Month: April 2012

Categories
Meetings

Regional cooperation is the topic of May meeting

Cathy Zielinski, program manager-human services planning for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission, will speak to the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club at its May 17 meeting on the efforts of Orange County and its neighboring counties and towns to develop regional cooperation in addressing shared concerns, such as housing. transportation and tourism.

In addition to Orange County, the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission serves the counties of Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison and Rappahannock, and the towns of Culpeper, Gordonsville, Madison, Orange, Remington, The Plains, Warrenton and Washington. It has its headquarters in Culpeper.

One of 21 regional commissions chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia, the commission provides professional planning and technical resources, a concerted approach to regional cooperation, planning assistance with program delivery, and a forum for the interaction of appointed and elected local government officials and citizen members.

A founding principle of the Commonwealth’s planning district commissions is “to encourage and facilitate local government cooperation and state-local cooperation in addressing on a regional basis problems of greater than local significance.” The Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission works to foster regional cooperation, coordination and collaboration through development of regional committees that focus on a variety of issues of importance to the region.

Ms. Zielinski serves as staff lead of the Commission’s Regional Workforce Affordable Housing Committee and Coordinated Human Services Mobility Planning initiative.

Active throughout the area in human services delivery for the past 15 years, most recently as project coordinator for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Eldercare Coalition, now called Aging Together, Ms. Zielinski holds a law degree from George Washington University and a Masters in Public Administration from Virginia Tech.

Ms. Zielinski has been with the Commission since 2006.

The club meets at 1:30 p.m. in the Lower Level of the LOW Clubhouse. Visitors, regardless of political affiliation, are welcome. Due to construction at the clubhouse, the lower level is accessible only by entering the front door and using the stairway.

To learn more about the Regional Planning Commission, try these links:

Categories
Campaigns Meetings

All fired up and ready to go!

Members step up to help re-elect the president

A field organizer for the Obama campaign explained to club members at the April 19 meeting how they can get involved in helping to re-elect the president.

Club members responded enthusiastically, signing up to conduct recruiting campaigns, voter registration campaigns, neighborhood canvassing and phone banks to help guarantee success in November.

Annie Roberts, a field director for the campaign, said preparations for the 2012 election are earlier and more extensive even than the precedent-setting successful effort in 2008. She said plans are for Orange County to be assigned its own field coordinator and that voluntees would be organized to conduct regular campaign events in and around Locust Grove.

Ms. Roberts showed an inspiring video about volunteer efforts on behalf of the president all across Virginia and then presented a slide show showing how volunteers would be organized in neighborhoods throughout the Commonwealth to increase efficiency and maximize success.

Teams comprising canvass coordinators, phone bank coordinators, data coordinators and others will work in Lake of the Woods, Locust Grove and Flat Run to insure that the president’s message reaches every eligible voter.

Members of the LOW Democratic Club rushed to sign up for the various team assignments and aren’t wasting any time in getting started. Club members will participate in a voter registration effort in Locust Grove on April 28.

Categories
Campaigns

Wayne Powell is our 7th District nominee

E. Wayne Powell

E. Wayne Powell of Richmond has been officially declared the Democratic nominee in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, which includes Orange County.

Abbi Easter, the 7th Distrct chair, was notified April 11 by David Hunsicker of Lake of the Woods that “I am officially releasing my delegate candidates … and will no longer be a candidate…”

As a result, the assembled caucus scheduled for Saturday, April 14, in Orange and the 7th District Democratic Convention scheduled for Saturday, April 28, in Henrico County have been cancelled.

Mr. Powell will oppose Eric Ivan Cantor in the November general election.

Powell supports full funding for Medicare and Social Security. He would support ending tax breaks for the top 1 percent of wage earners and ending oil subsidies. The ending of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as soon as possible should be a top national priority, he said. He said he supports health-care reform and immigration reform.

“In my view … fixing Washington would be in large part accomplished by defeating Eric Cantor,” Mr. Powell said. He said Cantor is someone “who embodies much of what is wrong with the political system as it operates in our country today.”

A native of Richmond, Powell served 30 years as an active-duty and Reserve Army officer in intelligence.

He has spent 31 years as a trial attorney, since 1999 as president of Powell & Parrish, a Midlothian-based law firm. During the 1980s, Powell was an assistant attorney general and deputy commissioner of the Virginia Worker’s Compensation Commission.

Mr. Hunsicker confirmed on his Facebook page that he had dropped out of the race. “I have seen the delegate numbers from the counties, and it would seem that only a series of both unusual and lucky events could now allow my candidacy to move forward. So that the various chairs and committees don’t have to hold caucuses and a convention with little value, I wish to suspend my campaign for the Democratic nomination for Congress from Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. I am a Democrat first and a candidate second. Mr. Powell, I wish you well in your efforts to prevail against Eric Cantor. ”

Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, is largely responsible for the ineffectiveness of the 112th Congress by undermining the spirit of co-operation and compromise so necessary to the strength of a Democracy. Cantor’s slavish loyalty to special interests and his own raw ambition have effectively left Orange County without representation.

Henry Lee Carter, chair of the Orange County Democratic Committee, confirmed the cancellation of the Orange County caucus, saying, “To those who agreed to serve as Orange County delegates, we appreciate your willingness to serve and give up two Saturdays to accomplish this task.”

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Categories
Campaigns Meetings

You can help re-elect the president!

Annie Roberts, field director for the Obama-Biden campaign, attended the April meeting of the club’s steering committee to ask for volunteers in the effort to re-elect the president.

Campaign offices have been established in Fredericksburg, Culpeper and Spotsylvania, and staff members are being assembled to insure that Virginia stays in the Democratic column in November.

An organization meeting will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at the Fredericksburg office at 1281 Central Park Blvd.

A National Day of Action voter registration drive will take place on Saturday, April 18. There will be shifts from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at locations in Orange, Frederickburg, Stafford, Culpeper and Spotsylvania. See barackobama.com for details.

A phone bank for Orange County will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. April 12 and 19 at 113 West Main St., 3rd floor, Orange.

A phone bank specific to Locust Grove will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., April 17, at a place to be determined.

A Women for Obama phone bank will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at 102 North Main St., Suite 201, in Culpeper and 1281 Central Park Blvd. in Fredericksburg.

There will be voter registration drives from noon to 3 p.m. Fridays and 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturdays starting at the Fredericksburg campaign office at 1281 Central Park Blvd.

For more information about any of these events, contact Annie Roberts at (540) 354-9582 or e-mail awilsonreberts@ofava.com