News and Blog Posts from Wellstone Action

Is now the time for health care reform?

ross — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:00:00 -0600

Can Barack Obama and the 111th Congress really pass health care reform? Will 2009 finally be the year when the United States joins most every other industrialized country in the world by offering all citizens some form of public health care? Many past administrations have tried their hand at achieving this goal, each to no avail.

FDR stayed away from a national health care system for fear of the AMA killing Social Security. 44 years ago LBJ and the Democrats won an election and seemingly a mandate but only managed to pass Medicare. Nixon failed, as did Clinton's administration due to (among other things) bad timing, political misjudgement and not allowing congress to write the policy.

Despite the past failures it seems that this may be the political moment to achieve it. The public support is there; a recent study by The New England Journal of Medicine discovered that only 7 percent of the population rate our current system as excellent, whereas 70 percent say it is in need of major changes, if not a complete overhaul.

But this isn’t new – so what’s different about next year?

Health care premium costs have risen 78% since 2001 while family income is falling. This is no longer an issue that is perceived to only affect the uninsured – even before the recession deepened dramatically, almost every working family was personally affected by a broken health care system. Now that we face an economic crisis, this problem is only magnified.

Advocates and elected officials would do well to frame health care as an economic security issue inextricably tied to our recovery. Max Baucus frames the issue well in (.pdf) press release. The powerful Senate Finance Committee Chairman states, "Some say that we will have to choose between fixing the economy and enacting comprehensive health reform. I reject that false choice. I say, we can and should do both... Not only can we, but we have to." His statement is an important development, as potential legislation must go through his committee.

As far as President-elect Obama's focus on health care reform during the election, those looking for immediate passage of universal health care will have to, for now, draw on some of that hope. Campaign rhetoric is not the most reliable form of governance, but those who have followed Obama's transition thus far have remained positive and hopeful for this central tenet of his campaign.

It is essential that Obama is appointing people with legislative know-how and that key legislators (like Baucus above) are on board with reform. Tom Daschle, former majority leader of the Senate, has been tapped for two positions, secretary of Health and Human Services and to head up the newly created White House Office of Health Reform. Daschle thinks that "incremental change in our system is no longer a viable option. Instead we need comprehensive reform."

The selection of Daschle and others demonstrate a keen understanding of legislative politics that is paramount to crafting and pushing the policy effectively.

In addition to work within the government, many of Wellstone Action's partner organizations work for social, economic and environmental justice with explicit or implicit focus on providing affordable, quality health care to every American. These partners are waging campaigns on the ground and on the Hill in 2009.

SEIU, is a member of Health Care for America Now (HCA), who has been pushing hard for health care reform to have a place in the election and now in the Obama administration.

Communication Workers of America efforts at organizing for health care were spotlighted earlier, and they have continued their work online and off since then. Their website Health Care Voice is an effort to organize, inform, and impact the coversation nationally.

Generation Vote, a national alliance of youth organizations such as Campus Camp Wellstone, The League of Young Voters, and Campus Progress among others, is also advocating for reform of our health care system. They have taken the approach to view it from a different macro level and consider the micro level impact on the young people in our country. Health care reform is a significant portion of greater social and environmental justice to these groups and any change to health care must take into account the greater factors affecting the health of our communities.

On the ground they implore citizens to consider the basic impact of an inequitable system:

Can I see a doctor? Can I see a doctor without drowning in debt? What if I am in a car accident? What if the condom breaks? What if I get HIV? What if I come back form Iraq with PTSD? Can I get preventative care, so I don't need to wait until I am in a crisis?" From Generation Vote Youth Agenda

It is not often that an event like the past election takes place, providing the incoming administration with a governing mandate to make the changes this country needs. It is political moments like this one that demonstrate why it is so important to have organizations and people that can effectively advocate for important issues when the time comes to give it that last strong push. That is why Wellstone Action and its partners work tirelessly to build skills, wage successful campaigns, and know how to win on the issues.

Camp Wellstone in Madison

Jhaut — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:08:42 -0600

Two weekends ago was our last Camp Wellstone of 2008—or, depending on how you look at it, the first Camp Wellstone after the election. From December 5-7 we set up training shop in Madison, Wisconsin, with the help of our partners at Progressive Majority.

It’s fair to say that none of us at Wellstone Action knew what to expect with a training just one month from the election (and on a cold weekend in Madison!). Would several successful progressive victories signal that the landscape is changing and there’s less demand and enthusiasm for training? Or would it be what we had hoped for, that this election really did change the scope of politics as we know it?

With a packed room of 75 on opening night, the latter seemed to be true with a generous number of folks rounding out each track. The camp took on an inspiring and invigorating theme. As the candidates and campaign workers gathered on Friday night to talk campaign plan and budget, intros from around the room echoed a chorus of “I’m planning to run for office” or “I wasn’t planning on running, but after hearing everyone else, I want to now!” Several candidates in the room had already begun making plans for races over the next two years, as one candidate told us, “I am so energized and encouraged by this training. Running on convictions, values, and respect—not politics as usual, is such a great message. Thank you for reinforcing that it can be done.” The campaign worker track had plenty of fresh-off-the-trail folks, political newcomers, and several SEIU members ready to launch their organizing skills on upcoming labor campaigns.

Over in the Citizen Activist track, the sentiment was, “It’s great to have Obama as President-Elect, but we can’t just sit back”. The realization was that the work has only just begun, especially given the state of our economy. Throughout the weekend these grassroots organizers and activists developed plans to take back to their own communities to keep the progressive movement growing.

If the training in Madison was any indication of how 2009 trainings will look, we won’t be slowing anytime soon. Already the camp requests from across the country have been pouring in and we’re hearing more and more that Camp Wellstone is needed in new places. We’ll kick off ’09 right here in our own backyard. If the 2008 election really did change the face of politics, a whole new crop of folks will want to be community organizers, work on campaigns to elect new progressives to office, or maybe even get the inspiration to run for office themselves. Wellstone Action is poised and ready to be a part of that change.

Average Autoworkers Aren't the Problem by Jim Wallis

elana — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:04:40 -0600

The following post is by Jim Wallis - bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, preacher, and international commentator on religion and public life, faith and politics. His latest book is The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post–Religious Right America (HarperOne, 2008). It originally appeared over at the God's Politics blog by the good folks at Sojourners.

by Jim Wallis

It was just a couple of months ago that the country was embroiled in a debate about bailing out Wall Street. There was a national outcry from Democrats and Republicans not ready to part with $700 billion with little or no oversight. The financial CEOs seemed to hope that a golden parachute would replace the invisible hand of the market. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson pleaded for mercy for his executive compatriots and protection from compensation restrictions: "If we design it so it's punitive and so institutions aren't going to participate, this won't work the way we need it to work." For most Americans, Paulson's pleas fell on deaf ears. Many had trouble hearing multimillion-dollar bonuses defended by a Treasury Secretary whose net worth is $600 million. But I don't remember much talk about all the "financial workers" of Wall Street taking a "haircut" on their wages, bonuses, and stock dividends.

