2018 ANNUAL REPORT

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Left to Right: Fran Middleberg, Vice Chair for Precinct Operations West; Steve Verdier, Vice Chair for Volunteer Coordination; Elisabeth Campbell, Treasurer; David Lord, Parliamentarian; Boyd Walker, Vice Chair for Resolutions; Holly Wallace, Vice Chair for Finance and Administration; Daniel Mosier, Farmer’s Market and Voter Registration Coordinator; Greg Parks, Legal Counsel; Clarence Tong, Chair; Sandy Marks, Vice Chair for Communications; Marianne Anderson, Vice Chair for Precinct Operations East; Ricardo Alfaro, Vice Chair for Technology; Sharon Widmayer, Co-Vice Chair for Outreach; Amanda Hazelwood, Co-Vice Chair for Outreach; Patrick Mulloy, Co-Leadership Circle Chair. Not pictured: Mary Lyman, Secretary; Janet Vasek, Co-Leadership Circle Chair.

Photos ©Jack Powers CHAIR’S MESSAGE

The Alexandria Democratic Committee (ADC) had a very busy and successful year in 2018, starting with a vigorous primary season and ending with the re-election of Senator Tim Kaine, Congressman , and our third straight sweep of local Alexandria elections. Additionally, with the help of Alexandria Democrats to Go and many other volunteers, Virginia voters elected three new Democratic women to Congress: Jennifer Wexton, Abigail Spanberger, and Elaine Luria. They were critical to Democrats flipping the House and Virginia will now be represented by seven Democrats, a record high.

On the electoral front, our candidates achieved historic Democratic performance and we had record turnout for a midterm election. Our voter turnout in Alexandria this year was 70.5%—over 66,000 voters in 2018—compared to 52,000 in 2017 and 41,000 in 2014. Other record-setters include Senator Tim Kaine, who won over 80% of the vote in Alexandria, and Congressman Don Beyer, who garnered 79%, compared to 72% in 2016 and 66% in 2014. 80/70 is our new benchmark: 80% of the vote and 70% turnout.

However, while the federal results were impressive, we should be most proud of the historic Democratic performance of our City Council and Mayor team. We had a great group that included four first-time candidatesCanek Aguirre, Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Amy Jackson, and Mo Seifeldein, in addition to campaign veterans John Chapman, Del Pepper and Justin Wilson. They worked very well together and campaigned hard to the very end. I am happy to report that our 2018 ticket received more votes than the 2012 council ticket with President Obama on the ballot. They received between 34,000 and 43,000 votes each—which is higher than some statewide Democrats have received in recent years. These results demonstrated that Senator Tim Kaine and the Coordinated Campaign’s decision to fold our City Council and Mayor ticket into their effort this year was incredibly effective. It allowed our volunteers to work smarter, not harder. Every piece of Alexandria literature included all of our candidates, eliminating redundancies and confusion at the doors.

The 2018 statewide campaign was led by a number of Alexandria Democrats, including Coordinated Campaign Director Bruce Sinclair, Sen. Kaine’s Political Director Alice Tong, and Field Director Lauren Reyes. We worked closely with Brodie Allen, the Regional Field Director and had two excellent Field Organizers, Kylie Parker and Wes Gobar. I would also like to thank Congressman Beyer and his Chief of Staff Ann O’Hanlon who supported our effort, as well.

I would like to recognize and thank our entire all-volunteer ADC Executive Committee for their tremendous efforts. They do an incredible amount of work, and handle it with great professionalism and dedication. Another big thank you to everyone who stood at the polls in the rain on Election Day to hand out sample ballots and remind folks to vote for all our Democratic candidates.

Finally, I would like to recognize and thank outgoing Alexandria City Council members Mayor Allison Silberberg, Councilman Paul Smedberg, Councilman Willie Bailey, and Councilman Tim Lovain for their years of dedicated service to the ADC and the City of Alexandria. We look forward to celebrating their service and working together in the community for years to come.

Clarence Tong Chair, Alexandria Democratic Committee PRECINCT OPERATIONS

Coming off of the strong Democratic showing in 2017, the Vice Chairs for Precinct Operations, Marianne Anderson in the East and Fran Middleberg in the West, kicked off the year with a combined planning meeting of all Precinct Captains and Deputy Precinct Captains. At that meeting, we set goals for 2018 and shared many ideas and best practices for such things as recruiting volunteers and new ADC members, planning community events, and setting up voter registration drives. The meeting also grappled with the ongoing issue of reaching voters in inaccessible locked buildings, many of which have been constructed in the West precincts.

