Hello all again!

 My name is Tony Soltero, and I'm a co-founder of Frederick Blue, a new grassroots effort to build a strong Democratic infrastructure in Frederick County, Maryland. I've diaried about our project a few times here already, and it's time for an update. We've had a busy month!

 At the Rocky Gap convention the first weekend in April I briefed a group of Western Maryland Democrats on Frederick Blue -- who we are, what we're doing, and what our goals are. The attendees were very supportive, and after that we began working with the United Democrats of Frederick County to establish a game plan for coordination among the various Democratic organizations in the county.

Hello again, fellow Democrats!

  Thought I'd give everybody an update in my ongoing series about Frederick Blue, our grassroots project to turn Frederick County, Maryland from its current purplish-red state back to its traditional blue.

We got a nice writeup in the local daily newspaper (scroll down a bit from the ferrets story). This has gotten us some more local attention, and last night we delivered a presentation to the local Democratic club, the United Democrats of Frederick County. It was a busy night for the United Dems, as we also got a visit from state Attorney General candidate Doug Gansler.

  Hello fellow Democratic patriots!

  In my first and second installments of this series, I described the founding and work of Frederick Blue, a cross-section of Democratic activists in Frederick County, Maryland working to build a strong, grassroots-oriented local Democratic Party infrastructure that can then be replicated by any motivated group of Dems anywhere in the country (and I know you're all out there!). Well, it's time for another progress report.

  Hello fellow Dems!

  A couple of weeks ago I wrote a diary about Frederick Blue, a grassroots effort to build a new Democratic infrastructure for Frederick County, Maryland. Well, I thought I'd provide a little more background and a progress report.

 We've taken many paths to arrive at our organization. I was involved with the Howard Dean campaign around these parts (which was my first-ever direct involvement in any political effort); eventually I worked with Frederick for Kerry, where our little network got bigger. We've got a couple of people who've been involved in local Frederick politics for a long time, and a few newcomers to the scene. We all share the same goal -- bringing our nation back to sanity by acting locally. George W. Bush has made activists of us all.

Hello, fellow Democrats! I'm part of a group called Frederick Blue. We're a group of (currently) nine people in Frederick County, Maryland building a communications infrastructure for the local Democratic Party. It's the first phase of our plan to turn our "red" county "blue" in 5-10 years.

Frederick County is currently solidly, but not overwhelmingly, Republican. It's a red enclave in a blue state, and looks like Maryland and the nation in microcosm. It's got a good-sized city in the middle, suburbs scattered throughout, and a large part of it is still rural. Reflecting its German heritage (Bavarian farmers settled this area in the mid-1700s), Frederick County is generally conservative, but not right-wing.