Our Campaign Academy weekends are 16 hours of interactive workshops that bring hundreds of local activists, campaign staff and candidates together for 2 days of intensive campaign training. Experienced campaign professionals lead sessions in voter contact, fundraising, communications, on-line organizing and much more to empower progressive activists with the skills to win in November and beyond.  Attendees also meet with dozens of local progressive candidates and learn about exciting job and volunteer opportunities in their area.  And of course, everyone receives their own copy of DFA’s 180-page Campaign Training Manual.

Year after year, the DFA Campaign Academy is building a grassroots infrastructure of skilled progressive activists in all 50 states.

The Phoenix Campaign Academy will be held on March 24th and 25th at
United Food & Commercial Workers Hall (Local 99)
2401 North Central Avenue
Phoenix AZ 85004

To learn more about the training and/or to register click here.

The cost for the two-day event is $70 ($35 for students or low income).  This includes two lunches and the DFA training manual.

Register here.

NOTE: CHANGE IN OFFICERS

Our next meeting will be February 2nd at the Old Spaghetti Factory, on Central Ave, just South of McDowell in Phoenix.  We will meet our first candidate for 2011, Greg Stanton, running for Mayor of Phoenix.  We must begin our charge to reclaim Arizona one city at a time, one school board at a time.  Whether you live in Phoenix or not, come meet Greg and learn what you can do to help all our 2011 candidates.

We will also be holding election of officers.  Following is the slate of officers proposed by our nominating committee:

Chair:   Joe Murphy

Vice-Chair:  Mary Jo Nickum

Vice-Chair:   Randall Holmes

Treasurer:  John Nickum

Secretary:   Doris Freeman

Members-at-large: John Beaulieu, Mary Ellen Bradshaw, Carol Corsica, Doris Freeman, John Gallagher, Stephanie, Toby Stahl, and Janet Tillotson, Jeffrey Brown

Per our bylaws the Executive Committee amended the bylaws to increase the number of officers on the Executive Committee  from 11 to 15 with a quorum being 50% of the number of filled positions.

Nominations will be taken from the floor.

DFA-MC would like to congratulate Andrei Cherney on becoming Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.  We offer our help in anyway we can to improve the chances of Democratic Candidates in Arizona.

Together, we raised over one million dollars for progressives candidates, made over one million phone calls in 16 tight races, and delivered over 250,000 volunteer hours on the ground.

While it was a tough night, we had a few important victories too. DFA 2010 Progressive Hero Barbara Boxer won. Public Option Heroes Michael Bennet, Kristen Gillibrand, Jared Polis, and Chellie Pingree all won without running away from their votes for Healthcare. Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Raul Grijalva was in the fight of his life and won. In fact 94% of the rest of the Progressive Caucus also won (compared to only 47% of the Blue Dogs).

Florida amendments legally requiring fair redistricting of congressional districts — instead of Republican-controlled gerrymandering — won. The anti-environmental Proposition 23 in California, which could have rolled back some of the most important clean air laws in the country, was defeated. And bold progressive Peter Shumlin was elected the first Democratic Governor of Vermont since Howard Dean left office in 2002.

The fact is progressive heroes who lost last night like Russ Feingold and Alan Grayson became collateral damage in a toxic election environment created by weak leadership and corporate Democrats who refused to stand up and fight for real change. Progressives like Annie Kuster, Mary Jo Kilroy, and Tom Perriello ran some of the strongest grassroots campaigns in history, but were drowned out by unregulated corporate front groups that spent hundreds of millions to scare and lie to voters.

The biggest lesson from last night is actually pretty simple. For Democrats to win in the future, they need to fight for the people they represent and stop cutting deals to water down reform with the same corporate interests who will turn around and spend unlimited amounts of money to defeat Democrats year after year.

It was a tough election and it’s a tough fight ahead of us, but we have no regrets for fighting every day to move America forward — and we never will.

- Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

Old Spaghetti Factory – on Central South of McDowell

Meet candidates Sherry B. Williams, candidate for Clerk of the County Superior Court; John Thrasher, running against Trent Franks for Congress in CD2; Rita Dickinson, running for AZ Senate in LD 11; and others who may drop in.

This is one of the last two meetings before the November 2nd election.

Let’s discuss how we can best help get Democrats elected and take back the State of Arizona.  Who is your favorite candidate?  What can you do to help that candidate?  See you on Wednesday, September 1st!  We will also discuss some of the propositions on the ballot.

TiVo the debates and watch them at your leisure!