[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: Decentralizing process to identify Greens running for local office in non-partisan races
Spencer Graves
spencer.graves at effectivedefense.org
Sat Oct 8 11:38:56 PDT 2016
Hello, All:
Could someone please tell Mike Feinstein that I no longer
represent the Green Party of Santa Clara County and give him contact
information for my replacement (see below)?
Best Wishes,
Spencer Graves
p.s. I'm currently with Kansas City Community Radio, KKFI, a sister
station to KPFA in Berkeley. A show I recently produced is "Kansas and
Missouri: Epicenter for Voter Suppression" for "RadioActive Magazine"
(www.kkfi.org/program/radio-active-magazine). You won't hear my voice
on this podcast, but you can hear about some of the antics of Kansas
Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, who appears to be leading the
Republican effort to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as
they can. I'm also asking US Senate candidate on their views of the
2008 RAND study on "How terrorist groups end", which found that only 20
of 268 terrorist groups (7 percent) that ended between 1968 and 206 were
taken out by military force. Does that mean that the West is using the
least effective approach to terrorism?
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Decentralizing process to identify Greens running for local
office in non-partisan races
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2016 17:42:04 +0000
From: Green Party of California Inform List <gpca-inform at cagreens.org>
To: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at effectivedefense.org>
Green Party of California
<http://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/?e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=1>
Dear Spencer --
We are passing along the following message to you from CCWG member Mike
Feinstein (Santa Monica), asking your county party to undertake planning
for this important research for our party.
Please let us know if you have any questions and/or contact Mike
directly at mfeinstein at feinstein.org <mailto:mfeinstein at feinstein.org>.
Pamela Spevack, Rich Stone
Co-Coordinators, GPCA Campaigns and Candidates Working Group (CCWG)
-------------------------
*Decentralizing process to identify Greens running for local office in
non-partisan races
*As some of you know, I have tracked Greens running in non-partisan
races across the state on behalf of the GPCA Campaigns & Candidates
Working Group
(http://www.cagreens.org/workinggroups/campaigns-candidates
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Fworkinggroups%2Fcampaigns-candidates&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=2>)
since 1994.
*Starting after this November 2016 general election, I will be pulling
back from almost **exclusively **performing this task for the party.
**Instead I hope to help coordinate a process that involves active
county parties doing most of the research within their own county
boundaries.
**Therefore I am writing this email to explain how the process is done,
so that counties can begin to take it over for their areas.
**This process is accomplished by literally:
**- going to each county elections page
*http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/county-elections-offices/
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ss.ca.gov%2Felections%2Fvoting-resources%2Fcounty-elections-offices%2F&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=3>
*- finding their list of ballot-qualified candidates (*often a .pdf that
is difficult to work with*) and
**- literally cutting and pasting each name into our Green voter
registration data base in Nationbuilder, so see if any of them are
listed as registered Green; then
**- confirming that registration via the county registrar, by different
methods depending upon the county
*http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/registration-status/
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sos.ca.gov%2Felections%2Fregistration-status%2F&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=4>Many
county registrars have an on-line form in which the party registration
of a registered voter can be confirmed if you have the person’s last
name, street address and date of birth - information that is included in
our voter registration data base in Nationbuilder. We utilize that tool
for a large number of our confirmations. That makes it easy to do it at
all hours and get this work done on my timeline, which often includes
late nights and/or on weekends.
But with other counties, the on-line confirmation tool requires either
the registered voter’s Social Security number of driver’s license — not
information in the GPCA data base. In those cases - and in those
counties where they have no on-line form at all, we have to actually
call the Registrar of Voters office and ask them about each person who
we think is registered Green. This causes a time delay because such
calls have to be made during weekday business hours and sometimes we
don’t hear back for a few days
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/registration-status/
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sos.ca.gov%2Felections%2Fregistration-status%2F&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=5>.