As I wrote last week, broken relationships and social covenants are at the heart of this crisis. When we focus on symptoms of the problems we face as opposed to the brokenness that lies at the root, we are doomed to repeat our failures. For the past several weeks the distraction that has been waved in our faces is the compensation of union workers. "$73 an hour for undeserving workers" seemed like the mantra for cable news networks.

Let's take a second to debunk this myth. This figure, which if true would give the average autoworker a $120,000 yearly salary, is grossly misleading. The average Big Three autoworker makes only $28 an hour, and the average worker at Toyota and Honda manufacturing plants makes about $25 an hour. The New York Times compared the hourly wages plus benefits of Detroit's unionized workforce to Toyota and Honda's non-unionized workforce and came up with $55 an hour for Detroit and $45 for Toyota and Honda. (According to Rep. Stabenow (D-MI), GM workers make $0.22 an hour less than Toyota, Chrysler makes exactly the same, and Ford workers make $1 less.)

The real gap between foreign and domestic automakers comes in "legacy costs" for retired workers and health care, both of which are provided by the governments of their countries or have not yet added up significantly for their workers in the U.S. While the answer to this problem came later than it should have, the UAW has already made major concessions on both wage rates and benefits in 2007. The UAW now has a two-tiered system bringing in new workers at about $14 an hour. The UAW also agreed to let the Big Three go back on the retirement promises they had made and instead endow a fund that would be privately managed and let the union shoulder the responsibility of reducing benefits or increasing costs as necessary.

Negotiations with Senate Republican leaders failed when it was clear they were looking less for mutual sacrifice than they were demanding a pound of flesh from the union. If saving the Big Three was really dependent on cutting wages and mutual sacrifice, we should look at what that would mean for executives as well. At Toyota in 2006, the top 37 executives earned a total of $21.6 million, just about as much as Alan Mullally, CEO of General Motors, made in 2007. Toyota's top executive made only $903,000 the year before.

The prophet Amos warned about those who would sell "the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals - they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted out of the way ..." This is true today. While some Republicans have broken ranks (notably Ohio's George Voinovich), if Republican leaders truly believe that the heart of Detroit's problem is that too many people are making $60,000 a year, then to quote Dick Cheney: "It's Herbert Hoover Time" for the party.

Detroit's problems are much more complex than the congressional debate has been, and the average worker is not the problem. But for too many Republican senators (and some Democrats), the bailout has been treated as an opportunity to score ideological victories. It's time to go to the structural problems at the heart of the auto industry, the need for an entirely new direction for Detroit - producing a new kind of vehicle for a new environmentally conscious era. But that commitment and direction will likely be left to the leadership of a new administration in Washington.

Developing a New Media Strategy for Campaigns Large and Small

xlopezayala — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:06:09 -0600

Guest blogger Xavier Lopez-Ayala most recently served as the Obama campaign's New Media Director in Minnesota. He breaks down the key elements of a new media strategy for any campaign here on the wellstone.org blog.

Check out Xavier's unedited how-to guide to Developing a New Media Strategy in our Organizing Tools.

Photo by new-york-city on flickr.com

If there's one thing the 2008 election proved, it was that the Internet has lowered the barrier for political participation. It's transforming where voters get their information and offering campaigns a new medium through which to interact with voters.

And although the net is changing the way campaigns are run, it will never change the goal: to get more votes than the other guy. The web should be thought of an additional opportunity identify and mobilize supporters, educate voters, and recruit volunteers.

If there's one thing you take away from this post, let it be this: the goal of a successful new media program is to enhance the campaign's field, communications, and fundraising efforts.

While most campaigns and organizations will not have the resources to run a new media program as expansive as the Obama campaigns, a campaign of any size can apply the same organizing tools to help mobilize support online.

So how do you do this?

1. Have a website

Your website is your virtual campaign office. Visitors should be offered the same opportunities online they'd have if they walked into your campaign headquarters

Let visitors decide how they want to participate in your campaign, and most importantly, don't take away any opportunities.

Remember, the goal of your online presence is to get voters to the polls, and that's very much an offline goal. You can make it easier for a voter to register to vote using online tools, but it's going to take future conversations to make sure they vote.

For example: the Obama campaign sent people who printed out a voter registration form on VoteForChange.com a follow-up emailing asking if they'd sent the form in, but you can be sure that those folks were still included in "Vote Today!" emails and GOTV phone calls.

Set up an online fundraising page

Your website should be about giving people opportunities-to learn more, to sign up to volunteer, and, yes, to contribute to your campaign.

As with any other form of giving, the people most likely to give money are those who are invested in the campaign and believe in your message. Online fundraising isn't a magic bullet, and it's hard to get activists to cross over and become donors. Use fundraising asks (emails, blog posts, etc.) as a messaging opportunity, with an eye to getting them to make that bigger commitment.

2. Build your email list

Think of it this way: every email address in your database represents not just a potential voter on Election Day, but also a potential volunteer and a prospective donor. Use every possible opportunity to collect email addresses:

Sign-in sheets at events
Door knocks and phone calls ("What's your email address so I can send you information about my campaign?")
Prominently display simple sign-up (usually just email/zip or name/email/zip) on your homepage - it's better to get someone on your list initially and collect additional data about them down the road then to not have them on your list at all.

3. Engage your list

Generally, you'll want to keep emails short (5 to 7 paragraphs) with very clear calls to action (e.g. bolded lines, stand alone underlined linked sentences, graphic link on the side).

In the email, give a clear reason to get involved or give money, and give them an update on what the campaign has been up to, showing them that you're serious about winning.

Remember, the emails your campaign sends out are public communications. Don't send something that you wouldn't' want to see on the front page of the New York Times.

Here are a couple ideas for email appeals:

Link to a new campaign video, share with your friends
Event invitation, with link to RSVP page
Responding to negative attacks (the Obama campaign mastered the art of "show them that we aren't ____" fundraising appeals)
Highlighting an opponent's gaffe
Announcing a new policy initiative
Sign the petition

One of my favorite fundraising campaigns from the primaries was the Clinton campaign's "MyPA" campaign.

It had all of the elements of a successful fundraising ask:

Clearly stated the need and what the money would be used for: "We need yard signs to show our campaign's strength. We need vans to get voters to the polls, etc."
Communicated urgency: "We face an opponent who is outspending us by as much as 4 to 1 -- I need your help now."
Connected it back to the recipient: "Your commitment and your investment are absolutely critical. I cannot win without your help."

Setting goals, even modest ones like $1,000 in one week, and challenging your list to meet them is a great way of replicating this success. Provide a visual, such as a thermometer, to let allow supporters to track their collective effort.

Remember, the emails your campaign sends out are public communications. Don't send something that you wouldn't' want to see on the front page of the New York Times.

3. Conduct online outreach

Having your website set up is just the first step, but you wont' get traffic if you don't promote it. Start printing your website on literature, press releases, and chum. Add a line to walk and call scripts telling voters to visit your website for more information.

Reach out to local bloggers. LeftyBlogs is a good directory of progressive blogs in all 50 states. DailyKos is a collaborative bloggers, with contributors posting diaries about everything imaginable. Reach out to these bloggers.