As the ADC’s website notes, “the 28 precincts are the heart and soul of our Democratic Committee”—also consider this phrase, “Precinct Captains and Deputy Precinct Captains are the heart and soul of those precincts.”

Through the late summer and up to the midterm elections, Precinct Captains and Deputies were more than communicators to members and friends in their precincts: they were example-setters and motivators. On multiple weekends, they were out knocking on doors—many of them bringing their entire families out to “knock” a neighborhood—thank you, Jason Dechant. In certain parts of the East precincts, Blake Ballard was the “go-to guy” for canvassing in those difficult-to-get-into buildings.Sarah Bagley was canvassing, postcard writing, and more, even going to Nevada to help with the GOTV effort there. Matt Gaston and Karen Witt held a pre-election happy hour. In addition to canvassing on weekends, Bruce Marsh and Blake Ballard arranged the second annual “Picnic in the Park” potluck for neighborhood folks in Firehouse Precinct. Tania Blagrove and Marta Schantz held a neighborhood thank you and victory party the weekend after the election. There were many more almost heroic uses of time, energy and expertise on the parts of Precinct Captains and Deputy Precinct Captains, too numerous to mention here, but major contributions to the workings and success of the ADC. Heart and soul, yes; active, engaged contributors, definitely.

For the first time, the Alexandria neighborhood teams—which were responsible for ALL volunteer canvassing and phone banks—were hosted, led, and staffed almost entirely by ADC members. These neighborhood team leaders dedicated over 100 hours of their time to the effort: three full weekends and the last four days leading to Election Day. The East Neighborhood Team, which was hosted by Ron and Hazel Rigby and led by Larry Benenson, included Sissy Walker, Marianne Anderson, Marion Mclean and several others. The West Neighborhood Team, which was hosted by Bill Wisniewski and Jennifer Strand and led by Fran Middleberg, included Jane Stevens, Nancy Siegal and several others. The Central Phone Bank was hosted at the ADC office and run byLaura Lawson, with Boyd Walker and others pitching in for the GOTV effort.

It’s important to mention some of our members who went above and beyond this past year. Larry Benenson and Sissy Walker, Co-Captains of Polk Precinct, established a regular voter registration event in the West End. Sharon Wilkinson, Captain of Cameron Station Precinct, and Jon DeNunzio, Deputy Captain, arranged an exciting event for Cameron Station Dems and then made a presentation to our membership on how it’s done! Allison Miner, a new member, took on the position of Precinct Captain of MacArthur and then opened her home for multiple weekends of canvassing. Libby Cooperman took on the challenge of locked buildings, finding creative ways for City Council and School Board candidates to get to speak with otherwise inaccessible residents.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 3 RESOLUTIONS

Resolutions had a banner year in 2018, led by Vice Chair for Resolutions Boyd Walker, and Deputy Vice Chair, Marta Schantz. As a result of the work of this committee and ADC members, the ADC adopted 17 resolutions on issues of importance to our local, state and national communities. We took a stand on a wide variety of issues including redistricting reform, the president’s zero tolerance policy on immigration enforcement, and worked with local law enforcement to decry bias-motivated 911 calls. The ADC also approved resolutions on police data transparency, in support of DACA, encouraging high school seniors to register to vote, and to overturn Citizens United. On the environment, we expressed our members’ concern over pipeline construction, addressed contributions from State-regulated utilities like Dominion Energy, and supported converting to 100% renewable energy production sources.

Some of our resolutions were adopted by the Virginia Democratic Party, like our Resolution in Support of Virginia passing the Equal Rights Amendment, and our resolutions encouraging voter support for the constitutional amendments on the ballot in the general election. Those resolutions helped avoid long lines at polling places by educating voters so they could quickly cast their votes on the complicated constitutional issues.

Three ADC resolutions resulted in concrete action which shows that our resolutions can translate into real change. These included: the resolution in support of increasing the pay of our first responders (police, fire, and EMS), the resolution in support of increasing the pay of our City Council members, and the resolution recommending that the new West End elementary school be named for Ferdinand Day. Subsequent to our resolutions, the City Council increased our first responders’ pay, which we showed was not on par with neighboring jurisdictions. Council also voted to increase future City Council members’ pay, which will help make holding our City Council positions a possibility for a more economically diverse variety of candidates by paying them a reasonable salary for the long hours they devote to serving the Alexandria public. Finally, it was a great moment to see the new elementary school opened this fall, baring the name suggested in our resolution. The actions taken in response to our resolutions show that great things can start small, and grow from the work of a few committed people.

