[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: [GPCA Official Notice] Organizing Against Prop 14

[Jim Stauffer]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [GPCA Official Notice] Organizing Against Prop 14
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:48:25 -0700
From: County Contacts <contacts2006 at cagreens.org>
Reply-To: contacts2006 at cagreens.org
To: County Contacts <Contacts2006 at cagreens.org>

GREEN PARTY COUNTY CONTACTS MESSAGE

This is an announcement from the GPCA Contact List.  For more information, or
questions related to the topic of the posting, please do not hit reply. Follow
the contact directions
stated in the email.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To:  All GPCA activists

From:  Kendra Gonzales and Richard Gomez, CCWG Coordinators, and Jane Rands,
ERWG Coordinator

Re:  Organizing to Defeat Proposition 14 – the so-called “Top-Two Primary” measure


There will be a ballot measure in the June 8th Primary Election that
would effectively abolish minor parties from the General Elections held
in November. We are asking you to join the effort to defeat this measure
-- Proposition 14, the “Top-Two Primary.”

We have a Prop 14 resources web page at http://cagreens.org/erwg/Prop14/.

At the March 2010 General Assembly of Delegates, the Green Party of
California easily reached consensus on opposing Proposition 14. If
adopted, all candidates for partisan office would be required to run in
a single, combined Primary Election rather than each party having it’s
own Primary. Voters may vote for any party’s candidate, and only the two
highest voted candidates would proceed to the General Election. No
longer would each party be represented in the General. In fact, the two
candidates in the General could be from the same party.

Obviously, this measure would make it extremely difficulty for minor
parties to get their candidates – especially for statewide offices –
seen by the voters in the General Election. There was a previous ballot
measure proposing this “top-two” concept which the GPCA also opposed.
The present measure made it on to the ballot by being a part of the
“deal” to get State Senator Abel Maldonado to vote in support of the
February 2009 budget package.

Defeating Proposition 14 is a high priority for the GPCA. Because we,
and other small political parties, constitute just a minority of the
total voters, we must reach out beyond our GPCA membership to defeat
this measure.

Green Values speak of Grassroots Democracy and Decentralization, and in
this spirit we ask you to join the effort to defeat this measure by
doing the following:

· Talk, blog and email your friends, family, co-workers, and groups in
which you participate and ask them to vote No on Prop 14. Explain to
them why it’s important. Ask them to discuss it with their other
friends, family, etc.

· Ask local organizations in which you participate to hold discussions
on this issue and, if possible, pass their own resolutions opposing Prop
14. It is especially important to speak before senior citizen’s groups
because AARP is being listed as a supporting organization on campaign
literature that already has been mailed twice.

· Write letters to the editor -- not just to the big newspapers but also
to weekly, bi-weekly and monthly papers.

We ask Local County Green Parties to focus on this issue immediately
because absentee (mail-in) ballots will begin to be issued on or about
May 8, 2010. The GP members in your area need to be contacted and
encouraged to engage individually and help make contacts with other
organizations. This is an opportunity to connect with other political
parties locally to issue joint statements and submit joint op-ed pieces
to the local press.

There are a number of measures on the ballot, and more developing
campaigns for November or circulating petitions for ballot measures
which Greens already support or likely to. It is important to bring the
Prop 14 issue to these groups and their activists – even if those
campaigns (for various reasons) will not formally oppose Prop 14. It is
important to bring “VOTE NO on Prop 14” signs to public rallies
supporting Prop 15 (public financing for Secretary of State candidates),
or opposing Prop 16 (initiative to hamper local energy commissions), or
opposing Prop 17 (initiative that would increase auto insurance rates).

Here are some “talking points”:

· Proposition 14 will not result in a less partisan and more moderate
legislature, as its proponents claim. This kind of system has been tried
before in congressional elections in Louisiana and is currently being
used in Washington State. In both cases, the same patterns of Democrats
and Republicans were elected. The Washington legislature is still as
partisan as it was before its style of “top-two” was approved.

· Proposition 14 will make the General Elections less democratic because
voters will have fewer choices on Election Day. Not only will smaller
Parties’ candidates be eliminated – lessening the choices for
independent (decline to state) voters – it is possible that the top two
candidates will be from the same political party in many legislative races.

· Proposition 14 will likely increase the money that is spent on Primary
Election campaigns and increase fund raising from large private donors
and corporations. This will continue the ongoing escalation of candidate
spending. Prop 14 would end Prop 15’s public financing experiment
because a “top two” system would prevent other candidates from receiving
the large portion of the public financing provided after the Primaries.

The Campaign and Candidates Working Group and Electoral Reform Working
Group will be preparing a model leaflet for GP tabling and networking.
If you have questions about the above information, contact Warner
Bloomberg at (408) 295-9353 or at wsb3attyca at aol.com
<mailto:wsb3attyca at aol.com>


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