We introduced the Join the Fight initiative with this post on Wednesday evening, and promised more details to come.
What is the Join the Fight initiative?
Without repeating ourselves too much, we can share some highlights from Wednesday’s post.
The goal of Join the Fight is to harness the power of the Balloon Juice community to strategically combat the right’s crusade to suppress and subvert the vote. We’ve already proven that when we put our collective minds to work, we can identify opportunities and make a difference. Just ask Four Directions and Voces de la Frontera – two organizations laser-focused on protecting the voting rights of vulnerable communities in crucial swing states. These worthy organizations were able to expand their mission with our help. Not to mention the fact that we got a prominent Congressperson to show up for our on-line book club. Twice.
We have agency.
Our Goal: STRATEGIC ACTION
- Threat Identification & Assessment in Key States
- Identify / Evaluate Republican & Democratic Strategies within Key States
- Participate in Actions and Raise Funds in Support of Action Being Taken
What we can potentially do is harness the power of this community to do something strategic.
Harnessing the Power of Balloon Juice – Team A: Building Relationships
One element of the Join the Fight project will be to establish contacts and relationships with activist organizations, office holders and state and local Democratic party representatives in key states where democracy is under attack.
Let them know we’re out here. Find out what they are working on. Let them know we’re eager to partner with them and bring our talents and our resources to aid them in organizing, fundraising and thwarting voter suppression and election subversion.
Organizations in 5 target states have been identified and entered into the Join the Fight database: Arizona, Florida. Georgia, Michigan and Ohio.
What We Need From You
Now we need your help to make the initial contacts and introductions in those states. And we need your help identifying organizations in about 15 more key states. Here’s a sample of some organizations we want to connect with in Arizona.
Action Time!
Bottom line, eyes on the prize: the overarching goals for this project are to fight voter suppression and election subversion efforts, to fight disinformation, and to win. Collecting information isn’t the point, it’s just the means to an end, which is making sure that our political action is as strategic as our fundraising.
There’s a lot of work to be done on a whole lot of different fronts. Is building relationships with other organizations a good match for your skills and interests?
Interested in being on the Building Relationships / Organization Outreach Team?
Interested in being part of join the Fight?
Click here to sign up! Or you can find the sign-up link in the sidebar under Join the Fight.
Excited about what you are hearing? Have any questions?
lowtechcyclist
Which states?
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: Good question!
This is a preliminary list, which will be refined by the results of the research by various teams. We may find that a state or two on this list doesn’t need to be there, or that there are a couple of states that should be on the list, but aren’t yet.
AZ
FL
GA
IA
KS
KY
LA
ME
MI
NM
NC
NV
OH
PA
TX
VA
WI
Other MJS
Could you make the lists and the join-the-fight.org site a bit more contrasty, please? Thanks!
West of the Rockies
I’m in CA but in purply-red Butte County, represented by the execrable Congressman Doug Lamalfa. I donate to his opponents, but would be happy to do more if any regional BJ peeps want to team up.
WaterGirl
@Other MJS:
Wondering if you have been to the site or if you are responding to the image in the post?
The actual site has more contrast than what you see in the somewhat blurry screen capture.
BlueGuitarist
Thanks WaterGirl!
An idea for synergy up and down the ballot:
Put additional effort into overlapping, competitive elections up and down the ballot in key states.
For example, in Pennsylvania,
US Senate seat (R, Toomey retiring)
A set of overlapping, winnable, Republican held seats:
US House: PA-01, the district includes
State Senate district PAS-06, which includes
State House districts PAH-018, PAH-142, PAH-144.
In those PA House districts, each additional Democratic voter can cast 4 votes to elect Democrats to replace Republicans in the PA House, PA Senate, US House, and US Senate.
Does this seem useful?
Almost Retired
@West of the Rockies: Ugh, La Malfa is vile, and Chico and Butte County deserve better representation than that ass hat (literally – he wearing a stupid Texas-style hat in many of his photos). Is the 1st District flippable, burdened as you are with Redding and Susanville? Sign up and see if we can target voter turnout in the sane parts of that district!
Other MJS
@WaterGirl: Maybe it’s just my eyes. The brick graphic looks fine.
WaterGirl
@Other MJS: Yeah, brightness and contrast are different for everyone! (As I discovered when we were doing the site rebuild!)
But I really would like to know whether your concern about contrast was based on the screen capture in this post or based on the website itself. Can you let me know?
Madeleine
Almost Retired
@Madeleine: Yes please! Plus, it’s a chance to update your interests, since the project has expanded!
satby
For those of us in mobile devices, could you put some of the post below the fold? Thanks
WaterGirl
@satby: Done. It’s always helpful to be reminded of that. I hope you remind the others, as well!
Dan B
It appears there is little to work on near Seattle unless Tester in Montana needs help for some other dem seats. But is it necessary to be anywhere near any of these states?