Just like with traditional media sources, you have to build relationships with bloggers. You can start by adding friendly bloggers to your press list and inviting them to cover campaign events.

Meet people where they are. Most states have an email list-serv of liberal bloggers that you can get access to. These aren't publicized, and you will have to be invited. This is where reaching out to the bloggers you've identified comes in. You can also buy ad space on relevant blogs in your area, typically for an affordable price.

Ask your new blogger contacts for their rates, which are usually a weekly flat fee. Be sure to tailor your ad to the audience of the blog. Buying ads on blogs engenders good feelings, and will make positive coverage of your campaign by the blogger that much more likely.

Advertise online smartly. Online advertising can take the form of banner ads, blog ads, and search engine ads, each with its own list of positive and negatives. The one thing to remember is that, if you're going to advertise online, it shouldn't be an afterthought.

Develop your ads with a specific purpose (e.g. list-building, volunteer recruitment, fundraising, etc.) and make sure the landing page matches that intention. If someone does click on your ad, you have a matter of seconds to convince them to take the requested action. Don't clutter the landing page-make the call to action as clear as possible.

If you want to learn more, here's a good study about the online ads during the 2008 presidential primaries.

4. Listen

The Internet has taken the public square and made it more accessible. There's a good chance that people are talking online-in comments, on blogs, and on forums-and providing real-time about your campaign. In some cases, this online chatter is drives the public debate.

"Listening" to social media outlets helps you understand what conversations are happening online and allows you to measure your any response appropriately.

Here are a couple of suggested ways to tune in:

If you're not already using one, start using an RSS aggregator. I use Google Reader, but there are plenty of others out there. Use the suggestions above to find local blogs in your state or area and subscribe to their feeds. Visit those sites and click on the sites they link to, and if it's relevant to your district or race, subscribe to those, too. If your opponent has a blog, subscribing to their feeds will ensure that you know what they're saying .
Set up Google News Alerts for your name, your opponents name, your race, or whatever else you want to be kept informed about. Google supports alerts from both traditional news outlets and blogs. TIP: Use the Advanced Search feature to specify the geographic location of the articles returned.
Depending on the race, you may also want to track what people are saying on Twitter, a micro-blogging site. You can subscribe to RSS feeds of "tweets" meeting various criteria, from words to the location of the poster.

Among new media types, the phrase is "participation in marketing." Join in on these conversations and add your own meaningful contributions.

5. Review & evaluate your work

You can very informally evaluate the effectiveness of your online outreach. If you have the time, you can do more advanced surveys and demographic analysis, but for most purposes, a combination of any of the following should suffice.

Continually track the "flake rate" for volunteer sign ups. Did they get a follow up phone call? Did they show up for the shift they signed up for online?
Compare attendance at events before and after you started promoting them online on your website, through email, and to local bloggers. Was there an increase?
Are you seeing an increase in the number of donations received online? Are they coming from people who've donated offline?

Restoring Economic Prosperity One Union Job at a Time

Epeterson — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:28:14 -0600

In all of the talk about economic recession, collapsing stock prices, Wall Street versus Main Street, and the best way to kick start the economy, let's not forget that the best path to the middle class and economic security is a good job with union representation. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for workers to form unions when a majority of their coworkers sign cards saying they want to join. It should be part of any comprehensive economic stimulus package to help revitalize the American middle class.

In the midst of our last major economic collapse, in 1935, Congress recognized this fundamental link between organized workers and economic prosperity when they first protected the right of workers to organize. "It is the policy of the United States...," they declared, "to encourage[e] the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and [to protect] the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing...." That is, to organize and join a union. Congress saw clearly that the balance of power was tilted against workers toward big business, just as it is skewed today. The Employee Free Choice Act will begin to restore some balance.

Talking EFCA

Over the past year, Wellstone Action has been working with a number of partners (The Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO, Laborers, SEIU, and the Teamsters) providing training on how to talk with co-workers, neighbors and voters about the Employee Free Choice Act. We have learned a number of lessons.

Lesson 1: Workers understand what is at stake. This is not an issue that is too esoteric or so "insider" that non-union workers won't be able to understand it. According to the polls (see here and here), 53% of workers would join a union if they could. They know they are working harder and slipping further behind. And they understand the power and strength of numbers
Lesson 2: Avoid jargon. Most people do not understand unions, or National Labor Relations Board elections or collective bargaining. They certainly do not know what the acronym EFCA means. So find common ground and language. Workers understand what's fair and that the tables are tilted against them.
Lesson 3: Focus on the benefits of organizing, not the process. Big business is focusing their message on protecting secret ballot elections (which 90% of employers oppose when actually faced with one!). We should focus on the benefits of organizing for economic prosperity and on rebuilding the middle class.
Lesson 4: Frame the discussion in terms of fairness. It simply isn't fair, or democratic, when CEO's demand contracts for themselves and then fight workers who want the same.
Lesson 5: EFCA restores balance. Most workers will agree that the system is broken and the economic rules favor business over workers. The Employee Free Choice Act restores balance and a level playing field so workers have a voice, too.
Lesson 6: Focus on choice. The Employee Free Choice Act does not take away anything - it adds another choice for union representation, one enjoyed by workers in most advanced industrial democracies. Workers should be free to make their choice of whether to join a union, not the employer. Most Americans have little experience with the intimidation and harassment that workers face when trying to organize. 31% of employers illegally fire union organizers; half threaten to close their business if employees form a union; 80% hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns; and 91% force employees to attend mandatory anti-union meetings.
Lesson 7: Connect the problem with a solution with an opportunity to take action. If you ask workers whether the economy is working for them and if they feel powerful and listened to in their jobs, you'd get a whole litany of complaints. That's where we can start, but the organizer's task is also to reframe this litany as a problem that collective action can help solve.

For example: worker complaints can be summarized and reframed as "the problem is the system is broken and the rules are tilted to favor companies who routinely fire and harass workers who want a union. And when fewer workers have a union, all workers lose ground."

Having defined the problem we can move into how it doesn't have to be this way and what we need to change. For example: "It's not fair that CEO's can demand contracts for themselves, but fight workers who want a voice and their own contract. We need a system where workers make the choice about joining a union, not their employer. And when more workers join unions we can win better wages and benefits for everyone and help rebuild the middle class."

All along the way we need to check in with the other person to see if they agree, and pause and discuss further if they do not.

Finally we need a call to action. "Can we count on you to sign a card calling on your Congressperson to support the Employee Free Choice Act?"

Not surprisingly, in 1935, Big Business fought back against passing worker protections with "sky-is-falling" predictions of economic disaster. What followed instead was the longest peacetime prosperity in our history and the creation of the American middle class, all built upon good union jobs. It should be no surprise that big business is again fighting back tooth and nail, spending over $20 million dollars this election trying to defeat pro-Employee Free Choice candidates in nine battleground states. There clearly is a lot at stake, but this is a fight workers can win. Our economic future may just depend on it.

