by Jake Levy-Pollans 

With caucuses just days away, our campaign is ramping up. The office is buzzing with volunteers making phone calls, stuffing envelopes and staffers finalizing our plans for the big day: February 2nd.

The caucuses start at 7pm on Tuesday, and we'll be working frantically until then.

We'd love it if you can pitch in.

Click here to volunteer and make sure you attend your precinct caucus and support Matt.

Also: do you know where your caucus is located? If not, you can look it up here.

Want to know another quick and easy way to help?

Join us on Facebook and become Matt's fan.

Sure, we'd love it if you became Matt's fan. But we'd also love it if you donated your profile for the next few days. Change your profile pic to the picture below and let all your friends now that you'll be supporting Matt on the 2nd.

I've already done it, and my profile has never been cooler.

It is going to be a lot of hard work between now and Tuesday - but with your help, we'll pass the first big test of 2010 with flying colors, and be one step closer to electing Matt in November.

My name is Lydia McAninch. Most of my childhood was spent in Austin, MN but I briefly lived in Houston, MN during high school. I moved up to the Twin Cities for college and work. I worked for the Sierra Club in 2004 and I learned a lot about the environmental crisis our state was in. I am very concerned that we aren't doing enough right now to utilize renewable and sustainable resources and that definitely influenced my choice in who to support for the DFL gubernatorial candidate.

After the Sierra Club campaign, I began to work with people in the developmentally disabled community. I worked for a couple of years in group homes in the Twin Cities area. Two years ago, I was offered a great position for a group home company in Des Moines, IA and I moved down there with my husband (fiance at the time). I became really involved with advocacy for people with developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and mental illness.   

This past summer, I got married and my husband (who is in the Army) was given orders to deploy overseas and we decided to move back to Minnesota so I could be near family while he was deployed and I'm very happy I made that decision. I love being back in Southern Minnesota where I really feel at home anywhere I go. I have a lot of family in the Winona/Houston area and I am very proud of my roots here.

As a concerned Minnesotan, I really embraced the Matt Entenza campaign for Governor. I think his plans are win win win for a variety of issues in our state. As a GLBTA advocate, I am very proud to be working with the campaign that has the Stonewall endorsement. As someone who admires leadership, I believe that Matt Entenza proved himself while he was in the House of Representatives, helping to put the DFL in the majority and stop severe cuts to education and health care.

I have always been very active in my community through, theatre, volunteer work, public relations and club presidency/participation at Riverland Community College. I understand first hand what fellow rural Minnesotans are going through, and so does Matt!

There is a diverse population of many ethnicities in my area, yet we all have the same struggles. I believe in Matt because he will be the governor that will and has always striven to unite all peoples, regardless of color, nationality/ethnicity, sexual preference or religion. It's a very important message to reiterate to these communities.

Matt's success in saving MinnesotaCare against Pawlenty's interests is a huge cause for celebration in this area. Countless families (mine included) and social workers depend on MinnesotaCare as their primary medical insurance carriers. I don't know what Minnesota would do without it! We obviously have many issues we are concerned with but MinnesotaCare insurance is heavily relied up in this area. We have Matt to thank for that and many other successes that apply to our neck of the woods.

I'm thrilled to be a member of the Entenza team! Minnesotans for Matt all the way!

Hi everyone, my name is Joe Radosevich. I'm the Regional Organizer for Matt Entenza's campaign up on the Iron Range (Senate District 5) and in Cass, Beltrami, Koochiching, and Itasca counties.

The Range is an extraordinary part of our state, and one in which it's important for DFLers to do well in order to win a general election. I'm thrilled to be working for Matt here.

I graduated from college last May, and couldn't wait to get back home. I first worked for Matt in 2005 when he was DFL leader of the State House. That year we had a special session. It was the only time Governor Pawlenty backed down and compromised with DFLers - meaning thousands of Minnesotans kept their health care coverage.

I'm proud to tell Matt's story up here because he's the kind of DFLer who's walked the walk his entire life. I learn new examples every time I'm on the road with Matt, like last Thursday at the Native Issues Forum in Bemidji.

When Matt was a law student in the late 1980s, he worked to organize the legal community in Minnesota to help three tribes in Wisconsin defend their treaty rights, which were being attacked by some far-right local residents. He helped members of these tribes document how their rights were being violated and how law enforcement was allowing them to be harassed. Ultimately, the rule of law prevailed, and the tribes' rights were upheld. That's the kind of guy I want as my next Governor.

In my spare time driving from Biwabik to Hibbing (and back again) I'm looking for my favorite Potica from a bakery (my real favorite is my aunt Kathy's). If you want to help the campaign, or you just have a favorite bakery on the Range, give me call: 218-595-0212.

And while I'm sure I'll change my mind eventually, right now I'm thrilled to have a real Minnesota winter.

I’m annoyed.

Listening to NPR earlier today, I heard that in the wake of losing ONE U.S. Senate seat, some Democrats are suggesting it’s time for them to sound the retreat; to stop doing the work and fighting the fights people sent them to Washington to do.

The thinking goes like this: Voters in Massachusetts sent a message last night, one that all Democrats better listen to. If we don’t stop working for what we believe in, we’ll lose in the 2010 elections.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.  

Last night on MSNBC, amid national Democratic despair and hand-wringing, former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean said this:

“The Democrats, if we wanna govern right, we're gonna have a message. We're gonna have to show decisiveness. We're gonna have to show boldness. We're gonna have to show toughness and we're gonna have to show leadership.

“People who blame others are losers. If you want to win elections, you stop blaming and get to work.”

Are you tired of wimpy Democrats? It is time to stand up for what we believe in.

By Gretchen Wolf

Hi, I'm Gretchen Wolf, Field Organizer for Matt Entenza's campaign for governor. My territory includes Dakota, Rice, and Le Sueur counties as well as Minneapolis senate district 62. I'm especially proud to be working for Matt because of experiences like the one I had with him a couple days ago:

Matt and I were at the Senate District 62 Spaghetti Dinner on Saturday evening when a woman went up to the podium and started speaking about an organization called RN Response Network (through the Minnesota Nurses Network), that is sending nurses to Haiti for earthquake relief. Soon after, a man came up to Matt and gave him a flyer explaining a little about the organization. 8,000 nurses from the US and more than 300 from Minnesota have already agreed to go to Haiti, but the costs of getting them there have to be raised. Matt said this was an important cause and should have a prominent spot on our website, and I couldn't agree more.

Check out: www.sendanurse.org .

Sincerely,

Gretchen Wolf
Field Organizer for Matt Entenza

As the world moves forward and new generations of people enter the world without having known Martin Luther King Jr or his dream, it is important we all remember the role he had in shaping the future of our country and humankind.  Although he is most revered as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, he also stood as a leader for moral justice and opportunity for all Americans.  

As King proclaimed many years ago, in a somewhat different America:

"Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation."

We've come a long way since then, but as many Americans and Minnesotans know, hard work remains.  As the rusted iron jaws of poverty clamp tightly around the new victims of the Great Recession, we cannot abandon King's creed.

We must continue to dream the dream, and make America a better nation and Minnesota a better state.

 by Jake Levy-Pollans

I'm having a great time working for Matt's campaign. But even more than I like campaigning, I love a good open house party. So yesterday was a terrific day for me. The campaign threw an open house party so supporters could come see our office and learn how to get more involved. The guacamole and salsa flowed and our supporters packed the office.