Hello fellow Democrats. My name is Daniel Zimmerman. I am a member of the JPDEC, the moderator of the yahoo group for Jefferson Parish Democrats and I am now the campaign manager of David Gereighty (
http://www.gereighty.com ) in the District 1 Congressional race.
I am writing today because I think we need a change of plans in how we deal with District one. I understand that holding on to LA02 and LA03 is very important. However, there are two things that we need to consider with the current race in LA01.
A) We need to think in the long term. If we are an active voice in all elections, we can work to gain ground in each district. We can go inch by inch if we have to. LA01 is considered safe for Republicans and there is no reason for that to be the case. We may not win this time (though I certainly hope we do) but we can gain ground.
B) It is obvious that Bobby Jindal wants to be governor and will most likely be running for that seat in 2007. If we can bump Jindal down in the polls enough, it will hurt his chances in winning the governors race.
By supporting Democrats this year we can both work on gaining ground and working to prevent Bobby Jindal from running our state.
I want to work with parish party officials, unions, groups, and individuals who want to help David promote the ideals of our party and to help him win over some of the support that already exists for Jindal. Many people who have listened to his ideas so far are intrigued by what he has to say. And many Republicans are annoyed at Jindal for selling a bill of goods to the citizens of LA01 and then selling out once he got to Congress. In order to get more people like that we need donations, volunteers, and any other support that is out there. We need the bloggers from this site to get out there and spread the message about David Gereighty. We need people to go out and post on message boards to gain more support. I personally would also like to see at least 5,000 people donate at least $100. Let's make sure that the Democratic Party is a powerhouse in all of the districts of Louisiana. We should never just "lay down" for anyone.
Sincerely,
Daniel Zimmerman
Campaign manager - Dave Gereighty for Congress 2006.