Sherri Goulet, once a hard-driving supporter of Howard Dean's campaign for president, felt despair after Dean shelved his campaign in February. She and other supporters decided to have a potluck where, she later joked, people would "cry in their beer" and maybe go on a "crying jag."

But to Goulet's surprise, the people who showed up weren't the least bit ready to give up on politics -- although some were not keen to support the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

"People were really ready to move on. ... We were shocked. People wanted to know: 'What next?' " Goulet recalls.

Three months after that first meeting, Goulet and her friends are still meeting regularly -- along with plenty of people they'd never met before.

Awakened by Dean's outsider candidacy, many hadn't been involved in politics before.

They were a big part of the record 100,000 or more Democrats who turned out in February for the party's presidential precinct caucuses.

They have begun calling their group of a couple dozen Thurston County members "Voices for Change." They say they want to build a network of support for political progressives in South Sound who can channel the energy of the Dean and Dennis Kucinich campaigns into new causes.

One activist, John Pierce, has set up his own Web site. Plans by others are in the works for fund-raising events and meetings with community and political groups in South Sound. The goal is to see what common causes they can support.

"I see this as a way of staying connected with local activism," said Jennifer Spieler, a newcomer to politics last year who within months became a field organizer for Dean, the Vermont governor who has since endorsed Kerry.

Spieler hopes their group can support "progressive candidates" as well as hold town hall meetings to discuss issues on a neighbor-to-neighbor level. "We didn't want to be another progressive group that preaches to the choir," Spieler said. "We need to find out how to speak to people on the other side of the political spectrum."

Karyn Lindberg, a Kucinich supporter who hosted the group's meeting in her living room earlier this month, said she now hopes to stage a backyard music concert in July to raise money for candidates the group can support -- whether it's via the national MoveOn political action committee or locally in races for Congress and Legislature.

Others like Olympia-based fiber artist Julia Moore, who supported Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich's candidacy, see the new group as a chance to sink their teeth into a political cause, knowing that Kucinich is all but eliminated from contention as a presidential candidate.

Moore said she made up her mind to get involved with Voices for Change after attending a potluck at Lindberg's home.

Like many Kucinich supporters, Moore is still backing her candidate in the hope he can get enough delegates that he'll be ensured of a chance to speak about his ideas -- universal health care and ending the war in Iraq -- at the Democratic National Convention in July in Boston.

Like many Dean and Kucinich supporters, Moore is also having a hard time finding enthusiasm for Kerry.

"He doesn't inspire me at all that he's going to make the kind of changes this nation needs to make ... to pull out of the direction we're going -- economically and diplomatically," Moore said.

Despite her reticence, Moore said she expects she'll make some effort to help Kerry get elected, fearing the alternative prospect of President Bush's re-election.

How far Voices for Change can go is still a question. The group has attracted up to 25 people at its meetings.

Walt Bowen, the local organizer for Dean during the Democratic presidential caucuses in February, said he expects activists will eventually rally around Kerry to defeat President Bush.

"They all want a regime change," Bowen said. "Given the opportunity they are going to stay and be active on this. I'm not discouraged at all."

©2004 The Olympian

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