Fortunately almost all counties who we contact in this way will give us
this information over the phone, after I identify myself and explain the
role I play for the GPCA. Many of these offices have had experience
hearing from me over the years. However in the case of two counties over
the last year and a half (and very occasionally in past years), they
have refused to give us the information over the phone. In one case a
county started describing some elaborate process of filing out forms and
mailing them in, in order to seek this info. In another county they
told me I would have to come there in person, even though that
particular county was 250 miles from where I live.
Back in the old days before we had an up-to-date voter registration data
base - and before widespread use of the internet - most candidates we
learned about came from our county parties, and/or via an individual
contacting the state party directly to inform us about themselves.
Since 2011 when the GPCA began using Nationbuilder (to have an on-line
accessible Green voter registration data base), we’ve discovered many
Greens running for office that we otherwise didn’t know about. Most of
them have been in counties in which we don’t have an active county
party, while some have been in active counties where they simply didn’t
know about these Greens running anyway.
Once identified, I add these Green candidates to our candidate list on
our state website (here for fall 2016
www.cagreens.org/elections/2016-fall
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Felections%2F2016-fall&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=6>),
and into the GPUS Elections data base
(https://secure.gpus.org/secure/testdb/
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.gpus.org%2Fsecure%2Ftestdb%2F&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=7>).
*The process I describe above is a very time and labor intensive process
and a very centralized one, where I have traditionally done 99% of the
work. The GPCA would be far better off if the county parties did this
work themselves and reported the results to the state party. * Why don’t
the county parties take this on? Some county parties don’t have an
up-to-date list of registered Greens in their county. But with a very,
very few exceptions, even when they do, they don’t perform this
candidate search themselves anyway.
The GPCA IT Committee has consistently asked the county parties to
update their county data bases and/or to work with GPCA IT to utilize
the state data base information for their county. A few counties that
have taken up GPCA IT on this, but most have not. That has displaced
work onto my shoulders that should be undertaken locally, pushing back
other party projects for which I have responsibility as well.
One of the reasons that in even numbered election years (like this one)
the GPCA needs to gather this information in a timely manner — i.e. by
late August after the candidate qualification person has concluded — is
that the GPCA provides campaign support funding to registered Greens
running for office who have been endorsed by their county parties.
To start that process, I identify the candidates themselves as discussed
above. Then candidates are tagged in Nationbuilder, who are running in
a contested race that live in an county where there is an active county
party to endorse them. That way they can be sent an email from the
Campaign Fund Support Committee (CFSC)
(http://www.cagreens.org/committees/campaign-support
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Fcommittees%2Fcampaign-support&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=8>)
email address broadcaster within Nationbuilder.
There is a boilerplate CFSC email for this purpose that I created a few
years ago, notifying these Greens of the process to seek such financial
support from the state party.
If the candidates can be appraised by late August of this opportunity,
then they have a chance to seek their county party’s endorsement, fill
out the necessary questionnaire and then give the CFSC time to consider
their request and award them funds in time to make a difference in their
campaigns. That process is described here:
http://www.cagreens.org/committees/campaign-support/questionnaire
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Fcommittees%2Fcampaign-support%2Fquestionnaire&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=9>
http://www.cagreens.org/committees/campaign-support/criteria
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Fcommittees%2Fcampaign-support%2Fcriteria&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=10>
http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/2016-07-02#Section_9-7_Campaign_Fund_Support_Committee
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Fbylaws%2F2016-07-02%23Section_9-7_Campaign_Fund_Support_Committee&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=11>It
is also valuable for the GPCA to have this information as soon as
possible in each election cycle in order demonstrate the party’s
political viability, including by posting it to the cagreens.org
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcagreens.org%2F&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=12>
site and using it in the party’s social media and media work.
Since the GPCA has utilized Nationbuilder staring in 2011, we’ve
discovered many Green Party members running who we otherwise would not
have known about. What do we do when we find them to connect them to
the party?
First we contact them from the state level, send them contact
information for their county party (where there is an active one), and
simultaneously forward their information directly to the county party.
