$20.08 Per Month-the 2008 Club

2008 Club A New Way to Make a Real Difference

You really are the "Building Blocks of a Future Campaign."

Hello,

The statement above is not made lightly. When I started this website on election night 2004 and began promoting Gov. Mark Warner for President, Democrats were so frustrated with losing the election, they didn't even want to hear about 2008.

For months, I posted Gov. Warner's incredible record in Virginia on every website and blog I could find. I was booted off a number of blogs for "pimping" Mark Warner. But I didn't let that stop me. His life is an inspiring success story that must be told. DMW volunteers are telling it across America.

Governor Mark Warner is the Democratic dream candidate. If we intend to win in 2008, no need to look any further!

It's going to take several more months of late nights for Draft Team members planning events across America to ensure our future candidate is not outdone by candidates from 2004 who already have name recognition and organizations from the previous election.

In the campaign of 2008, America will see a new, competent uniter with executive experience and a track record of winning in his personal life, business life, and governing. One that cares deeply about jobs, education, healthcare, science, stem cell research, energy independence, and yes.....rural America.

As I write this, we have Draft Team members wearing Warner 08 t-shirts passing out literature at various points along the Ragbrai Bike Ride Across Iowa. Paul Jacoby and a Draft Team just networked with hundreds in St. Louis at the College Democrats National Convention. This weekend, we are at the Louisiana Democratic Party JJ Dinner. We're off to the Georgia Association of Democratic County Chairs meeting in Macon, GA, the NJ Democratic State Conference, the Arizona Democratic Party State Committee Meeting in Flagstaff, a Town Fair in NJ, and the WV JJ Dinner. Here's our 1/2 page ad for the Georgia Dinner.

We recently added a State Coordinator in Minnesota and Nebraska. We've already made plans to be at the Nebraska Democratic Party State Convention August 18-20. We are also conducting our first major event in Ohio at the Democratic Party State Convention and purchasing a full page program ad there. We also just placed an order for a 1/2 page ad for the New Jersey Democratic Party State Conference.

How are we doing all this? On faith and a prayer that Gov. Warner's supporters will come through and help us!

We're working on an idea for the first Mark Warner 08 internet commercial on You Tube. Perhaps this kind of technology is your speciality. Consider making an in-kind contribution of your time and talent. How about letting me know if you can help with this project?

Most of us (me included) cannot afford large contributions to this effort. That's why we started the 2008 Club. Your gift of only $20.08 per month througout the final months of our grassroots campaign will help us keep going until Gov. Warner announces. When you reach the minimum contribution level, we'll add your name to our Founders Circle, the group of friends Gov. Warner didn't know he had; the "Building Blocks of a Future Warner Campaign."

Gov. Warner will receive a special plaque with the names of those who laid the earliest foundation for his presidency. Check out our Founders Circle page and click on Donate Now. You can set up a contribution of $20.08 for as many months as you like. If you can afford to join the Founders Circle outright, that would be an even bigger boost.

I trust you will help us carry on this work.

Many Thanks,Eddie Ratliff
National Chairman
Draft Mark Warner for President
Political Action Committee
P.O. Box 16251
Bristol, VA 24209

Paid for by the Draft Mark Warner for President Political Action Committee..
Not authorized by any political candidate or any candidate’s committee.
Contributions or gifts to Draft Mark Warner for President are not tax deductible.

DMW Louisiana Event-Photos

Our Draft Team in Louisiana reports that the July 29th JJ Dinner in Baton Rouge was a big success. First, the table was in a prime location for both inside and outside the dining room. The team got to speak with most of the folks coming and going. The only other potential candidate with a presence there was some Hillary Clinton supporters- three or four volunteers with a small sign reading "Madam President." They had no literature or campaign materials.

DMW State Director Frank Flynn spoke with several interested persons, including 6 women and several individuals from rural areas who definitely appear to "be hungry" for a southern democratic candidate for President. "I certainly believe Mark Warner fits the bill better than any one else," Flynn said.

We cannot overstate how this early outreach is planting the seeds for the future. Great job LA Team!

