Home › Uncategorized › If the Midterms & 2024 Make you Nervous (they should), Here’s a Way to Have an Impact…

If the Midterms & 2024 Make you Nervous (they should), Here’s a Way to Have an Impact…

By paulgibson51 on January 18, 2022 • ( 0 )

I wanted to get this out to you before we are all wrapped up in the Legislative Session, so in addition to a reminder of our Zoom Huddle Weds. at 6 pm, we offer info on Working America.

Legislative Strategy Huddle Zoom, Weds, January 19, 6-7pm. We will be joined by Sen. Bill Soules who will discuss how the Senate will operate during the session and the bills he will be advancing. He will also answer questions from attendees. Subsequent Legislative Huddles: every Weds., 6-7 p.m. Please join us! Click here to register. You must register to participate. You can find recordings of past Huddles at this page.

Dems Need Signatures to Get on Ballot

On Sat., Jan. 22, 1-3pm, outdoors at Bathtub Row Co-op, 163 Central Park Square, Los Alamos, the Democratic Party of Los Alamos County will host a last push for petition signatures for statewide candidates. Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez, Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard, and Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver are special guests, and more are expected to come! If you can (and have not already), please bring four $5 bills to donate to our uncontested statewide judges so they can qualify for public financing. MASKS REQUIRED. Click here to RSVP.

Working America

The 2022 Legislative Session begins today, but are taking a break from hydrogen, public power, and public banks to provide an alert for all who want to invest time and $$ in the coming mid-terms.

We get emails almost every day, asking what we are doing about the midterms and the obvious threat to our democracy posed by Trump and his puppets. It isn’t as if Retake doesn’t view the midterms as of epic importance, we do. But we also feel that we have a limited impact on the national scene and so we invest our resources here in NM.

But our friends and former NM advocates Morty and Carol Oppenheimer sent me info on Working America back in 2018 and, according to them, quite a number of Retake folks got involved in Working America’s letter writing campaign.

Lo and behold last week, I got a note from both Morty and Carol and Paul Dirdak and his partner Wendy Pomeroy, encouraging me to share info on Working America with you. Since there is a fair amount of research that shows the approach works, I want to introduce the Working America plan for engaging and motivating new voters to support Democrats in seven battleground states.

My hope is that you will consider working on this project with all the other responsibilities you may face in the 2022 cycle.

To learn more, the links below take you to the introductory sessions later this month and in early February. Sign up for those that interest you and then decide whether and how much to jump in.

It seems like a decade ago that Retake tried to launch a “Community Conversations Canvassing” effort. It didn’t pan out for a variety of reasons, but I still believe in the concept: people/neighbors talking with others not directly about candidates or trying to secure votes, signatures, or donations, but asking what keeps them up at night and then letting the conversation flow. The approach is designed to forge a personal connection and identify common ground well before politics or elections are broached. This is Working America’s approach and it works.

Morty & Carol told me that while their printed materials and the video below focus on door-to-door canvassing, post COVID a big chunk of their work focuses on letter writing, since many people are reluctant to open doors to strangers during COVID. The 2022 campaign launch is slated for Feb 3, link below, but in ramping up to the kick off they are holding two interesting Zoom webinars. Links below. Below that is a video that gives you an idea of the communication strategy, albeit in a canvassing context.

Morty & Carol told me that in 2018, they had scores of Californians come to AZ, (one of the battleground states) to canvass and that they hope to recruit New Mexicans to do this in 2022.

Now it’s time to sign up.

Thursday, January 20, 5 pm ET. Why don’t the letters talk about candidates? Do they really change votes? When are they effective? Sign Up for Letter Questions.

Thursday, January 27, 4 pm ET. Data geeks and others get all their questions answered by Working America’s research and analytics director. Sign Up for Data Analysis Deep Dive.