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In recent days the LD9 Grassroots Community celebrated more than 30 Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Team Leaders who helped elect Democratic candidates in the midterm elections and made a huge difference.
Beginning in January 2017 with only 88 Precinct Committee people (PC’s), this dynamic group of Team Leaders built an army of close to 200 active PC’s and literally hundreds of volunteers by fall of 2018, making Tucson’s LD9 one of the best-organized Democratic strongholds in Arizona for Get Out the Vote efforts.
Lori Cinnamond (Precinct 171) was the mastermind of ceremonies as Democrats met over tamales and libations at the Three Canyon Beer and Wine Garden. “Some of us started not knowing the difference between a PC, LD, CD and AC/DC. Some of us believed the VAN had four wheels and a horn. But now, we know how to build effective teams, engage with voters and win elections,” she said.
Lori is the brilliant strategist who composed the data-driven LD9 Winter Theme GOTV Kickoff in September 2018, and narrowed the LD9 target list to 7,933 “non-reliable mid-term voters” and more than 2,000 newly-registered voters team.
Lori works with Susan Bickel and Jane Lassar as part of LD9’s PC and Volunteer Development Team and together they recruited leaders from LD9’s PC and Volunteer ranks to head the GOTV efforts.
The GOTV team was a diverse group of people, all saying the same thing: “What can I do to help?” The event was a thank-you to each one of LD9’s GOTV team leaders because, “as we have said all along, we couldn’t have done it without you.”
Here are some of Lori’s thank-you remarks at the event.
Wally Marcus (Coordinator for Precinct 238) – Wally’s team kept most thorough canvass notes in response to his active encouragement.
Maggie Winchell (Precinct 170) – Maggie was everywhere, as an original postcard writer (started after the 2017 Women’s March), engager, organizer, presenter, canvasser (in all 10 Territories). “Do-er” doesn’t begin to describe Maggie’s many contributions.
John Callor and Felicia Chew (Precinct 57). Our very own Odd Couple, like Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Together they covered a huge precinct in the Campbell Territory. John alone knocked on more than 500 doors in the past two years.
Nancy Koff – One of the first people we pitched the GOTV plan too. Nancy led groups of people to reach out to more than 350 targets in three Sabino Canyon Precincts (88, 112, and 163).
Ellie Brecher (Precinct 214) Our grammarian and word bender, “and my surrogate Jewish mother,” Lori said. “Thanks, Ellie for nourishing my body and soul.”
Marlene Verdery (Precinct 56) Marlene is one of the most thorough and organized people we have. When we needed help getting all the canvass results into the VAN, “She tackled that task with the gusto of a cat with catnip. I had a lot of fun going to Marlene’s house trying to reverse-engineer how the VAN works and how to get data in January when we have information about who voted.”
Mary Alice Theroux (Precinct 31) Mary Alice is a solo PC in an area rich with registered Democrats, but poor in voter turnout. She joined our team more than a year ago and despite being in a lonely area, she has continued to reach out to her neighbors. When Mary Alice put brochures in envelopes and sent them in the mail, we said, “Dang, why didn’t we think of that?” and soon we were doing that too.
Linda Horowitz (Precinct 88) She is a victim of her own success. She volunteered to help in one of our underserved Territories – La Canada – “and recruited so many volunteers that she had to move outside.”
Monica Wnuk (Precinct 202, Magee territory) and Louise Good (Precinct 29). Monica quietly goes about her business and gets the job done. She recruited three other GOTV team leaders in the Magee territory (for Precincts 29, 146, and 187).
Jenise Porter – “When I told Jenise that 20% of all the Democrats in LD9 live in the Alvernon Territory, she took it upon herself to talk to every one of them! “I think Jenise wore out three pairs of tennis shoes canvassing for LD9 GOTV.” At the same time, Jenise worked tirelessly for our Arizona legislative candidates, involved in Progressive Democrats of America, Progressive Democrats of Southern Arizona, and who knows what else. “Jenise is the poster child for the ‘staying engaged in politics keeps you young’ coalition.”
Barbara Cain – Barbara Cain must be in a competition with Jenise, because anything that Jenise is doing, Barbara wants to be a part of. “Barbara Cain is unstoppable!”
Karen Robbins, Wendy Anderson and Teresa Gershutz (Precinct 239). Usually, two out of the three dynamos in Precinct 239 are out of town taking care of their families. Somehow, they made the handoffs work smoothly and not only were they covering 239 (with help from many neighbors), they also found time to lend a hand to Wetmore and Shannon territories.
Wendy Reed – Wendy Reed is another person that shows up everywhere – whether it is a voter registration event, a canvass on the west side for the Permanent Early Voter List, a postcard party, a phone bank or a public forum, Wendy and her sidekick Chat are always there.
Lori Leary (Precinct 61). Lori started helping us with our volunteer database at the beginning of the year. Soon she became our conduit to the active PCs in her precinct.
Patti Hartmann – At a time last spring, we kept on getting requests for pins and business cards from lots of people in Precinct 99. We had to find out what was going on and from Patti, and we learned what her secret is.
Deborah Komasarik – She lives in Patti’s precinct, but we knew that Patti had it covered and Deborah agreed to reach out to a huge Alvernon precinct – precinct 91. Deborah was also part of the Engagers – a team of LD9ers who organized a number of Voter Registration events from Feb 2018-August 2018
Kim Holaway (Precinct 164). Being in and out of town did not stop Kim from getting all the volunteers she had engaged over the past 18 months. She even had some energy to spare and took on two other neighboring precincts (Precincts 87 and 230).
