Mary Ann Mancuso, DoNV Club President:
Dear Dems and all other supporters,

You must know that all was not lost on Election Day, in fact so much was gained. We gained back the passion we had buried, we gained long lasting friendships, and we gained respect due to all of the effort we put forth. We must also keep in mind that all we had control over were the votes in Napa County, and we were clearly the dominant force here. If the rest of the Country had voted as Napa did, it wouldn't have been much of a contest.

Now that we know what we are capable of, the Democrats of Napa Valley Club must continue our efforts with: education, leadership development, and future elections.

Please join us as we continue to grow our Club and our Democratic presence.

Mary Ann Mancuso
President, Democrats of Napa Valley Club

Vicki Elting, GOTV Chair:
Dear beloved volunteers for the Napa Valley Democrats Get Out the Vote Committee:
 
We (Laurie Puzo, Jen Thornton, and I) returned last evening from our work in Arizona which took us away for the last days before the election.  We returned with much despair and sadness and even noticed that same mood in the airports we traveled through.  People were, I believe, in shock. 
 
My intention for writing though is not about the election, but to speak strongly about how much admiration I have for you and the work we did together..... very important work that was worth doing no matter the outcome.  
 
Our work taught me that citizens want to be included in the process...they really do care and they want to know that their government is working using reason and honor as basic principles. They want to live in a country that respects them and they are thankful and appreciative of folks like you who were willing to listen. 
 
The gift that we all got in return was the honor of being the listener, the witness.  And so, my fellow patriots, do not despair because this too is a lesson in impermanence. 
 
My brother read this to me on the phone Tuesday night:   

With my sincerest admiration, appreciation, and thanks,
Vicki Elting

Donna Smith, Club Member
Here's another great Gandhi quote that will help to inspire us to continue with our mission, "We must become the change we want to see."
Donna Smith

Chris Edwards, Club Member & Candidate for City Council
Mary Ann and others thanks for sharing and please share my thoughts...

The loss in this election was a painful blow to the hard work, countless hours, dedication, spirit and dreams of many of us. We must not allow ourselves to be beaten.
Righteousness always wins over time. Look to the civil rights movement look, at the movement for equality and basic partnership rights in my own gay lesbian community. My community is now even being blamed by some for the Kerry loss.
The reality is, we all tried as hard as we could for a Kerry win, as did thousands of others. His strategist and campaign team made mistakes, as a candidate he should have been bolder in defining his message and sticking to his gut instincts and not being handled or managed as much as he was. This election will be reviewed by history and debated for years.
The key is that we, the newly reunited Democrats must NOT GIVE UP! We MUST NOT GIVE IN!
I think it is critical that as leaders we learn from our loss, don't give up, inspire confidence that there is hope and take action locally and statewide to ultimately develop progressive national leaders with a clear message and stick to the message.
The difference in us and Nazi Germany is we can and must continue to fight. We must not allow them to take our spirit, our heart, OUR SOUL. We must not stand by watch them take our country and our liberty away from us. There are similarities with the past. In Germany they killed the "peoples spirit and heart" to stand up for what is right and the people gave up and accepted their fate ultimately of death. I've visited the concentration camps of Germany and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. I've cried and been inspired. We must never give up on our principles of justice and must never give in. IF we do give up their loss and their lesson to us was in vain.
We must not lay down. We must take back our nation starting with our community and thousands of communities throughout this country.
Remember what Gandhi said...
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
Approaching 40 but not yet jaded of life without hope!

Chris
Chris Edwards

Tracy Krumpen, GOTV Committee
I may ramble, but please bare with me.  I need to cleanse my soul.
 
I sit here at the computer and I don't know what to say.  I'm full of so many emotions all at one time...anger, sadness, puzzled, bewilderment, fuzzy (and not the good kind of fuzzy), sleep deprived.  How could this happen?  How could more than half the country be this stupid!  How could they fall for lie after lie? Well obviously Karl Rove's soundbites worked.

I'm sad for our country but I'm not giving up hope and neither should any of you.  Am I pissed at the outcome?  You're damn right I am, but this isn't the time to stop fighting.  Now is the when the real fight starts.  We need to make sure our representatives are held accountable.  Remember, they work for us.  We need to make sure our voices are heard.
 
As for the Dems of Napa Valley, we made outstanding progress this year.  We registered thousands of new voters and showed to the city that Democrats are alive and well.  Our volunteers were outstanding yesterday!  We had approximately 100 volunteers that reached out in many areas; calling 2200+ newly registered Dems, provided rides to voters, poll watchers, helping people find their polling place and educating people of their voting rights  (actually, I think our club did a better job of educating the public of their voting rights than John Tutuer).  And we helped Noreen Evans get elected to the Assembly!  
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our volunteers from yesterday and all throughout the year.  We have allot to be proud of!  We kicked butt!  Maybe we need to take our club on the road and help Ohio next time!  We certainly have the energy! 
 
I am so grateful for meeting each and every one of you.  You have all touched my life so deeply.  I am honored to have worked with every one of you. 
 
Its ok to be sad.  I've already had two good cries today. I had to let my emotions go...and it felt good!  
 
So please, have a good cry...it's ok to cry.  Go ahead, its on me.
 
Power On!  We're all in this together.
 
Tracy

Dan Gray, Technical & GOTV Committees
Hey Everybody,
There are two things I'd like to say.
 