The complete list of resolutions adopted by the ADC this year includes: Bias-Motivated 911 Calls, Overturn Citizens United, Support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), Support Redistricting Reform, High School Voter Registration, Support Constitutional Amendment #2: Tax Benefit for Spouses of Disabled Veterans, Support Constitutional Amendment #1: Flooding Resilience for Localities, Condemning Zero Tolerance Policy, Firefighter and Police Fair Pay, Opposition to Gina Haspel for CIA Director, Gun Safety, Police Data Transparency, Support for 100% Renewable Energy, Ferdinand Day School Naming, Political Contributions from Dominion Energy, Natural Gas Pipelines, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 4 FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Our Vice Chair for Finance and Administration, Holly Wallace, along with our Treasurer, Liz Campbell, and the Finance Committee, keeps ADC compliant with all FEC and SBE filings, records and tracks hundreds of small donations, maintains the books, and stocks the office with supplies and refreshments for all our volunteers.

ADMINISTRATION: In 2018, we elected new officers during our biennial reorganization in January, and welcomed dozens of new members throughout the year. In March, we were fortunate enough Port City Straw Poll to process filing for twelve candidates for the City Council primary and two Blue Alexandria Dinner candidates for the Mayoral primary. The ADC office was heavily used throughout the year for phone banks, canvass launches, committee meetings, and other campaign activities.

FINANCE: ADC Finance saw the largest budget in our history, as we organized and executed the Coordinated Campaign. Our 2018 budget included the tools necessary to reach over 42,000 voters, such as campaign mailers and sample ballots.

The Finance and Admin group organized successful fundraising events: an exciting Straw Poll event at Port City in April, the Blue Alexandria Dinner and Silent Auction in May, and the Labor Day Picnic September. We also rewarded our donors with an Open House featuring Mike Henry, Senator Kaine’s Chief of Staff, in October and an appreciation event featuring Senator Mark Warner in December.

Labor Day Picnic

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 5 DPVA o cial logo

ALEXDEMS Option 1 COMMUNICATIONS alexdems Option 2 This year, our communications efforts, led by Vice Chair for Communications Sandy Marks, alexDEMS Alexandria Democratic Committee Option 3 took a proactive role in both the 2018 primary and general election. The ADC is proud to announce the Democratic field of candidates vying for Mayor of Alexandria and City Council in the June 12 th Democratic primary (in alphabetical order): MAYOR CITY COUNCIL Democrats can vote for 6 candidates Our Communications Committee met several times in preparation for the elections, learning Allison Silberberg Justin Wilson Canek Aguirre Willie Bailey IMPORTANT DATES & DEADLINES Elizabeth Bennett-Parker

Friday, April 27 Absentee voting from local reporter Chris Teale what local publications look for when selecting Letters to the begins Monday, May 21 Voter registration deadline Wednesday, May 30 John Taylor Chapman Mayoral Debate Matt Feely Dak Hardwick 7:00–9:00pm George Washington Editor—and getting a sense of how our city communicates with such a diverse population Middle School Tuesday, June 5 City Council Debate 7:00–9:00pm Hammond Middle School Tuesday, June 12 Democratic Primary J. Chris Hubbard Amy Jackson from Alexandria’s Comms Director, Craig Fifer. Informed by these experts, and with the Election Del Pepper IMPORTANT VOTER INFORMATION Virginia voters MUST present an acceptable photo ID prior to voting. To get one for free, contact: Office of Voter Registration and Elections 132 North Royal Street, Suite 100 Robert Ray IV Mo Seifeldein enthusiasm and creativity of members such as Brigitte Maxey, Mike Moran, Jack Powers, Alexandria, VA 22314 Paul Smedberg Phone: 703.746.4050 Visit alexdems.org for links to candidates’ websites and www.alexandriavoter.org a calendar of events where you can meet them in person. Brittany Huffman, Brooke Stoddard, Ricardo Alfaro, and Tom Osborne—we came up with VOTE IN THE JUNE 12 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY! ALEXDEMS.ORG

@AlexVADems

AlexVADems @ [email protected] Y (703) 549-DEMS (3367) ideas that bolstered Democratic messaging and propelled our candidates to victory. Paid for by the Alexandria Democratic Committee and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee

In the primary, our team focused on education, helping Alexandrians distinguish among the 12 Democrats running for Council, and two for Mayor, from one another. We shared the candidates’ positions on issues important to ADC members—via clips on social media, a long-form Medium article, and an interactive Meet the Candidates tool on our website. The Meet the Candidates tool, built by Ricardo Alfaro, was consulted 1,700+ times right before and on Primary Election Day. We also used the integrity of our brand online to inoculate the electorate against a misinformation campaign aimed at convincing voters to throw away two of their votes, leaving the door open for Republicans in the general.

