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Notes from the March 15th meeting

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / Leave a comment

Action item mostly accomplished: Sixty postcards for Randy Villegas, CA–22. Sixty postcards for Virginia referendum on temporary gerrymandering (their version of Prop 50). If successful, VA would swing four seats to the Democrats. Postcard stamp scarcity is upon us again!?

Via Bruce: The Tri-Valley Democrats are having a Governor candidate forum on Zoom at 6:30 pm today. [Everyone is looking for the candidates mired at the bottom of the polls to give up, to avoid the disaster of Republicans taking both of the top-two slots while six or seven Democrats split the rest. The two most recent polls I have seen had the Republicans in first and third, but one had Eric Swalwell in second while the other placed Katie Porter there.]

Also via Bruce: Leah and Ezra of National Indivisible have special interest in CA-22. A call in partnership with Central Valley Matters is scheduled for March 30, 6:00 pm. Zoom link.

Sally brought the latest sample Vote Forward letters. Too long, as usual. My hope is they are the (losing) part of an A/B test.

Link to Bay Resistance.

Current list of March 28 No Kings events near here.

  • 11:00–12:00 West Berkeley (San Pablo & University)
  • 11:30–3:00 San Francisco (Embarcadero Plaza), 12:00 march to Civic Center Plaza, 2:00 rally at Civic Center
  • 12:00–2:30 Oakland (Frank Ogawa Plaza)
  • 1:00–2:30 I-80 Pedestrian bridge
  • 1:15–2:30 March from Cal Campus (Zellerbach Plaza) to MLK Park

Events are also listed for Albany, Kensington, Piedmont, El Cerrito del Norte, Richmond, Alameda, Lafayette, etc.

No meeting on 3/29. We’ll be recovering from the 3/28 marches!

Notes from the March 1st meeting

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / Leave a comment

We reviewed the election landscape in California, especially CA–22 and the governor’s race. As Bruce pointed out, the state Democratic Convention failed to reach the 60% endorsement threshold for either of these races. There’s even some fear that with eight Democrats splitting the pro-D vote, the two Republicans will end up advancing to the general election. Notwithstanding sentiment at the convention, we expect Democrats who can’t self-fund and are polling in single digits will drop out before June.

I went over the National Indivisible’s first three Democratic primary endorsements. I promised a video [coming soon] to go with the printed version, which is appended below. Two are trailing their opponent in fundraising and the third is an essential upgrade. Sally caught Leah’s and Ezra’s weekly What’s The Plan call. The official summary:

2026-03-01-NationalIndivDownload

Ann Overton brought an origami butterfly from the No Kings Art Build. The next event is Saturday, March 7, 1:00–5:00, in the Mills College area. You can sign up for that session and/or March 8, 14, and 15 with Mobilize.

We finished with 100 postcards for the Virginia Redistricting referendum, which was approved by the Virginia Supreme Court today.

Our Friday protests have grown (82 last week), but we still have enough chocolate for everyone. Indivisible Berkeley is starting a similar weekly protest, Wednesdays at 4:30–5:30 at MLK & Russell.

2026-03-01-IndivEndorsementsDownload

Graham Platner has the rizz

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / Leave a comment

Tonight I went to a fundraiser for Graham Platner, the unconventional candidate running for the U.S. Senate from Maine. First he has to get past current Maine governor Janet Mills (age 78) in the primary, then gold-medalist concern troll Susan Collins in the general. A poll today has him ahead of both by double digits.

Platner has charisma. He was a Marine non-com, with some of the mien and voice (deep, a little rumbly) that you’d expect. On the other hand, he used to sing in community theatre musicals, which is why he thinks he doesn’t get nervous speaking to crowds. Of course, he was facing a very friendly audience. He’s a long-time Berniecrat, in a rural area that’s usual hostile to Democrats (although his parents were Democrats). He explained how an economic populist message will win, focusing on how the working class has not shared in recent economic gains. Basically, he has the education and worldliness that most of his peers lack to reject voting MAGA out of mere resentment. He says that he has a larger volunteer network, per capita, than Zohran Mamdani did. He also mentioned that, like Mamdani, the Democratic establishment had its heart set on another candidate, which Platner attributed in considerable part to the malign influence of money on elections and the accommodations the DSCC and other D.C. Dems make to obtain it.

Platner is outraising Mills 2 to 1, but Collins will be getting massive PAC money. I don’t know if Platner will need it, though. I think all the Democratic Senate candidates will have deep pockets.

Notes from the 2/15 meeting

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / 1 Comment

I reported on the relatively favorable forecast for the House and the key Senate races. The most contentious California race, among Democrats, is the primary to take on David Valadao, the Republican in CA–22. The candidates are Randy Villegas and the more conservative Democrat Dr. Jasmeet Bains, who appears to be the favorite of out-of-area Democratic leadership. Conversely, Villegas is the favorite of Democratic leaders in the district, Dolores Huerta, and our colleague Mary Boergers, who leads the Berkeley chapter of Central Valley Matters. There will be a Villegas fundraiser this Friday, 5:00–7:00. If interested, you can sign up here.

