Jerry McNerney's website

Day-of-Action a Huge Success!

This past Saturday, we hosted another great district-wide Day of Action, knocking on neighbors' doors throughout the 11th District.

The Congressman joined us at the Tri-Valley office in Dublin to help kick off the day, thanking volunteers for their time and efforts.

Volunteers knocked on thousands of doors around the area and got great feedback about the Congressman and his efforts to lower gas prices, defend our veterans, and curb the meth epidemic plaguing our communities.

Our next Day of Action will be August 9th, where we hope to knock on a few thousand more doors as we gear up for the tough election in November.

Please let us know if you think you'll be able to join your friends and neighbors across the District in spreading Congressman McNerney's vision for turning this country around!

Doug Greven
Field Director

McNerney keeps up commitment to availability and accessibility

Since he took office, Jerry has worked to be open, available and accessible to his constituents, holding over 40 Congress at Your Corner sessions all across the District.  Now the Congressman has begun another program to connect with constituents: the Telephone Town Hall.

In a recent editorial, The Independent complimented Jerry for his efforts:

On June 27 he went high-tech with that noble American institution, the town hall meeting, holding an hour-long session in which constituents vented their concerns to him from their homes via a special phone call-in setup.

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The congressman reportedly enjoyed the dialogue and plans to hold more of these town hall call-ins. We encourage him to do so. It delights us to see that in Jerry McNerney’s 11th Congressional District, participatory democracy seems to grow stronger every day.

You can read the full editorial from The Independent here.

Featured Volunteer: Steven Mayo

Among many amazing campaign volunteers, Steven Mayo stands with the best. As a Team Leader, Steven has already walked his entire precinct, registering numerous new voters while talking about what Congressman McNerney is doing to serve his constituents. He has also made phone calls, walked precincts on "Days of Action," marched in the Danville 4th of the July Parade with Congressman McNerney, and even helped out with our very successful Open House! Steven is a great example of someone who is willing to give their all to keep Jerry in office. Steven, the entire McNerney team thanks you for your hard work and for all that you do!

McNerney Urges Attorney General Brown to Investigate Potential Gas Price Inaccuracies

As Californians were fueling up their cars and trucks in preparation for travel during the long Independence Day weekend, I sent a letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown calling for an investigation into potential inaccuracies at gas stations across the Golden State. This letter came after the revelation that a similar investigation conducted by the New Jersey Attorney General found problems and discrepancies at fueling stations in that state.

The report identified stations across New Jersey that charged consumers different prices than those advertised, short-changed consumers by not keeping their gas pumps in proper working order resulting in consumers being charged for a full gallon when often they received less, and failed to provide correct octane ratings.

My concern is that this is not a problem in just one state and that consumers in California may face some of the same inaccuracies and discrepancies at the pump as New Jersyans.

With gas prices here in Northern California some of the most expensive in the nation, consumers should have every confidence that they're paying for what they get at the pump.

I urge Attorney General Brown to immediately begin an investigation of our state's fueling stations to ensure that gas pumps are accurate and dispense the correct volume of gas. As consumers are squeezed by paying record gas prices, Californians at least deserve to get what they pay for at the pump.

UPDATE:

Lisa Vorderbruggen blogs about Jerry's request for a gas price investigation.  Check it out here.

A Fantastic Fourth of July Parade in Danville

Kudos to the Kiwanis Club of San Ramon Valley for hosting what looked like the best Danville Fourth of July Parade ever!

I was lucky enough to ride in the parade on a fire truck with Mary and my son Michael, and had a birds-eye view of the more than 40,00 attendees, cheering and waving American flags as the hundreds of creative floats, veterans' organizations, bands, and local sports teams marched by.

This year was not only the 50th anniversary of the Danville Fourth of July Parade, it was also the 150th birthday of the town. Danville certainly celebrated its sesquicentennial bash with flair!

To all the supporters that came out to walk with us and all those that shouted words of encouragement along the route: THANK YOU! You are the reason I get up each day and fight for clean air and water, benefits for our veterans, and sensible energy policies.

A special thanks to Diane and John Ravnik for all the photos of the event!

Huge turnouts at Tri Valley and Stockton Office Openings

In the past 2 weeks we have officially opened both our Stockton and Tri Valley campaign offices, with wonderful responses from the community. Both openings boasted great numbers of both new and returning faces, all equally dedicated to helping Jerry fight off attacks from right-wing groups poised to dump millions into this race.

Jerry did a great job as always, pumping up the crowds and meeting with constituents one-on-one to listen to their thoughts about how we can turn this country around. For me, it was a great reminder of why I work so hard here in the office--because I truly believe that Congressman McNerney is the best fit for our district and will keep us going, as a district and a country, in the right direction.

An especially touching moment on Saturday was when Jerry brought up his wife Mary to thank her for all her hard work and support as well. She works just as hard as the rest of us!

