North Scottsdale Democrats - A Brief History

ORIGINS

North Scottsdale Democrats (NorScoDems.org), is a grassroots organization. It was formed in January 2020, just before the pandemic, by a small group of northern Scottsdale friends and neighbors who were tired of feeling politically isolated and ineffectual and so resolved to work together to do something to change that. We created this independent club, named it North Scottsdale Democrats and formulated our original mission as follows: To build a visible, well-informed and politically active community of Democrats and like-minded others in northern Scottsdale.

We kicked things off with a neighborhood house party, for people living near us in the residential communities south and east of Troon Mountain. This was before the COVID-19 shutdown. We hoped 15 to 20 people might respond to our invitations, but ended up with over 50 very enthusiastic neighbors, most of whom had never before met and were surprised to learn they had so many Democratic neighbors!

Everyone said how much they appreciated the opportunity to meet other people like themselves living in northern Scottsdale and agreed that a group like ours was much needed, so we decided to continue holding happy hours and other types of social get-togethers.

NorScoDems.org kickoff house party ( Feb 2020)

COVID-19

With the rise of COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, we were forced to hold our meetings online instead of in-person, but as word of our group spread our numbers continued to grow. And so did our capabilities. COVID forced us to develop our technology and rely more heavily on digital media to reach people with our messaging and events.

Today we have 500 people on our active email list and are meeting new people all the time through various digital channels and a robust schedule of events.

NORSCODEMS PAC - 2022 AND BEYOND

In January of 2022, our Steering Committee met and decided that, because the 2022 General Election would be so critical for Arizona and the country in general, North Scottsdale Democrats needed to be able to do more than just meet and talk among ourselves -- we needed to be able to help, in material ways, elect Democrats.

So we decided to form a Political Action Committee (PAC) which would give us the ability to raise and spend money to directly influence the outcome of elections... something we could not previously do as an informal club.

We made the appropriate filings with the IRS as the AZ Secretary of State. Legally, we are now known as NORSCODEMS dba North Scottsdale Democrats, a tax exempt, Section 527 group, registered as a Political Action Committee (Standing) with the Arizona Secretary of State.

Our new legal status has allowed us to modify our original mission, recognizing that we are now in the business of helping to influence the outcome of elections. Accordingly, our updated mission statement reads as follows: To build a visible, well-informed and politically active community of Democrats and like-minded others in northern Scottsdale, working together to protect and strengthen our democracy by electing Democrats -- candidates who are committed to defending the Constitution, the rule of democratically enacted law, our civil liberties, the right to vote, and other precious, democratic institutions.

To further this mission, North Scottsdale Democrats work to:

increase the number of people registered as Democrats in northern Scottsdale;
maximize primary and general election turnout (Get Out the Vote) of all North Scottsdale voters, regardless of party affiliation, who support Democratic candidates;
support values and public policies that are consistent with and help advance our mission and strategic plan objectives;
promote accurate, fair, and transparent elections;
raise funds to enable t the above activities and to advance the NSD mission;
conduct other activities as appropriate to strengthen and promote the aims and objectives of North Scottsdale Democrats

It's an important project and if you're not already part of our ever-growing network of members and supporters, we hope you'll consider joining us. If you're undecided, we encourage you to explore the rest of this website and subscribe to our monthly email newsletter so you can learn more about our group and we can keep you informed about upcoming events and other news of interest to folks living in northern Scottsdale.

Now that the pandemic has subsided, we have resumed in-person events. In March of 2022, we held our first general meeting in two years with over 50 attendees, and since then have held a number of other "live" events, including our hugely successful 2nd Anniversary Celebration in April 2022, attended by over 100 people (see Photo Gallery).

In addition to monthly general meetings (see Upcoming Events), we have also resumed occasional, in-person social events including happy hours and house parties. In 2022, our member-hosted house party fundraisers generated over $50 thousand dollars in donations for Democratic candidates.

Now, it's 2023 -- the beginning of a new election cycle -- and North Scottsdale Democrats are off to roaring start. We've elected a new leadership team that will take us through the through the 2024 Presidential Election, and we're in the process of expanding our organization structure to increase our capabilities and member engagement. We're also updating our Strategic Plan and adopting a set of comprehensive Bylaws.

It's going to be an exciting ride as we work to "finish the job" of turning Arizona Blue and you're invited to come along!

We hope you'll join us!

North Scottsdale Democrats Executive Committee