NJDC’s Top 10 Accomplishments of 2008
• NJDC executed the most extensive national outreach program in its history and is pleased that 78% of American Jews voted for Barack Obama.
• NJDC conducted focus groups and a national poll to assess Jewish voters’ attitudes and opinions concerning the Presidential election.
• NJDC disseminated more than 350,000 pieces of mail to Jewish voters in several key states.
• NJDC developed nine ads to counter the RJC’s “fear and smear campaign”. NJDC ran a total of 52 ads that appeared in Jewish newspapers in ten states.
• NJDC received more press than ever before. In the last four months of the 2008 election, NJDC was featured in more than 700 TV, radio, Internet, and print articles. NJDC’s newspaper coverage included The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chicago Tribune. TV and radio appearances included CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, and XM Radio. NJDC also had a significant presence on the Internet with regular commentary on the Huffington Post as well as mentions in the Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, and MyDD.
• NJDC’s Annual Washington Conference featured keynote speaker, then-Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden, as well as several party leaders, including DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
• NJDC launched two Internet videos, which received over 16,000 views. We ran flash ads on the Jerusalem Post online, JDate, and JTA online.
• NJDC conducted surrogate trainings around the country. In these sessions, we trained approximately 100 people to debate and speak about issues that resonated most with the Jewish community. After this training, NJDC surrogates spoke in dozens of communities. In addition to speaker training, NJDC empowered dozens of our supporters to lead letter writing campaigns to local press and to create an NJDC activist presence in the blogosphere.
• At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, NJDC sponsored an open community-wide event with over 350 people in attendance. We also co-sponsored two, highly attended educational panel discussions with The Solomon Project on the Jewish vote and practicing politics with Jewish values.
• NJDC had a record-breaking year financially and built an extensive network of new donors.
