Campaign to Elect Don McDaniel

Thank you

Many thanks to those who have visited this site, sent messages of support or contributed to my campaign during the last few days. Your generosity has been overwhelming. As it happened, I was enjoying a long-planned vacation in Hawaii when the second “Dean Dozen” list was announced on Thursday. Coincidentally, Howard Dean arrived here the following day, so I was very pleased to meet with him briefly and to personally thank him for his endorsement.

On Saturday, I attended a meeting with Howard Dean, Congressman Neil Abercrombie, the Mayor of Hawaii and many of their Senate and House Leaders. Dean laid out his plans for Democracy for America and gave a rousing speech to almost 1,000 people. He brought tears to the eyes of many former Dean supporters, and like many in the crowd, I was moved and inspired by his remarks.

I’ll return to Georgia early next week, but until then, I may be reached by phone or email. What began as a vacation, has become a working holiday. And I couldn’t be more pleased.

Although this endorsement will bring much needed recognition and support to my campaign, I know there’s much work ahead. Being included in the second “Dean Dozen” is a distinction I intend to honor by winning in November.

Don McDaniel

Don McDaniel's Campaign for House District 97

Dean's many offspring
Creative Loafing
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/news_brief.html

BY KEVIN GRIFFIS

The campaign may be dead, but it seems the political legacy of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is still kicking.

The reason the Dean campaign mattered, despite its spectacular implosion, is that it brought new people into politics and connected them to one another at the community level, teaching them grassroots organizing along the way. The Dean campaign also has spawned something else: a new group of candidates and local party leaders.

"We're actively encouraging people to run for office," Dean tells CL. "We have 600 people around the country, at least. ... We are very aggressively trying to move forward in states that are not on the battleground list, and Georgia is one of those."

Two former Deaniacs are running for the state Legislature. Camille Kokozaki contends for the empty District 40 state Senate seat, which spans northern Gwinnett and western DeKalb counties. Kokozaki, 48, who owns his own business, faces Democrat Rick Garnitz in the primary.

Don McDaniel, 37, also has qualified to run in House District 97 against Republican Rep. Brooks Coleman. McDaniel is treasurer for Georgia for Democracy (formerly Georgians for Dean).

"I've lived in the district eight years, and I've never seen my representative or received any communication from him," McDaniel says. With the Dean campaign, "we were building a community, not just a candidate." He plans to try to duplicate that face-to-face political model in his bid for the state House.