Firstly and most importantly, I'd like to give recognition to some of the people that I had the honor of working with.  This list is by no means complete as I know there were many of you who worked very hard with different aspects of the club, some of which I'm not aware of.  Anyway, although its by no means complete, here's my list:
 
Sarah Martin  who initiated and led our Meetups for Howard Dean.  This for me, and many others, is what started our involvement in this campaign.
 
Dotty Hopkins who was one of the do-everything people that really made our Dean group go.  This included hosting training sessions with guest speakers like the Hills that turned our group from concerned citizens into foot soldiers for what we believed in. 
 
Judy Diaz and her son David who built and maintained the club's website.  This was a huge job both in terms of the quantity of time required and the quality of their results.
 
Bob Carruthers who coordinated and maintained the computers at the headquarters.
 
Dulce Farmer who coordinated the incredible club events including the outstanding speaker series from KGO.
 
Lee Zuckerman who did EVERYTHING.  He made buttons, he led phone banks and he initiated and led an incredible writing group.
 
Jen Thornton who also did EVERYTHING including initiating and hosting the phone banks, taking over the website, registering voters and taking trip after trip after exhausting trip to swing states
 
Josie Jenkins who took on the HUGE job of leading and coordinating the precinct canvassing.
 
Mimi Wolfe who coordinated both the headquarters and the unbelievably awesome MMOB letter writing effort.
 
and Tracy, Sandee and Vickie who worked their butts off and did everything they could, every step of the way from our Dean effort over a year ago, through merging with and contributing to the new club to their ceaseless efforts with the GOTV committee. You were absolutely awesome!
 
I wish that I could have done more, but the people I've mentioned here, and many others,  did it all!  Please thank them for their efforts!
 
 
Secondly I'd like to share my thoughts about the only thing that matters now, which is where we go from here.
 
I am very proud of our local effort and successes but I have very bitter feelings about the national election.  We all do.  That being said, I feel very strongly that what is more important than dwelling on what happened on Tuesday is focusing on the battles ahead.  Specifically, we need to focus on 2006.  In 2006 we have a very critical Governor's race in California against an obviously very formidable opponent.  We also have huge congressional and Senate races across the country that give us the opportunity of retaking the legislature.  George Bush may be a crook and a racist and a misogynist and a religious fanatic and a warmonger and a chicken hawk and a complete idiot and a boozer and a cokehead and a puppet of evil men (have I left anything out?), but there is one thing he is not anymore, he is not a candidate.  After thinking about him and his administration for four years, we won't have to think about them anymore.  
 
I think the national focus of our party has to center on the House and Senate elections coming up.  They need to take a page from our opponents' playbook and target vulnerable republican senators in swing states and blue states as well as vulnerable republican house members in districts that we can win.  We have three things going for us: we're united as never before (at least for the time being!), we can match the republicans dollar for dollar in fundraising (whoever thought THAT would happen?!) and as always, we have the truth on our side.  So don't get discouraged and don't give up.  Don't look at Tuesday as an overwhelming loss, it was really anything but that.  It was a photo-finish for the Presidency that could have gone either way and the difference was only a few percent of the voters in Ohio.  In the Senate, we did lose seats, but those were all in red states.  Actually we won 5 senate races in red states while the republicans only won 2 senate races in blue states.  So we're right there. Next time we'll be ready for them.  Next time we'll be seasoned veterans.  Next time we'll do all we did this time and more.  We can take our country (and state) back and we will. 
 
"Let's go back and get em, eh?" (John Lennon)
 
Dan


Moira Johnston Block, Club Member
Mary Ann,
Heartbroken but undeterred, I know all of us who joined together in the campaign are already thinking hard about what best to start doing TODAY to give a national voice again to balance, reason, and Enlightenment values. Thank you and congratulations for the terrific leadership you and the Democrats of Napa Valley gave to us all. We're with you, and with the future!

Moira Johnston Block

Mary Zunt, Club Member
Thank you for all your hard work and dedication. I regretted I was unable to help more, but as so many of us, I did what I could. Just think, in four years there will be nothing the other party can blame on the Democrats. Hurray for John Kerry who worked so hard and achieved so much.
Thanks,
Mary Zunt

Loretta & Jim McDonald, Club Members
Hi Mary Ann,
Thank you for all you've done and yes, it's really hard work. It's been good to see Democrats pull together. We spoke to our daughter in Gunnison, CO and 7 of their Democrats who ran for office were elected, ousting 3 BIG Republicans! So, there is hope.
I think we have to be so strong locally because nationally we're in such a scary situation!
Thanks again,
Loretta & Jim McDonald

Lionel K. Hvolboll, Veteran
I am not sure that I am a member of the Democrats of Napa Valley, but I very much want to be. I also wish to give you what FDR said when Al Smith was defeated. I do not remember exactly, but it was to the effect that he guessed the Republicans wanted the power, so we had to give it to them, and wait until they had loused up the country to the extent that there would be a great depression, and then the Democrats would come back in power. I think it was he who also said that there would be times when the conservatives won, but then the march toward greater freedom was an ever ending forward march. George Lakoff said that this was an inevitable upward struggle. The only problem is that with the Republicans in power they will likely appoint several Supreme Court justices who will make some terrible decisions over the next thirty years. Goodbye to Roe v. Wade. Hopefully Democratic Senators can put somewhat of a brake on this. Freedom and Liberty will ultimately prevail! Even so, this election has been a great tragedy.

Lionel K. Hvolboll

Please e-mail the webmaster to contribute your own comments