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Democracy for America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Founded | 2004 |
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| Key people | Howard Dean, Jim Dean |
| Office location | Burlington, Vermont |
| Website | Democracy for America, |
Democracy for America (DFA) is a political action committee founded by former Vermont Governor Howard Dean after his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004. Dean’s vision was to build a network of progressive candidates to compete in every state and district. To succeed in this, DFA provides training and organizational support to state and local DFA groups nationwide to create a grassroots network that promotes fiscally responsible, socially progressive Democrats at all levels of government.
DFA ran Dean’s successful campaign for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Dean’s brother, Jim Dean, now chairs Democracy for America.
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The Democracy for America Training Academy is a two-day workshop created to train grassroots activists with the skills and strategies needed to elect Democratic candidates to office. The workshop provides low-cost training for activists and candidates who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford such education from political campaign professionals.
In addition, DFA offers year-round internships to college students in their Burlington, Vermont, office. Young men and women interested in working in their Field/Political, Communications, Technology, Finance departments or for the Training Academy are encouraged to apply.
Aside from the intensive Training Academy weekends, Democracy for America offers a free Night School workshop that combines an online presentation and a live conference call. Night School lessons are interactive and cover a variety of topics such as “Getting Out the Vote” and “Sustaining Media Presence.”
Past Night School lessons are available for download at no charge, or can be purchased in DVD format.
Socially progressive, fiscally responsible candidates endorsed by Democracy for America are known as the “DFA-List.” More than 50 candidates running for office, from a city ward councilman to contenders for U.S. Senate seats, were endorsed in 2006, with over half of DFA-List candidates going on to win office.
DFA-List initially began in 2004 as the “Dean Dozen.” The Dean Dozen was comprised of groups of twelve candidates for office officially endorsed by then-DFA chairman Howard Dean. Much like those endorsed in 2006, the Dean Dozen candidates were running for an array of offices. Prominent Dean Dozen alumni include Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.
DFA-Link is a political and social networking tool that allows members to meet like-minded people in their area, form groups and organize events. DFA-Link boasts over 41,000 members in all 50 states.
Blog for America was originally the official campaign blog of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, and now serves as the community blog of Democracy for America’s national grassroots network.