Wordle from this blog post

What is your commitment to the progressive movement in 09?

elana — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:22:56 -0600

Wellstone Action recently sent an email to all our members to let them know that we're renewing our huge commitment to training and leadership development in 2009. We've just completed our first Camp Wellstone after the election (look for a post soon, but for now, check out the live coverage on Twitter), and that marks only the beginning of an ambitious effort to redouble our efforts to train the thousands of people that got involved in politics for the first time this past election, as well as engage the legions of individuals and organizations that are gearing up to push for meaningful policy changes on the issues that we care about.

We also asked you all what YOUR commitment was to the progressive movement in 2009. Here are just a few examples:

"I'm helping to organize the Healthcare-Now MO grassroots group to pressure the MO congressional delegation to strongly support Cong. Conyers national non-profit singlepayer healthcare legislation, HR676, in the new Congress. Currently only Cong. Clay (D, 01 St. Louis) & Cleaver (D, ~05 Kansas City) have joined the list of HR676 cosponsors and we need twice as many to get it moved through the House Ways and Means committee. See www.healthcare-now.org for information on why only singlepayer can bring us real reform."

To be a part of a movement that is engaging the African American community in the progressive moment. To begin having kitchen table conversation around racial equity.

My commitment is to bring our communities together in the realization that without there energy and prodding Democracy does not work to its' fullest potential. Washington needs to be constantly reminded that the United States belongs to the entire country. Holding our officials accountable isn't easy work, but by building community coalitions we can do just that. The middle class is under siege by wealthy, powerful, corporate forces. Without unity, and conviction it will be impossible to bring back the democracy that works for everyone in America. Barack Obama is a welcomed start to very powerful grassroots movement that swept him into office. My vision is to tap into that force that caused the entire country to see the light through the clouds.

What will YOU do? Leave your commitment, large or small, in the comments.

Photo by eschipul on flickr.com

What it means to have Joe Biden as the Vice President

Lstevens — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:16:47 -0600

Not only was the election of President Barack Obama a historic event by electing our first black president. This election also marked a momentous turning point for the battered women and sexual assault movements in this country. For the first time in history, advocates and survivors watched Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates and heard the words "VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN." For the millions of women and children affected by violence and the advocates who work tirelessly everyday to make change, we heard the resounding call to America-that ending violence against women is a national priority.

History

In early 1990, a small working group of state domestic violence coalitions and advocates, known as the Domestic Violence Coalition on Public Policy (DVCOPP), came together to fill the gap in information and expertise in the early discussion of federal public policy related to domestic violence. And they met with Senator Biden.

In June of that year, Senator Biden introduced the landmark Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and heard the first hearing on his bill (S. 2754) in his Senate Judiciary Committee, "Women and Violence."

Senator Joe Biden was the chair of the Judiciary committee and had been a senator for sixteen years by the time he introduced the bill in 1990. He held many hearings, talked to survivors, and understood that in order to remedy violence against women the federal government had to take a stand.

And it was Senator Biden who stood.

Senator Joe Biden stood with the missing and murdered women, young women who had been sexually assaulted, stood with Native women, immigrant and refugee women and children who had witnessed their mother beaten or worse-murdered. Senator Biden stood with Sheila Wellstone.

Sheila Wellstone

Senator Paul Wellstone was a co-sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act that was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994 and its reauthorization in 2000. Sheila Wellstone was key in drafting and working across the aisle to bring the issue of ending violence against women to the forefront. In 1995, Sheila was appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Services to the Women Advisory Council for VAWA.

Sheila played a key role writing policies by telling the stories of battered women across Minnesota and the nation. Sheila traveled with Marcia Avner and Connie Lewis to shelters across Minnesota to understand the complexity of violence against women. What Sheila understood from battered women and their children was that her safety was dependent upon her ability to achieve not just criminal justice but-economic justice.

Election 2008

When I watched the debates this year and heard our national candidates speaking with knowledge and experience about federal policies that address violence against women, I was moved. As an advocate who has worked on the frontlines, in the halls of tribal, federal, and state governments, I cried.

I cried because for the first time we had a platform to tell the millions of stories of struggle, courage, love, voting, and custody. I thought of the battered mothers who lost custody to their batterers, the young women who had been raped, the Native women who had been brutally murdered and their young motherless children, the domestic violence survivors who are in the midst of the foreclosure crisis, the prostituted women and girls, the mothers without healthcare or a living wage job. I want everyone to know their stories, and I want them to have a place to share with the world their struggles, their beliefs, their faith and their triumphs.

For the first time in history we have a tireless advocate that for almost twenty years told the stories of the powerful women I know-Senator Joe Biden. Now vice-president elect Joe Biden.

Obama-Biden Administration

We know that we have a long road ahead for the economy, the looming deficits, the war - but what I know is that Vice President-elect Joe Biden understands what's at stake for battered women and their children and safety.

I don't expect the grassroots advocacy and lobbying and national organizing that the Sheila Wellstone Institute or NNEDV or NCADV is gearing up in 2009 to fully fund the VAWA reauthorization, or the Family Violence Prevention Fund Services Act, or the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) to automatically be funded.

What I do know is that the Obama-Biden administration understands safety. And that they understand the implications of what is difficult in this economic crisis for millions of Americans-is that it's much more difficult for survivors if your very life depends on it.

I thought of Sheila Wellstone on election-day, I knew that somewhere she was smiling.

___

Senator Chris Dodd in remembering Paul said this of Sheila, "If there are women today who are suffering less because of domestic violence-and they are many who are not, but many who are-you can thank some colleagues here. But I suspect one of the reasons they became so motivated about the issue was because there was a person by the name of Sheila Wellstone who arrived here over a decade ago and wanted to make this a matter of the business of the U.S. Senate."

Photo by stephen_bolen on flickr.com

The Four Elements of Effective Campaigns

elana — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:12:09 -0600

At our trainings, we spend hours upon hours on the many elements that come together to make a successful campaign. But at the end of the day, the campaign that prevails is often the one that can successfully embed the following four elements into their campaign:

Authenticity. This word gets thrown around a lot, and while every candidate can be authentic, not every candidate is able to effectively convey it. Authenticity comes when a candidate's message, story, and agenda ring true to people.
Highly disciplined and strategic message. A strategically smart campaign has a laser-beam focus on message and sticks to it, rather than being reactive to the media cycle.
Investment in (and commitment to) an organizing infrastructure. Campaigns that put an emphasis on "field" organizing to have direct conversations with voters will have the infrastructure required to move the voters needed to be victorious.
Raising the resources to win. Running a grassroots campaign is a great thing, but don't assume you can do it on the cheap. Grassroots campaigns are expensive - they mean staff, offices, resources for your volunteers, and more.

Check out Jeff speaking in Minneapolis last week on these four elements and how they played out in the Obama presidential campaign:

Block by block, brick by brick

Jblodgett — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:04:47 -0600

Just over two weeks ago, as we watched our new President-elect Barack Obama speak from Chicago, like everyone I was overwhelmed with a sense of pride, optimism, and hope for the future.

Obama has helped to usher in a new era in politics with a new mandate for change. But he also brings with him into office a new American ethos - as he put it, "a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice". Obama talked about the people who built our democracy "block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand".

That spirit reminds me, perhaps unsurprisingly, of the work of community organizers.

