes – Georgia
If you donate to America Votes – Georgia, they are making sure they get distributed directly as needed to groups that are having the biggest impact on the ground.
AMERICA VOTES – Georgia
Organizations include:
- Asian American Advocacy Fund
- Black Male Voter Project
- Black Voters Matter
- BlackPAC
- Care in Action
- Collective PAC
- Color of Change
- Georgia Alliance for Progress
- Georgia Conservation Voters
- Georgia Equality
- Mijente
- New Georgia Project Action Fund
- Poder Latinx
- UNITE HERE
I also want to share a couple of great articles:
In the math-addled hours after polls closed on Election Day, as the New York Times needle tipped delicately toward blue in Georgia, the nation’s attention followed, homing in on one of its most transformative political figures: Stacey Abrams.
She is extraordinary, partly because she has one of the most detailed-oriented, forward-looking, compulsively organized brains in politics. Abrams — who served as minority leader in Georgia’s state legislature for seven years before running for governor in 2018, losing narrowly to Georgia’s then–Secretary of State Brian Kemp, in one of the most flagrantly voter-suppressed elections in recent memory — has been working to turn her state from red to blue for more than a decade. Now that her promise has (this time at least) been made manifest, many in the Democratic Party are looking toward Abrams as a kind of silver bullet: a figure who can be installed — in the Cabinet or as head of the DNC — to perform her magic across the nation.
In the flood of post-election analysis of muddied results and still-emerging data, answers can seem simple and obvious. But real life, real states, and real political organizing don’t always lend themselves to easy explanations or diagnoses. And what’s been missing from some of the adulation of Abrams is a view of how much work — by so many people, from so many angles, over so many years — has always undergirded her efforts in Georgia; I wanted to hear a fuller story, from the woman whose capacious vision sets her apart from so many currently telling the story of politics and power in America.
In Georgia, get-out-the-vote operations that helped Biden win haven’t stopped
For Deborah Scott, executive director of Georgia Stand-Up, it’s as if Election Day never ended.
The get-out-the-vote efforts of civic engagement groups like hers, which helped Joe Biden become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in nearly three decades, have been ongoing since Nov. 3. The group is still knocking on doors, calling voters and signing up new registrants, with a big push involving 100 volunteers planned for this weekend. Another group that works to mobilize voters of color set up tables at a recent high school graduation to register newly eligible young voters. A third group is reaching voters at transit stations.
The efforts are a continuation of the groups’ relentless push to register, engage and turn out voters ahead of a pair of high-stakes Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, which will determine which party controls the Senate and potentially whether a President Biden will be able to enact an ambitious agenda or be blocked by a restive upper chamber.
Scott is executive director of Georgia Stand-Up, which is focusing on registering more voters ahead of the state’s Senate runoffs in January. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
“At this point, it’s a turnout game,” said Scott, whose group focuses on Atlanta. As excited and proud Black voters are about their role in the outcome of the general election, Scott said the challenge is to remind them “we’re not done yet. We have to get them to go back. We have to show them why this race is so important because a lot of people will not be as engaged.”
What’s everybody doing to help with Georgia?
Update: Open thread, also.
H.E.Wolf
Writing with http://PostcardsToVoters.org, of course. :)
As always, they follow the exact guidelines and wording provided by the local campaign(s).
Currently, the message is “request an absentee ballot”; when the deadline for that is past, there will be a new message queued up.
I like looking up the cities and towns to which I’m writing, and discovering snippets of history and current info. It reminds me of the great richness and variety present throughout our country.
To anyone who’s been on the fence about writing postcards: PTV is very organized, very clear, and makes it easy for folks with very limited time/resources to participate. I think you can write 5 cards with them, and call it done!
jeffreyw
It took a decade of hard work to make her an overnight wonder.
dnfree
“I think a lot of us have concluded that money spent on organizing is better spent than money spent on advertising or TV.” That’s a very succinct way of expressing my conclusion. In one local race, we received daily large postcards either telling us how despicable the Republican was (from the Democrat) or how despicable the Democrat was (from the Republican), which cost a lot of money for a local race and yet did absolutely nothing to sway our decision as to which one to vote for, except to diminish our interest in voting for either of them.
