Being a political town, perhaps you’ve found your friend pool shrink drastically over the past few weeks, as politicos head to places near and far to spread the the joy of democracy to the people. You’ve noticed that Hill bars have felt rather empty during recent Thursday nights. Maybe you’ve found yourself lamenting over the fact that you’re not feeling the rush of a campaign, and you’re looking for local ways to get involved on the national level, even at this late date. DCist called up the Republican and Democratic committees for Maryland, Virginia and the District and tried to gather up ways to get involved. What we’ve pooled together are some volunteer resources, as well as a few specific events and contacts to help you hit the ground running during the last two weeks out of Election ’06. Sure, it won’t make up for your sudden dearth of friends, but you can make some new friends while phone banking for your candidate of choice.
Note: We realize that there are other political parties out there, but a day only has 24 hours, so we tried to put together what we could for the two major political parties. If you’d like to toss out info about how to get involved with other parties or info about events without party affiliation in the comments section, we welcome it. Just try to avoid the blatant politicking if at all possible, please.
For you District Democrats, we’ve pulled together the following information: If you’d like to get involved with the Democratic National Committee, fill out their online volunteer form. For Maryland, if you’re interested in doing outreach in the area, a great way to get involved is by phone banking for the Maryland Democratic Party. They even have a D.C. location, at 1100 17th Street, NW, Suite 604 Washington DC 20036, with hours from Monday – Thursday, 6 – 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 2 – 6 p.m. Best contact is Erin Eschenroeder who can be reached at eeschenroeder (at) mddems (dot) org, and for GOTV activities, you’ll want to contact Curtis Young at cdyoung23 (at) gmail (dot) com. The Virginia Democratic Party has a similar online form for you to submit information and get involved, as well as a calendar of events to see what’s happening in your neck of the woods. If you’re looking to get involved with District democratic politics, the D.C. Democratic Party is organizing GOTV events, as well as the Unity Victory Party. Best contact is Charles Snow, who can be reached at snowc (at) dnc (dot) org.
If you’re an area Republican and looking to help out your party this election season, sign up with the Republican National Committee by filling out their comprehensive online volunteer form. The Maryland Republican Party has a variety of ways to get involved, as well as an online calendar of events and online volunteer registration form; the best contact is Mike Grissom, who can be reached at mgrissom (at) mdgop (dot) org. The Virginia Republican Party also has an online form for volunteers to sign up if they’d like to get help get their message out across the state. With candidates in Ward 3, Ward 6, and at-large for mayor, the DC GOP is looking for a few good volunteers, too.