Draft Mark Warner photos from the July 29th Louisiana Democratic Party Jefferson Jackson Dinner, Baton Rouge, LA-LSU Royal-Cotillion Ballroom. (click to enlarge)
DMW Louisiana State Director Frank Flynn and his daughter Kaitlyn

(L to R) DMW Louisiana State Director Frank Flynn, State Coordinator John Bernhardt & Michael Hinton-Congressional District Coordinator

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
with DMW State Coordinator John Bernhardt

(L to R) DMW State Director Frank Flynn, Peachy Melancon,
her husband Congressman Charlie Melancon and DMW State
Coordinator John Bernhardt

(L to R) Congressman Charlie Melancon, DMW State Coordinator
John Bernhardt, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan, & DMW State
Director Frank Flynn

Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden and DMW State Coordinator
John Bernhardt

St. Louis-National College Democrats Convention

We were very well recieved in St. Louis at the College Democrats Convention. We had no negative comments, mostly favorable responses, and most knew about Gov. Warner and his accomplishments in Virginia. We had a prime location just beside the main stairwell to the Auditorium so all who entered or exited were greeted by our wall mounted poster and the table with our literature, sign up sheets and video which I played all day Fri and Sat. We have over 4+ pages of new signatures wanting to be informed about Marks candidacy. Almost all were interested in when he would announce. I had to tell them that he had bought the Iowa voter list and that the timing was critical so stay tuned.

Paul Jacoby
Acting State Coordinator
Draft Mark Warner-Missouri

Hey Berkeley graduated Republicans in the 60s!

I once came home and told my Dad I was a Republican in 1964. He asked me to go outside and think a little more and then come back in.

But seriously, my parents are among the people I think about when I get excited about a Warner candidacy. They are Reagan Democrats who actually held on and never actually voted for Reagan. They were nervous about America's place in the world, they were uncertain about seismic cultural shifts in the 60s, and their son (me) was driving them nuts with counter-culture dabbling. Yet despite the crumbling of the old new deal coalition, and despite their moral conservatism, and even despite their fear of the Soviet threat after Cuba, they were simply constitutionally incapable of ever voting for Nixon or Reagan. The civil liberties and civil rights tradition of the party was something they couldn’t let go of.

So they wandered around, always voting Democratic, but adrift after RFK. They never stopped thinking that there was no inherent contradiction between a compassionate state committed to civil liberties and a kick ass national defense. Bill Clinton brought them back, and they were so thrilled with him that they were among the Dems who forgave him his personal shortcomings. They had their party back. They had a President with the guts to bomb Kosovo to avert genocide and also support the rights of racial and sexual minorities, the right to choice. In fact, they were so happy that they hardly noticed when their President used up his political capital for personal defense rather than national defense.

So here is what worries me. These eminently decent people, these loyal Democrats who resisted temptation and frustration and stuck with Carter and Mondale and Dukakis, who could never vote Republican because they instinctively detested the conservative hostility toward helping the needy and powerless, are now at risk. They are the same decent people, but they are mortified at having lived through a Presidency that has left us less safe, less powerful, more detested.

They think back and wonder: "Hey, wasn't it sort of an implied contract we had with our President that, while the world might be dangerous and while no President could control the evil actions of others -- that even our Clinton couldn't control events on the ground in Mogadishu -- that at least we could minimally expect that we wouldn’t be the ones to make the world less safe.

And then the deluge. The unilateralism. The deaths. The lies. The US as a pariah.

Where does this lead them? Well, the answer is not great for the Democrats.

For the first time, their concern about the shattered world our President is leaving us with has them thinking. This McCain guy is truly decent, truly courageous. He speaks his mind. He's tough. They excuse his little charade with the extreme right as just part of the script. His compassion comes through even when he tries to look like a jerk. Maybe he is the way back to safety. And most disturbingly, while they aren't thrilled about positions on choice and other civil liberties issues, for the first time I see them thinking about suspending concern about domestic issues and voting their concern for the world. We are talking core loyal Dems.

I deeply believe that Mark Warner is their way back this time. They don't know everything about him that they need to know yet, but they have this sense that this governor back east seems to have avoided all the California budget nonsense, that he is viscerally concerned about the world he will leave for his children, and that he seems to embody the idea that you can be morally conservative and still believe in a woman's right to choose, a person's right to a job, and not feel that the first response to an external threat needs to be a self-destructive attack on our own liberties. They like John Edwards, and they also care about poverty, but the campaign hasn't even started yet and they see him as one-dimensional.

