Bernie Sanders in Marquette on Sunday

The One Campaign for Michigan will host a Grassroots Event in Marquette with Senator Bernie Sanders this Sunday, October 13th from 5 PM to 7:30 PM. You’re invited to hear Senator Sanders talk about what is at stake in this election!

The event will take place in the Northern Center Grand Ballroom at Northern Michigan University.

For more information, and to RSVP for this event please visit the event page here.

An Important Voting Reminder

We're very happy if you vote the straight Democratic ticket. If you do, please -

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE THE NONPARTISAN SECTION! 

We're endorsing good strong candidates for Michigan Supreme Court - Thomas and Bolden - and for Houghton City Council: Cole, Irizarry, and Leddy.  We have signs for both races, so if you put one up next to your Democratic candidate signs, that will help your neighbors know about their progressive bona fides.

Office Hours

Monday: 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Tuesday: 4 to 7 PM

Wednesday: 5 to 7 PM

Thursday: 3 to 8 PM

Friday: 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Saturday: 10 AM to 8 PM

 323 Quincy Street, Hancock 

Yard Signs

DO SOMETHING - Dook Knocking & Other Opportunities

DOOR KNOCKING: Come help us get out the vote in the crucial final weeks of the election! We're meeting at Cyberia Cafe on Shelden Ave and knocking friendly doors in Houghton. Don't come out of this election regretting not doing more - let's leave it all on the field!

Two opportunities again this week:

• Thursday at 5:30 PM

• Saturday at 4 PM.

To RSVP email [email protected] or fill out the volunteer form on Mobilize.us.

VOLUNTEER FROM HOME: 

Phone Banking: We encourage you to join the Harris-Walz Voter Protection Phone Bank. This effort reaches out to Democratic voters in states like Georgia where Republicans are “cleaning” the voter rolls and inactivating eligible voters. These voters are never informed they’ve been removed from the rolls. You’ll let them know they have been inactivated, and share how they can re-register before they go to the polls. Multiple opportunities are available daily through November. Click here to see the schedule and volunteer.

Voter Registration in Michigan: If you want to help out closer to home the Voter Registration Chase effort from the group Rust Belt Rising may be of interest to you. You’ll call fellow Michiganders as a follow-up to voter registration mailers. The people you will call would likely vote Democratic but are unregistered at their current address. Click here for more information and to sign up for one of the virtual training sessions available this month.

Letter to the Editor Expresses Concerns On Project 2025

We haven’t brought up Project 2025 in a while, but it’s a topic worth continued discussion. The Project 2025 agenda is a set of extreme Republican policies intended to be pursued during a second Trump administration. It is Trump’s plan to take your power, your control, and your money. (See VP Harris’s outline of the most extreme aspects here.)

After a recent HCDP meeting where we had an in depth discussion of the negative impacts of the Project 2025 plans, one HCDP member set out to put together a Letter to the Editor addressing just some of the concerns that discussion raised. While Bill Binroth has submitted his Letter to the Daily Mining Gazette, it does not appear to have been published yet. Below is Bill’s Letter:

On the Campaign Trail

UPDATES FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS

ON THE ROAD WITH HARRIS WALZ

Well the VP debate last Tuesday was a civil, almost too-polite affair. Democrats hoping for a “take down” did get rewarded toward the end of the debate when Vance would not answer Walz’s direct question of whether Trump indeed lost the 2020 election. It was, as Walz said, “a damning non-answer”. Reaction after the debate showed that folks thought JD Vance was the slicker debater, and the debate itself perhaps a draw, but Tim Walz won a sizable increase in his favorability rating post-debate.

Gov. Walz followed his debate performance with campaign stops in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, including a stop in York where he was introduced by Sen. Fetterman.

VP Harris joined Liz Cheney for remarks in Ripon, WI last Thursday, where the conservative Republican Cheney called it “our duty” to reject Trump at the ballot box this year. The VP was in Michigan for two events on Friday, meeting with firefighters in Detroit and holding a rally in Flint.