Obama has called Americans to action - asked them to step up for the good of their country and the good of their neighbors. He's asked us to look after "not only ourselves, but each other".

This is what it means to have a community organizer in the White House during a time of great upheaval in our nation.

I was fortunate enough to take a leave from Wellstone Action this past summer and fall and serve as the Obama campaign's Minnesota State Director. I know that this campaign was built with grassroots politics at its center - that the engine that drove it to victory was the strategic effort to have as many volunteers as possible talk to as many voters as possible about their hope for change. In Minnesota alone, 25,000 volunteers made phone calls, knocked on doors, and organized in rec centers and church basements throughout the state.

And this is what I believe we should take from Obama's words about our democracy being built block by block and brick by brick. I saw it in action as citizens took on the task of working for something bigger than themselves, sacrificing sleep and time with their families to build power in their communities.

What both Barack Obama and Paul Wellstone knew as organizers and leaders is that the keys to change can't be found in the status quo. Whether on the streets of Chicago's South Side, the farms of Rice County, Minnesota, or anywhere else - organizing happens when communities that have been under-represented or left out of the process contest for power against influential and well-funded interests and make their voices heard.

This kind of work doesn't just happen on campaigns, and it must not stop now that the election is over. Obama has called upon us to keep building our democracy block by block and brick by brick. We need a new generation of community organizers, campaign workers and progressive candidates to keep the movement for change going year-in and year-out.

Wellstone Action has trained over 20,000 people over the last five years to step up to this challenge. We continue to work in communities across the country, identifying and building leadership that will form the foundation of this new corps of service, sacrifice, and work for change.

Congressman-elect, Camp Wellstone Alum Glenn Nye

ross — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:32:22 -0600

Congressman-elect Glenn Nye, a 34 year old, first-time candidate, defeated incumbent Thelma Drake for Virginia's 2nd district Congressional seat. Nye ended Drake's 4 year reign as Congresswoman from this coastal Virginia district in a close election, 52.40% (141,857) to 47.46% (128,486). Glenn is the most recent Camp Wellstone Alum elected to the United States Congress, bringing the total to four within the 111^th Congress, joining John Hall of New York's 19^th district, Dave Loebsack of Iowa's 2^nd and Tim Walz of Minnesota's 1^st.

Though he will be one of the youngest members in Congress, Glenn comes to politics with a strong background in foreign service. Nye has experience in the Middle East working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on a community development program in the West Bank and Gaza; he also recently worked in Iraq, "where he advised a program, working closely with military colleagues to stabilize Iraqi neighborhoods by creating employment for over 70,000 Iraqis". (Congresspedia) In addition, he served as US Foreign Service Officer with American Diplomatic Missions in Macedonia, Kosovo, and Singapore. These experiences position him to be a strong, knowledgeable voice in international relations.

Local democrats were happy with the result, but credited the victory to Nye's message, hard working volunteers, and the notion of change in this trying time for our country.

"I think people were ready for change," said Will Jenkins, Nye's communications director, on Wednesday. "Clearly, we're seeing that everywhere." Jenkins credited Nye's win to "his experience and his message, his common sense."

Frank Moore, chairman of Accomack's Democratic Party, said Nye's win "was a surprise to many people, including me." He credited the county's dozens of volunteers for helping get the message out.

Others focused on Nye's appeal to "to the Virginia 2^nd's large base of military voters, and likely got some help from the Democratic coattails of Obama and Warner. Drake, with 13 years in elected office and an army of loyal supporters, raised more money during the campaign, but an infusion of money from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee propelled Nye's final push." He will be able to fight for those military constituents' needs as the freshman "has been promised a spot on the Armed Services Committee, a crucial post" for the military-heavy district.

Though it is plausible that Obama helped push Nye to victory it seems unlikely when considering the following; "In upsetting Drake, the Democrat outperformed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the district which includes the Eastern Shore, all of Virginia Beach and parts of Norfolk and Hampton. Nye won by 12,402 votes. Obama carried the district by 560 votes out of 247,000 cast." Perhaps Glenn Nye the Congress guy along with Mark Warner, former governor, now Senator-elect, had some coattails of their own in Virginia's 2^nd district.

Though the election of Mark Warner and Barack Obama surely provided an assist, it is through focused, thoughtful messaging, a strong volunteer base, and a coherent voter contact program that voters are persuaded and mobilized. At Camp Wellstone we teach these skills for winning elections and we are proud to see Glenn Nye ascend to the halls of Congress as our 4^thalumni. If you are interested in attending trainings near your area check here.

Photo used under Creative Commons License via Lawyer Mama.

New Latino Voters Have Huge Impact on Election

emcdonnell — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:51:22 -0600

In discussing the surge of participation by different demographic groups in this election, it is easy for the enormous increase in Latino civic participation to get lost in the shuffle. However, it was one of the important ones, and crucial in the outcome of the election. This election year saw a huge surge in new Latino voters: An estimated 28% of all Latino voters were new voters, compared to 12% in the general population, according to the Associated Press.

And 76% these new voters went for Obama, rolling back the progress that Bush made with Latino voters in the last two elections. This had a huge impact in Obama's winning key battleground states in the West, such as New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada, all of which went to Bush in 2004. In these states, Obama would not have won without the Latino vote, and while the Latino vote increased from 7% to 9% of the electorate nationwide, in Colorado it increased from 8% of the electorate in 2004 to 13% in 2004.

Photo courtesy of Democracia USA

The Latino community in the United States is old and well-established, and it would be incorrect to categorize it as a community of immigrants. However, many newly naturalized citizens are Latino. When so much of the discourse on immigration is focused on undocumented immigrants, it is easy to overlook the impact that civically engaged new citizens are having on their new country, within the democratic process.

Organizations such as Voto Latino, Democracia USA, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) hit the streets hard this election year to register new citizens to vote, and then get them to the polls. These organizations realize the potential power of new Latino voters, new Latino citizens, and new citizens of all origins, to make their voices heard in Washington. On November 5, that power was harnessed to amazing effect.

An exit poll by the ICIRR found that new Latino and Asian voters in Illinois voted overwhelmingly for Obama. While like most Americans they listed the Economy and Education as top concerns, they also cited immigration reform, a pressing issue that was largely ignored this election cycle due to the economic crisis. Come the midterm elections, politicians will have to take a new look at the issues important to these voters.

Total Number of Alumni Wins Raised to 103

elana — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:48:57 -0600

The number of winners in the 2008 election went up as you responded to our call for more victorious alums!

Check out the updated map here.

Wellstone legacy lives on

elana — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:59:43 -0600

Political training center graduates winning elections around country

Six years after his death on the eve of his bid for re-election, Sen. Paul Wellstone's political influence is still being felt nationwide.

On Nov. 4, the names of 247 graduates of training programs offered by Wellstone Action, a St. Paul-based national center for training and leadership development, appeared on ballots around the country. Of that number, 97 were elected or re-elected - a 40 percent success rate, according to the organization.

"This is a fitting legacy," said Elana Wolowitz, Wellstone Action's communication director. "He would be relieved and glad that there were thousands of candidates and organizers who were taking his particular approach to politics and developing leadership, and standing up to represent their communities."

