In the future every vote could count equally in American presidential elections.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is starting to get major attention. Robert Reich just released an explainer video on it and the New York Times just published an Op Ed regarding it. The Daily Kos community has been super interested in the compact since November 9th. A grassroots campaign around making NPVIC a reality is starting to come into focus so I figured it would be good to review the campaigns from 2017 that had the most traction, Connecticut and Oregon.
Oregon was so close to passing National Popular Vote Interstate Compact legislation this year, but that is not a new scenario for the state. One legislator, Senate President Peter Courtney (D) has served as gatekeeper for years, stating that he would never allow a vote on the floor. This is/was despite the fact that it would definitely pass into law if it made it to a vote. This year seemed different. Ginny Burdick is now Rules Chair and she sponsored legislation in support of NPVIC in the past. She also tweeted in support of NPVIC this legislative session. However she also refused to pass NPVIC legislation out of committee.
Understandably this left grassroots activists and the Activism department here at Daily Kos, all who fought hard for Oregon to finally join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact shaking their heads. If you want to know about the activism that the Daily Kos Community in Oregon engaged in on NPVIC click here.
I hopped on the phone with Eileen and Elizabeth, two grassroots organizers we collaborated with closely (in Oregon) to discuss what worked, what we wish we would have done differently, NPVIC legislation being framed as partisan in recent years, the plan for next year and what to do when one politician stands in the way or just lies about their stance.
And in case you are just hearing about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, check out this blog by a Connecticut activist who was part of the effort to get NPVIC legislation passed there this year. They came very close to.
What worked?
Educational forums around NPVIC worked well. Bringing people together to hear about the compact and understand it activated and expanded our volunteer base and brought comradery to the movement. Person to person events were really key. We pulled in volunteers through those. When they got to hear about the state of play in Oregon around this legislation and understand exactly how the NPVIC worked they felt more energized to get involved.
Our facebook page was also pretty effective. It started from nothing in November and now we have close to 1000 followers. That platform is where some of our greatest volunteers were recruited.
As a result of the strategies above we have had a lot more physical volunteers willing to help with on the ground campaign. We had a lot of different people interested in doing lots of different things in a relatively short amount of time. The Facebook page went up in November. And the first educational forum was in the beginning of March.
And having a coalition of groups, which existed a bit already in the past with groups like National Popular Vote, Common Cause, LWV, BusProject etc was helpful. This year Daily Kos joined in as well making the netroots amplification of our work that much louder.
I wish we would have done this?
Known earlier that Burdick was going to do what she did. She was a co sponsor in the past and was tweeting in support this legislative session. There was no reason — until it was too late — to believe she wasn't going to allow this legislation to get a vote. She ended up stating she believed it should be left to the voters via a ballot initiative which everyone knows is ridiculous. The constitution clearly states that it is up to state legislators and the vast majority of the state has supported joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact for years. It is well known that is hasn't passed already because of Peter Courtney. He was the Chair of the Rules Committee in the past and has always been personally against the NPVIC. This year he said he still wouldn't vote for it, but he also wouldn't stop it. We didn't know he meant because Ginny Burdick would do that for him.
Also — and very importantly considering Burdick decided to refer this legislation to the ballot — 25 out of 36 Democratic County parties in Oregon and the Democratic Party of Oregon passed a resolution in support of this bill. Unfortunately they didn't reference the issue of referral. If they would have they would have been against it. It was just a slip up that wasn't in the language of the resolutions.
One other thing to note is that our federal legislators only get involved in issues that directly impact something they are working on at the federal level. And the governor weighs in very little. We knew that was the case. Now we know we may need to push them to get involved anyway. We tried to discuss how NPVIC legislation would aid them in acquiring much needed disaster relief in the state, but that angle was not a main focus of our strategy.
This legislation was framed as a Democratic reaction to the 2016 election this year, but it didn't pass in Oregon, which is controlled by Democrats. What are your thoughts on that?
We had two republicans supporting the NPVIC this year and in years past we had many more.The legislators treated it as a very partisan issue this year for sure. The most partisan thing about regarding the NPVIC in Oregon is that Peter Courtney is a Democrat in name only. His approach has been to work across the aisle with his very good friends. So if he sees it as partisan perhaps he was protecting Republicans. He could also be worried about republican getting elected under the NPVIC and then the Democrats would be to blame since historically they have been more supportive of NPVIC legislation in the past. Legislators will say they fear giving our votes away because Oregon has gone blue for the last 20 years. But what does that matter when our votes don't matter. Also the RNC platform added not supporting NPVIC in 2012 and as long as it is in there we are going to have trouble getting those Republicans who used to support it to support it again.
What is the plan for next year?
We want to acquire more Facebook followers for sure, since that is where so many wonderful volunteers came from. There is also a strategic plan to get fiscal sponsorship from a larger state organization. This will allow for more donations which will allow for more educational forums and more activism in general. Up until now the grassroots piece has been completely volunteer based. It may remain that way, but at least the volunteers can get some financial support.
The National Popular Vote lobbyist in the state has been really good at getting Republicans on board in the past and so we will continue to collaborate with them. Bringing in more Republican legislators again will be helpful. And perhaps we can do that by highlighting the fact that 5 million people in California voted for Trump — 2 million in New York. It's not just Democrats who are being ignored in red states. There are more purple states than the current winner takes all system lets on. That framing may help.
How does a grassroots movement respond to this situation, one legislator blocking their own party from voting and another actually lying about their stance on an issue?
Quite frankly, the most important thing right now is the fact that the two problematic Democrats — Courtney and Burdick — are up for reelection in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
Next year will be a short legislative session, and the legislation likely will not be introduced, as was the case in past even numbered years. So all the energy we used to see this legislation through this year and the movement we continue to build next year will most likely go into getting Courtney out in the primary. And as for Burdick lying, well we have even more time to ensure she is primaried. Three years is plenty of time to find the right candidate for that job.
