The Democratic Women of the Desert held a candidate forum with local volunteers serving as "surrogates" for the two presidential campaigns on Sunday, April 10th in Cathedral City.

The volunteers for the other candidate were friendly, the audience was awesomely thoughtful, the moderator Ellie K was on top of it, and Alex, Larry Alger and Debbie, came out from Fontana to support!

Great event!

My partner in the revolution, Lorraine Salas, came prepared, and nailed it throughout with the local issues, including the MOST important issue on climate change and highlighting the most evident difference with a great example. Remember during one debate that question on fracking and the convoluted, qualified, with conditions, exceptions, hypothetical for instance, answer on fracking? Lorraine perfectly pointed out Bernie's one word response that we, who care about the planet, climate change, environment, water, air, need to hear - no.

The overall consensus is that we should have these outreach events all over the I.E. to talk about the issues, in a friendly format. Key to the success is a strong moderator to keep it fair, under control and effective.

Plus, we also need to prepare ourselves with strategic answers, learning how to pivot to responses when Senator Sanders is attacked or misrepresented. And, we have to be ready for anything. We were initially told a 10 minute opener and then, had it cut to only 5 minutes each.  (You'll notice that my intro was rushed at the end as I ran out of time.) Keep an eye out on map.berniesanders.com for planning meeting/discussion group events to move this project forward over the next few weeks. Time is short, and voting starts in less than a month! 

Thank you to Larry Alger for sharing this great video!