Progressive Kick was the first national progressive group to do a major ad buy against both Halvorson and Hutchinson for their “A” ratings from the NRA. They did a major hard-hitting ad buy and, behind the scenes, they evangelized with Bloomberg’s shop – as well as all the other national progressive groups – to do likewise. (Other groups were cautious about jumping in to what looked like a messy and probably losing situation.) Progressive Kick’s visionary early bet on Robin Kelly had a decisive impact. Progressive Kick’s ads targeting Hutchinson, and the threat of additional ads, forced her out of the race and created a two-way race, which the other national progressive groups and major local leaders felt comfortable jumping in on. Robin Kelly won in a blow-out with 58%, and scored the first decisive political victory against the NRA in the post-Newtown Era. Thank you, Progressive Kick, for your prescient and courageous leadership in this race!

Take the Affordable Care Act, for example. The blueprint for this program was put together by Romney himself, along with some advisors who went on to assist President Obama in drafting his own version. A conservative principle is the basis of this law – personal responsibility. If the left-wing of the Democratic Party had its way, there would be a single-payer or government option to achieve a similar goal of near-universal coverage.

To pre-empt a drawn out negotiation process, however, Obama used RomneyCare as a template for the legislation he would promote. Under the ACA, an individual is under a mandate to carry insurance. If unable to afford it – and only then – the government will step in to assist via subsidy.

A boon to the private insurance industry, the ACA achieves two goals. One, nearly all Americans will soon have access to preventative medicine. This will go a long way toward increasing the health, and thusly, the economic productivity of average American citizen. Two, private business will increase and flourish. As a bonus, increased demand should bring costs down for all who purchase it. Economics 101, people!

But, since politics these days are so polarized, bi-partisan support for nearly any measure is difficult to achieve. Despite appealing to conservative principles, the ACA has been condemned by all who align themselves with the neo-Conservatives in Congress. This stubbornness and bastardization of our political system is really what I am running against. Romney is just the face of it.

Both parties are guilty. Maybe in different proportions, but still. It’s why we need to CHANGE THE DEBATE in this country. Obama might not have all the answers, but at least his policy is providing me with the necessary care I need to fight a serious illness.

So, to protect my health, and for all who find themselves in a similar situation, I am PROUD and stand FIRM in my resolve to – Run Against Romney!

I started volunteering for Vote Mob seven or eight weeks ago. I make sure the records are right so we know how much money there is (and how many hires you all can make), I talk with donors and potential donors, and I help to keep them part of the team by sharing what I know of your work. Your reports make my job possible. (And fun!)

I signed on to Vote Mob because like all of you, I think the outcome of this election will have a profound effect on this country (and on CT, where we have a super tight Senate race) – not to mention a profound effect globally. Like Billy, I’ve watched elections be won or lost on the smallest of margins. I’m also deeply aware of the ways that people in their teens & 20s can absolutely determine the outcome – not just of the presidential race, but of all races on all the ballots all over the country. I came on to this project as a donor initially. I was really inspired by the possibility of having more than a hundred organizers on campuses, so I also volunteered my fundraising time to help make that happen. It’s really, really inspirational to see you all make it sing.

Billy & I have known each other for about fifteen years; I met him back when I was starting an organization for young, wealthy, progressive women & men, called Resource Generation. Resource Generation is a community in which people with wealth in their 20s & early 30s can meet & share information about everything from respectful donor practices to serving on the board of a family foundation. It is not a grant-making organization. It is part of an effort to help build a lifetime community of progressive donors who use both their money and their access in alignment with their values. Resource Generation has groups meeting all over the country. Feel free to pass on the website if you know people who should see it.

I first fundraised in order to meet the budget for Resource Generation, and in the process I realized that 1) fundraising isn’t as terrifying as I thought and 2) I can raise WAY more money than I can give. Everybody can. Knowing that, after Hurricane Katrina, I joined a really amazing national fundraising effort that ultimately raised over four million dollars for Black-led organizations along the Gulf Coast. I met a lot of awesome people, spent some time in Louisiana & Mississippi, and learned a TON.

Billy asked me to share some tips on fundraising with you all, and I’d love to have a longer conversation with any of you about it, but here are some quick hits:
It’s a lot easier to ask someone else to support if you have already given. It doesn’t have to be a big gift. Someone said to me once that if I wasn’t getting the money I needed, it was because I wasn’t asking enough people. This is true. Ask EVERYBODY.

There are lots of ways to ask. The most low-key is to remind people that they can give a gift on the donation page of the website & that every gift counts.
Lots of people say no. That’s OK. It doesn’t mean bad things about you or me or the work. Lots of people say yes! (When someone says yes, or puts a dollar in a can, say thank you. It’s actually one of the most human & important things you can do as a fundraiser.)

It is a little known fact that most gifts come from individuals, not from foundations. Fundraising from individuals is actually just a form of good organizing, and involves the same skills. I can get really detailed about this, but when we ask for money for Vote Mob, we are essentially establishing what our common goals are (i.e. turning out the campus vote) and giving people a way to use their tools ($, time, access) in the service of those goals.
It’s great to be working with you all. What you do is both inspirational & crucial.

Tracy

This week has been extremely busy but with 28 days left I have no doubts my plans will work out.

Nathaniel ran for our school Liberal Arts College Senator and did such an amazing job on a platform that included diversity and a new face to the campus. Extremely proud of him for it.
I got a few lasting people to register before cutoff time So yay for me!

Direct contact…(obviously) but I have managed to tell a lot of people about All Hands On Deck by addressing the fact that it’s not all about voting, it’s about information and out future as leading global citizens. I want to make flyers or include this amazing pamphlet which broke down our option for the elections my team mate LaToya made. It even informedme and I pride myself in being informed!
5. How you’re doing and big picture questions you’re thinking about (it’s OK to say you’re struggling!

