Mikva Challenge Suburban: January 2010

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Headed to 14th

I'm headed off to the 14th District to do some campaigning with Elgin HS students. We are working at Ethan Hastert's office in Geneva and Randy Hultgren's office in St. Charles. Come on down and join us! It should be fun.

GOTV 1st District Cook County Commissioner's Race

The candidates for 1st District Coook County Commissioner are busy with special GOTV activities. Here is some contact information.

Chris Harris contact chrisharrispolitics@gmail.com. Chris is running a grassroots campaign and could use some youth to help energize his campaign.

Earleen Collins contact roryhoskins@gmail.com. Earleen's campaign office is at the corner of 25th and Roosevelt. They would love to get some student volunteers to phone bank.

Ade Onayemi contact shirimae3@yahoo.com. Ade's campaign office is close to the high school at 1209 S. 5th ave.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Reflections on WTTW Gubernatorial Candidate Debates

Jeff Berkowitz's blog has a summary of the Gubernatorial debates which took place on WTTW Monday and Tuesday nights. I watched and played my gubernatorial bingo game (provided by WBEZ) and was surprised when I couldn't get a bingo with either the Republican or Democratic debate. Something must be wrong.

Learn about the Lieutenant Governor Candidates

Here is well organized and interesting article on the candidates for lieutenant governor. An issues link for each candidate is listed on the RHS of each candidate's name.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Justin Oberman for Treasurer

I met Justin Oberman at the Dan Seals Campaign office this past weekend. He is running for the office of Treasurer and was handing out information about his campaign. He mentioned that he has had some Mikva students volunteer at his city campaign headquarters. Below is his campaign contact info. If you are interested in volunteering, please use the following contact information, John Langford, Field Director, john@obermanforillinois.com .

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Dan Hynes Suburban Canvassing Locations

For the final 3 weekends of the campaign calendar, Dan Hynes is canvassing in suburban locations. Below is the information for a couple locations that are somewhat close to our schools. Canvassing will start at these locations for the next 3 weekends, Saturdays 10:00-2:00 and Sundays 12:00-4:00. This is a good opportunity for suburban students to catch up with and volunteer for a state-wide campaign.

Du Page County
IBEW Hall
28600 Bella Vista Parkway
Warrenville,

IL 41st Ward
Wendy’s
7243 N. Harlem Ave.
Niles, IL 60714

Monday, January 11, 2010

Why are Illinois Primaries So Early?

Here is an interesting blog about why our primary is so early and how it compares with other states.

New Hamos Campaign Office

More good news for Waukegan. Julie Hamos, another 10th Congressional candidate, has just opened a new field office at the Chapala Restaurant at 2211 Grand Ave. Our contact is Akil Holmes and he can be reached at Akil@juliehamos.org . It is so great that the campaigns are adding new field offices as we get closer to the election. The 10th district is large, Here is a picture so there is a lot of territory to cover.

"Where is Mikva? " T-Shirt Contest!!

Yes, announcing the first (and maybe only?) Mikva T-shirt contest! Send me a picture of you wearing your t-shirt in an interesting place. This can be in a campaign office, canvassing, with a candidate or with your grandpa. Maybe the Grand Canyon, Washington DC, or Springfield. ??? Prizes will be awarded for different categories. I really haven't decided on the categories yet but I'm thinking things like...most original, farthest place, most 'political', and others. You can also share your T with someone else...say a campaign field worker, a candidate, or your baby sister. I will post the winners here at the end of the elections program (end of Feb). We will use these photos for some of our Mikva video that we are creating. Also ANY Mikva t-shirt counts. For you old-timers out there, there are plenty of different designs (10 years of them) to go around. Send photos to annalisa@mikvachallnge.org. If you need an extra T to share, just email me and I can get you one.

