Fellow Democrats for Change,

First of all, one last thanks to all of you for your hard work in the run-up to today's convention. We should be very pleased at having contributed so much to the campaign discourse during the past few weeks and months. Because so many of the issues that dominated this election revolved around our central themes of environmental protection, social justice, alternative transportation, regional cooperation, open government, affordable housing, etc., I think it's safe to say that in some very important ways, the Democrats for Change agenda has become the agenda of the Charlottesville Democratic Party. This is no small feat.

Congratulations are in order to Blake Caravati and Alexandria Searls. They are two of the hardest-working people I know and we as Democrats look forward to ensuring their victory in May. We as Dems for Change should be especially proud of the fact that if Alex is elected in May, there will be a majority on City Council who have endorsed our platform for positive change.

This provides an unprecedented opportunity for City Council to take some bold measures in pursuit of creative, progressive solutions to the
challenges facing our City, and I am excited about the possibilities that this presents. The Council members can't do it all by themselves, though -- they will need our continued help and vigilence in identifying and developing avenues for implementing the ideas and principles in our Platform. In other words.. the work has just begun!

I can't heap enough praise on the other candidates in this year's race. Waldo Jaquith and Joan Fenton, both of whom also endorsed the DFC agenda, brought terrific new energy and ideas to the campaign and we look forward to hearing more from them in the future. David Simmons and Bern Ewert are good men who have contributed much to this community. We should thank all four of these fine people for their genuine commitment to the public good.

Finally, it's my pleasure to officially close up shop. This is the point where the Democrats for Change join forces with the Democratic Party to make sure our nominees get elected in May. We are all Democrats now. At some point in the future, we'll open up shop again. At that time, it will be my enormous pleasure to hand over the keys to new management. It's been a good run and we should all be proud of what we've accomplished.

Regards,

Dave Norris (electronic mail, February 23, 2002)

Editor's Note: I too believe the Democrats for Change did a marvelous job of bringing issues to the fore and of providing a context in which candidates could choose to speak out on local community issues if they chose to do so.

For my part, I am sorry to see the DFC close up shop. However, I will do my best to provide a monthly scorecard on how the Charlottesville City Council is addressing the eighteen items on the Democrats for Change Priority Action Agenda.