On the heals of my previous post about the excitement on the the Keck for Assembly Campaign trail, it pains me to post the following.

It appears as if our Delaware County Democratic Committee will not be supporting us financially.  

From the Chair:

"Regarding a campaign contribution, you should know that the money we raise is for countywide and local races. We have never, as long as I have been involved, contributed to a statewide campaign. .... I don't think our committee should finance your publicity to any great extent when our revenues are down and we have a number of local races next year."

Additionally, we had hoped that the Committee would apply for the Statewide Victory 2006 Grant that would allow us to rent a vacant storefront for a temporary County wide headquarters.  We hoped to create a grassroots base for volunteers to implement the same kind of strategic "boots on the ground" plan as the Broome County Democratic Committee but that seems to be a false dream too, as we have not heard of any movement and the deadline is tomorrow.

SO THAT MEANS WE ARE ON OUR OWN!

In addition to Kelly Keck, we have so many great Democrats that don't have the name recognition of Spitzer and Clinton that could use sound support from Delaware County on the ground like Kirsten Gillibrand- US Congress, Susan Zimet - NYS Senate, Elizabeth Garry - 6th Judicial Supreme Court, Scott Trees NYS Assembly, and more.

Now we have to do what we always do... since noone else will do it, we have to do it ourselves!  We have spoken to a great local lady who sold her business last year.  The store remains for sale and is unoccupied.  She said she would rent it to us for the next two months for $600, but we simply don't have it in the budget.  It has 4 phone lines, but we will need to turn them on.  I figure $1,000 should do it.  If 10 people gave $100 or 100 people gave $10 we could be up and running right after Labor Day.   Donating is easy via paypal on the the Keck for Assembly website.  

In addition we keep on keepin on!

Next week looks like this with more to come:

1.    Thursday Aug 31 - Mtg with Mike Najarian and AFL-CIO picnic
2.    Saturday Sep 2 - Interview for 30 minute TV Spot
3.    Sunday Sep 3 - Day to Be Gay in Sullivan County
4.    Monday Sep 4 - Labor Day parade in Greene
5.    Tueday Sep 5 - Binghamton Democratic Town Caucus
6.    Wednesday Sep 6 - Citizen Action Training
7.    Thursday Sep 7 - Conklin Town Fair and Parade
8.    Saturday Sep 9 - Colorscape in Norwich

I will try to diary as much of this as possible.

Thank you in advance for helping us open an effective Democratic headquarters, likely the first EVER in Stamford, New York!