Letter from the Chair - September 5, 2022
It’s Labor Day! For those if us living in the keys, it means heavy northbound traffic on US 1 but thankfully no school busses. Heather Cox Richardson did a great piece today about Labor Day. Google her and read it.
Let me talk about “school” for a moment. I have just spent a week with two recently graduated high school students. If you know me, you know politics is every day. I consider it my civic duty to be involved and pay attention to our elected officials. These two young people have never had a civics class, had no idea how their government worked and were not sure if they were registered to vote! (They live in another state)
Sue Woltanski is right when she says the GOP wants to dumb down education, destroy public education and make it a for profit enterprise. What DeSantis is doing to education in Floriduh is criminal. This country is graduating young people who do not have the tools required to be a productive, informed citizen. We must do better. We can start by electing more Democrats and a new Governor!
I am so proud of our president who this week called out 45 and the MAGA tribe for their continuing efforts to destroy our Democracy. Calling for attacks on government officials who are just doing their jobs is criminal. Do they all think they are above the law?
DARK BRANDON ROCKS!!!
As we move into the General Election, we will be holding events to help you meet our candidates and help us raise money to support getting out the vote.
Coming up on Sunday, September 11 from 5-7:30 pm we will be hosting a Fundraiser at the Gardens Hotel, 526 Angela St. in Key West. We are calling it “get Jazzy with the DEMS!”
A $50 donation gets you in the door with 2 drink tickets (Blue cocktails or Blue champagne) lite munchies and 5 door prize tickets. We will have great live music provided by Larry Baeder, Teri White and friends. Better yet, we will have 3 candidates that you can meet and chat with: Robert Asencio, Adam Gentle and Kim Highsmith. All this in the beautiful garden setting next to the pool. Let’s say we are celebrating our wins in August and looking forward to the challenges we face in ROEVEMBER!
Reserve your ticket in advance on this link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/keysdemsgetjazzy
Coming Events
Wednesday, September 7 - Key West Drinking Liberally will meet at 5:30pm in the back room at Sally O’Brien’s, 1900 Flagler Ave. Key West.
Sunday, September 11 - Get Jazzy with the Key Dems at the Gardens Hotel – a Fundraiser. Details above.
Monday, September 12 - The Keys Dems meet at 5:30pm in the Parish Hall at St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 401 Duval St. Key West. There will be candidates to meet along with an update on our plans for the General Election.
About a year and a half ago we started a new fundraising effort whose purpose was to directly provide financial support to candidates. We invested in three races in the August election: Sue Woltanski, Teri Johnston, and Kim Highsmith. We intend to invest further in the general. We call this group of donors our Seahorse Society. If you are interested in joining this group, please email me and I will forward you the details! chair@keysdems.com
Government Meetings This Week
Tuesday, September 6 - The Monroe County School Board will meet at 4pm in the Media Ctr. At marathon High School, 350 Sombrero Rd. Marathon. For details and agenda, click here.
Wednesday, September 7 - The Key West City Commission will meet at 5pm in City Hall, 1300 White St. Key West. For details and agenda, click here.
Thursday, September 8 - The Key Colony Beach City Commission will meet at 9:30am in the temporary City Hall. For details and agenda, click here.
Thanks to our texting team who have been busy reaching out to women voters in Monroe County!
The coming election is of vital importance to our community, state, and nation. Talk to your friends and explain the importance of down ballot races as well as the names at the top of the ballot. There will be state judge retention questions on the ballot as well. We will have more info shortly on them. There are also some ballot initiatives.
Do not forget the Single Member District Petitions. We are still working toward that goal.
I hope to see you Sunday. Let’s relax and get Jazzy!
Bert Sise/Chair
KeysDems