When a candidate we’ve discovered becomes a elected Green, we add them
to our state (www.cagreens.org/officeholders
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Fofficeholders&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=13>)
and national (www.gp.org/officeholders
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gp.org%2Fofficeholders&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=14>)
officeholders lists. In several cases we’ve also invited those same
elected Greens to participate in candidate forums at our state meetings,
featuring them at the Saturday night event. We also have an internal
party California Green Officeholders Network email list they can join.
In some cases we discover Green incumbents we didn’t know about. In many
cases they were appointed to an unscheduled mid-term vacancy that we
didn’t know about; or they ran previously and we didn’t have them in our
data base. In these cases we add them to the GPUS elections data base
and to the GPCA lists, which also increases our historical totals here
in CA (http://www.cagreens.org/elections/history-by-year
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Felections%2Fhistory-by-year&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=15>).
In other cases, we've discovered candidates who were formerly registered
Green, who have left us for another party or registered
‘decline-to-state/no party preference.’ In those cases we contact them
and raise the possibility of their coming back to the Green Party.
Finally when we list the candidates on our GPCA website and in the GPUS
data base, we list a great deal of detail that requires some searching -
the name of the office sought, the city and county, how many candidates
are running for how many seats, whether the Green is an incumbent, and
then find their campaign website (and other social media campaign sites)
where available, and enter all of this twice - once for our state party
and once for the GPUS.
*How much time does this take to identify and post all of this information?
*For this year's November 2016 elections, I estimate I have spent 35 -
to 40 unpaid staff hours on this project, and that is to do these 30
counties: Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo,
Kings, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mendocino,
Monterey, Nevada, Placer, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Shasta. Sierra,
Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo,
and Yuba counties.
These counties have been chosen in part because in several cases, their
political leanings are likely to render more Greens running that we
didn’t know about - Mendocino and Nevada counties for example, often
have a handful of local Greens running in each cycle that we didn’t know
about. However several major counties are missing from this list,
including some of the largest counties that do have active county
parties that could be doing this work themselves, meaning that is still
a lot more work to do.
As of October 5, we have 32 Greens listed on our state site as running
in November (http://www.cagreens.org/elections/2016-fall
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagreens.org%2Felections%2F2016-fall&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=16>).
Fourteen of them I knew about independently of the county-by-county
search, the other eighteen we learned about through the county-by-county
search.
If your county party is willing to do your own search, please let GPCA
IT know (it-help at cagreens.org <mailto:it-help at cagreens.org>) and we’ll
connect you to your county’s data that the GPCA currently has (your
County Council needs to authorize this in an email to GPCA IT).
At the same time, each county party is entitled to a free update of the
registration list for all voters from their county registrar for the
primary and the general election each even-numbered year. So if your
county asks for that list, you can use that to double check the work for
your country, or do it for the first time, depending upon whether its on
the list above. People change their registration all the time and each
cycle we often find out after the November election above a few Greens
that had run.
*Again, I need to decentralize this task starting with the spring 2017
elections, where county parties take upon the responsibility themselves
to compare the registered Green list for their county with the list of
all candidates running in local non-partisan election in their county.
*Please let me know if you have any questions about this process and how
you can help.
Mike Feinstein
Campaigns and Candidates Working Group
-------------------------
*/Stay connected with the Green Party of California /*/(and spread the
message via social media)/
On Twitter: www.twitter.com/gpca
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fgpca&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=17>
• On Instagram www.instagram.com/greenpartyofcalifornia
<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fgreenpartyofcalifornia&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=18>
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/cagreens
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Party email forum:
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<https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Flists.cagreens.org%2Flistinfo%2Fgpca-forum_lists.cagreens.org&e=afb6a41873698570facf20b807711760867ddd8a&utm_source=cagreens&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ccwg_cand_srch&n=22>
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/*Register Green on-line *(share this with your friends and interested
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-------------------------
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