Marlene Bluestein, Deb Bonjouklian, and Ellen Skotheim. These three women had more going on that most other LDs. Every Saturday morning during GOTV season, a stream of people arrived at Marlene’s house. Many of these people were recruited by these women, they were also people who wanted to help. Marlene was a mastermind of keeping people active. She would sub-contract out her people to the Wetmore, La Canada, Shannon territories. Wherever people were needed, Marlene would direct her troops to go. On the last two weekends of GOTV, at least 30 canvassers were coming through Marlene’s house. If you couldn’t canvass, you were put in a room and given a list of people to phone. If you couldn’t phone you were given a pen and a stack of postcards. No one sat around at Marlene’s house. And when you were done, there was always something good to eat.
Alison “Indiana” Jones. Alison started out as a volunteer – her precinct was full! After a while, she realized that all her neighbors were reliable Democratic voters and she always said, “Where am I needed?” In September 2017, Alison agreed to be acting Territory Coordinator for the 8 precincts in Shannon (Precincts 15, 81, 134, 142, 185, 191, 201, and 213). In all those precincts there are only three active PCs. One of the things we learned about Alison is she finds a way to solve problems. Where many of us would have given up, Alison did not! If she couldn’t recruit volunteers from Shannon, she recruited volunteers from outside of Shannon. In the end, the team targeted all 8 precincts and more than 700 targets. “I participated in a couple of those canvasses and one of the nice things is that we didn’t run into other canvassers from other campaigns. Thank you, Alison, for your perseverance. When the numbers come in, I expect to see a big bump in turnout from Shannon.”
Linda Ekstrum and Mary Evangeliste – They were our artistic geniuses, spiritual gurus, engagers, postcard factories and a continual source of creative inspiration. “When I first started working with Linda, I called her an Angel because she would come up with these ideas that lifted my spirits. Mary has more positive energy than anyone I know. Life is art and art is life – and these ladies bring life to us.”
Larry Bodine (Precinct 238) For more than a year, Larry taught a “Getting Active in Local Politics class for the UA’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and is an active contributor to the Blog for Arizona news site. Not everyone knows that Larry also helps out on the LD9 website – making sure our Events section is a place with useful information. Without Larry’s help, you wouldn’t know what kind of political activities were going on in Tucson.Bottom of Form
Sheri Barker – With input from the PC Development team, Sheri created our beautiful LD9 website and makes sure it isn’t hacked by the Russians or the Pima County Republicans.
Our LD9 Executive Committee Leadership – Chairman Michael Dues, Jenise Porter, Nathan Bacal, Treasurer Brian Bickel, Carmen Prezelski, and Barbara Cain. Thank you for having faith in us and allowing us to be us.
‘PC Toigo’ aka Ellen Toigo (Precinct 171) He is an important original member of the PC and Volunteer Development team. “I literally would not have lasted this long in this role if not for PC. When things would go astray, PC Toigo got us on track by asking, “will this help elect more Democrats? If not, then we don’t have time for that.” When it got closer to election time, no matter how much we were doing, Ellen would ask, “are we doing enough?” “Well, Ellen, I can finally say, yes, we are doing enough!” Lori says.
Jane Lassar – Sweet Jane always reminded us of the little, but important, things we were missing. Nobody cared more about the PCs and volunteers than Jane Lassar. If our communications were clear, we have Jane to thank. She reviewed and re-reviewed everything and assured that everything that went out was clear and didn’t use any terminology that people might not know. “Jane agonized over everything we did, to make sure that others did not.”
Susan Bickel – We all know this was a team effort but none of this would have been possible without the support and patience of Susan Bickel. Susan put up with Jane, Ellen, and Lori invading her house for hours on end. There was yelling, screaming, laughing and even some crying around Susan’s kitchen table on Wednesday mornings. Through it all, Susan allowed the team to take risks, make mistakes, grow and learn. For that, we will be forever grateful. “Susan made me swear not to tell you any of this, but at this point, I don’t think there is anything she can do to me so I want you all to know some secrets about Susan. I call Susan Snow White – because she looks so pure and innocent. Let me tell you this, Susan drinks Stout, occasionally uses four-letter words, drives like a race car driver and has a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. So, make sure you don’t get on Susan’s bad side or you might find her foot somewhere it doesn’t belong.”
LD9 organized a variety of activities on Election Day, which was very effective and fun. We thanked people for voting and invited them to get more involved. In some precincts in the Wetmore territory, we were able to pass out information to hundreds of voters that day.
The GOTV action created a true sense of community as PCs and volunteers gained new experiences, confidence and lasting friendships. These people are looking forward to being a force to be reckoned with in 2020!
Several GOTV Team Leaders who couldn’t make the celebration: Matthew Parsons (73), Eve Shapiro (Precinct 237), George Pope (Precinct 29), Rahul Sivaprasad (Precinct 146), Rachel Cheeseman (Precinct 58), Rebecca Cramer (Precinct 167), Mary Keerins (Precinct 68), Terry Chandler and Jim Hannley (Precinct 75) and Kim Khoury (Precinct 241).
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