Please join me in congratulating the freshly-elected officers of the Portland Democratic City Committee, to carry the organization’s work into the future:

• Chair: Charles Skold
• Vice Chair: Mohamed Abdirahman
• Treasurer: Kim Walter
• Secretary: Joe Zamboni

It has been a fantastic run as Chair and I am so excited to welcome this new slate of leaders. Additionally, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Doug Lynch, our incredibly dedicated outgoing Secretary.

Thank you for all of your partnership and support over the last year, and stay tuned for big plans from the new leaders.

The next PDCC monthly meeting will be Thursday, November 19 at 6:30pm. RSVP for the meeting here (required), and you can view the agenda here. All officer positions will be up for election at this meeting, including:

• Chair (Simon will not be running for re-election)
• Vice Chair (this position is vacant)
• Treasurer (Kim will be running for re-election)
• Secretary (Doug will not be running for re-election)

Committee chairmanships, including Bylaws and Finance, will be appointed by the newly-elected Chair.  Please consider running for one of these positions, and if you are interested in discussing what the positions entail, just reach out to chair (at) portlanddems.org.

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Additionally, we have so much to celebrate from our work in Portland this year. The PDCC was just one of many amazing organizations and campaigns doing work here in Portland (both partisan and nonpartisan) to turn out voters this year – among them, the Maine Democratic Party and Gideon for Senate’s field team, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters, New Mainers Alliance, People First Portland, NextGen, and so many others. So, we can only claim a fraction of the credit for the successes here, which include:

• Turnout was up!  42,097 Portlanders voted last week (67.1% of registered voters in the city), an increase from the 2016 total of 38,577.
• Biden received 81% of the vote in Portland compared to Trump’s 15% – an improvement over 2016 when Clinton received 74% of the vote.
• 28,071 Portland voters ranked Sara Gideon first for Senate, compared to only 8,656 voters who ranked Collins first. Unfortunately, this was not enough to get Sara’s campaign over the finish line, but her campaign accomplished so much.
• 81% of Portland voters chose Chellie Pingree for Congress, as she cruised to victory!
• Portland elected an all-Democratic delegation to the State House, which includes new legislators – Barb Wood, Sam Zager, Grayson Lookner – as well as returning legislators – Sens. Chipman and Sanborn, and Reps. Talbot Ross, Sylvester, Collings, Brennan, and Crockett.
• Portland voters approved the four referenda that the PDCC endorsed – Questions A, B, C, and D.
• And while they are nonpartisan offices, many new Democrats were elected to the City Council and School Board!

We are so deeply appreciative of everything that you all did to make this happen – whether it was canvassing with us during the final weeks, joining our weekly Tuesday phone banks, writing postcards to voters, hanging up voting information flyers, helping out with our GOTV concert or “roving ruckus,” decorating sidewalks with GOTV art, partnering on our business program… you all did so much, and made this organization into a real force over the last year.

Portland Democrats had a great time this weekend chalking sidewalks, making phone calls, and writing postcards.  A huge thank you to everyone who organized these activities and got involved!  And I know we’re all drowning in emails right now, so I’ll make this one brief:

• We have an important monthly meeting on Thursday at 6:30pm, where we will be discussing and voting on additional GOTV efforts and also engaging in a discussion and vote around the minimum wage referendum on Portland’s ballot this November. The agenda for Thursday’s meeting is here.  Registration is required – RSVP here!
• If you were surprised and disappointed this weekend to find out that Portland does not offer Saturday absentee voting (like Westbrook does) or have a 24/7 drop box for absentee ballots (like many towns do), you’re not alone. Click here for the Portland City Council’s contact information, and reach out to them to say that Portland should offer weekend voting and a 24/7 drop box – just like so many other smaller towns across Maine.
• The Maine Democratic Party has begun socially-distanced and masked canvassing, and is looking for volunteers to help out! There is a required hourlong training before you get started - click here to sign up!
• Finally – the Portland Democratic City Committee is continuing to look for volunteers, for everything from making phone calls to distributing voting information flyers around Portland. Sign up here to join us!

22 days to go, let’s give it our all and go out and win!