I’m in NYC (long, crazy trip, as you can imagine) and we just went online. Obviously, I’m not quite up to working yet, but I still want to let you guys know about an initiative that’s been started to stop the Stupak-Pitts amendment. It’s called One Voice For Choice, and it’s an effort from a successful Obama phone banker to call voters in a few select districts (basically, representatives who are pro-health care but also voted for Stupak-Pitts) and ask them to sign a petition asking for a bill without the Stupak-Pitts amendment. Here’s a description of the effort.
One Voice for Choice is a targeted effort that doesn’t need big numbers to be successful. In 2008 for instance, Tom Perriello won his district by less than a thousand votes. Bobby Bright won by a margin of 1700 votes.
Making a few, carefully targeted people aware of what’s happening can have a big impact.
We actually think we’re doing these members a big favor in the process. Democratic turnout in Virginia was terribly depressed when Creigh Deeds started running from the right, and a Daily Kos poll indicates that there is a 3:1 “enthusiasm gap” in favor of Republicans for 2010. These members need reliable Democratic voters to turn out for them next fall. They need to start paying attention to them now.
We are asking people to host phone banks, or volunteer to take part in one, at One Voice For Choice. The program is being run by Marta Evry of Venice for Change, who ran phone banks in California for the Obama campaign in 2008. You can sign up here and Marta will get you everything you need.
You can sign up to help phone bank here. Be creative! I’ve seen that baiting people with booze is a reliable way to get them to show up; plus, you have fun. Virtual phone banking could also be an option. You can also spread the word on your blogs and on Twitter. Remember: We don’t need to convince the whole country to win this. We only have to get a few.
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Glad to hear you made it.