Saturday, April 25, 2015

Can MAYDAY do this?

In its plan to elect a reform minded Congress by 2016, MAYDAY.US will, on May 1st, launch a "platform to support the biggest citizen lobbying campaign we possibly can."

The only component of the platform that has been made public thus far is a Congressional calling campaign in order to put members of Congress on "notice" and get on the "right side" of reform. A discussion of this is taking place on the MAYDAY Reddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/MaydayPAC/comments/32pf6i/seeking_citizen_input_on_maydays_goals_in_2015/.

I am pushing for the actions described at You be a Congressional candidate and Start your district's CFR campaign this weekend.

Can MAYDAY include the foregoing in the platform it announces on May 1st?

Is it too ambitious? Is it premature? Would it be unproductive or counterproductive? Are there limitations under the "coordination" rules that make it unworkable? (See Fresh Questions About "Coordination" Rules.) Would other CFR organizations be willing to help by urging their supporters to do volunteer Internet activity in their Congressional districts? Would other CFR organizations consider themselves limited in doing such urging by reason of the "coordination" rules?


Update 4/28:





Should CFR organizations cross-cultivate their supporters? See http://www.reddit.com/r/MaydayPAC/comments/32pf6i/seeking_citizen_input_on_maydays_goals_in_2015/cqq0z9a


Update 4/29:
I believe @RepresentDotUs and @StampStampede are reacting in a positive way to my importuning of them.
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Friday, April 24, 2015

Start your district's CFR campaign this weekend

It's not a big deal what I have proposed in You be a Congressional candidate.

You can make a difference for campaign finance reform in your Congressional district.

You don't have to be the candidate.

Just start talking up the idea with your friends. Find people in your Congressional district who are willing to do volunteer Internet activity. It doesn't have to be a lot. Two hours a week by a volunteer would be meaningful.

Deciding on who should be the candidate can come later.

Getting organized is most important for now.

Once you get going, things will come naturally.

Update: Can MAYDAY do this?
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

You be a Congressional candidate

As MAYDAY.US starts its Congressional calling campaign in its plan to elect a reform minded Congress by 2016, please consider being a Congressional candidate yourself.

This suggestion is not so ridiculous as you may think.

Please consider some things.

First, be a Congressional candidate who is not subject to the restrictions of Federal campaign finance law.

So long as you don't raise more than $5000 in contributions or spend more than $5000 in doing your campaign, you are not a candidate subject to the restrictions of Federal campaign finance law.

This can make you a valuable asset in the battle for campaign finance reform.

The $5000 limit on expenditures will largely confine you to the Internet and social media, but I believe you can still play an important role.

Under the Federal campaign finance law, the Internet, by reason of its democratic nature and low cost for anyone to use, is treated favorably compared to other forms of political advertising having a higher cost and being less democratically available for anyone to use.

The Federal Campaign Guide, at page 40, says this:
Internet Volunteer Activity
General Exception
An uncompensated individual or group of uncompensated individuals may engage in certain voluntary Internet activities for the purpose of influencing a federal election without restriction. These exempted Internet activities would not result in a contribution or an expenditure under the Act and would not trigger any registration or reporting requirements with the FEC. This exemption applies to individuals acting with or without the knowledge or consent of a campaign or a political party committee. 100.94 and 100.155. Exempted Internet activities include, but are not limited to, sending or forwarding electronic mail, providing a hyperlink to a website, creating, maintaining or hosting a website and paying a nominal fee for the use of a website.
The 2016 elections are possibly shaping up to make "money in politics" a significant issue that will receive much publicity. Early in her campaign, Hillary Clinton has injected into the political debate the matter of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United case. Today's breaking story in The New York Times "Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation as Russians Pressed for Control of Uranium Company" will generate much public conversation about the role of "money in politics."

Consider how you could play into the Congressional calling campaign MAYDAY is trying to get going. The calling campaign in your Congressional district needs callers, and the "money in politics" issue needs publicity in your district, and that can call attention to the calling campaign. Putting yourself out as a Congressional candidate (but not subject to Federal campaign law restrictions), and getting friends and others to engage in volunteer Internet activity, could, in a couple months time, achieve material visibility in your district.

Think big. Think about campaign finance reformers in other Congressional districts becoming aware of what you are doing, and they say, "Hey, we (or one of us) can do this in our Congressional district."

Wow, wouldn't that be something if this got going in scores or hundreds of Congressional districts in 2015?

Double wow, I would say.
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So, get going. become a Congressional candidate in your district.

EDIT 4/24: Start your district's CFR campaign this weekend
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Monday, April 20, 2015

Lessig speaks; please you call for MAYDAY

Lawrence Lessig speaks tonight at 7 pm in the Flatiron District in Manhattan. The speech is part of RunWarrenRun.