It was an inspiring afternoon, especially for some of our younger volunteers--many working on their first campaign and voting for the first time this coming November. We have a great crew of young, energetic volunteers and interns who just can't wait to hit the doors and talk to their neighbors about all the great things Jerry has done in Congress.

We'll host many more events in our offices, with the next one, our July Day of Action, on July 12th. Please let us know if you can stop by to help out!

Thank you for making our office openings such great successes!

Doug Greven
Field Director

PS--don't forget to let us know if you can come to our next Day of Action on July 12, or if you can volunteer in either of our offices! More pictures from the office opening below, and even more will be posted on our website soon!

Supreme Court Allows Unlimited Self Funding in Campaigns

I had to write you all right away with breaking news about campaign finance law.  Today, the Supreme Court of Bush appointees ruled that the "Millionaire's Amendment" of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act is unconstitutional.

What does this mean for America's elections?  It means there is no protection for the average American against those who can afford to "buy" an election.

The Millionaire's Amendment was enacted by Congress to create a level playing field against a candidate who made the choice to self-fund his or her campaign.  In that case, the opponent was permitted to raise more money from supporters to give them a fair opportunity to compete.

Our Congressman Jerry McNerney is not a millionaire.  When choosing his career, he passed on a high-dollar job with an oil company to join the fledgling renewable energy industry.  His choice contributed to saving the equivalent of about 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - as well as other harmful pollutants. 

He told me a story once about how easy it was to make this choice.  He went to Texas to interview with a company and as soon as he stepped off the plane he could smell and taste the oil and pollution from the nearby refinery, he thought, 'I can't do this, this is not the world I want my kids to grow up in.'

Jerry made it to Congress through hard work and broad-based grassroots support from over 16,000 individual contributors - with the overwhelming majority donating less than $50.

At the beginning of June, we launched a challenge to you - $50,000 by June 30th.  We have been awed by your response.  In just a few days, more than $30,000 in small donations has come in to meet that challenge, and we thank you.

Conservative court rulings like this put regular folks like Jerry at risk.  In my years working on campaigns, I have seen what can happen to good people who put everything they have at risk to run for office and serve their country when their wealthy opponent chooses to "exercise" their free speech by throwing their millions into the campaign.  Before I started working for Jerry, I heard a story about how he put everything on the line - even taking a second mortgage on his house - so he could run against corrupt Richard Pombo.

I hope you'll consider giving a donation to our campaign today.  We need $20,000 more to meet our June challenge - money we're using toward our grassroots field campaign to talk to voters one on one about the real issues affecting their lives.  We need regular folks, just like you, me, and Jerry, to take America in a new direction. 

Thank you,


Robbyn Umland

Finance Director

McNerney For Congress

Featured Volunteers: Bill & Penny Evans

Bill and Penny Evans have been with the Congressman since Day One.            

It was in May 2004, after returning from a month teaching English to children in Poland, that retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Bill Evans contacted the McNerney home to lend his support to the campaign. Mary McNerney answered the phone, and the friendship began. During the past four years, the Evanses have lent their support in a multitude of ways: Penny creates tote bags for our volunteers to use during their precinct walks, and Bill was integral in starting the successful Veterans for McNerney effort.  Together they collected more than 200 nomination signatures over the years. The Evanses are part of the family, always willing to do whatever is needed to help spread the Congressman's message.

Volunteers like the Evanses are the heart and soul of our campaign. Their energy in the office is absolutely contagious, and we know our campaign wouldn't be nearly as successful without their support and friendship.

Join Us This Saturday in Stockton!

Join the Congressman in Stockton at our Grand Opening Celebration!

Our Stockton Office Grand Opening is this weekend-and we'd like to invite you to our open house to celebrate and rev up for the tough fight ahead.

Join us for a celebration and to show the Congressman that you are ready to fight back!

WHAT: Stockton Office Grand Opening
WHEN: Saturday, June 21, 3-5pm
WHERE: 5635 Stratford Circle, Suite 1, Stockton
(just off W Robinhood Drive, between Pershing and Pacific)
QUESTIONS: Call Katie at 209-952-3132         

Please let us know if you can come to the open house! If you can't make it (or even if you can), help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by June 30th so we can continue to fight and spread the Congressman's message!

Help us raise $50,000 by June 30!

Our opponent and his shadowy DC Republican friends are launching an all-out attack to take this seat, and we are doing everything we can to fight back.

Please help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by June 30.

TIME.com just ranked us in the top 10 House races this fall, and Freedom's Watch (the group that brought you smears about Jerry's stance on national security and Iraq) are back, launching a new series of robocalls in the district--and have budgeted $200 million to dump into races this fall.

With your help, we can stand up to these groups and spread the truth to our friends and neighbors. Please contribute $55, $40, or whatever you can to tell these groups we will not listen to their lies!