Also on Friday REM’s Michael Stipe and songwriter Jason Isbell joined Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff for a free concert in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park.

On Sunday the VP appeared on the latest episode of the Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, billed as “the most-listened to podcast by women”.

Tonight the Vice President will make her first appearance on late night TV since her nomination when she appears on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”. This follows last night’s appearance by Gov. Walz on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, and the VP’s own interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” special.

VP Harris is also appearing on TV’s “The View” at 11 AM, and in a live interview on SiriusXM’s “Howard Stern Show” at 1PM today.

TRUMP CONTINUES BEING TRUMP

As if lying about the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, OH weren’t awful enough, Donald Trump and JD Vance are now in the middle of promoting dangerous lies and misinformation about rescue efforts following Hurricane Helene. This is how you run a Presidential campaign?

Donald Trump returned to Butler, PA over the weekend, to hold another rally at the rally site were a would be assassin killed a member of the Trump audience in July. Trump was joined by Elon Musk, who jumped around the stage briefly before giving an address to the crowd that sounded like the worst of Trump’s late night social media rants.

Trump has ramped up his rally schedule in the last week, with a month left before Election Day. He’s held rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Saginaw, Michigan. His running mate appeared in Auburn Hills, MI after his debate, and later last week in Georgia, before joining Trump at his Butler, PA rally on Saturday.

In these rallies the former president continues to make gaffes, slur his words, and talk in increasingly harder to understand “word salads”. All of which is raising concerns about his health and how it may impact his time in office should he be elected to a second term. Seeing those concerns, the Harris campaign came out with A Heartbeat Away, an ad focused on the very real potential for the very unpopular JD Vance to become President.

AND YET ITS STILL A TIGHT RACE…

As we get nearer to Election Day the polls have tightened up, even in swing states like ours. Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg talks this week in his Substack newsletter about “Red Wave pollsters” - right leaning and Republican-aligned polling firms that are working hard right now to move the polling averages rightward.

Rosenberg says that “Over the past 10 days, depending on how you characterize the pollsters, they [Red Wave pollsters] released at least 5 and as many 7 polls in Pennsylvania alone. Their recent flood of polls in NC and PA tipped the Real Clear Politics polling average for each state to Trump…” Per Rosenberg’s count there are now 27 such pollsters working to alter the public perception of how the Presidential race is going. This is the same tactic these pollsters tried in 2022 to make the “Red Wave” look real. The tactic was exposed when the election happened and the “Red Wave” didn’t materialize. So, take the polls you hear about with a grain of salt.

However - and this is what’s really important - we know from our own experience that, as Governor Whitmer said on CNN three Sundays ago, “this election is going to be close… in a state like Michigan or Pennsylvania, [or] Wisconsin, we know that this is going to be a close race.”

Bottom line, we have to keep our focus on electing Kamala Harris. She is keeping her focus on the things that matter to Americans. As Coach Walz says, WE HAVE TO LEAVE IT ALL ON THE FIELD. Let’s get back to work!

Our Next Monthly Meeting

HCDP Monthly Meetings: Unless otherwise communicated our monthly meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month. Potluck at 6 PM, Meeting at 7 PM. In the conference room at the Houghton Super 8, and by Zoom (starting at 7 PM).

NEXT MEETING: November 6th

Governmental & Community Meetings

TUE OCT 08

The Houghton County Board of Commissioners hold a special meeting today at Noon in the Conference Room on the fifth floor of the Houghton County Courthouse. Find more information on the Board's webpage (find the Microsoft Teams virtual meeting info in the Agenda).

The Calumet Village Council meets in a Working Session tonight at 6 PM in the Village Council Chambers. Further information can be found on the Village website.

WED OCT 09

The Houghton City Council meets at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The Meeting Agenda can be found in the Searchable Document Center of the Council's website.