...and I'm not just talking about a new candidate.
FINALLY, there is some hope that not all is lost in the 11th congressional district. A couple friends and I were lucky enough to attend the first fundraiser/meeting of the 11th District Democrats on Friday night. What an amazing night for a couple reasons...
The 11th District Democrats meeting was held at Aurelio's Resturant in Frankfort and attracted about 40 or so democrats. The program was simple: pizza and soda, a brief talk from a couple of local officials (a Will County board member and a local representative...I'm sorry I don't remember their names), and a brief self-introduction from Jerry WeBer who is "exploring" his options for a run against Jerry WeLLer. At the end, we were able to ask some questions but Mr. Weber said he was still doing research and getting his website up for a potential launch in September.
I would dare say the event was a success with an interesting mix of people. This was very exciting for me personally, as a former resident of the 11th district and where my parents still live, to see some many people so jazzed up about people getting organized to start building democratic party infrastructure in the 11th. Also, there seemed to be a fair amount of people who had been working in the party for years who wanted to come and jump on the bandwagon.
This being said, the SINGLE MOST EXCITING part of this meeting was the fact that the event was organized by a handful of 20-somethings who became so fed up with their district that they decided to actually do something and created the 11th District Democrats. One of the groups executive committee members - not sure what his actual title is - Nikhil Bhatia posted the notice of the event and spoke briefly at the end of the presentation. Nikhil talked about the need to build party infrastructure, about doing more to make a differnece and trying to create a place where candidates who run in the 11th can share the information that they learn after each election so that new people don't have to start from scratch each time. Smart guy!
I have to say...this is such an exciting development. I love the fact that here is a group of young adults who are so tired of nothing that they are willing to step in and fill the void. They were so charged up and seemingly eager to take on the task of starting to organize something in the 11th. I give those guys credit for putting on a amazing first event!
My only suggestion to them....you should have asked people to donate more money!
Great work and I eagerly wait an invite to your next event!!