In the home stretch, our intrepid team of writers had many letters in support of our candidates and our values published in Alexandria’s most-read local news publications. Thank you to Tom Osborne, Gail Gordon Donegan, Rickey Dobbs, Brigitte Maxey, Marta Schantz, Tricia Maher-Miller and Hannah Miller, Ricardo Alfaro, Sally Ridgway, Clarence Tong, Sandy Marks, and others for your time and energy on the ADC’s (and our candidates’) behalf. HEADER

A BOLD, INCLUSIVE TEAM We also published long-form Medium articles to drum up support for the Constitutional amendments on FOCUSED ON ALEXANDRIA’S FUTURE

JUSTIN the VA ballot (thank you, Marta Schantz), and to compare and contrast Democratic primary candidates. WILSON FOR MAYOR

CITY COUNCIL One of our largest expenditures was easily our most important communication tool: printed campaign CANEK AGUIRRE ELIZABETH materials. Our intense person-to-person ground game called for 100,000 grip cards. Our largest mail BENNETT-PARKER

HEADERJOHN universe ever required tens of thousands of well-designed large postcard mail pieces to advertise TAYLOR CHAPMAN AMY JACKSON

our slate. We mailed even more sample ballots, and passed out an equal amount on Election DEL PEPPER RE-ELECT THE MO SEIFELDEIN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, TEAM FIGHTINGPLEASE VISIT ALEXDEMS.ORG/ELECTIONS FOR Day—in order to show voters where to find the Democrats on our ballot, which did not list party ALLVOTE OF TUESDAY, US NOVEMBER 6 ADC18001 Paid for and Authorized by the Alexandria Democratic Committee

ADC18001_Candidate Slate Walkcard.indd 2 FOOTER ID. Sharon Widmayer, and Amanda Hazelwood, and Sarah Bagley—who built a small army of 7/5/18 12:40 PM dedicated postcard writers—hosted events that yielded thousands of personal, heartfelt, handmade CONGRESSMAN SENATOR DON BEYER pieces of mailbox persuasion—which proved a creative solution to some of our outreach challenges. TIM KAINE

VOTETUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 POLLS ARE OPEN 6AM – 7PM In 2018, social media had an impact. We used video, gifs, and graphics to educate, inspire, register VOTE ABSENTEE IN-PERSON 9/21 – 11/3

VISIT ALEXDEMS.ORG/ELECTIONS voters, combat misinformation, and get out the vote. Our Facebook campaigns reached tens of TO FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE!

7/5/18 12:40 PM thousands of Alexandrians in the languages most accessible to them. Some of our most effective ADC18001_Candidate Slate Walkcard.indd 1 FOOTER ads included video of Alexandria Democrats repeating a rhyme that reinforced the names of Dems on the ballot, and a gif that showed where to find Dems on the unmarked ballot, and a quiz that answered the burning question: Which Alexandria candidate is your personality twin?

This required a team of people creating, designing, and translating our videos and ads to reach our most receptive audiences. We can credit Laurel Moran, Ricardo Alfaro, and Sandy Marks with the brunt of that work. Thank you, also, to Dianara Saget and Ashkan Bayatpour, among others, for connecting us with translators!

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 6 OUTREACH

Led by Co-Vice Chairs Sharon Widmayer and Amanda Hazelwood, 2018 was a great year for Democratic outreach in Alexandria and beyond. Our efforts focused on party visibility, community building, special interests, activism and service, and building statewide alliances.

PARTY VISIBILITY: Outreach co-chair Amanda Hazelwood and Farmers’ Market Coordinator Daniel Moser made sure that Alexandria Democrats were visible throughout the city at farmers’ markets and special events. The ADC marched together in the President’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day parades. Thanks to Daniel, we also had a booth at Art on the Avenue, the Ballyshaner’s Parade, and the Irish Festival. Outreach also thanks Marianne Anderson for organizing volunteers for the King Street Arts Festival.

COMMUNITY BUILDING: We organized several social meetups around town to provide members with additional opportunities to get to know each other in an informal setting. In an effort to “walk the walk” the ADC implemented a babysitting co-op, so that parents could attend ADC evening meetings. We also organized several “parent caucus playdates,” where parents could discuss family-friendly issues and meet local candidates for School Board. We look forward to organizing more of these once the good weather returns.