Professor Lessig explains why Elizabeth Warren should run. In Professor Lessig's words, Elizabeth Warren should run:
For the thing that she speaks so powerfully about — a rigged system — is rigged precisely because of the corruption caused by the way we fund campaigns. And yet, there is a significant chance that we Democrats will have a primary without any candidate who would even mention the issue, let alone commit to reform that might address it.

Hillary Clinton is incredibly strong and incredibly smart. In normal times, she’d make an extraordinary president. But these are not normal times. And the corrupt system we have now was birthed under her husband’s watch. She (and he) have depended upon it to get to the place she is now. She had nothing but impatient scorn for Obama and Edwards when they pressed the issue in 2008. And she has offered nothing to demonstrate that she either gets it or cares about addressing it. Everything indicates that she believes she can govern effectively without removing this cancer that has compromised our democracy.

She can’t.

No one can (which is why we’re even seeing rumblings about the issue from the Right). And what we desperately need now is a contest that will force the issue into the center, and give us at least a chance of addressing it in 2016.

Yet we’re facing the prospect of a Democratic non-primary campaign, without a single debate, that generates a nominee who has not had to enlist the support of a grassroots movement. That’s a dangerous prospect, not just for Democrats but for our democracy.
Senator Warren wouldn’t just create the genuine, hard-fought primary contest that this country needs. She—and, I believe, she alone—could also galvanize the movement that we’ll need if the next president of the United States is to have a prayer of actually taking on this the hardest, most important issue of our generation — because only by solving this can we solve anything else.
If you don't know, tens of thousands of Americans are at work battling to defeat the corruption caused by the way we fund campaigns.

MAYDAY.US and its supporters are hard at work on this at the Congressional level.

Please tweet to @MAYDAYUS and tell them you want to help out and you want to call your Representatives in Congress to ask them to support reform.
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Friday, April 17, 2015

Help MAYDAY's Congressional calling campaign

[Update 4/22: I am going to try again with the CFR organizations. It would seem so easy for them to tweet to their followers to let their followers know about MAYDAY's Congressional calling campaign, in case some would like to pitch in. Maybe the reason the organizations won't do this is they don't believe it would do one iota of good for MAYDAY and their own mission. Maybe the organizations believe that any good for MAYDAY would be offset by an undesirable distraction of their followers away from their particular CFR's activities. I don't know. It just seems worth another try with them.]

To organizations and others out there who have grassroots action experience:

MAYDAY is trying to start a Congressional calling campaign in order to put members of Congress on "notice" and get on the "right side" of reform. A discussion of this is taking place on the MAYDAY Reddit at http://www.reddit.com/r/MaydayPAC/comments/32pf6i/seeking_citizen_input_on_maydays_goals_in_2015/.

Can you organizations and others make suggestions for MAYDAY getting its Congressional calling campaign going?

Concerning grassroots action such as the calling campaign, I have asked the question of how important is it that there be a "social" aspect.

I gave as an example, the #RepDay15 of Represent.Us on Wednesday. Groups of people around the country got out with signs. The groups had a physical "social" aspect, which I think people like very much. The "socializing" was buttressed by sharing on Twitter. See https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RepDay15&src=tyah

Another example of the attraction of physical "socializing" seemed to me the NHRebellion walks.

I don't think the "social" dimension must be physical, in person "socializing" in order to attract grassroots participation, but I think MAYDAY should give much thought to how to create a "social" dimension to the Congressional calling campaign MAYDAY wants to carry out.

Can you organizations and others who have grassroots action experience.offer any ideas to MAYDAY for its Congressional calling campaign?

I hope you do.

Update 4/18

Yesterday, I sent the below tweets to organizations





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Thursday, April 16, 2015

A startling day for campaign finance reform

Yesterday (Tax Day) was a startling day for campaign finance reform.

For a prelude, Represent.Us had supporters around the country out with signs saying "Congress won't fix corruption. We will." An example is below. For more coverage, go to #RepDay15.


Then, Doug Hughes blew things away by flying a gyrocopter through protected airspace and puting it down on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, to try to deliver 535 letters to 535 members of Congress in protest of "a corrupt government that sells out to the highest bidder." http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/ruskin-mailman-tries-flying-to-capitol-in-gyrocopter-to-deliver-campaign/2225584


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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Circling on #TweetToDefeatMoney

My last posting on this was Report on #TweetToDefeatMoney, posted on March 27th.

I have been particularly working on MAYDAY to get behind this, starting with this post on the MAYDAY Reddit: Proposed Tweet to Defeat Money Monster tweeting campaign.

There has been great grassroots interest, as evidenced by scores, if not hundreds, of retweets, favorites, follows, and replies I have received from grassroots I have tweeted to.

Please continue to try to help me, by pushing on your organization to support #TweetToDefeatMoney, whatever your preferred organization is, be it MAYDAY.US, MoveToAmend, Represent.Us, WolfPac, Stamp Stampede, NHRebellion, Take Back Our Republic or other organization.

Thank you.
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