Though more than half of its graduates were not elected, Wolowitz said the organization primarily measures its success not by the sheer numbers of winners, but by the hurdles its graduates are able to overcome.

"Our goal is to train progressive leaders to step and represent their communities," she said. "That often means that they're running in very tough districts, often first-time candidates who have to earn name recognition. Sometimes they have to run more than once to win."

Of the 97 Wellstone Action alumni elected last week - 17 more Wellstone success stories than the 80 in 2006 - 34 were from Minnesota. Four were elected or re-elected to the U.S. House, including Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Minn., who won re-election from the 1st District; Glenn Nye, the newly elected Democratic representative from Virginia; Rep. John Hall, the freshman Democratic representative from New York (and a founding member of the 1970s rock group Orleans), who won re-election to a second term; and Marko Liias, newly elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat from Washington state.

Of the other victorious Minnesota Wellstone alumni, 24 were elected or re-elected to the state House; one to the state Senate; three to school boards; three to town or city councils; one to the county commission; and one, John Gunvalson, to become soil and water supervisor in Gonvick, Minn.

Other notable Wellstone alumni who won political victories last week were Denise Juneau, the first Native American elected to statewide office in Montana as the state superintendent of schools, and Ohio state Rep. Armond Budish, who was re-elected to a second term and is expected to become the new speaker of the House.

"We're starting to see a tipping point," Jeff Blodgett, executive director Wellstone Action, said in a press statement this week. "We've trained a critical mass of candidates and community organizers in every state in the country, and that leadership development has resulted in progressive candidates for every level of government running and winning campaigns ‘the Wellstone way.'"

Wolowitz pointed out that the list of candidates tracked by Wellstone Action is not exhaustive.

"It's hard to pin down exactly, because the numbers are the result of self-reporting and the best information we could find," she said. She estimated that about 300 candidates have won election or re-election since Wellstone Action began offering its training camps in 2003; more than 20,000 people have participated in those camps.

She said that although Wellstone Action is nonpartisan, most participants lean to the left politically.

"We're open to all comers," she said. "But we certainly do get a progressive bent - people who are interested in change."

She said Wellstone Action has also trained Republicans, as well as members of the Green and Independence parties.

Wellstone Action is known for its "Camp Wellstone" weekend training sessions, in which potential candidates and political organizers learn the basics: "The training is focused on the steps a candidate needs to win election," Wolowitz said. "We teach them how to talk to voters at the door, how to raise funds, how to manage a crisis, how to respond to media and the press, how to write stump speeches, how to be able to effectively tell voters their values, what they care about, why they're running for office.

"In general, our training for both candidates and campaign workers emphasizes direct contact with voters - that's the bulk of what we train our candidates to do. We teach people to campaign in (Wellstone's) method."

Wellstone, a former professor at Carleton College who was first elected to the Senate in 1990, was known for his grass-roots campaign style and his ability to motivate college students, the poor and minorities to get involved in politics.

Wellstone Action was formed after the senator and his wife, Sheila, were killed in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election, and Wolowitz said its staff is always aware of what Wellstone would think about the organization's work.

"We knew what we were doing was training people to stand on his shoulders, just as he sat on the shoulders of those who came before him," she said. "Most think of him as a U.S. senator, but we remember him as a teacher and community organizer. We think our role as trainers and the organization really fits with that legacy."

97 Wellstone Action Training Graduates Won Election Last Tuesday!

elana — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:39:04 -0600

One week after an historic Presidential election, the results have been tabulated for more than 200 graduates of Wellstone Action training programs across the country running for office in 2008. Of these candidates, 97 Wellstone Action alumni won election last Tuesday in 24 states.

These candidates, who all participated in one of Wellstone Action's campaign organizing and leadership development trainings, were elected to offices ranging from United States Congress to school board, and represent a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, and geographies.

"We're starting to see a tipping point," says Jeff Blodgett, Executive Director of Wellstone Action. "We've trained a critical mass of candidates and community organizers in every state in the country, and that leadership development has resulted in progressive candidates for every level of government running and winning campaigns ‘the Wellstone Way'".

Notable victories include Camp Wellstone alum Glenn Nye, the newly-elected Congressman from Virginia's second district, as well as Denise Juneau, the first Native American elected to statewide office in Montana who will be the new State Superintendent of Schools. Juneau participated in INDN's List Campaign Camp in 2007 where Wellstone Action trained. Armond Budish won election to his first term in the Ohio State House in 2006 after attending Camp Wellstone. He was re-elected last Tuesday, along with a new Democratic majority in the Ohio House. He is expected to be named the new Speaker of the House. More information on winning candidates can be found at http://www.wellstone.org.

Wellstone Action has trained over 20,000 candidates and campaign organizers across the country since 2003. Camp Wellstone, the flagship program of Wellstone Action, is a 3-day nonpartisan political skills training for candidates, campaign workers and citizen activists.

106 Alumni Won Election in 2008!

elana — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:55:17 -0600

Out of 278 Wellstone Action alumni we were tracking as candidates this election season, 247 of them actually made it to the ballot last Tuesday.*

106 of those candidates won their election in 24 states! Of those:

4 were elected to United States Congress: John Hall (NY), Dave Loebsack (IA), Tim Walz (MN), and Glenn Nye (VA)
79 were elected to the State Legislature
21 were first-time candidates
46 were incumbents (most being re-elected to their second term from historic progessive gains in 2004 and 2006)
84 were Camp Wellstone alums; 3 were graduates of the Native American Leadership Program; and 6 were Labor Training Program alums.

Click the map below for an interactive graphic to see who won where.

* These numbers are based on a combination of self-reporting and comparing Wellstone Action's list of alums with lists of candidates running for office in all 50 states. We certainly may have missed some alums, especially those running for local races. If we missed you, let us know!

Jeff Blodgett, Top Minnesota Campaign Strategist, to Hold Election De-Brief

elana — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:19:40 -0600

For immediate release
November 10, 2008

For more information:
Elana Wolowitz, Communications Director
651-414-6014 or elana@wellstone.org

Jeff Blodgett, Top Minnesota Campaign Strategist, to Hold Election De-Brief and Discussion

What: Election Debrief and Book Discussion with Jeff Blodgett

When: Thursday, November 20^th at 7:30pm

Where: Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave South, Minneapolis

Jeff Blodgett, one of Minnesota’s leading political campaign strategists, will hold a post-election debrief and discussion of his new book, Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way: A Comprehensive Guide for Candidates and Campaign Workers. This companion guide to Politics the Wellstone Way, the best-selling introduction to political action, features case studies and step-by-step guides to effectively running a campaign for public office from experienced campaign organizers. If you have ever considered volunteering for a political candidate, working for a campaign, or even running for public office yourself, Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way is the key resource you need to devise a sophisticated, progressive, and successful strategy and, ultimately, affect people's lives for the better.

Blodgett, who recently served as Minnesota State Director for Barack Obama’s campaign, will offer commentary and invite conversation about the 2008 election. He will also be available to sign copies of the book.