SPECIAL INTERESTS: The Labor Caucus, under the fine leadership of Russ Davis and Willie Bailey, helped to raise awareness of labor issues in the city, particularly the pay of local first responders and union organizing at DASH. Outreach also supported the Young Democrats in their preparation for merger with ADC and supported local efforts to boost support for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

ACTIVISM AND SERVICE: The night before the March Against Gun Violence rally, the ADC office was abuzz with poster makers and on the day of, ADC members and friends met at the King Street metro to travel into DC together. We also organized GOTV postcard parties in October to reach less accessible Alexandrians. The postcard events brought many new faces into the ADC office, who we hope to see again in the future. Outreach also collected donations for ALIVE and coordinated participation in holiday giving through Alexandria’s Department of Human Services. Last, Outreach organized a “Show ADC some TLC” event to help the intrepid ADC office volunteers focus on the nuts and bolts of running this committee without having to worry about closet and bookshelf organization or cleaning bathrooms and carpets.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 7 TECHNOLOGY

We can proudly say that the ADC technology infrastructure was entirely revamped in 2018, thanks to the collaboration of a lot of people. We compiled and centralized all of our digital assets into a single repository for easier handling and business continuity, and developed a new online infrastructure by acquiring our own server space allocation. This allowed us to host a variety of projects and offer space allocation to our Democrats to Go initiative (in collaboration with Jon DeNunzio, Dorothea Peters, and Steve Verdier). Technology also produced the third version of the ADC Calendar platform—a fully customized solution that integrates our website and our internal NGP-based email communications workflow.

Through close collaboration with the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) Technology Council and Holly Wallace, Vice Chair for Finance and Administration, we developed a new open-source website in-house. The revamped alexdems.org allowed us to fully digitalize our membership process, allowing a prospective member to use their finger to sign forms from their mobile device.

Special thanks for the development of this new website must be given to Natalie Talis, former Vice Chair for Outreach (2017).

Shortly after launching the new website, we produced two debate livestreams as part of the City Council primaries. Both debates featured a live Twitter wall where viewers in-person and online could chime in on the discussion through a defined hashtag.

For the Mayoral primary debate, we partnered with the T.C. Williams Broadcast Club. This partnership was possible only because of the City had no declared Republican candidate, thus allowing students of this program to participate. This first debate saw a viewership of 55 live concurrent viewers and a total playback of 686 on-demand views.

Because the City Council race had declared candidates on the Republican side, the ADC ran with the full production of the Democratic City Council primary debate. This two-hour long debate had 77 live concurrent viewers and a total playback of 808 on-demand views.

It should be noted for the future that Internet connectivity was not made available for neither debate. Both livestreams were made possible through tethering technology using a personal iPhone.

On Election Day, we unveiled self-updating results screens streaming official results data from the Virginia Board of Elections that refreshed every 30 seconds. This effort was the direct result of the experience from the primary election night watch party where no local television channel covered the City of Alexandria race. People kept looking at their phones instead of interacting with one another. By moving the results to a large screen format, people were able to mingle, talk, and celebrate together. The source code for these screens was made available for other Committees that wish to implement this kind of solution in the future.

As we closed off 2018, we began working on an Alexa Skill using our website as the data source backend. Our goal is to give seniors in our community an additional way of interacting with our committee and, eventually, help get out the vote.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 8 During this cycle, we realized that a lot of people were not aware of the full potential of NGP Votebuilder. Throughout the primary and general election process, we collaborated with the DPVA on sharing best practices and data structures.

We developed an access-controlled forum for Precinct Captains—a centralized repository for Precinct Captains to share best practices, data, and logistics information.

Last, 2019’s VOTE+DATA+POLITICS Series aims to help our Committee get better organized and serve as an education outlet for our community. We will address three core areas: cybersecurity, organizing platforms, and ADC-specific tools. This will allow us to tackle the aforementioned projects and grow technology awareness throughout the Committee.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATION

In 2018, the ADC launched a major volunteer recruitment effort. As a result, 285 individuals have signed up and Steve Verdier, Vice Chair for Volunteer Coordination, entered them into our database. We asked those who signed up to indicate exactly how they wanted to help. Holly Wallace, Vice Chair for Finance and Administration, created tags for each volunteer, so we could mark their specific interests. Many signed up for multiple activities. Here’s the rundown: 84 – canvassing, 112 – farmers markets & festivals, 50 – Participate in parades, 48 – Register voters, 38 – Greet voters on Election Day, 14 – Write Postcards, 30 – Phone bank, 17 – Plan events, 21 – Admin/data entry.

