Yesterday our side lost a key vote in the House of Representatives by a margin of 210-205 on the GSE Reform bill. The vote was on whether non-profit organizations, which utilize the Affordable Housing Fund which the legislation establishes, will be allowed to do voter registation. This bill still has to make it through the Senate and in all likelihood it won't pass at all, or the Senate will strip this provision, but it did raise questions for me about how bloggers can more effective at mobilizing our forces for times like this.
Among New York Republicans only McHugh (North Country district) and Sweeney (north of Albany) voted with us to strip this onerous provision which on its face seems quite unconstitutional. Reynolds didn't vote at all on this key vote, which may have been his way to sidestep the issue, but Kuhl, Walsh, Boehlert & Kelly all voted against us. All of the Dems voted with us.
There are a number of good list serves in which this kind of information gets out in western New York, but it seems like we could capture more of the blogging energy for concrete votes like this if we worked at it. Anybody have any ideas. If you would prefer to discuss offline you can email me at bankwatcher@frontiernet.net