Organizing Your State - The Next Step
Submitted by abstrusezincate on Sun, 09/16/2007 - 20:10
in
In my previous entries, I spent a good amount of time talking about strategies for making your local meetup successful, but once you begin doing that, your job has just begun. At that point, then you need to start reaching out beyond your local group and reach your friends. One of the most important things that we all have to work together to achieve is to make sure that Ron Paul has ballot access in all states and to make sure we can field as many delegates as possible to the GOP National Convention. The way to do this is through organizing your state.
I had the honor and privilege of presiding over the first statewide meetup here in Pennsylvania. People were present from Erie, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Philadelphia, Harrisburg and a number of the thirty plus groups in our state. We have begun networking because we know there are some very important things we have to do, and foremost among these is identifying how delegates are chosen and what you have to do to make sure the organization exists to win.
A state network is invaluable to this because you need to be able to cover the entirety of where you live. For instance, we have 19 Congressional Districts in Pennsylvania, each of which gets to choose three or four delegates, and we are not a winner-take-all primary. Because of that, we absolutely need to compete everywhere, and you cannot simply assume some group will do this. In rural areas, the process was not understood. But, when we came together as a state, we have been able to sit down and make sure that everyone knew what needed to happen, and the individual groups made sure they handled what affects the whole state in their distinct area.
It is a great opportunity to also pool resources. We found that Philadelphia is great at making banners, and now we can draw upon their expertise instead of having to spend the money we might have done otherwise. Every state will be different, but we need to build an infrastructure to compete, and I strongly encourage each state to begin building an alliance where you can communicate between your groups, in the various media where they exist, and determine what works for you.
I will also say we had a great time in Harrisburg, and having our whole state work together has built confidence, saved money and effort, and made us all better as we learned from one another. It also means that when the campaign needs our help, either within our state or without, we'll be able to heed the call better, and that is what matters.
Each state can take its own structure, but you should look into working with the people who are around. I would also offer the advice to be wary of existing coalitions, because although some mean very well, people come into this with different agendas and use your best judgment. If you stick with Ron Paul oriented groups, the people doing the work on the ground, you'll be in great shape.
State Strategy
Ron Paul's campaign passed through Southern CA, completely neglected the MOST political portion of CA, the North. I met with the campaign and asked about their state strategy which is, register to become a GOP delegate. That's was ALL they had to say (and donate more money).
Well, officials in CA have more to say, and the voters of Northern CA have a hell of allot more to say about this than the RP campaign, which should address these voters if it does not want to hand feed CA to Killery.
The Secertary of State, Debra Bowen, says that the GOP/DP have until September 23rd to block Decline to State Party voters. The CAGOP has not responded to my query, however, knowing that RP is NOT the only GOP and Fred Thompson is doing well in CA, it would appear that the GOP will NOT refuse Decline to State Party voters. which would ultimately deliver approximately one third registered voters to Killery.
Meanwhile in Northern CA,. when I have told friends, community, groups, the newspapers about Ron Paul and that they need to register GOP, I am told THAT IS AN OUT RIGHT LIE, It's COERSION of VOTERS RIGHTS, THAT CAMPAIGN SHOULD BE SUED for TAKING AWAY THE FREEDOM of VOTERS RIGHTS to choose. This is why I decided to write to the Sec of State and CA GOP. While the RP campaign has REFUSED to respond or offer any advice on the subject, the voters here are calling the campaign a charade because the campaign is telling Decline to State Party registered voters, the most intelligent and experienced voters, many having been elected or run in elections, worked campaigns and elections, and they know what they are talking about, the CAGOP is going to blaock Decline to State party voters from voting GOP, while the RP campaign is making itsellf look very very bad (LIARS).
California
Is San Francisco in Northern CA? He was there on Thursday. He previously attended events at Google in the bay area. He was also at the Hard Money Conference in SF last November.
For more info on the status of "Decline to State" for California Voters, please see the Flash Report
http://www.flashreport.org/commentary0b.php?postID=200703011...
Thanks,
Steve
I was at the SF Lunch
You may remember me as one of the few people who brought a hand made sign that said: MENDOCINO RON PAUL and had a cannabis leaf in the middle. NO I do NOT consider SF part of NoCAL. I spent the night in Santa Rosa to enable myself and those who escorted me to make it in time for the lunch. Gas cost over $90.00. Parking cost $19.00. It was a 4 hour ride back, and those from Eureka would have had to travel 6 - 7 hours one way to have gone to the event. The regional rep has not contacted ONE GOP Meetup orgainzer personally, has not offered any corporate signs (which do not include FOR PRESIDENT) on their message, and furthermore, the campaign has left NoCAL to Killery by not respecting the fact the majority of registered voters (and in Mendo we have more registered voters per capita than any county in CA) are Decline to State Party. Debra Bowen, the Sec of State says the GOP has until Sept 23 to withdraw their ballot from Decline to State Party voters, but here in NoCAL, NO ONE believes the GOP will withdraw for the "Wacko" RP or his "Oddball" supporters because there are too many CIA and other govt operatives who NEED Decline to State Party registration for their job security (and perhaps their lives). I have not heard from the CAGOP on the issue except that the GOP convention, Sept 8th in Minn is already almost maxed out for delegates.