All that money we sent to candidates–how did they spend it, really? If it was just for advertising, most of it might as well have been flushed down the toilet.
robmassing
Phone-banking on Sunday!
arrieve
I’m in — it’s become a reflex now. I see one of the themometers and I click on it.
Jim Appleton
Not an open thread, but iDJT’s focus on ancillary players is a sign of desperation.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@robmassing: SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!
UncleEbeneezer
Just got my 200 postcards from our local UDH effort, and started writing them yesterday. Targeting infrequent voters with a real simple script asking them to vote for Warnock and Ossoff.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim Appleton: you Bossie and Lewandowski appointed to that Pentagon board?
H.E.Wolf
Stacey Abrams doesn’t need me to defend her. However, I find it jarring when – as in the otherwise well-written article by The Cut – a highly accomplished woman is described as “compulsively” [positive leadership trait].
It’s as if the writer(s) can’t imagine a woman doing great work unless she is mentally or emotionally off-kilter… an antiquated and harmful stereotype. The Cut can certainly do better than that.
/soapbox
H.E.Wolf
Hello, fellow GOTV-er! :) I’m embarrassed not to remember what UDH stands for – sounds like a good group, regardless!
Jim Appleton
@Jim Appleton:
Don’t know why this is necessary, but some don’t seem to understand that iDJT is shorthand for “idiot”.
JPL
BTW Early voting is December 14th, so a reminder on the BJ then would be appreciated. Also, I don’t need another reminder about absentee voting. I have already received seven reminders in the mail. I think Raven has me beat though
I made sure that I was registered to vote today as did my family members. GA is notorious for purging voters. Better safe than sorry.
Another Scott
Donated. An important cause!!
[ Here’s hoping that ActBlue uses their windfall this year to get some faster servers**. It’s really, really annoying to have to wait so long for the thermometer to move!!11ONE ]
Cheers,
Scott.
** – or maybe it’s yet another FYWP caching issue??
West of the Rockies
OT, but I KEEP encountering a Zergnet story here that features a fucking-hideous photo of some evangelist named Kenneth Copeland. Good lord, the ugly stick worked overtime on that fool.
Old School
@H.E.Wolf:
According to Google options include:
User Data Header
Utah Department of Health
United Democratic Headquarters
United Doctors Hospital
It’s probably the Utah one….
Amir Khalid
@Jim Appleton:
TIANA, friend.
raven
@JPL: They’s drivin me nuts!
Another Scott
Yet another reminder of what’s at stake…
Forward!!
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
dww44
As a lifelong Georgia voter and one who went door to door starting with Obama in 2008, I’m not sure all these mailings will spur voter turn out. The turnout for the Nov 3 election was 62% in this majority minority community. It’s getting to that 38% that will put us over the top. It would be nice if the GOP depresses its own turnout but I do NOT see that happening. They are too many of them like Gabriel Sterling, voted Republican their entire lives and are not gonna stop doing that now.
We Democrats are the enemy. We stand little chance of converting conservative voters who should vote against their 2 obviously corrupt candidates. So we just have to focus on our own likely voters and now, the not so likely ones. That needs a massive knocking on doors effort, which I believe can be done safely even during the pandemic. It will also require a physical voter to the polls effort, maybe starting during early voting.
WaterGirl
@Jim Appleton: I did not know that.
raven
@dww44: Athens was worse.
NeenerNeener
@Jim Appleton: He’s rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
glory b
@jeffreyw: More than that.
There is out there on youtube, a video of her giving a speech when she was, if I recall, 16 or 17. She was formidable then, and so impressive.
I also love the fact that she worked her way through law school by writing romance novels. I would never have thought of that, even if I had the ability!
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw:
I just wanted to see that again.
Another Scott
Good, good.
He needs a Democratic Senate to make many good things happen. This is our chance.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@glory b: Yes! Stacey’s speech when she young, and seeing John Lewis speak on that important day when he was just a young pup, tells me that there were people paying attention – who saw talent in those young people and put them forward.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I keep hoping that all this fuckery about the election will backfire – that people in Georgia are paying attention and will vote accordingly.
