(While they won't replace good old-fashioned shoe leather, tools matter. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Consultants in California and everywhere would like us to believe that the money game is everything. But something seems to be changing. On November 3rd of this year, a loose coalition of progressive groups won a tremendous set of victories in a small California city despite getting outspent by a factor of more than 20. This could be what California democracy would look like if it was built on a person to person foundation. The following is a first-person account from Hillary Blackerby, Secretary of the local Democratic Party organization, who asked me to post it (full discolsure, this post says nice things about California VoterConnect):
The City of Santa Barbara on California's Central Coast is one of those silly places that still has its city elections in November of odd years. Our city ballot this year consisted of a mayor's seat, 3 city council seats and 4 ballot measures. Two of the five mayoral candidates were current sitting councilmembers with time left in their terms, so if one of them were to win the mayor's seat, the 4th highest vote getter in the council race would get a 2 year term to finish out the mayor's council term. There were thirteen candidates for city council.
Progressive organizations with ground forces that were activated for the campaign included...
Ugh, we just got home from work to find a really sleazy and deceptive doorhanger on our front porch. Nothing screams trust to me like the old "FPPC# Pending" seal of approval. Hit the flip for some pictures, and see my flickr stream for full size images...