10th Congressional Campaigning this Past Weekend

Mikva students were present at 2 of Dan Seals's campaign offices this past weekend. His Arlington Heights office at 1310 W NW Hwy is a great cozy space jam packed with computers. Here students work with VoteBuilder software to do phone banking. The field staff there is so friendly and welcoming. THIS OFFICE IS WALKING DISTANCE FROM THE ARLINGTON PARK METRA STATION. The contact here is Ram Villivalam and you can reach him at rvillivalam@dansealsforcongress.com
Dan's Waukegan office at 818 Washington Street held an open house on Saturday. This colorful and happy office is WALKING DISTRANCE FROM WAUKEGAN SCHOOL. The event was attended by many volunteers and local elected officials. Dan spent time speaking with the students and our Mikva Waukegan teacher. I was also so happy to hear Dan speak to the crowd and give a shout out to the students, saying that people should not say that young people don't care or are uninvolved, because here they are! That's what Mikva believes and is all about. The contact here is Adithi and you can reach her at adithi.chandrashekar@gmail.com

"Dock" Walls Update

Dock Walls has dropped out of the Democratic primary and is going to run as an Indpendent in the Fall Gubernatorial election.. I spoke with Dock last week and he is very impressed with the students he met at the forum. He requested that if students are still interested in helping him get elected they can do 2 things. First they can help get signatures to get his name on the ballot in November. This effort does not start until March 23, 2010. Also he is interested in a grassroots effort to set up some social networking sites for the youth vote. If you are interested in helping Dock design his youth social networking effots, grab a group of your friends and start designing facebook, twitter, webpage sites that organize youth for Dock. Stay in touch with his campaign by giving Sheila Hubbard a call at 773-285-7803. This is a great chance for some independent election work that has potential for great exposure.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Election Homepage Suggstion

Check out the Trib's beautiful new election site, http://elections.chicagotribune.com/ . This site gives you the latest news, opinions, and a link to "Clout Street" the Trib's election blog. It has a well organized "Issues" link on the RHS that makes it very easy to find out where the candidates stand on issues..something like what we did at the forum. I think it would be a great choice for your homepage from now until Feb 2.

"Dock" Walls Contact Info

Several students were interested in working for Bill "Dock" Walls. Our contact is Sheila Hubbard and she can be reached at 773-285-7803. Sheila accompanied Dock to the candiate forum..perhaps you met her?

Dold for 10th Volunteer Opportunities

Robert Dold, http://www.doldforcongress.com/ , is a Republican candidate for the 10th Congressional District. There are opportunities for students to volunteer for his campaign. You can contact Cristen O'Meara at cristen@robertdoldforcongress.com . She is a college student and lives in Barrington and is eager to help Mikva students.

10th Congressional Candidate Forum, Saturday Jan 9th

The League of Women Voters is sponsoring an 10th Congressional District Candidate Forum on Saturday, January 9th beginning at 9:00 at Arlington Heights Village Hall. Both Republican and Democratic Candidates have been invited. If you can't make it to the forum, you can catch it LIVE on Comcast channel 17. See the LWV website for more details http://www.lwvah.org/calendar.html

Lake County Democratic Candidates Meet and Greet

The 8th District Democrats are sponsoring several meet and greets with the candidates. These events provide a perfect informal time for you to talk to candidates. One event that is close to a couple of our schools is on Sunday, Jan 10 at 2:00 at the Lakeside Inn in Wauconda Candidates for many different offices will attend. Visit the website for further information on this event and other meet and greets. http://www.illinoiseddi.com/.

Meister for Senate Volunteer Opportunity

Jacob Meister is a Democratic candidate for Senate and has field officies in the suburbs that might be easy for students to get to.
His website, http://www.meisterforsenate.com/ , has information on issues and good links to news articles.
Two of the suburban offices are 123 N. Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling and
17949 S. Halsted St., Homewood. Wendy Meister 312-933-5676 will help you organize a group. They are wonderful to work with and very accomodating.

Mikva Challenge Suburban