Dear friends,

I hope you are well.  This is my first email to my list in five months.  I'm retired and no longer a Somerville City Councilor, but I will always be a political activist! 

The City of Somerville is in good hands with our new Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and five terrific new (and younger!) City Councilors in addition to the six who were re-elected.  I will be writing to you on occasion about City issues.  I continue to be an active member of the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets (SASS) Steering Committee.

But the focus of my work (as a volunteer) in 2022 is on helping Democrats win the mid-term elections in key swing (purple) states to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.  And to lay the groundwork for a Democrat Presidential win in 2024.  The damage that the Republican Party will do to our nation and the world should it regain control of our national government is almost impossible to imagine.  At stake is everything progressives and moderates value, including American democracy and human civilization as we know it (due to Republicans' denial of global warming and climate change).

Below is an invitation to a virtual House Party fundraiser for Movement Voter Project on Wednesday April 27 from 7:30-8:30 PM EST.   I am organizing this along with 33 other co-hosts, most of them from Somerville. I hope you will attend.  I believe it will be an inspiring and hopeful event.  If you are moved and impressed by what MVP is doing to save our democracy, please consider a contribution.

Thank you,

Mark

Dear friend,

It’s time to save our democracy, AGAIN!  Democracy won in 2020, but by razor-thin margins and despite the attempted coup culminating in the Jan 6th insurrection at the Capitol. The best way to fight back against the multifaceted attacks on democracy coming from the Republican Party is through community-based organizations that have the ability to build grassroots action where it matters – in key swing states -- to engage voters for the 2022 and 2024 elections.   We don’t need to tell you how critical it is for the future of our country -- and indeed human civilization -- to keep right-wing forces and the Republican Party from regaining control of our national government.

Please join me and 33 co-hosts (see list below) for a one-hour virtual House Party fundraiser on Wednesday, April 27 from 7:30 – 8:30 PM EST to learn about Movement Voter Project (MVP).  We'll have a short slide presentation including videos that feature voices in the field; time for Q&A; and an appeal for your generous support of MVP's work.

Click here to register.  You do not need to donate to attend.

Two years ago in May 2020, more than a dozen of us hosted a virtual House Party for MVP that was attended by over 100 people and raised more than $32,000.  If you were there, thank you!  Please come again for an update on how MVP helped win the 2020 election for Democrats and what MVP is doing now.  If you are new to MVP, please come and learn!

We believe that MVP provides the most powerful way for people like us in blue states to help Democrats defy the odds and hold their U.S. House and Senate majorities this November and to lay the groundwork to win the Presidency again in 2024. 

MVP identifies, funds, and supports the most effective and influential local, community-based groups -- primarily led by women, people of color and youth -- to engage, organize, educate and turn out voters, particularly in key swing states. 

We promise you will leave the House Party more hopeful about our nation’s future.  The organizers MVP funds are incredibly inspiring.  You'll see some of these dynamic young leaders in the video portion of the House Party on April 27th.  And unlike traditional political campaigns -- which shut down and disappear after Election Day -- these organizations and their staffs will continue to organize in their communities  in 2023, 2024, and beyond.

In the 2020 election cycle, MVP moved more than $110 million to such organizations and made a crucial difference in key states, arguably providing the narrow margins of victory in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia. And it raised and distributed $10 million more to groups in Georgia that helped secure the victories of Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the Senate run-off elections on January 5, 2021.  

Hosts: Howard Axner, Marya Axner, Sybil Axner, Jane Becker, Nancy Bernhard, Fred Berman, Jim Campen, Ben Echevarria, Ben Ewen-Campen, Chris Dwan, Alex Feldman, Dennis Fischman, Rona Fischman, Stephanie Galaitsi, Janet Gottler, Maja Kietzke, Ulysses Lateiner, Christopher Lay, David Margolin, Judy Pineda Neufeld, Annie Niedergang, Eve Niedergang, Mark Niedergang, Paul Niedergang, Surjeet Paintal, Dore Penn, Alex Pirie, Anthony Sanchez, Lori Segall, Bill Shelton, Jim Silva, Thalia Tringo, Jim Vetter, Andrew Weiss

We hope that you will be able to join us on Wednesday, April 27th, at 7:30 pm.  Click here to register  

If you can’t make it, please consider a contribution to MVP.  Donations made through this link will go to the Movement Voter PAC and are not tax-deductible.  For a broader set of donation options, including tax-deductible contributions from your IRA or donor advised fund, please click here.

Please forward this invitation to others who you think might be interested in joining us. 

To learn more about MVP:

• Visit the MVP website: https://www.movement.vote/
• Watch one or both of these two-minute videos: We Made History in 2020! and Defy the Odds 2022
• Check out this 8-page illustrated report on MVP's Progressive Decade Strategy

Mark Niedergang
http://www.markniedergang.com/