With Thanksgiving upon us, I suppose it’s timely that I’m feeling grateful for many public servants and candidates.
I’m filled with gratitude for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I had the privilege of being her constituent for seven years and professionally working with her office. Others have said what needs to be said, but Pelosi truly is the G.O.A.T.
America is exponentially better off because of her and I’m happy that she gets conclude her speakership on her own terms.
I’m also grateful that LA elected the coalition-building, mild-mannered, crisis-tested Rep. Karen Bass as our next mayor!
From the launch of her candidacy to the opening of her campaign headquarters to celebrating Pride to mobilizing Jewish community support and more, I’m so humbled to have had the privilege of supporting Rep. Karen Bass in her quest to fight for a better LA.
We *finally* shattered that glass ceiling over City Hall despite being outspent 11 to 1, electing LA’s first woman mayor!
I’m especially grateful to my friend Vahid Khorsand for looping into the Bass campaign from the beginning. And thank you Joey Freeman, who as Policy Director & Senior Advisor on the campaign included me in many different outreach efforts and accepted my insane volume of introductory texts and emails!
Grassroots Democrats HQ is no doubt responsible for many of the narrow victories Democrats won this cycle. Tamara Levenson, Mana Shooshtari, and their whole crew are rock stars! Noah Berkowitz, Roei Eisenberg, and all the great people who form the LA Election Project deserve a special shout out, too.
The staff of Equality California, Jewish Democratic Council of America, and J Street all deserve enormous praise for their hard work this election cycle.
Running for office is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It takes time away from families and friends. Candidates deal with difficult people and grueling schedules.
This year marks the first time that I had a high volume of friends and acquaintances who decided to seek office themselves. Some won, some didn’t, some still don’t know yet, and many of them I couldn’t support as much as I would’ve liked to or couldn’t because of differences on policy or strategy, but I’m immensely proud of them.
Let’s celebrate them today:
Louis Abramson (CA Assembly)
Chelsea Byers (West Hollywood City Council)
Joel Engardio (SF Board of Supervisors)
Sarah Fields (San Mateo City Council)
Christy Holstege (CA Assembly)
Lindsey Horvath (LA County Board of Supervisors)
Debbie Klein Lopez (Agoura Hills City Council)
Rafael Mandelman (SF Board of Supervisors)
Robert Oliver (West Hollywood City Council)
Will Rollins (Congress)
Caroline Torosis (Santa Monica City Council)
Jeremy Wolf (Agoura Hills City Council)
Katy Young Yaroslavsky (LA City Council)
Sam Yebri (LA City Council)
Rick Chavez Zbur (CA Assembly)
My apologies to any of the folks I neglected to include on this list!
Finally, thank you to the staff, supporting NGOs, volunteers, and donors - you! - who supported the thousands of campaigns out there that made our strong showing in the midterms possible. Without you, our victories would’ve never happened.
Georgia Runoff
Please DO SOMETHING TO SUPPORT WARNOCK so we can have a real Senate majority (e.g. have far less parity with the GOP on committees, etc.) and decrease dependence on Manchin and Sinema.
Early voting starts the Monday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 28. Please take action.
Jobs
HIAS: Editorial Manager, Budget & Fiscal Compliance Specialist, Africa & Eurasia (Silver Spring, NYC, Remote), Individual Giving Coordinator, Housing Specialist (Silver Spring), Human Resource and Administration Coordinator, Greece (Athens), Health, Safety, and Security Coordinator (Nairobi), Health, Safety, and Security Manager (Kyiv)
NCJW: Director of National Campaigns and Partnerships, Staff Accountant, Director of Communications, Engagement & Leadership Internships (DC)
J Street: Assistant Regional Director for Mid-Atlantic (NYC)
OneVoice Movement: Program Designer (P/T), Common Ground Program Manager - Israel, Monitoring & Evaluation Professional (Israel/Palestine)
New Israel Fund: VP, NY/Tri-State Region (NYC)
Repair the World: Senior Director of National Partnerships Strategy (Remote), Boston Teen Program Associate, Stakeholder Engagement Associate (NYC)
California YIMBY: Distributed Organizing Manager (LA)
Golden State Opportunity: Senior Organizer, LA
Carbon 180: Senior Policy Advisor, Agriculture, Deputy Dir. of Policy, Tech (DC)
SPUR: Director of Public Engagement (SF)
AJC: Alexander Associate (LA), Regional Director (San Diego)
ACLU: Legislative Attorneys or Legislative Advocates (Sacramento), Development Operations Assistant (LA), Policy Advocate & Organizer (Bakersfield)
Skirball Cultural Center: Senior Program Associate, Public Programs, Project Registrar, Museum (LA)
Beth Shir Shalom: Office Administrator (Santa Monica)
Jewish Free Loan Association: Development Director (LA)
ADL: Director of Community Engagement (Remote), Director of Government Relations, Extremism, Senior Program Manager, Center on Extremism, Director of Government Relations, Technology Policy (DC)
MIRA Coalition: Field Organizer (Boston)
JDC: RD Administrative Assistant (NYC)
Stephen Wise Temple & Wise School: CFO (LA)