I also want to distribute more stickers and begin the breakdown of voters and why we (as youngesters) are a pivotal influence in this election, as well as people under 18 and undocumented folks.

My name is Gerrlyn and I’m reporting from San Diego, CA! I hope everyone is doing amazing with their programs! I have been working to register students within the UCSD community for about three weeks now and am glad to see that we are making plenty of progress here.

This past week, we’ve registered about 130 students, which is in addition to the 2,100 students we registered the couple weeks before. I have also been able to recruit 12 new volunteers, and train six of them. Earlier today, I posted flyers all over campus publicizing my program. I am hoping it will attract some more folks interested in this type of work.

Some of my accomplishments so far include the following:15 class raps, trained 6 volunteers and registered 130 students.

My challenges have been: Coalitions with other groups on campus are TOUGH. With the complexity of such a program, I have been struggling with ways to make it really simple for volunteers to be a part of. Any suggestions? Also, what are some good ways to keep them motivated?
Tip: Always make time to call through your volunteer list every day!! This tends to be a task that I leave off until the end of the day, but it is SO crucial that you make time for this!

In the next week, I hope to recruit more volunteers, find a few volunteers to help lead, and hit more class raps. Register 800 students and talk to 36 people to help volunteer. Find time to effectively train folks on voter registration while still managing the program of the day

Although I do face a lot of rejection when it comes to students not wanting to register to vote, it always lifts me up when a student that I met a few days back comes to find me to register as they said they would!

VIRGINIA IS FOR VOTERS!

Welcome the VA Team:

Organizing on the UVA Campus: Barkot, Tina, Sam, Adair, Kamille – five superstar ladies who are committing their non-class time to getting every progressive student on UVA’s campus registered and excited to vote!

Organizing in Charlottesville and surrounding counties: David! An almost-high-school-grad taking challenging courses at Piedmont Valley Community College, David is recruiting his friends to be volunteers to work area high schools and the 2 campuses of PVCC.

Organizing in Northern VA: Colin! A Deputy Field Organizer for Obama in 2008, Colin is now leading an amazing effort at George Mason University and communities in Arlington and Fairfax. He’s got several voter reg events planned for this week and is recruiting AND training volunteers at light speed!

Overall, we’re doing great here in VA. We have ONE MORE WEEK to get folks registered and I’m confident we’ll have a nice high-three or even four digit number.

My secret for success: Hiring really enthusiastic, smart, energetic, awesome people!

Problem Area: Richmond. The community is hard to break into and the VCU campus is very insular. But the Good News: The awesome other organizing entity in VA, Virginia New Majority along with OFA has the Richmond area saturated. I get asked if I’m registered every time I leave my house!

Keep it up yall!

Hi everyone! Caitlyn here. I apologize for the delay in my weekly update, I’ve been waiting to hear back from a few members of our NH team. Our team includes Lauren Banker and Hannah Whitcomb at UNH, as well as Inga Dellea-Messner and Graham Ayres at Keene State College, and David Citrin at New England College, as well as our volunteers from each school. We’re also partnering with an organization already well established in the state – the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance for Action (NHCAA), specifically with their members Carol Ward and Melissa Gray, as they are doing similar work on college campuses across the state!

Several things have been accomplished this week: I finally got the rest of my stickers and hoodies/shirts and have made good use of them. I’ve sent them out to the rest of the team so hopefully the state will be covered in Votemob stickers soon! Lauren and Hannah went to a Bill Clinton event at UNH and handed out fliers they had made to inform people about registering to vote. They spoke to a ton of students and were happy to find that many had either already registered or had expressed serious interest in registering. I’ll include a photo from the event in the email.

They also networked with members from Occupy NH and NHCAA and have begun plans for more literature drops as well as trick-or-voting. Inga and Graham continued to speak to classes at Keene state about registering and set up registration events. Our school had a debate watching party this week in the pub, as well as more literature and sticker drops. David has planned a large music, poetry and politics event on campus for next week (it will include slam poetry, musicians, and a debate between people supporting Romney and Obama, as well as a few speeches on why voting is important and how to register). *One quick side note – in NH people must be registered by town hall clerk supervisors only, which means that we unfortunately cannot register people ourselves, we can only encourage people to register.* We’ve also had a volunteer at Nashua Community College put up fliers about registering/the candidates, and we will be sending him stickers asap to put up as well!

David and I have also finalized a plan with a professor to get people from the town hall to come on campus to register people (we will also have raffle items to encourage less-than-active students to register, and a “mock election.” We will also be handing out votemob stickers and literature on the candidates). I’ve also been invited by NHCAA to be filmed for a PSA on why youth voting is so important. It will be this Tuesday, I’m very excited to be a part of it!!

In terms of things that I am struggling with I would just say that my biggest challenge is the fact that we cannot register people ourselves. We’ve been struggling to find other ways to encourage registration but it’s hard to really gauge how big of an impact we’ve made without concrete numbers. Another struggle has been that some people have had fairly negative reactions to the stickers – finding them offensive/over the top or feeling that the sarcasm was too easy to miss. On the other hand, some people have loved the stickers, and found them to be hilariously apt, and the positive/negative reactions seem pretty straight down the middle.

We’re planning all sorts of campus registration events, literature drops, and other creative projects to get the message out, but any suggestions for what to do to make a powerful impact would be extremely useful!

This week should be even more eventful with the registration events, the PSA, and other activities, so hopefully I’ll have a lot more to report (and a video to share!) soon!

I hope that everyone is doing well!

-Caitlyn