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| August 28, 2006 General Membership Minutes
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| Written by Christina Valente |
General Membership Meeting
August 28, 2006
Minutes: Thirteen GPOP members and two non-members attended the
meeting.
Many thanks to Joe Strzalka, who took the minutes from the first half
of the meeting.
I. Candidate updates
Mike Rosenberg
a. Mike is on the ballot!
b. Plans to make some purchases as funds allow: lawn signs ($1/sign –
ouch!); media : West Side Weekly and UC Review – series of 6 ads/6
weeks ($140/ad in WSW)
c. Door knocking and leafletting – in progress
d. Campaign goal: win in the 60th (8 divisions in the district)
e. About 3 volunteers can cover a division in an afternoon
Suggestions:
g. Sept 21: International week of peace will have marches in Philly and
area
h. New Society Publishers in West Philly
i. Contact House of Our Own for support
Dave Baker (Mike R reporting)
a. Will be concentrating on full-on campaign for last 5 weeks
b. Is on the ballot: if state-wide candidates do not get on,
possibility that GPOP could retain minority party status in the county
IF one candidate earns 2% of the number of votes earned by the top
vote-getter in the county. Dave has best chance of doing this, since
his district covers a big fraction of Phila.
Question: What are Mike/Dave doing to build up campaign organizations
to add to the party’s strength?
Answer: Not very much, Mike only has limited time to spend on campaigns
and build an organization.
Question: Have people involved in other groups been helping?
Answer: Some with petitioning, but thought reason to have more
candidates this year was to encourage petition signature gathering.
c. Traci Confer
a. On the ballot
b. Hasn’t been able to do much yet
c. Plans to schedule a meeting for volunteers soon
II. State-wide candidates
a. Petition challenge
1. Court is not setting a deadline; could stretch for months.
Requires 9 volunteers a day. Get 150-200 signatures reviewed per
person per day. Democrats may be running out of steam – student
interns will need to get back to campus soon.
2. Urgent need to keep this going. Hillary willing to drive others on
Friday.
3. Rogers and Valente withdrew their nominating papers because Ralph
Nader’s campaign was later ordered to pay the challengers' attorneys
fees and court costs, a decision that was recently upheld by the PA
Supreme Court. However, their withdrawal would still allow them to be
on the ballot if a court decision overturns some aspect of the ballot
access law or the state's interpretation and implementation of it.
4. New argument presented by Larry Otter that signature requirement
should be keyed to last statewide election – the judicial retention
vote in 2005, rather than the Casey election that preceded it.
[Note from Christina V.: Although the Commonwealth Court ruled against
Romanelli, it suggested in its opinion that more than one
interpretation of the law was reasonable, suggesting that it thought
Otter's argument was a good one, but the court didn't want to rule in
our favor without a prior precedent set by the Supreme Court.]
b. Petition challenge at home
1. Task: review the invalid/disputed signatures, check against database
and find arguments for validating signatures. Please contact Traci
Confer if you can help with this.
2. Follow-up: Mike Gellman of Camden County will post to his list to
see if any NJ Greens can go to Harrisburg.
Break:
III. Update on Rogers/Valente candidacy
a. 3rd circuit decision went against them; appealed to Supreme Court,
but will not reach US Supreme Court in time; based on freedom of
association, burden on 3rd parties in relation to state’s interest in
controlling ballot, equal protection principles. 3rd circuit did say
PA should come up with ‘less ponderous’ method of determining who has
access to the ballot.
b. Some motions made by Larry Otter in Romanelli case could have
impact. One challenges state's decision to use Casey election as a
benchmark, instead of the retention vote on Sandra Day Newman which
occurred more recently. This argument was rejected by the Commonwealth
Court, but it’s been sent to PA Supreme Court. But if this did
succeed, Rogers/Valanete’s withdrawal of nominating papers was worded
in a way that may allow them to be have their nominating papers
reinstated and be on the ballot.
c. Trying to educate the public about the realities of petitioning.
Even scrupulous, competent petitioners achieve validity rate of about
70%. Implementation of voter registration processes are so poor and
voter registration rolls are so inaccurate that the entire process
needs to be reformed. Christina and Alex are working on articles and
op-ed pieces, possibly for the Inquirer.
d. “This was a battle worth fighting.” The Third Circuit decision,
though not in our favor, could be a bellweather of how future decisions
could go if the legislature continues to avoid addressing the issue.
*Mike R: National GP wants an item for their newspaper. Would be good
if Christina could provide that.
*Hillary working on an item for Greenstar (GPPA newspaper) on this
issue.
IV. GPOP Membership Working Group
a. Meeting held, no one from meeting present today
b. Isabelle leading effort to increase numbers and active participation
c. Get volunteers to act as committee people/ward leaders
d. Next meeting: Tues, Sep 26
1. Get people to volunteer for election day
2. Draft literature to hand out
3. Get county lists of voters
4. Do mailings to particular wards
V. Election Day Poll Coverage (11/7/2006)
a. Heather Urkuski may coordinate for 188th district, which has 60
divisions. With doubling up of divisions into polling places, probably
50 volunteers could cover all polling places for the 188th.
V. Voter registration events (Matt and Iselin)
We have currently plans for two concerts: one free at Clark Park and
one at the Rotunda at 40th and Walnut which will charge about $5.00.
Clark Park: Real West; Rotunda: the Subliminal Orphans. Dates: waiting
for confirmation. We'll be selling refreshments, buttons, shirts. We
have already budgeted the money ($100) for the Rotunda.
VI. Opt-Out
Matt: Opt-Out will not happen if we can't raise funds from the our
partners. We need $400 immediately to print the materials needed. We
have a good list of volunteers and a two-part flyer; one part is the
form to opt out, the other is a list of groups providing alternatives
to joining the military. We can front the money and recoup it.
We are aiming to start around Sept 11 -- this would make a good start
date for media coverage.
VII. First Friday/Labor Day Visibility
Hillary, Sarah, and others will be going to First Friday to pass our
literature; anyone who wants to do First Friday with her, email
Hillary.
We'll march behind our banner on Labor Day -- not official entry but no
one seems to complains. The parade route is Delaware Ave just south of
Washington and goes to Penn's Landing, at which point you need to pay
to enter. Aislin suggested getting Green balloons, etc. so we stand
out.
VIII. Upcoming Events
Mike R. sent out some information on upcoming block parties and events.
This Sunday: Urban Green Partnership event at Headhouse Square. We
will have a table and be passing out flyers. Contact Mike Rosenberg
if you can help out.
The Transit Working Group would also like to distribute leaflets at
Urban Green for the Peak Oil Event (Philly Beyond Oil, Oct 14)
IX. City Council Special Elections
Anna Verna has to issue a writ; after she does, candidates will have
fifteen days to file. The likely filing date is Sept 23. Right now,
the Greens, Libertarians, and Constitution Party can pick their
candidates. Send letters to the editor -- we still have our ballot
status.
The 7th, the 4th, and one at-large are the open seats. The 4th
comprises Manayunk, Roxborough, and part of W. Phila. The 7th is
Hunting Park and surrounding areas in N. Phila.
Discussion about who we might run. Using the ballot line increases our
visibility. We'll put out a call for potential candidates on gpopnews
and personal contacts who are likely candidates. Potential candidates
need to be told we are stretched a little thin right now. Any of these
races will help for an at-large run.
Meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Christina Valente
GPOP Recording Secretary |
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