Note that Sister District has renamed itself States Win, so that is how I will refer to it from now on. With the exception of a Michigan special election, they have not picked any races yet. They are playing in more states than last cycle, including Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, and North Carolina. We’ve written postcards or raised money in those states before. Nicole Zambrano has left States Win for grad school; Ariana Ybarra replaces her as the West Coast Organizing Manager. She warned me, they are fond of phonebanking.

Volunteers for roles in Indivisible Elmwood:

  • CA Indivisible – Bruce
  • National Indivisible and Vote Forward — Sally
  • Indivisible Berkeley & Indivisible East Bay — Estella
  • States Win — Martha
  • Central Valley Matters — Ann O.

[Martha and Estella: I will be granting you author permission for this website. I believe everyone else who volunteered has it already.]

We distributed 100 postcards encouraging turnout for the North Carolina primary. No need to bring them back here, unless you need some stamps.

Our protests have grown to over 100; ICE murders served as a a recruitment tool. They are currently 4:15–5:15. We will revert to 5:00–6:00 after the Daylight Savings switch.

Indivisible Berkeley is organizing a new weekly protest at MLK & Russell, Wednesdays 4:30–5:30 pm. Starts March 4.

Undoing Citizens United!

/ db13jackson / Leave a comment

A recent initiative—already on the Montana ballot this November— would go a long way toward  curtailing dark money from US corporations in US politics. Called a “corporate power reset,” it would remove from corporations the power to spend money on political campaigns. All corporations are legal fictions whose only powers are those given under state laws, and states can modify those laws to eliminate the power to influence elections.

 At a recent CA Indivisible Zoom meeting, Tom Moore of the Center for American Progress made the case for the Montana initiative (called the Transparent Election Initiative) and for making a similar effort in California and other states.  Moore is a senior fellow at CAP who previously served as counsel to a longtime member of the Federal Election Commission. His comprehensive report on a general Corporate Power Reset is below, along with related commentary.

Several CA Indivisible groups are pushing legislators and candidates for governor to commit to working for this kind of action in California. We can join them! A suggested script from Indivisible Ventura: “I’m calling from [zip code] and I want [State Senator/Assemblymember______] to introduce and support the Montana Plan to stop corporate spending in CA politics.”

Below are links for more information:

Web version of Tom Moore’s comprehensive CAP report, “The Corporate Power Reset That Makes Citizens United Irrelevant”: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-corporate-power-reset-that-makes-citizens-united-irrelevant/


Robert Reich, “How to Get Rid of ‘Citizens United'”: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-to-get-rid-of-citizens-united


Recording of CAP’s October 14, 2025 event introducing the project: https://www.americanprogress.org/events/undoing-citizens-united-and-reining-in-super-pacs/


Short explainer video that reached 4.7 million views on Reddit, despite the unphotogenic narrator: https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1nrcrez/video_the_legal_strategy_that_renders-citizens/


Link to the October 2025 national polling on this reform and on dark and corporate money, commissioned by Issue One: https://issueone.org/press/new-polling-citizens-united-money-in-politics-reforms/


The Transparent Election Initiative, which is advancing this toward Montana’s 2026 ballot: https://transparentelection.org/


Harold Meyerson in The American Prospect, “Montanans Go After ‘Citizens United'”: https://prospect.org/2025/10/27/montanans-go-after-citizens-united/

Bruce

Huge Friday protest

/ Naomi Janowitz / 2 Comments

Huge protest last Friday (Jan 30) with over 200 people and we handed out 700 flyers!!

This Friday will also be large as people take to the streets in solidarity with Minneapolis. Official time is 4:15–5:15 but some stay later since it is staying light longer.

Looking for something else to do? How about joining in the economic boycott? Here is one version of it (among many)

https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com

Meetings resume on Feb 15th and we are hoping for RSVPs so that we can have a head count.

Back to work! Meeting Sunday, February 15, 4:00 pm, usual place

/ Andrew J. Lazarus / 4 Comments

Everything seems to be heating up a little, including resistance to the Orange Fascists. We can win the election in November, but first we have to make it that far.

Protests continue every Friday, including today, College & Ashby, 4:15–5:15 pm. We will move them later once we have more daylight. Last week we gave out 600 flyers. I ordered more for this week.

Those of you who don’t know where meetings are held, send me an email.

UPDATE: By popular demand, the current flyer. (We have it printed double-sided and sliced.) Note that the next major No Kings rallies will be March 28.

Flyer 2026-01-30Download

Protesting Report

/ Naomi Janowitz / 2 Comments
  1. We had a great showing for our Friday protest. Handed out over 500 flyers and about 90 folks were there. Enough to annoy a Trump troll from Moraga on NextDoor who claimed we only had 25. Spread the word about next week’s protest 4:15-5:15 pm since people want to participate and we need everyone. We can email a copy of our flyer to anyone who wants to make their own copies for distribution.
  2. For additional protests, check out the main Indivisible website (Indivisible.org). Many take place this weekend including one at noon near the Grand Lake tomorrow (Sunday).
  3. Besides the protest, the main action item is to pressure Dems not to include any funding for ICE in the budget they will be negotiating. 5calls.org is an easy way to do this.
  4. Do not feel discouraged. People were so grateful yesterday it cheered us. If you are feeling discouraged, join us. It will lift your spirits.