Finance Committee
I arrived late into the meeting because I had decided to go to the Local's organizing workshop instead, but when I saw another San Diego member at that workshop, I decided to attend this Committee meeting.
Mailers This is how the mailer works: The main comments by Joe Chamberlain and Myke Wyman were that the key to succesdul fundraising was asking often. The concern that there is only a limited amount of funds to go around, that the state will be competing with the locals, is not valid. The example of Alameda County was given. There, they receive enough funds to cover their newsletter and still have a surplus of $8,000 a year eventhough they joined the GPCA fundraising at the same time.
The other benefit to the locals is that the GPCA will share their donor's list of that area for free. Just talk to Myke Wyman.
Nancy Marmol has the list of statewide registered Greens. GPCA targets that list twice per election.
The GPCA plans to send mailers to their retainer list every 6 months. They also would like to facilitate online donation for locals through their website.
GPCA financial obligation to the GPUS is voluntary. They are considering giving them 10%. The GPUS can be asked to use GPCA mailing lists. Nader took 1/3 of their income from California through four methods:
If you get a check from a company, call the number if available and ask what kind of business this is. Many times you'll find out it's a small business owned by one person. In this case it's ok to file the donation as though it came from the individual. Contact the FPPC if you have any questions.
The Fair Political Practices Commission
End report
Campaigns & Candidates Working Group
This working group had a workshop, a meeting and a presentation at the plenary. I also had some discussions with members of this wg. Here I give you all the information I gathered from all of these different settings, including the handout that was passed out. I'm not following the order of the handout though because I'm placing the information about electoral races first.
The campaign coordinator for this slate is Rebecca Kaplan (attorney) who will do everything possible to get Peter in the debates even if it involves law suits. She's an amazing organizer and will stop her regular job to work full time as manager for these campaigns. Rebecca ran for Oakland City Council last year (please correct me if I'm wrong)and received 44% of the vote! She knows how to build campaigns. Visit www.votecamejo.org for more information or call 510-595-4619 some of us brought some of his literature. He had some available.
This slate is still looking for a couple of people to run as attorney general (this needs to be an attorney w/ buss. and finance background) and another person for controller.
The handout doesn't have Jan Tucker's name on it but during the meeting, his name was listed as running for treasurer. This was announced a while back as well and I can only think that the omission of his name was a mistake.
This group calls themselves the "Deep Green Slate". They are preparing a mission statement and will soon have a website. Currently the only site that has information is www.charlesdouglas.net he's also running for School Board and his efforts are mainly focused on that. this should be evident (I've been told) when you visit his website. He's the Deep Green Slate's current representative.
"Decisions from CCWG sessions: The Green Party of California will not endorse any contested primary race at this time. This is not a policy, but a decision made at this time to not endorse. We meet again in January, 2002, after the filing deadlines. We may revisit this decision then. GPCA may use resources to promote forums and debates between the various candidates, to promote the contested primary to the press."
The group did not want to make this a policy because we would like to reserve the option of endorsing before a primary in the future. in the case a candidate like Buchanan decides to run as a Green Party candidate. The GPCA would like to be able to endorse those candidates who reflect GP values as a way to keep those who do not out of the party.
Rebecca Kaplan approached Charles Douglas and they discussed how to run their campaigns in the most "green" way without getting into any negative campaigning. they agreed to simply not mention the names of any opponents and this way there wouldn't be any chance of questioning whether something printed or mentioned was negative or not.
Comments were made that having more than one slate was healthy for a growing party like ours. Ideally we should have more.
[text from handout:]
Questions:
Conclusion:
We should only run selected candidates for regional offices. We have developed a list of baseline qualifications for these kinds of seats, so we can conserve our resources and maintain quality control when running candidates for these seats. Efforts should be made to achieve regional, ethnic and gender diversity in developing candidates for the races.
We brainstormed for base line qualifications that candidates for this level and committed to conducting workshops to enable activists to develop these skills. We will also encourage first time candidates to run for local office before jumping in to regional races.
Summary of Regional (AD,SD,CD)
LOCAL RACES
There are currently 35 elected Greens on the local level. 19 of them hold offices of City Council member or higher, including 4 Mayors and one County Supervisor.
2. Summary of local offices being sought by Greens, as of Sept 15, 2001:
San Francisco 2001: Ron Dicks MUD Ward1; Medea Benjamin Ward 4
San Francisco 2002: School Board, 3 open seats (currently one Green incumbent, not up for re election yet); BART Board (depending on re-districting); Public Utility Board (pending voter approval): Mark Stout; Supervisor, Districts 4 and 8;
Alameda: BART (pending districts) ???; East Bay MUD: Rebecca Kaplan;
Marin: San Anselmo School Board: Justin Moscoso
Sonoma: Sebastopol city council re-election (Larry ???)
