Sponsor: Ian Jackson and Elie Yarden
Shepard: Ian Jackson
Budget Impact: 2018 impact will be discussed at a later time. For 2017, the Candidate/Movement schools will be funded in part by donations from participants with means, Stein Campaign, Green Party US. The hope would be that the schools would except for scholarships for participants from disadvantaged communities would fund most of the cost. Additionally, shared office space (virtual office) and subscription services will be considered.
Vetting Committees: CDLC, Membership, and AdCom
We are an electoral Party. The energy from the Northampton and Boston Rallies for our Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein showed that electoral action may be for the Party.
- CDLC will continue to make the races for the municipal elections in 2017 and State House of Representatives and State Senate in 2018, its top priority.
- Membership will explore methods to increase our enrollment which may increase our influence on GPUS committees and conventions.
- The 2018 Electoral Action Working Group will:
- Recruit a diverse slate of candidates for the 2018 statewide elections. This Committee will report to the CDLC, StateCom and AdCom.
- Initial focus of the effort will be on the positions that require 5,000 signatures (rather than 10,000). These positions are Secretary, Treasurer, and Auditor
- Because of the 10,000 signature requirements for Attorney General, Governor, and Senator, approval from AdCom (with consultation with CDLC) will be required before searching for candidates for these positions.
- The members slate will be approved by State Com
- Research a method query (poll) members (and not members) on issues.
- Strive to assemble a team of shared campaign managers, treasurers, volunteer coordinators, and media coordinators ready and willing to support candidates should they agree to run. Willing potential candidates may have invest time in
- Work with CDLC, GPUS Coordinated Campaign Committee (limited funds are available) , Stein Campaign, and Maine Green Independent Party (possibly other state parties) to have one or more Candidate/Movement schools in the area.
- Recruit a diverse slate of candidates for the 2018 statewide elections. This Committee will report to the CDLC, StateCom and AdCom.
- Consider based on funds a Party shared office space (virtual office) for phone banking and to receive inquiries about the Party for the fall of 2017 through the end of the campaign 2018.
- Consider based on funds, a subscription to State House News.
For more background see, A Bold Action Program for the GRP in 2014, minutes of the January 2014 State Committee Meeting, and the report of Electoral Action Working Group (EAWG).
Showing 14 reactions
Although assessing progress in the fall of 2017 makes sense. The Boston Globe while reporting that Republicans had trouble filling their statewide slate that GRP had a Treasurer already filed with Campaign finance.
Mike Heichman, former StateCom Member, Greater Boston Chapter
3 sec 2. Polls are not necessary expensive as former co-chair Frank pointed out to me. We have the voter list including the elections that they voted in. At least some phone numbers are still listed and can be found over the internet. Thus it only takes volunteer work.
3 sec 3 Of course you only share staff where it makes sense. A Senate candidate could be part of a Slate. It is also possible, the Party looks at the resources and candidates and decides to meet long term goals to focus on congressional or legislative races which may make ballot access for President more challenging.
3 sec 4 I realize the challenges of schools, but self-trained candidates are difficult. The cost will remain fuzzy until we understand who will attend for what offices. The Stein campaign hoped to set up schools after the campaign. This is to show that the Party is prepared to “help” with a school in Mass, NH, or Maine.
1. & 2.: We support these.
3. EAWG: We appreciate consideration for the time we are devoting to 2017/2018 local and district candidates. We would support an EAWG if there are knowledgeable people to staff it. That said, CDLC wishes to avoid duplication of effort.
3, sec. 2, Poll:
Conducting a poll/survey, particularly for people not on our email list, is expensive and time consuming. Are there academics with some of this data that we could find and use? A survey might be possible through our email and website. Even so, good survey design takes time.
3. sec 3, shared campaign staff:
In principle,CDLC supports shared campaign staff for a single jurisdiction (e.g., for state offices including Auditor, Treasurer and Secretary of Commonwealth). We believe it would not be workable to include federal or other offices, e.g., Congress, because of the very different federal requirements and reporting vs. state requirements/reporting.
Note that CDLC does not presently have a pool of campaign staffers to recruit from. It’s likely candidates will still need to recruit these positions from their supporters.
3. sec 4, campaign schools:
CDLC is down a key member, who was working on the campaign school. This may cause a delay in planning and presenting such a school(s). coordinating with Stein Campaign and CCC could be helpful, and could also take more time.
4. Our understanding is that a virtual office is what’s being proposed. Please amend to state this.
5. We support sub to SHNS.
Budget Impact:
The statement about the funding of candidate/campaign school(s) is a little unclear—have we previously charged participants for attending?
The actual manner that the slate will be selected will depend on results of the search and legal considerations.
Under current law if we are a designation allows for signature gathering between the middle of February and end of August. Bills have been introduced in the past to reduce the time frame.
When EWAG starts reporting progress, CDLC, Adcom, and State Com will likely consider the most beneficial method to select candidates or introduce them to the Green-Rainbow volunteers.
Another key piece: ensuring publicity and contacts with media outlets such as Boston Public Radio announcing the convention, and then the nominees (Egan/Broude show).
Current events are increasing name recognition of the Green Party as we speak. Note that a number of Greens around the country won office or polled fairly high percentages of votes in 2016.
RE: Chances for getting candidates elected. According to an endorsing organization who interviewed me this year, most people these days vote for candidates, not parties. I would say that was likely true for my State Rep run.
CDLC is getting more people contacting us who are interested in running for office at town, city, district and statewide levels, during and post-election: I believe this is a direct result of our district and national campaigns.
I believe our experience is that running candidates creates interest in the Green/Green-Rainbow Party. A number of times when door knocking, people asked me whether I was Dem or Rep, and I could say “neither—I’m Green-Rainbow.” It could be inferred that running GRP in a partisan race creates more visibility for the GRP.
CDLC will attempt to discuss this proposal at our Nov meeting—we are having our year-end review and goal setting through 2020, which directly relates to the content of this proposal.
I have no difficulty with the idea of a candidate school. But a candidate is just the point of the pyramid and needs strong volunteer support, so it should be a school about how to get your candidate elected and not just how to be one. And perhaps the goal should be to have one Green municipal office-holder in every town rather than trying to get people into the Statehouse.
People that are guest in the US would be allowed to attend for free because campaign finance will not allow us to take donations from them.
Likewise we should be prepared to provide scholarships to members of traditionally disenfranchised groups regardless of Party registration.