2016 Reelection message

View Jess' DNC Reelection Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5fzgPM2phw&feature=youtube_gdata

A very big thank you to the talented team who produced this video -- Mike Thaller, Carla Kirkwood and Ryan Hurd.  And a special thank you to the narrator, San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald.

Jess

Claim Your Name … or Someone Else Will

By Jess Durfee, DNC Member

Chair, San Diego County Democratic Party

I’m hardly an Internet expert, but for years I’ve had a simple piece of advice for potential candidates and Party leaders: Claim your name online.

Though it might seem obvious, many politicos still fail to purchase the “.com” and “.org” versions of their own names until it’s too late. They’re dismayed to find them already taken – often by opponents with bad intentions, or squatters demanding a small fortune.

I reserved jessdurfee.com some time ago and use it (occasionally) for a blog highlighting my DNC activities. But I was late to the Twitter bandwagon. Sure enough, last month I found that someone was masquerading as me under the “jessdurfee” handle.

Our County Democratic Party’s legal counsel filed a complaint with Twitter on behalf of me and several Democratic city council candidates whose names had been snapped up in the previous weeks. Since the offending accounts were clearly meant to be deceptive – in violation of user rules – they were shut down within days.

We noticed that the accounts of the county Republican Party and its chair, Tony Krvaric, had been suspended too. So we connected the dots and issued a press release suggesting that the Republicans were behind the fraud. Within hours, Krvaric admitted to the charge.

I did not expect the flood of media coverage that followed. Local TV and radio stations wanted interviews. Our conservative daily newspaper questioned Krvaric’s leadership in a scathing editorial. A story in the D.C.-based blog Wonkette called my Republican counterpart a “bored dingbat” and a “vindictive weirdo.”

This episode turned out well enough for our side, but it was a serious reminder of the need to be more aggressive about acquiring online real estate. Paying for your own domain name is a must, and adding a couple variations is probably worthwhile. There’s no cost to getting multiple Twitter handles. Facebook lets you choose a username for your page’s URL.

After you’ve acquired your own names, ensure that Democratic candidates and elected officials in your area secure their Web-based “brands” too. Protecting your online political identity can take a little time and money, but it will ultimately save you much more of both.

Follow Jess on Twitter: @chairjessdurfee. 

Jess Durfee

Jess Durfee has been engaged in Democratic Party politics and LGBT activism for over 30 years, the past 24 of those in San Diego.

Jess currently serves as the Chair of the Western Region Caucus of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  He was elected to the Democratic National Committee in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 and 2016. He is one of only two elected DNC members in Southern California who does not live in Los Angeles County.

He served four terms (2004-2013) as Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party. At the beginning of his tenure as Chair, county registration had the Democrats behind the GOP by 7%.  Today county data shows the Democrats with an 8% advantage over the GOP. Under his leadership the SDCDP was restructured resulting in the creation of the GO Team - a precinct leader program; dramatic increases in fundraising; improvements in candidate recruitment, training and support; and a more credible candidate endorsement process.

He served as Co-Chair of the LGBT Caucus of the California Democratic Party from 2007-2011 and serves as the Lead Chair of the Voter Services Committee of the California Democratic Party.

In February of 2016, he was appointed to the California State Fair and Exposition Center Board by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins. Since November of 2013, he has served on the City of San Diego SDCCU Stadium Advisory Board.

Jess held several positions with the San Diego Democrats for Equality where he served as president from 2001 through 2004.  In 2003 he was a San Diego Pride honoree for his efforts to include protection of transgender people in the city’s Human Dignity Ordinance.  He served on the executive board of the San Diego County Democratic Party from 2002-2016. He served two years as Director of Clubs. Mr. Durfee has been a member of the California Democratic Party Executive Board since 1999. In 1999-2000 he served as the field director for Toni Atkins’ successful run for the San Diego city council. Ms. Atkins now represents a large portion of San Diego in the California Senate and serves as the Senate President Pro Tem.

Before moving to San Diego he had a fifteen-year career as a high school agriculture teacher. During his tenure as an educator he served as president of his local teachers union and served in the state and national arenas as a political action leader within his union. While teaching he took leaves of absence to work as a political field director for the National Education Association and Washington Education Association and as a congressional aide for education and labor issues on Capitol Hill.

Jess lives in the San Diego neighborhood of University Heights.