Last night I attended my second committee meeting for our area of the County. There, I had the opportunity to talk with our candidates for State Senate, State Represenative, and a former Township supervisor. We also discussed fundraising; voter regisration; rasing our profile; gaining new members; and poll watching for the upcoming election. Plus, I had the opportunity to talk with some of the recent converts and listen to them explain why they switched parties and what has caused them to shift in their views.
First, to give some back ground on our committee. We are a poorer area. The feeling in the meeting was that the local party tends to forget about us. In the past, there was a lot of friction amoung our leaders and the County and State party. For now, everyone is trying to put that behind us and move forward. We have a small, but somewhat diverse crew. We have several conservative dems, liberal reps, a few moderates, and even a few liberals.
Fundraising
At first, we discussed fundraising for both our local candidates as well as the local party itself. We tried to come up with ways we could get people to come out and donate money to party. We are not looking for the large donations. We'll be more than happy to take them, but we are happy with even the small amounts. Several ideas where thrown around.. Having a cook out at the local miniture golf course; Having a $15 "all you can eat" buffet; even having little house parties or driveway parties. One member pointed out that whatever we do should also be very kid friendly. So families with children could bring them a long.
Voter Regisration
Voter Regisration and getting people to the polls was also a hot topic. We discussed have regisration drives at the local community events as well as working with some local businesses to have some tie ins as well. Perhaps have a regisration drive at the mini golf and everyone who stops by gets a coupon for a free round of golf (and get to meet our candidates for office). We were all given voter regisration forms to keep with us. However, it was strongly recomended that new voters be registered over the internet so a receipt could be given at that time. That way, if they do not receive their voter regisration card in time they can still vote by showing the receipt to the poll workers.
Along with regisration, we discussed ways to help get people to the polls. Everything from providing free tutorials on how to use the computerized voting machines and offering free rides to the elderly to discussions on providing childcare and baby sitting services to those who need it.
Poll Watching
The discussions then turned to the need for poll watchers. This is the section that really got me worked up personally. One of our recent Republican converts started discussion the actions the local Republican party pulls at the polls. She talked about how the Republicans will campaign inside the poll itself (a big no-no in PA) as well as hand out preprinted ballots to all the Republicans in the polls. She stated that as a Republican, she found the actions bad and contacted the local judge of elections. However, since the Judge is an elected Republican, nothing happened. Even pictures and videos wasn't enough to get a repsonse. Our only option is to get Dems at the polls and force them to stop. However, because the party was so beaten down, they were never able to get people there.
New Members
All of this underscored the need for us to get new members into the party and at the local committee meetings. We were asked to work towards that goal and getting everyone we knew out and helping us. There is a sense of a lot of angry people in our area and we hope to strike while the iron is hot. Channel that anger into useful and creative action. At this time, we just need people to get out there and help us out. We hope our new regisration and fund raising drives will help do that.
Conversion
After the meeting, I stayed around to talk with some of the people. I was most interested in finding out what caused them to switch parties. For a few, there wasn't a major shift in political views. Our Candidate for State Senate is strongly apposed to property taxes and wants to work towards eliminating them. However, because his views aren't completely in lock step with the Republican party, he was forced out- he doesn't fear homosexuals and is pro-choice. He felt that the local republican party didn't want people like him. Where as he felt welcomed in the Democratic party; a place where his views are respected and we are willing to work for him because we respect what he has to say.
The former township supervisor only changed parties recently. Again, she was pushed out of the Republican party because she was against the local landfill. The Republicans told her right out that she must change her views. It was this that finnaly pushed her over to us.
All of this leads us to believe that we have a good chance this November and we are looking to capitalize on it as much as possible.