Please let us win the senate.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Neera is also a Bruin.
sdhays
@Jim Appleton: I guessed it stood for “impeached Donald J. Trump”. Which is a more specific form of “idiot”.
JPL
@dww44: Warnock is doing better in polling than Ossoff.. Biden won Alpharetta but several points and so did Perdue. Somehow he has to appeal to the burbs.
pamelabrown53
@raven:
Do you agree with dww44’s analysis? I don’t live in Georgia but I tend to think that Trump’s chaos and the repub. candidates’ corruption won’t tip the scales in our favor.
It’s imperative that we focus on getting our vote out. Every last one.
BruceFromOhio
What a polite and elegant phrase, especially when referring to Moscow Mitch, Fascist Enabler.
Could also apply to my stomach after a plate of spicy nachos.
raven
@pamelabrown53: I’m skeptical that anything will help, I’ve lived here for too long. sorry
raven
@raven: But, yea, I think that is right.
pamelabrown53
@raven:
No need to be sorry. Honest opinions from actual residents helps keep us grounded.
If one of our democrats have a chance, which one and why? Sorry if I’m uncomfortably putting you on the spot.
JeanneT
I’ve got Vote Forward GOTV letters to write: sending them out on Monday. I’ll start another round of Postcards to Voters cards as soon as my new stamps arrive. Not as immediate as text or phone banking, but both groups are keeping the message positive and empowering and I hope the personal touch makes a difference, in contrast to traditional campaign mailings.
JPL
@raven: bah humbug .. If the republicans don’t show up, we win.
raven
@pamelabrown53: In my opinion they both have an equal chance. Wait and see what fuckhead does in Valdosta tomorrow.
KSinMA
I’m in.
raven
@JPL:
If they kill more Russians, they win. If we kill more Frenchmen, we win.
Amir Khalid
@BruceFromOhio:
R E S T I V E is not how most people spell “obstructionist”.
JMF
Driving voters to the polls in blue areas, and voting myself. Fingers crossed.
JPL
@raven: Loeffler wasn’t with Pence today because someone on her staff died. Twitter said he was dating one of Kemps daughters. It will be interesting if she accompanies trump tomorrow.
JPL
Biden did win again in GA today.
Woodrow/asim
And decades for the GOP to put America in the situation Abrams — and many others — are working like mad to get us out of.
I recently found out about GOP Chair Guy Gabrielson, and how the Southern Strategy was already a going concern in the GOP by 1952:
Don’t ever let the assholes let you believe that the GOP “just happened” to collect White Supremacists. Too many in that Party worked too damned hard, for far too long, to pull that exact Black-hating vote over.
“State’s Rights”, my Big Black Butt.
catclub
@H.E.Wolf:
United Democratic Happeal?
Mary G
I wish I could be optimistic, but the record shows Republicans always show up more in special elections and runoffs, and my experience donating a not-insignificant chunk of my life savings to many Senate candidates across the country who were ahead in the polls and ended up losing this year is not positive.
I am still donating to Fair Fight, Ossoff, Warnock, and now this organization, have written letters for Vote Forward and postcards for PTV, but I wonder if Georgians are getting multiple contacts they may get annoyed like raven and not vote and if I’m wasting my time and money.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: We really don’t know the answer to the questions that you are (sort of) asking. The choice is between doing something you think might help, and doing nothing, which will definitely not help.
If multiple contacts, annoying as they can be, convinces people to vote for the other side, then I don’t think all the campaigns would still be doing GOTV.
You are on the side of the angels, Mary G. Do not give up, we need you!
raven
@Mary G: Oh, we’ll be voting as will all of our annoyed friends!
WaterGirl
This calendar was at 0 when DougJ made it at about 3 pm and look where we are now.
I truly believe that giving to these smaller groups, and Fair Fight – who are doing on-the-ground organizing – is a really good use of our resources.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
So much winning!