Jeff Blodgett is Executive Director of Wellstone Action. He has twenty-five years of community organizing, issue advocacy, and political management experience, and spent thirteen years as a senior aide, adviser, and campaign manager to the late Senator Paul Wellstone, running all three of his election campaigns. Blodgett has worked on dozens of other election campaigns and issue advocacy efforts, including Amy Klobuchar's successful election to the U.S. Senate in 2006.

The election de-brief is free and open to the public. The event is Thursday, November 20^th at 7:30pm, and will be at Magers and Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave. South in Minneapolis.

###

Visualization: Alumni Winners

elana — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:45:46 -0600

More details to come, but for now, check out the distribution of states and types of races that our alums won on Tuesday.

Key:

SH = State House
SS = State Senate
TC = City/Town Council
CC = County Commission
SB = School Board
UC = United States Congress

** ~~Hey everybody, the service we use for visualization, http://many-eyes.com, is down for scheduled maintenance. We'll get the visualization back up soon!~~ Hey all, we're back in business. Click the chart below for the visualization.

Women in Office

ross — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:58:35 -0600

In an election which broke barriers left and right, it is not surprising that another glass ceiling has been shattered. In the New Hampshire State Senate there will be a female majority; "eleven Democratic women and two Republicans will hold 13 of the 24 State Senate seats." As reported by NH Public Radio, this will be the first time in the United States that this has occurred within any state Legislative chamber.

Throughout the nation the percentage of females in state Legislatures will remain the same as the last session, with 1794 women heading into the 2009 legislative session. According to the Women's Legislative Network "women will hold at least 23.7 percent of legislative seats in the 50 states, a ratio that has increased only slightly over the past twelve years." In State Capitols, "the total number of women who will serve as governors in 2009 is 8 (5D, 3R)."¹

In Federal races, "record numbers of women have won races for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives."² "When the 111th Congress convenes in January, 2009, 17 women (13D, 4R) will serve in the U.S. Senate... [and] A total of at least 74* women (57D, 17R) will serve in the 111th Congress."³ Both U.S. House and Senate totals bested the 110th congress' previous record for women in office.

*The number may be higher because Darcy Burner (D-WA) (Camp Wellstone Alum) and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) face tight contests which are currently too close to call.⁴

Now that reality has (partially) caught up with the dreams and ambitions of so many and now that it is easier to imagine the possibility of our elected officials reflecting the true composition of our society in terms of gender, race, creed, sexual orientation or otherwise, let us take a step back, reflect and chart a path forward that continues to reflect the true nature of progressive politics as the collective power of all people.

^1,2,3Source for US House, US Senate, and Gubernatorial races via (PDF: Election 2008: Record Numbers of Women to Serve in Senate and House - November 5, 2008 Center for American Women and Politics)

The Day After

elana — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:01:18 -0600

This morning, Wellstone Action staff is gathering to celebrate an election season in which we trained thousands of candidates and organizers, had (at least) 257 candidates on the ballot in races from school board to US Congress, and which culminated in electing a transformational leader, a community organizer, to the Presidency of the United States of America.

While we eat our doughnuts and tabulate the results of our alums' elections, check out this piece written back in April by Jeff Blodgett, soon to return to Wellstone Action from his leave of absence as Obama's Minnesota State Director, on what it would mean to have a community organizer in the White House.

More updates soon.

Illinois Volunteers Get Out the Immigrant Vote Today

Abarboza — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:58:59 -0600

Hundreds of volunteers throughout Chicago and Suburbs are geting out the immigrant vote through door knocking and phone banking today.

Wellstone Action partner, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) is working in coordination with host organizations, campaign fellows, and hundreds of volunteers to get out the immigrant vote in an unprecedented effort. ICIRR'S New Americans Democracy Project "Our Vote is Power" campaign seeks to mobilize 144,000 immigrant voters today in the Latino, Asian, South Asian, Polish, Arab and Muslim communities of Chicago and suburbs.

Starting at 6am today, volunteers arrived to the campaign headquarters. They were trained and sent to knock on doors, drop literature with polling place information and to place posters in businesses encouraging voters to go to the polls. After only 2 hours of work, several of the precincts reported hundreds of voters casting their ballots. In addition, 65 high school seniors have been conducting exit polling since 7 this morning in designated areas including precincts in Waukegan, Joliet, Aurora, Bridgeview, Melrose Park, Berwyn, and other areas of south, north, and west Chicago.

***ICIRR will send updates from the field throughout the day, you can check updates also in our website www.icirr.org <http://www.icirr.org/>

You can find pictures that you can download: http://picasaweb.google.com/icirr.org/EDayGOTVEfforts

Adriana Barboza is a Wellstone Action trainer working with ICIRR

A Guide for Voters: What to Do While Waiting in Line

Fbernhardt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:22:56 -0600

As I reported earlier, wait times can be long and tedious on this Election Day. As you head out to the polls, you might be wondering what you can do while waiting to vote.

Here it is, the Wellstone Action Nonpartisan Guide to What to Do While Waiting in Line to Vote:

Count all the people in the room who are wearing yellow.

Look for your neighbors. Rank them (quietly in your head) according to who you like the best.

Think about how after today you'll not see another political ad for several months....(we hope.)

Pretend you are receiving important text messages "from the field"- when in fact you are playing solitaire.

Strike up conversation with strangers by talking about your oval fill-in method.

Contemplate what you'll do with your time now that this TWO YEAR election season is ending.

Plan where you will put your "I Voted" sticker.

Make the hard decision of who to write in for judge: Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart.

Tom Wyka - Running for Congress the Wellstone Way

Louis — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:48:11 -0600

How do you beat a 7^th term, 5^th member of his family New Jersey Congressman? Tom Wyka is attempting to do just that today. Wyka credits much of his campaign style to the skills he learned at Camp Wellstone in January of 2006.

Wyka spent much of his campaign's time getting his name out to his constituents, a working-from-the-ground-up grassroots method that Paul Wellstone was famous for practicing. Similar to when Wellstone ran against Rudy Boschwitz, Wyka is taking on Rodney Frelinghuysen, an opponent considered to be the "safest" incumbent candidate. This is Wyka's first time running for office.

Wyka was inspired to run for Congress while attending Camp Wellstone. He identified with the Wellstone models and felt that he could use them to make a difference in New Jersey. He saw himself doing more for his community than volunteering. This motivated candidate for New Jersey's 11^th district won the state's Democratic nomination in June with 69% of the vote.

See Tom's TV ad.

Don't Spill Your Juicebox on your Ballot

Dvihrachoff — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:06:02 -0600

My husband and I arrived at our precinct at 7:30 am to find the parking lot packed and a line of voters snaking out the door. Of course we had heard the hype about the possibility for long lines and extended wait times, but after voting for years in notoriously busy South Florida precincts, we thought "lines" and "wait times" had a bit of a different definition in our Minnesota suburban community. Mercifully, the line went quick.