As the year closed, Steve Verdier worked with Jon DeNunzio, Communications Director for Alexandria Democrats to Go, with assistance from Ricardo Alfaro, Vice Chair for Technology, to improve communications with our volunteers. Jon set up a communications tool that allows us to target our communications to specific groups. In 2019, we will use this capability to alert volunteers to specific activities that will help us elect more Democrats and to give the volunteers the satisfaction of doing what they most enjoy.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 9 FARMERS’ MARKETS & VOTER REGISTRATION

This year the ADC had a phenomenal year at our farmers’ markets, festivals, and voter registration events under the guidance of Daniel Mosier, Farmers’ Market and Voter Registration Coordinator. From April to November, we were able to staff the markets nearly every weekend, raising awareness of our candidates and getting our neighbors prepared to vote. We registered many voters by having our trained volunteers and necessary forms available at our tables. We raised hundreds of dollars for ADC operational expenses by selling buttons, bumper stickers, and signs. Working closely with Steve Verdier, Vice Chair for Volunteer Coordination, we standardized our volunteer database, making it much easier to manage our 100+ festival/market volunteers. We also engaged with market and festival goers in innovative new ways including:

Input Boards: The ADC’s Co-Vice Chair for Outreach, Sharon Widmayer, created poster boards, set up near our tables, which posed questions to the market-goers, such as, “What is Your Most Important Issue in 2018?” and “How Do You Plan to Get Involved This Election?” Market-goers responded by writing their answers on sticky notes and placing them on the board.

Candidate Board: The ADC’s Vice Chair for Communications, Sandy Marks, ingeniously found a way to display all six of the city council candidates’ signs at once by attaching the signs to a sandwich board frame. This made a lightweight and portable display, and solved a uniquely Alexandrian problem.

Buttons, Buttons, and More Buttons: In early fall, the ADC purchased a button maker to produce custom buttons for sale at events throughout the year. The customized buttons, most of which were designed by Laurel Moran, were a rousing success at the markets and festivals, and our new button maker increased both the supply and demand for one of our most popular items, while also ensuring that the buttons’ messages were timely and effective.

The entire ADC Executive Board, and our Farmers’ Market and Voter Registration Coordinator, Daniel Mosier, extend our sincere thanks to all the volunteers at the markets and festivals this year! In particular, the following “power volunteers” went above and beyond, dedicating huge amounts of their time and energy to help us elect Democrats. Thank you extra to: Vero Balderas, Marcia Carpentier, Shirley Cherkasky, Harry and Margaret Gerlach, Jan MacPherson, Renee O’Brien, Denny Phipps, Marta Schantz, Howard Weiss, Karen Witt, and Tom Yong.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 10 PARLIAMENTARIAN

The Parliamentarian is responsible for assisting the Chair with any matters related to conduct of meetings or interpretation of the ADC bylaws. David Lord presently serves as the Parliamentarian. In 2018, the Parliamentarian analyzed the statewide measures on the November ballot and drafted language for the consideration of the Resolutions Committee, and assisted with drafting the text for the ADC’s sample ballots to be handed out at polling places. Educating voters about ballot initiatives speeds their voting, thereby preventing long lines at polling places. The Parliamentarian’s second key accomplishment this year was assisting the Alexandria Young Democrats and Legal Counsel in drafting the ADC Bylaws amendments needed to accomplish their plan to fully integrate with the ADC.

LEGAL COUNSEL

The ADC’s Legal Counsel is tasked with assisting the Chair and the ADC members with any legal issue. This year Legal Counsel Greg Parks led the ADC’s Voter Protection effort in addition to providing counsel to the Committee. In that role, he helped the statewide coordinated campaign voter protection effort to recruit volunteers for key polling places. He also headed up the Northern Virginia section of the voter protection “boiler room” that coordinated responses to reported voter suppression efforts. The Legal Counsel also conducted the elections for new ADC officers, presiding at the meeting since the Chair was himself a candidate. Finally, the Legal Counsel assisted the Alexandria Young Democrats with their efforts to decide how to handle State fines assessed when the prior leadership abandoned their posts, and with the drafting of the new bylaw changes to fully integrate the Young Dems into the ADC.

LEADERSHIP CIRCLE

The Leadership Circle was established by past members of the ADC to raise the money needed to maintain the ADC office by separately funding its expenses. This allows other ADC resources to be focused wholly on voter outreach and education activities to help grow the Democratic base in Alexandria and get our voters to the polls on Election Day. The office is an invaluable asset for the ADC and all Democratic candidates. It is used by everyone from local City Council candidates to gubernatorial and presidential candidates, as well as coordinated campaigns run by the Virginia Democratic Party.

