NOTE: THIS IS AN ACTION DIARY FOR FLORIDA RESIDENTS ONLY
Cross Posted From FlaPolitics.com
Last Wednesday I posted a diary urging people to go to the Democratic Party Caucuses Saturday in order to get involved in the campaigns and especially to collect signatures on the Common Cause petitions to get state constitutional amendments on the 2010 ballot which would outlaw gerrymandering.
I had a great time myself and want to encourage people to continue with this effort by attending election watch parties Tuesday night and bringing a stack of petitions with them.
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I collected 35 signatures (on each of the two petitions) which is the best I've done in a single event. I wanted to get 37, which would have brought me up to a total of 100, but I spent too much time yakking at the end of the event when things were slowing down. People kept coming in that I hadn't seen in years, and you know how garrulous us old farts are.
But, I'll be heading over to the Quaker meeting Sunday (it's potluck), and I should get enough there to put me over the century mark. So, did anyone else get involved in collecting signatures? We need to get some kind of a challenge thing going.
I started collecting primary night, January 29, so I think I've done alright for a month. My personal goal is 500, which shouldn't be too hard.
How about all you Tampa Bay folks? Thefos, Bobnbob, Boofdah, with your DFA bona fides you ought to be able to knock out a 100 of these easily. And I'm sure SusanS and GatorDem just need to flip through their rolodexes to get 100 signed without breaking a sweat.
Kansasr told me he was going out of town this weekend, but when he returns I know he could head over to the Dolphin Club and have them waiting in line to sign. How about some more of the South Florida group getting involved, you all got plenty of Democrats to go around down there.
The caucus was a great place to work the petitions. I had four or five people respond "Damn right, hand it over" when I asked them if they'd like to sign a Common Cause petition to stop gerrymandering.
It was interesting to hear their own gerrymander horror stories. There was one woman there who was collecting signature cards to get on the ballot to run for the County Commission here in Leon County, but she couldn't vote in the caucus because her Congressional District met in Jacksonville!
There were people from Walton County who said they were now in my congressional district because the Republican legislature had been trying to defeat our Democratic congressman, Allen Boyd, and the area they were from was heavily Republican (there's a military base nearby).
There were people from Wakulla and Jefferson Counties who complained about their legislative districts. (I actually vote in a state senate district that goes all the way to Marion County!)
So, if you're interested in doing this let me repeat what I said in my last diary about how and why to do it:
I want to discuss is using these events to collect signatures for the FairDistrictsFlorida.org petitions for state constitutional amendments to stop gerrymandering. This issue is being sponsored by Common Cause and is to appear on the 2010 ballot.
Ultimately, it is a non-partisan effort. But, realistically, on a short term basis, it is CRITICAL for Democrats. If we don’t get this measure on the ballot and passed than any gains in legislative and congressional seats will be taken away thru reapportionment and a more intense gerrymandering by the Republican legislature after the 2010 census.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO STATE PARTY CHAIR KAREN THURMAN IN 2002
After the 2000 census, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature reconfigured the 5th so it was virtually coextensive with the State Senate district of that body's President Pro Tem, Ginny Brown-Waite. Nonetheless, Thurman ran for reelection. Even though the redrawn district had gone narrowly for George W. Bush in 2000 (Al Gore had won her old district handily), Thurman just barely lost to Brown-Waite.
We’ve already seen how it works. We’ve seen how the egregious Tom Feeney drew his own new district so he could get a seat in Congress. If he loses to Susan Kosmas this year due to long Democratic presidential coattails you can be assured that he (or some other Republican politician in the legislature) will have the district redrawn with all new information from the 2008 and 2010 elections so that he (or another Republican) can win it back.
As an aside as to the extent of the gerrymandering in Florida you should read this DKos diary handicapping the Florida congressional races for the November elections. Here are some quick quotes:
A weirdly shaped district . . . An oddly shaped district . . . The most Democratic district in the South . . . Another weirdly shaped district. What is it shaped like? . . . ohh... go look at the wiki . . . This one is shaped like a ?. Folks, to appreciate southern FL districting, you really have to look at a map. Gerry would be proud of these guys, but the Republicans may have overdone it, as they now have several vulnerable seats. . . . One of the strangest shaped districts in the country. Go look. It's south Florida along the Atlantic....more or less.
I’ve been meaning to write about the FairDistrictrictsFlorida.org issue separately and was going to wait until the primary madness settled down, but this even is too big an opportunity to pass up. If enough people get involved we could collect 1,000 or more signatures in one day. I’ve personally collected 63 to date and have only been doing it for less than a month.
If you want to help out with this effort first go to the website and download the petitions(pdf), one for congressional districts and one for legislative districts. All each amendment does is set short, concise guidelines that the legislature must follow when engaging in redistricting.
These petitions are different from the previous amendment attempt by Common Cause which was shot down by the State Supreme court. A fuller description of this can be found in Corwin’s diary from last year.
Next you need to make copies of the petitions, however many you think you can get signed. Then go buy a clipboard and a couple of good pens.
When I started out I bought two clipboards and put all the legislative petitions on one and all the congressional petitions on the other. I would then give one clipboard to a person, wait until he or she were done, and then give them the other clipboard to fill out. While they were filling out the second I put the signed petition from the first clipboard on the bottom of the packet and did the same with the second when they were done with it.
I figured this was a very efficient process, but I found out thru experience that it wasn’t optimal. First, it’s slow. Second, people get put off having to fill out the second, which tends to cause them to make mistakes.
It’s not uncommon to find that someone has entered the day’s date in the place to put their birthdate (or vice versa). After one collection spree I once found three like that on the second petition out of a total of twenty. If they put in their birthdate wrong you can correct it from the first petition and still use it.
What I now do is use one clipboard and alternate petitions. I get a person to fill out the first one, sign it, and then just sign the second one. I then put both petitions on the bottom of the pack and move on to the next person. When I get home I fill out the top of the second petition based on the information in the first.
Once you try it I think you’ll agree it’s the best procedure to use. After you get all your petitions signed you mail them back them back to the address on each on. Don’t hoard them, mail them back on a weekly basis if you get into this.
The procedure I described worked great for me Saturday, very quick, very efficient. Since I had bought two clipboards when I first started, I brought them both with me so that I could keep talking to someone new even while someone else was signing the other one. That came in handy when things got busy.
On a personal basis I want to say that I met a lot of very nice people. I know some bloggers are a bit introverted. This is a good way to get out of your comfort zones and try interacting with friendly strangers in a relatively supportive environment. Many people thanked me for what I was doing.
One thing I forgot to mention in the last post is that I pulled some stuff off the FairDistrictsFlorida.org website to make a one page handout for folks who said they wanted more information before they signed. They can either stand there and read it while I attend to other folks, or take it with them, which is fine since it includes the web address of the site. If you don't want to do this yourself, email me at floridanetroots AT yahoo DOT com and I'll send you a Word file of what I use.
If you go to your local DEC website they should have info about any Tuesday night election watch parties. Those are tough on us old codgers who go to bed at 9 pm, but you young folks should be able to stand it. So, print out some petitions, make copies, and head on out. Do yourself, and your state, a favor.
I forgot to mention, I got superdelegate Jon Ausman's signature today (he was actually in charge of the caucus).
Have fun!