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.