We had a great time meeting with the East Cobb Democratic Alliance tonight.

The meeting started out with a discussion of the Massachusetts Senate loss to Republican candidate, Brown. It was fairly agreed that the cause of lack of excitement by the Democratic based due to inaction on the Health Care Bill. It was pointed out that 60% of the Obama voters that voted for Brown and 90% of Obama voters that sat out wanted a more liberal version of Health Care reform that what came out of the House or Senate. The message we as Liberal Democrats should take is to force Washington to stop endless compromises and surrenders to the conservatives and fight for more reforms.

We then went to a discussion on raising money for Democratic Candidates. While our meetup group can't raise or donate money as a group, the ECDA can and will. They raise money by donation of change (over $600 last cycle), annual dues (over $500 last cycle) and outright donations (around $600 last cycle). In 2008, they donated $600 to each of 4 candidates. They are trying to better that this year. Even these small amounts early in the game is a real boost to these candidates. Of course, we in the meetup encourage members to give generously and often to the Democratic candidate of their choice.

The speaker of the night was R. J. Hadley, candidate for US Senate. R.J. went into his background and motivation for running. He is well educated, articulate and passionate about doing things right rather than just because that's how we've always done it. He has been involved in several campaigns as well as an early organizer for Obama's campaign. He hails from Rockdale county and has been traveling this state since his announcement last September. He was surprised that within a week of his announcement, the local Rockdale county Republican Party sent a hit piece laced with lies and innuendos. He has taken that as an indication that the Republicans are taking nothing for granted and will fight hard. We have to do the same.

RJ discussed his desires to improve the energy and environment in Georgia by supporting the planned Biomass conversion plant in Southern Georgia. He discussed his support for enlightened education and not just throwing money at or taking money away from schools. He favors more local and state control and less Federal dictation of standards, tests or labels. RJ discussed the looming Federal Deficit and National Debt as reasons not to move forward with blind spending just because we used to have bigger budgets in the past and have recently cut them. He favors novel and untried solutions to problems since the attempts will reinvigorate the economy.

RJ was aware that few are giving him a second thought but is determined to fight for the majority of Georgians and not just the powerful and the rich. He pointed out that the Supreme Court decision today giving freer power to corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money to directly affect elections will make it just that much more difficult to change the status quo in Georgia. It also should spur us on to support all unions any way we can. Everything we buy and services that we purchase should be done from sources that strengthen our unions and domestic workers rather than weaken them. That is because the Unions are one of the few groups that have the people to help candidates win. They just need more money to do it.

RJ's website should be available end of next week. When I find out the actual address, I'll let everyone know.

I was able to reserve the Spaghetti Warehouse for the first Thursday of April through October for Candidate support. I haven't heard anything from anyone if they are willing to come to the location to help candidates with whatever they need. I have heard that people want this to be a 'do' up and not just a 'meet' up.

If people can let me know what months they want to volunteer for, I will post the commitments on this site and advertise to all Democratic Candidates in Cobb County starting in March. Let me know if you can make it. As RJ said, we need all hands on deck to make this year a good one for Democrats just like 2008. We need to regain control of the Governors Mansion so that we can prevent Republican Gerrymandering in 2002.

Thanks go out to Clara Sharp for suggesting I post a summary of what happened. Please provide feedback if you like the message and want me to continue.

Thanks,

David Lombrozo
Your Organizer