IF the CA GOP withdraws their ballot from Decline to State Party voters, that would deliver the election in CA to Killery by default.
I do not fault RP. I think his campaign is more interested in getting "oddballs" to register GOP than RP winning. They came to SF looking like they didn't understand where they were. RP gave the same speach he gives on each stop, they didn't even do their homework to TRY to appeal to the citizens here. My cannabis leaf sign got tons of thumbs up and waves and people telling me RIGHT ON. RP never said a WORD about an exceptionally important issue to the ISOLATIONISTS of Mendo who have legalized cannabis (unlike SF that has nothing more than dozens of ads for cannabis clinics in their Weekly paper, Proposition 215 and continued raids).
NoCAL is isolationists as we have passed laws of, by and FOR us, from the banning of Genetically modified farming to going further than Proposition 215 and passing Measure G legalizing cannabis farming. We have one mcdonald's on the coast and that's only for the tourists, we are NON-Corporate, corporations quit here because we the people support INDEPENDENT stores, and yes, we pay much much more for products MADE IN AMERICA, Independent gas, and PG&E pays many businesses here for the power made by solar. SF is awash in corporatism, it's mostly immigrants who are globalists, supports the UN and chained to the Democrat party.
The RP campaign didn't even TRY to help anyone in SF get news out about RP being in SF. The RP campaign is interested in two things, MORE MONEY for the campaign and registereing GOP voters. IF RP is a serious presidential candidate, I feel sorry for him to have such a GOP imbeded campaign staff that can't think outside the GOP box or even TRY to reach the voters in NoCAL, who are exceptionally influencial nationally, as 26 peace organizations are established here (not SF).
California
Hi Granger,
I remember seeing your sign in the Video coverage of the event. I'm down in Southern California and SF is also a six hour+ drive. The Paul Campaign has one staffer who covers several Western States.
Until the Paul Campaign has enough staff to organize Northern California (and most other places) it's up to the grassroots to get things going. Coordinate with other meetup groups and help build Paul's name recognition.
One resource available to California Organizers (and supporters) is the CA4RonPaul Yahoo Egroup. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CA4RonPaul/
Other states also have Yahoo Egroups available. Substitute your state abbreviation for CA in the above URL.
Paul has a very good chance to pick up delegates in the majority democratic counties if we can get the word out that Paul Supporters need to register Republican for the primary. (Assuming we get official confirmation of this fact.)
Hopefully, we will know more after the 23rd.
Thanks,
Steve
Dear Steve
I picked up campaign signs for Santa Rosa, Eureka, Mendo and Reno Meetups, hopefully they will share with others in Marin, Rhonert Park and Chico.
We have all tried in vain to contact the campaign while the Meetups pooled their money to send me to GET HELP from the campaign. I had a list of WHY Ron Paul needs to come to NoCAL.
The campaign is NOT interested and the rep told me personally, they are NOT interested and my job is to register GOP and work to be a delegate and send as much money as I can to the campaign. PERIOD END OF DISCUSSION
Some of the NoCAL Meetups are organized by GOP voters who are wondering WHY the campaign has not contacted them, or tried to help them. Meanwhile, we are aware that some campaigns are FAT with signs, buttons, CDs, Slim Jims all provided FREE by the campaign, while we hunt on Ebay for bargains and pay premium prices,, and yet, the other Meetups sit on these campaign tools and NO ONE ever makes an offer to share or come to NoCAL.
I attend Meetups in Eureka to Santa Rosa and Reno, that's quite a BIG territory to cover and I have done this out of my own pocket. It would have been nice for the campaign to say, ""thanks", here's your sign. Instead I got a very COLD reception and ORDERED to register GOP and told to leave them alone.
I'm all for the rEVOLution, and I'll vote for Ron Paul if the GOP don't close their ballot to DTSP voters, other than that, I've never in my life met such a rude cold group of campaign workers in my 30 years of elections. Makes me miss Nader tremendously, even he was nicer. And Ron Paul, is a very nice man, I feel bad for him.
step 0
step 0: register to vote, and register as a republican if needed in your state, see http://www.primarilypaul.com/ron-paul-in-the-primaries/
The Steps
To make it more clear, I decided to add a comment about the steps we took.
1) Network with your in-state groups (find out who is there to work with)
2) Begin regular communication (start talking to one another)
3) Schedule a group planning session (this can be by phone, internet, or in person!)
4) Cover your ballot responsibilities (delegates and petitioning)
5) Figure out how you can help one another (you can share resources, knowledge, and strategies)
6) Enjoy their company (silly, perhaps, but in a long campaign, knowing that friends are out there means everything!)
It is that simple. The details are up to all of you, but this is what the campaign absolutely needs. They are counting on us. Let's show them what we can do.
If you're curious about the details of what we did in Pennsylvania, take a look at our statewide meetup site, which is a predecessor to a website we are going to build that does far more than what I've mentioned here. If you read the minutes from our meeting, and are curious, you'll see some of the ideas.