Even at 75 years of age, they are desperate to be called on again by a President for sacrifice by someone they trust. They are especially desperate for their grandchildren, my kids, to have a world safer than the one we have now. (Yes, they talk about this.)

I know my parents and I know people like them, people on the brink of jumping parties for McCain or the first time because of how unsafe they feel, because of how they resent the dishonoring of the Presidency by Bush. I know that my generation shares a lot of this confusion. And I'm telling you, Mark Warner -- with his competence and humility and intellect, his moderation and sanity, his absolutely un-California governorship -- is perhaps the only guy who will pull them back.

By Steve Gorelick

Feel free to send your comments to Steve at sgorelick@gc.cuny.edu

DMW Gear A Two-Time Top Seller on Cafe Press

Earlier this year, we were notified by Cafe Press that our official Draft Mark Gear was a top seller in 2008 presidential merchandise. We did it again in June! We have also added the first-ever Warner2008 photo button, a new bumper sticker, and other stickers to our product line. Order your DMW Gear now!

SW Virginia Momentum Building MeetUp Success

Tuesday night, July 11th, SW Virginia supporters of Gov. Mark Warner gathered at Montano's International Gourmet Restaurant on Franklin Road in Roanoke for our best attended and most productive MeetUp to date.

Elizabeth Nathanson, the Virginia Director for the Draft effort came down from Northern Virginia to meet and greet the nearly 40 people in attendance.

Former State Senator Madison Mayre, a 30-year veteran of the Virginia Legislature was on hand to be formally named the Honorary Chairman of the Draft effort for SW Virginia. Draft spokesman Onzlee Ware,of the 11th District, Virginia House of Delegates, was also on hand to tout Gov. Warner's accomplishments in Virginia. His predecessor, Chip Woodrun was there as were Steve McGraw, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt, Commissioner of the Revenue Sherman Holland, and longtime democratic strategist Joan Washburn.

This was the kickoff of the momentum building effort to ensure Gov. Mark Warner has solid home state support as the time draws nearer for his decision to throw his hat into the ring of 2008 presidential contenders.

The Draft effort will be naming additional Honorary Chairs in other regions of the state and planning similar high-profile MeetUps across the state.

A moment of silence was observed in memory of Alan Senitt, a British intern with Gov. Warner's Forward Together PAC, that was murdered in the Georgetown section of DC on Sunday, July 9th.

The event was covered by WDBJ Television and WVTF Public Radio.

You can watch the WDBJ video coverage online at Mark Warner for Prez supporters gather in Roanoke

We want to thank Joan Washburn, Elizabeth, and all the dignitaries and others that attended and made this event such a great success!

Yours,
Eddie Ratliff

Click on photos to enlarge.
Photo 1-MeetUp Crowd
Photo 2 (L to R) Chip Woodrum, Madison Mayre, Onzlee Ware
Photo 3-MeetUp Crowd

Draft Team Saddened by the Death of Alan Senitt

Draft Mark Warner is very saddened to hear about the Sunday night murder of Alan Senitt, a 27-year old intern with Governor Warner's Forward Together PAC. This terrible tragedy occured in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC. Forward Together is located in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.

From a Yahoo news report, we learned that Alan just came to work at Forward Together from England on June 19th. He was a promising young man with a bright future in politics. He was very involved politically, having worked for a member of the British House of Lords in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party.

According to Ellen Quails, a spokeswoman for Gov. Warner, Senitt joined Warner's PAC, Forward Together, as one of about 20 unpaid interns and wanted to work on the finance team and learn fundraising and donor relations.

Although members of the Draft team do not know all of Gov. Warner's staff and interns, we have been building relationships with anxious young Warner supporters now for nearly two years. We would have relished the opportunity to get to know Alan and work with him on a future Warner campaign.

Our hearts and prayers goes out to Alan's family, friends, and co-workers.

Our thoughts are also with the members of Forward Together that got to know Alan in the brief time he was with the organization.

Eddie
Draft Mark Warner