Ann Overton reported on the East Bay Activist Alliance meeting yesterday. EBAA is our local successor to Sister District, which has a narrower focus. Some EBAA contacts: Penni Takade [Campaign Liaison, Textbanking], Paul Costello [Canvassing], Jody Lerner [Fundraising], Jan Murota [Postcarding].

Bruce Jackson reported on Indivisible. Indivisible remains neutral in the Democratic Presidential primary; they did have a score card on Democracy Reform (voting rights, ballot access, gerrymandering, etc.) in which Elizabeth Warren finished first, Pete Buttigieg second, then Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, with Joe Biden last.

Lanny Weingrod reported on his research into voter turnout. The more personal, the better. Reminder, Reclaim Our Vote is meeting this Tuesday, February 4, at the Berkeley City College Auditorium. Tickets here. Donate here.

Naomi talked about the changes coming in the California ballot. Some counties have switched to sending everyone a mail ballot, but Alameda County does not appear on the list. For the March 3 election, besides the primary, there is one State measure and several county/local measures, all either taxes or bonds as I recall.

We had an extensive discussion of Sister District targets and where Elmwood should focus. Michigan State Assembly is close to flipping. SD also thinks the Arizona statehouse may flip.

We discussed our five-point action plan

1. Postcards. It is time to start again. Time to buy stamps before they are all gone (Lanny said he would buy some in Mountain View). Ann offered new postcards from the EBAA meeting. Andy will rank Tony the Democrat’s postcard campaigns so that we can concentrate on the most competitive. He will also start posting summaries and links to articles that members may have missed. Ann O will pick one day a week to postcard at Roma while the live music is going in hopes of recruiting others to join. When she decides on the day, the info will be sent out.
2. Fundraising. We are beginning a program of rotating fundraising both via our familiar thermometer on our website and also via the cards Michael made with our website link printed on them. Our first two-week drive is $1,000 for TJ Cox (CA-21), whom we helped drag across the finish line in 2018. His 2020 race will be very competitive and his fundraising so far is anemic. At the next meeting we will decide what to fundraise for next, perhaps a Voter outreach program. We’ll see at the next meeting what people think about the Reclaim Our Vote program Tuesday and we also have the Voter Participation Center. We also mentioned Josh Harder (CA-10), who calls frequently. He is a top GOP target, as is Cox, but his fundraising skills are much better. See also last meeting’s discussion of top Senate races.
3. Interns. If anyone know of any 18-19-20 year olds who would like to be sent to work for a month on a campaign, please send the info to Naomi or bring it to our next meeting.
4. Texting. Meetings will now start with texting training from 4:00–4:30 for anyone interested in starting up or just having a refresher course.
5. Education. We’ll spend 10–15 minutes at each meeting educating ourselves about important articles that have appeared in the press, polls and race info that Andy wants to share with us and anything else anyone thinks is important.