Expenses to maintain the office include: rent, utilities, telephones, Internet access, and office equipment, among others. The target amount for each year is set by the ADC membership in the annual budget. The Leadership Circle’s Co-Chairs, Patrick Mulloy and Janet Vasek manage the process of asking for and collecting the money, the majority of which is given by individual members of the ADC itself. They also request all elected Democratic officials in the City to give generously.This year we exceeded 2018’s goal of $26,500, by raising $27,237.28. The ADC recognizes the generosity of Leadership Circle donors each December with a thank you reception, this year including Alexandria’s own Senator Mark Warner.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 11 LEADERSHIP CIRCLE DONORS

Benefactors ($1,000 and up)

Hon. Don Beyer • Kit Leider • Hon.

Patrons ($500—$999)

Elizabeth Bennett-Parker • Liz Campbell • Matthew Feely • Bruce Gilsen • Amy Jackson PJ Palmer Johnson • Hon. Mark Levine • Eugene Mulligan • Robert Musser Hon. Del Pepper • Fay Slotnick • Holly Wallace • Hon. Justin Wilson

Sponsors ($250—$499)

David Baker • Hon. George Barker • Barbara Brenman • Harlene & Bill Clayton • Teddye & Bill Clayton Hon. Adam Ebbin • Hon. Bill Euille • Christina Forbes • Richard Gordon • Martha Harris Amanda & Ben Hazelwood • Hon. Charnielle Herring • Susan & Ben Kellom • Janet Knotts • Michael Kreps Allen Lomax • David Lord & Greg Parks • Laurie MacNamara • Ryan McConaghy • Pat Mulloy Renee O’Brien • Lucelle O’Flaherty • Ginny & Tom Parry • Gwen Paulson • Larissa & Stephen Payne Dorathea Peters • John Sargent • Michael Seltz • Janie Smith • Hon. David Speck Yasmine Taeb • Alice & Clarence Tong • Janet Vasak • Nancy & Paul Vogel Paul Van De Water • Bill Wisniewski & Jennifer Strand

Members ($125—$249)

Frederick Abbey • Marianne Anderson • Tania Blagrove • Shirley Cherkasky • Alan Cohen Caroline Cooper • Jon DeNunzio • Bill Dickinson • Shirley Friedenberg • Donna Fossum • Phil Hocker Rossie Kelly • Jennifer Kilmer • Caitlin Leach • Hon. Tim Lovain • Laura Mandala • Fran Middleberg Arthur Peabody • Hon. Bryan Porter • Janet & Jack Powers • Sally Ridgway • Hazel & Ron Rigby Brigitte Savage • Hon. Allison Silberberg • Anna Saez & Daniel Sionov • Jane Stevens • Jack Sullivan Anne & Sam Ulm • Joe Valenti • Serene Werblood • Converse West

Other Contributions

Canek Aguirre • George Ball • Kathleen Barnett • Scott Bowen • Adrienne Cadik • Angela Calos Marcia Carpentier • Thu Dahl • Diane de Guzman • Karla de Steuben • Lori Farnsworth • Paul Friedman Maria Gomez • Walter Gross • Gordon Houtman • Paul Igasaki • Susan Lamb • Trisha Maher Miller Sandy Marks • Suzanne Mead • Nancy Morgan • Denny Phipps • Robert Ray • Mary Ann Rehnke Michelle Rief • Marta Schantz • Sandra Schlachtmeyer • Mary Shine • Pam St. Clair Sharon Widmayer • Dinah Wiley • Karen Witt • Gregory Whitten • Matthew Worner

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 12 AWARDS & RECOGNITION

The ADC held its annual gala fundraising dinner and awards banquet in May 2018 at the Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria. This year’s dinner was called the Blue Alexandria Dinner in honor of 2017’s blue wave in Virginia and in anticipation of the hoped-for blue wave in 2018. The dinner featured special guests Congressman Don Beyer and Senator Tim Kaine.

An annual tradition at this dinner is the presentation of the ADC’s awards recognizing individuals and organizations that have notably contributed to advancing the ADC’s goal of electing Democrats, or have contributed in some outstanding way to the City of Alexandria, the Commonwealth of Virginia, or the United States of America.