Mendocino: School Board: Dan Hamburg
Humbolt: Point Arena School Board: Bill Meyers
Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Mayor: Tim Fitzmaurice (incumbent); School Board: Thomas Leavitt
Santa Barbara: Goleta City Council: Robert Bernstein;
Santa Monica: City Council re-election Kevin McKeown
Los Angeles County
Riverside Mayor
San Diego County
Ventura Co: Tony (last name?): Oxnard City Council
Questions:
This plan was developed after holding two regional working group meetings, one in San Francisco, and the other in Los Angeles.
Conclusion: We should only run for office when we have clearly defined objectives, which can be different from race to race, and a strategy for obtaining those objectives. Candidates for office should only seek seats that they are capable of running for and performing competently in if and when elected.
We brainstormed on the following:
1. Objectives for running for office:
To Win!: Provide voters with an alternative to the two major parties; Register more Greens; Raise issues; Talk about solutions to social problems; Promote alternative candidates; Build the Green party; Save the world; Target new constituencies under represented in the Green Party; Affect the outcome of the race and gain leverage; Use Issues as the face of the campaigns, as opposed to individuals; Engage in Community outreach, especially to people of color; Issues that cross-racial lines; youth and campuses; Develop and promote Green policies that distinguish the Green Party from the Democratic Party, e.g. Energy; Green policies are majoritarian; Attend local meetings and identify ourselves as Greens; Choose issues of interest of the local community. Have locals take positions on local issues; Issue Press releases; Canvas Door-to-door; Use Gimmicks; Wear buttons; Raise money; Find Volunteers and Staff who are intelligent, activists and well-trained; Tabling every weekend before elections; Recruit Volunteers; Do Phone trees; The Internet is the wave of the future, use it; Get Endorsements; Meet with the media; combine issues; Develop Literature which is clear, articulate and clever; Show up at campaign events; Plan for Damage Control.
Conclusion: We should focus on offices that have a good chance in winning. In some cases, that may be City Council seats, but offices like Resource Conservation Districts, Municipal Utility Districts, School Districts, Community College Boards, Open Sap; Educate people on issues; Show Greens can govern; Pass good laws, for example living wage ordinance, housing, land use; Outreach to the disenfranchised, current non-voters; Split the Democrats; Oppose corruption; Hire Green staff in municipalities; Change election laws; Win elections on the local level; Boards and commissions are winnable for our Party at this point in out Development.
2. Strategy for achieving objectives:
Only run in a race when you have a reason to do so;
Target races using strategic reasoning;
Recruit solid candidates;
Build campaigning skills;
Honestly evaluate your resources;
Bring in new constituencies by focusing on issues relevant to them; Find winnable races (i.e.: local and municipal races vs. Congress); Start early; Register voters; Be visible, wear green propaganda at rallies, use banners when TV opportunities arise; Plan the campaign; Use the media: LETce Districts and local boards and commissions (many of which are appointed by elected officials) should not be overlooked. Election to these seats is a way to build the base of the party, enact Green legislation and gain the name recognition and campaign experience needed to run for higher office. In this spirit, we urge all Green activists to work through their locals to recruit and nurture greens to run for local offices. Our goal is to double the number of Greens elected on the local level to 70 by 2002.
End of report
Introduction She shared her feelings of despair and depression as a result of what
happened on the east coast. She asked people to raise their hands if they went
through the same things and the majority of the people in the room raised
their hands. It was apparent that people were deeply affected and focused on what to do next. The progressive movement has bigger hurdles to tackle now. Someone said that in a way this tragic event was a gift to the right wing groups. The momentum created recently by the progressive movement has also sufferef a great loss. It was interesting to hear Medea say how she considers herself to be a very positive person and always able to find that dim light of hope but on Sept. 11, this wasn't so. The folks at Global Exchange gathered, mourned and decided the best thing to do was to get to work right away.
A few things were mentioned about the energy crisis and the current MUD
campaign in San Francisco. They are asking Greens from all over the
state to come and help walk precincts any weekend before Nov. 6 but
especially the weekend of October 20 & 21. PG&E will not let go. They donated $300,000 to oppose the SF MUD campaign. Please consider donating to this
campaign. Visit www.sfmud.org and click on the 'donate' link.
The main presentation LANGUAGE: Open lines of communication Basically, stay away from negative reactionary language that brings up
strong negative emotional responses from the general public. We need to be
considerate of their grief and start discussing things without being
confrontational.
Build a community of love
Global Exchange organized a vigil that involved music and speakers. Thousands of people showed up with just three days notice. They were thankful to have a place they could mourn and share their feelings about the
events, a place they would not feel like they were alone in this. This was a good place to talk about hate-crimes in the San Francisco community. It's a safe issue and can be used to do local outreach.
The hate-free zone campaing started with a bang. Their community is more united now than before and others around the nation have visited the website, used
their posters and fliers, and started working against hate.
NO WAR Who are the legitimate voices to speak against war in the current situation?