I was clad in sweats, wet hair and sans makeup and encountering people I knew at every turn so trust me, I was counting the minutes. While stealthily avoiding eye contact with neighbors that I knew were displaying lawn signs opposite my candidate picks, I noticed poll workers approaching parents with children and announcing loudly "don't forget that your kid can vote too". "Ummmm, NO!" my brain screamed. "No, no, no - it's like a Florida debacle all over again." "Why, why, why?!" Why can we as a country not get this whole voting thing down pat? Those wearing Dora the Explorer light up sneakers and sucking on juice boxes at 7:30 am are NOT eligible to vote!

But alas, as happens more and more frequently these days, I found out that I was wrong. The poll workers at my precinct were touting a program known as Kids Voting Minnesota. According to their website, Kids Voting Minnesota is "a grassroots, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to educating Minnesota youth about the rights and responsibilities and mechanics of participating in American democracy." Students in grades K-12 go to the adult polling sites on Election Day and vote for the same candidates and issues as adults. Though not part of the official results, student votes are tallied and reported at schools and by the media." Sponsored by a few large MN corporations (amongst others), Kids Voting Minnesota has election day voting experiences set up in 37 cities across the state.

In my precinct, the Kids Voting space mirrored that of the actual voting booths and systems. (The main difference seemed to be that the kids voting could skip by the poll worker who asked me four times how to spell my last name.) A table was set up off to the side of the room and covered in Kids Voting signs, ballots, "I VOTED" stickers and a box to place completed ballots.

Kids Voting ballots are just like the grown up version, with federal, state and local (depending on the precinct) candidates listed. The Kids Voting ballots contain pictures of the candidates and amendment questions as well. Many kids in my precinct, clearly on sugar highs from juicebox #2, were running around and proudly showing off their "I VOTED" (also known as the "30 minutes late to work free pass") stickers to one another.

The Kids Voting program has curriculum available for use in schools and communities and election day voting results are posted on the organization's website. In the 2004 election, more than 67,000 Minnesota kids participated in the program. So there you have it. Kids CAN vote (ok, well, kinda). What a great idea to help teach the importance of voting to today's youth! Sharing the voting experience with children can have a profound impact on them.

Growing up, each election day, my mother crammed all four of us kids in the voting booth to demonstrate the importance of voting. Afterwords, she would explain to us who she voted for and why. It's a lesson that has always stayed with me and I wouldn't dream of missing out on voting on election day.

For more information on Kids Voting, please check out their website at www.mnpower.com/kidsvoting

Why you should ignore exit polls

elana — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:55:22 -0600

It's tempting to turn on the cable news shows that are filling the minutes today reporting on the latest results of the exit polls, feeding our need for instant gratification in knowing the results of today's historic election.

Cool your heels, people, and wait till the polls close and the actual votes are counted. Why? The good folks crunching the numbers over at http://FiveThirtyEight.com can tell it best:

Reposted from FiveThirtyEight:

Ten Reasons Why You Should Ignore Exit Polls

Oh, let me count the ways. Almost all of this, by the way, is lifted from Mark Bluemthnal's outstanding Exit Poll FAQ. For the long version, see over there.

1. Exit polls have a much larger intrinsic margin for error than regular polls. This is because of what are known as cluster sampling techniques. Exit polls are not conducted at all precincts, but only at some fraction thereof. Although these precincts are selected at random and are supposed to be reflective of their states as a whole, this introduces another opportunity for error to occur (say, for instance, that a particular precinct has been canvassed especially heavily by one of the campaigns). This makes the margins for error somewhere between 50-90% higher than they would be for comparable telephone surveys.

2. Exit polls have consistently overstated the Democratic share of the vote. Many of you will recall this happening in 2004, when leaked exit polls suggested that John Kerry would have a much better day than he actually had. But this phenomenon was hardly unique to 2004. In 2000, for instance, exit polls had Al Gore winning states like Alabama and Georgia (!). If you go back and watch The War Room, you'll find George Stephanopolous and James Carville gloating over exit polls showing Bill Clinton winning states like Indiana and Texas, which of course he did not win.

3. Exit polls were particularly bad in this year's primaries. They overstated Barack Obama's performance by an average of about 7 points.

4. Exit polls challenge the definition of a random sample. Although the exit polls have theoretically established procedures to collect a random sample -- essentially, having the interviewer approach every nth person who leaves the polling place -- in practice this is hard to execute at a busy polling place, particularly when the pollster may be standing many yards away from the polling place itself because of electioneering laws.

5. Democrats may be more likely to participate in exit polls. Related to items #1 and #4 above, Scott Rasmussen has found that Democrats supporters are more likely to agree to participate in exit polls, probably because they are more enthusiastic about this election.

6. Exit polls may have problems calibrating results from early voting. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, exit polls will attempt account for people who voted before election day in most (although not all) states by means of a random telephone sample of such voters. However, this requires the polling firms to guess at the ratio of early voters to regular ones, and sometimes they do not guess correctly. In Florida in 2000, for instance, there was a significant underestimation of the absentee vote, which that year was a substantially Republican vote, leading to an overestimation of Al Gore's share of the vote, and contributing to the infamous miscall of the state.

7. Exit polls may also miss late voters. By "late" voters I mean persons who come to their polling place in the last couple of hours of the day, after the exit polls are out of the field. Although there is no clear consensus about which types of voters tend to vote later rather than earlier, this adds another way in which the sample may be nonrandom, particularly in precincts with long lines or extended voting hours.

8. "Leaked" exit poll results may not be the genuine article. Sometimes, sources like Matt Drudge and Jim Geraghty have gotten their hands on the actual exit polls collected by the network pools. At other times, they may be reporting data from "first-wave" exit polls, which contain extremely small sample sizes and are not calibrated for their demographics. And at other places on the Internet (though likely not from Gergahty and Drudge, who actually have reasonably good track records), you may see numbers that are completely fabricated.

9. A high-turnout election may make demographic weighting difficult. Just as regular, telephone polls are having difficulty this cycle estimating turnout demographics -- will younger voters and minorities show up in greater numbers? -- the same challenges await exit pollsters. Remember, an exit poll is not a definitive record of what happened at the polling place; it is at best a random sampling.

10. You'll know the actual results soon enough anyway. Have patience, my friends, and consider yourselves lucky: in France, it is illegal to conduct a poll of any kind within 48 hours of the election. But exit polls are really more trouble than they're worth, at least as a predictive tool. An independent panel created by CNN in the wake of the Florida disaster in 2000 recommended that the network completely ignore exit polls when calling particular states. I suggest that you do the same.

-- Nate Silver at 9:15 AM

How long was your line?

Fbernhardt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:44:31 -0600

2 hours, 1 hour, 50 minutes.....my friends and family are reporting how long it took them to vote this morning. I said to my colleague who came in saying it took her 30 minutes to vote, "well that's nothing", to which she replied "right but it was exactly 28 minutes longer than it took last time!"

So now the gamble is.....which lines will be longer....the ones BEFORE work or the ones AFTER work? I'm telling anyone I know to head to their polls right before or right after lunch. I've only heard one incident of voter suppression so far, about someone being turned away from a poll in a western suburb because they couldn't speak English.

Remember to look for poll watchers who should be 100 feet from the door of your polling place by law or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE if you witness or encounter a problem voting - this is a non-partisan voter protection organization. (http://www.866ourvote.org/state/)