Awards presented in 2018 included: Citizen Leader Award to City Council Member Tim Lovain, Grassroots Volunteer of the Year Award to Dorathea Peters, Precinct Captain of the Year to Bruce Marsh of the Fire Dept. HQ precinct, and a Special Honor Award to Alexandria students Jay Falk, Hannah Miller, Katherine Conner, James Hurley, Miranda Tonsetic, Barrett Fife, and Ewan Thompson, who helped organize the March for Our Lives.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 13 DEMOCRATS TO GO

Under the fabulous leadership of Dorathea Peters (Chair) and Jon DeNunzio (Communications), Democrats to Go organized volunteers to phone bank and canvass in U.S. House Districts 1, 2, 5, 7 and 10. We had multiple canvasses in Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Dale City, Fredericksburg, Chesterfield, Warrenton, Barboursville, Farmville, Leesburg, McLean, Sterling, and Ashburn. Some of those were kicked off by Delegates Elizabeth Guzman, David Reid, Wendy Gooditis, and Cheryl Turpin. We were overjoyed to help flip three seats, electingElaine Luria (VA-02), Abigail Spanberger (VA-07) and Jennifer Wexton (VA-10). And even in districts where Democrats did not win, we helped increase vote totals (Vangie Williams received double the votes of the previous VA-01 Democratic candidate), and we strengthened the position of Democratic candidates who will run for House of Delegates and State Senate seats in those areas in 2019. Thanks especially to volunteers Martha Harris, Steve Verdier and Dinah Wiley for their work as Democrats to Go district liaisons. Not content with our victories in November, Democrats to Go also phonebanked in December for the special election for the House of Delegates in support of Christian Worth. While she unfortunately lost the special election, we look forward to working with her again as she runs this November. Democrats to Go also helped to get the word out about Dining for Delegates fundraisers to support our district candidates.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 14 ALEXANDRIA YOUNG DEMOCRATS

This was a transformative year for the Alexandria Young Democrats under the leadership of Ricardo Alfaro. After a successful reboot in 2017, our organization undertook a series of initiatives that resulted in its official inclusion as the official youth committee of the Alexandria Democratic Committee.

After a successful election and full chapter representation at the annual Virginia Young Democrats (VAYD) convention, we executed an agenda that enabled membership growth, campaign involvement, and community awareness.

AYD hosted a climate change panel with local government, school, and business leaders to raise awareness of the environment on Earth Day. The panel and moderators were composed of top professionals in their respective fields. Ellen Eggerton, Sustainable Coordinator for the City of Alexandria, Indrajeet Viswanathan, Energy Manager for the ACPS, and Bill Butcher, Founder of Port City Brewing Company, spoke about sustainable practices in the City of Alexandria. This event was moderated by Marta Schantz and Stephanie Schlea, two professionals engaged in sustainable practices in the building and water sectors.

Another key initiative was the creation of the High School and Young Professionals Committees. Our take with the High School Committee was to connect students at schools in the DMV area who live in the City of Alexandria—and to organize several candidate roundtables canvasses during the 2018 election cycle.

The Young Professional Committee was created with the goal of reaching out to the largest growing bloc in our community. Our kickoff was a huge success as we gathered mostly new faces. One of the main goals with this new effort is to foster partnerships with existing organizations that offer candidate training to run for office. We teamed up with VAYD to offer a scholarship fund for those who were accepted into Emerge Virginia.

Action toward our core mission—to elect Democrats—was stronger than ever. Most of our members canvassed and helped get out the vote for both local and statewide elections. Additionally, three active Young Democrats were elected to City Council: Vice-Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Councilman Canek Aguirre, and Councilman Mo Seifeldein were all members of our organization prior to announcing their intent to run for office.

We ended the year by fully merging into the Alexandria Democratic Committee. This will guarantee long- term membership growth, retention, and participation in our community events.

Special thanks to members James Lewis, Danielle Simms, Amanda Parker Hazelwood, Megan Gotimer, Gabriel Morey, Abby Gruwell, Marta Schantz, Stephanie Schlea, Alexa McDorman, Ashkan Bayatpour, Alex Sprague, and Elizabeth Williams. Additional thanks to all of the newly elected City Council members, especially Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, John Chapman, and Redella Del Pepper for their counsel throughout the year.

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 15 ADC EVENTS IN 2018

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH ADC hosted a “Rally to George Washington Legislative Update with Save Health Care” Birthday Parade Senate and House delegation

APRIL MAY JUNE Happy Hour with Senator Tim Blue Alexandria Dinner City Council Debate Kaine and Senator Cory Booker at Evening Star Café

Straw Poll at Port City Brewery

ADC Primary Mayoral Debate Election Night Party

JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER Democrats Love Waffles Labor Day Picnic Parent Caucus Playdate

OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER GOTV Rally with Senator Tim ADC Election Night Party Leadership Circle Donor & Kaine, Rep. Don Beyer, and at Glory Days Volunteer Appreciation Event Lt. Gov. with Senator Mark Warner

Leadership Circle Open House

2018 ANNUAL REPORT 16