RR Mikey
Stacey Abrams should be the head of the DNC. Lord knows she’d be great in that job and a damn sight better than that farcical fool, Tom Perez, who currently holds the job (is he really under consideration for AG????). If you or I did our job as poorly as he did his (he lost seats in the House and failed to gain a majority of the Senate despite Biden’s strong win), we’d be fired on the spot. He was nowhere to be seen for months prior to the election except for those folks who work at the bank where he cashes his paychecks. Please find a job for her where she can shine as brightly on the national stage in the same way she did in Georgia.
Baud
@RR Mikey: I don’t recognize your nym, but the DNC is not responsible for the Senate and House. Those are the DSCC and the DCCC. The DNC focuses on the top of the ticket. Nor do I think Abrams wants the DNC job, so it’s a moot point.
evap
As a Georgia resident, I have to say that all of the flyers, postcards, texts, …. are getting really annoying. I’ve received absentee ballot applications from four different groups. I wish there was a way I could tell all these people that YES I AM GOING TO VOTE and that I will vote early in-person. I think the absentee ballot applications might confuse some voters.
Historically, the GOP does better in these run-offs, which is likely why the state legislature switched to this run-off system. But this year is so different from previous years, and there is so much organizing and GOTV happening, I don’t think past elections really tell us that much. It seems that Warnock is doing better in polling than Ossoff, but it’s really hard to imagine that there would be voters who would vote for Warnock and also vote for Purdue.
The funniest thing is that the spousal unit is getting GOTV postcards and he is not a U.S. citizen. Never happened before…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@RR Mikey:
I’m skeptical that Perez had any impact whatsoever, good or bad tbh. Trump simply turned out a lot of voters, for our side and against. I mean, Susan Collins for example didn’t just win in a squeaker; it wasn’t even close. That was every Senate race.
Hundreds of millions of dollars wasted. And of course this provided the right an opportunity to try to disingenuously claim that this means that money can’t buy elections; Dark Money is no problem!
And what Baud said above
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Tom Perez’s job was to run the convention, he did a pretty good job.
Mary G
Had ordered something from Amazon Tuesday, fortunately nothing very important. Checked yesterday and they said it was due to come today, but the tracking details showed it had been sent to Brazil. Got an email today that it is undeliverable and a refund would be issued. That’s never happened to me before.
Geminid
@RR Mikey: People want to see Stacey Abrams shine on the national stage but they may not understand how much good Abrams could do as Governor of Georgia. This year in particular we’ve seen the importance of good leadership at the state level. Abrams knows her own value best, and if she decides to run for Governor again people who want to see her shine will just have to pay some attention to state politics. It would probably be to their benefit knowledgewise.
laura
@Mary G: you must not have ordered a wading pool this summer.
So president ham head pitched a nutty and shat all over a most deserving Governor Kemp. Does that count as helping Ossoff and Warnock? It’s schadenfreudalicious watching the GOP snake eat its tail. Each and ever loyal bootlicking morally bankrupt skeezy unfuckable acts more surprised than the last as the leopard eats their face.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
Amazon just wanted to go home!
(I hope you can re-order, obviously at Bezos’ expense!)
Mary G
😍😊😃 O/T
WaPo: Federal judge restores DACA, orders DHS to accept first-time applications from immigrants
I’m sure somebody will try to sue and get the Supremes to overturn this, but hopefully there won’t be enough time before Uncle Joe is in.
Mary G
@SiubhanDuinne: I ordered the cheaper version I’d been vacillating about, so their loss!
raven
@evap: I heard that!
Another Scott
@catclub: Heh.
Made me look…
https://www.facebook.com/UnitedDemocraticHQ/
Cheers,
Scott.
Salty Sam
@SiubhanDuinne:
Amazon has screwed up so many orders since day one of the pandemic. I cut ’em some slack at first, global pandemic and all, but they’ve never gotten the problems solved. I have had at least a half-dozen orders botched and refunded since March. I have started ordering directly from merchants with much better results.
As my wife (who hates Amazon with the burning heat of 1000 suns) says, “FUCK Jeff Bezos!”
UncleEbeneezer
@H.E.Wolf: United Dem Headquarters (Pasadena)
rikyrah
rikyrah
@Mary G:
Brazil?!?🤔🤔😲😲