We must be Global Citizens Suggestion on how to address the public Audience Responses
[Top | Back to Minutes]
September 22, 2001
Written by Magali Offerman, Oct. 07, 2001
There has been the concern there is an overlap between state and local fundraising. In the year 2000, they admit there was some stepping on toes. 2001 was a bit different and yet some counties turned the GPCA's offer down to send a mailer for fundraising purposes. They predict though that the GPCA will raise much more funds in 2002.
GPCA funds it, local adds flyer, they both split the profits. Both the local and the GPCA get a list of donors and any fundraising from then on does not have to be split.
When an organization is not taking contributions from corporations, the most important factor to fundraising is the data. Everytime a list of donors gets used and no data comes back, then it's a waste.
428 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Call for toll-free advice at: 1-866-ASK-FPPC
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Co-Coordinators: Susan King and Orval Osborne
September 22, 2001
Report written by Magali Offerman
There are two slates of candidates for the upcoming primary election in March 2002
SLATE #1
SLATE #2
Back to Campaigns & Candidates Contents List
Because there are two slates, people were asking whether the GPCA should endorse any candidates. It was agreed that it is not a good strategy to endorse any candidates before the primary. If an unendorsed candidate wins, then we'd create a losing situation for the candidate that moves forward to the November election. Here's the text from the handout:
Back to Campaigns & Candidates Contents List
Humbolt/Mendocino
AD,SD,CD 1 we have four individuals interested in running for regional office from this region, seats undecided at this point: Doug Riley T
hron; Bill Meyers, Todd Lake and Daryl Cherney, who is interested in Congress;
LA area AD 48: Deacon Alexander; AD in Antelope Valley; Tom Bolina;AD in Pomona; Stephanie Pedroza;
Santa Clara
AD 22; Warner Bloomberg
Santa Cruz/Monterey AD 17 Robin Cohen
Bay Area Maybe AD 13?
Back to Campaigns & Candidates Contents List
1. We ask the following questions when recruiting candidates for local office:
Conclusion: We should focus on offices that have a good chance in winning. In some cases, that may be City Council seats, but offices like Resource Conservation Districts, Municipal Utility Districts, School Districts, Community College Boards, Open Space Districts and local boards and commissions (many of which are appointed by elected officials) should not be overlooked. Election to these seats is a way to build the base of the party, enact Green legislation and gain the name recognition and campaign experience needed to run for higher office. In this spirit, we urge all Green activists to work through their locals to recruit and nurture greens to run for local offices. Our goal is to double the number of Greens elected on the local level to 70 by 2002.
San Mateo: Brisbane City Council: Dana Dillworth; Coastside Water District: James Marsh;
Monterey: Pacific Grove City Council: Craig Coffin
(There are 88 cities in LA County, presenting many opportunities for City Council races)
LA City Council District #2 (now held by Joel Wax who will be termed out 12/15/01); LA City Council District #6 (April 2003): Sheila Bernard; LA City Council District #14; City of Long Beach City Council: Diana Mann 4/02; Malibu City Council 3/02 Roy van den Hoek; Pomona City Council (possibly): Stephanie Pedroza; Aliso Viejo City Council: Karl (last name)
Encinitas: Robert Nanninga
[we should add Yolanda Escamilla to this list now that we now she's running in District 8.]
Back to Campaigns & Candidates Contents List
[It has been pulled to edit text but it will be resubmitted agains this year. Timeline for gathering signatures is unknown because of this.]
[The GPSD has been asked to review the text at their next council meeting. This won't happen then because of lack of time.]
Rent Control preservation in Huntington Beach; local measure, Marina Del Rey; IRV, SFBack to Campaigns & Candidates Contents List Back to Campaigns & Candidates Contents List
This report is more of a list of items we have discussed for upcoming election year (2002). In order to have a real campaign strategy, we need to give serious consideration to developing long term objectives and strategies, not just reaction to upcoming elections. We need to engage in serious strategic analysis on how we build our party considering the following:
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Coalition Building, by Medea Benjamin
September 22, 2001
Report written by Magali Offerman, revised Oct. 05, 2001
Originally, Medea planned on making this presentation about the energy
crisis because that was one of the most important in California. The events of Sept. 11 changed everything for everyone.
I've divided this into the general themes she seemed to focus on. I'll add audience responses at the end.
We need to be respectful of the deep sense of mourning for many reasons.
Here are some:
After this dialog with the community gets started, after you have a common
ground against racism and any kind of violence toward innocent human beings,
move onto the message of no war. How to do this?
This country is moving toward a narrow sense of nationalism instead of
moving to global citizenship. We [The Green Party] are in the forefront of moving out of these nationalist
views. We must be global citizens. Whether we like it or not we are part of
a global community. What happens on the other side of the planet has direct
effect on us. "We now have proof that there is a boomerang effect", said Medea. Our message should be that YES, I feel very much in pain of anybody who lost
somebody in this terrorist attack, of
anybody who lost somebody in the bombings in the middle east, of
anybody who will loose family members in Afghanistan because they happen to live there. We should fight hatred with love.
End report