Are we interviewing these groups like you seem to have done with Four Directions? Seems like we need to be crystal clear what our capabilities are besides just raising money, or clear that that is our sole capacity.
WaterGirl
@Dan B:
Good question.
There’s a lot of research and outreach to be done, and for some of that you do not need to be located in that state at all. So sign up, we’ll put you to work! :-)
P.S. I think you will be happy to know that there will be a social media component of Join the Fight, also.
Almost Retired
@Dan B: At least part of the idea here in reaching out to these organizations who share our interest in fighting voter suppression is to identify the groups that have immediate needs in support of strategic actions.
This project is more focused on voter suppression/increasing turnout/fighting subversion than fundraising for individual candidates like Tester, who has the exact same hairstyle as my Middle School gym coach.
Definitely a role in this project for Blue State folks like you and me (I’m in Los Angeles), especially in neighboring swing states.
Other MJS
@WaterGirl: Here’s what I see. It’s perfectly readable but could be a lot better:
WaterGirl
@Dan B:
Thanks for the question, that gives me a good opportunity to clarify that. Balloon Juice will still be fundraising for boots on the ground organizations, as we were doing in 2021, and I’ll still be research interviewing organizations related to that.
But the primary focus of Join the Fight is not BIG fundraising, like we have been doing with those groups. Instead, think of it as fundraising in relation to a particular political action.
Let’s say there is a march being organized in [some state] for the purpose [something]. We could raise some funds on BJ for the buses that will be needed to get there.
Or maybe there’s an activist group in Wisconsin and it’s suddenly looking good for us to be able to beat Ron Johnson, and a group needs more literature to be able to reach more people, but they don’t have the funds for that. Cue BJ raising $2,500 over a couple of days for that organization, and suddenly they are able to ramp up or do something additional with that boost.
But even with that, the focus isn’t fundraising, what I described in this comment is just a piece of it. It’s outreach with groups in the states so we can know what’s going on and where we can make the most difference with our actions.
Does that give you a better picture of what we are aiming to do?
WaterGirl
@Other MJS: Got it, thank you!
Miss Bianca
@Dan B: I’m confused. Is Tester running again, or is he fundraising for Democratic candidates in Montana (God love him for that) or both?
piratedan
I can help in AZ, is there a script I should follow in identifying myself and our blog? I just want to make sure that I identify our needs and wants and offers of assistance properly.
Is there a need for us to reach out to candidates specifically? If so, how far down do we drill?
Almost Retired
@piratedan: Good question on the script! Yes, there’s definitely a description of BJ that WaterGirl and others developed that we will share so everyone contacting these organizations doesn’t have to re-invent the wheel. And perhaps the Team A folks can refine it as well as we move forward.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: Got it! It seems like a lot of research on a large number of groups in just five states. Maybe a filter process to 1. Look at websites
2. Look for print or social media pieces on each group
3. Pick the most promising 4 groups to start contacting via email
4. Pick 2 groups to contact via phone
How many Jackals do we need to cover a state like Arizona? Seems like a minimum of 3 would be needed and more in case people have to drop out.
Comments?
Al Nichols
@piratedan: Just to add to what @Almost Retired said, the answers to both of your questions is “yes” but it gets complicated. We’ll have more to say on the topic but for now, please remember to sign up on the webform linked at the end of WG’s post and make sure to note your interests in outreach and Arizona. The form is the best way we’ll have of keeping y’all in mind going forward.
Dan B
@Miss Bianca: Don’t know if Tester is up for election. If not is there a lower level candidate who would be electable if we helped a registration group? Would Tester’s office have suggestions for us?
I’m thinking Montana because it’s closer to Seattle than Arizona
I’m running through scenarios to try to wrap my mind around this.
schrodingers_cat
I have some questions.
What does strategic action mean exactly. By what metric did you choose the target states. What is the role of Balloon Juice in all this, raising money? towards what goal/s?
West of the Rockies
@Almost Retired:
Audrey Denney ran the last two times and came within single digits of victory. LaMalfa is a do-nothing putz, a quintessential example of (less-than) mediocre white man privilege.
piratedan
@Al Nichols: done, signed up
Almost Retired
Some excellent questions about this project in this thread, which we will definitely address. However, since there was a historic Supreme Court appointment today, and the biggest military action in Europe since 1945 is rolling out this week, it seems like the answers are going to be lost in the shuffle. We appreciate the feedback and input. So we’ll definitely address these questions in a subsequent post. If only we could live in less interesting times….
eachother
This is how it’s done. Indivisible got me started in 2017. Made up to 50 phone calls a day. Made lists and notes filling 7 yellow legal pads. Printed out copies of House and Senate numbers. Separated them into committees. Handed them out at meetings. Learned to self propel. Sent the mad in the head representatives greeting cards. Got to know my state representatives phone answerers. Preferred talking to their answering machines. Have hand written hundreds of postcards. Have done Post Office and local voter registrations for years. Worked as an election official until Covid. And relearned the skill of Main Street protests w/ signs. Two or three of us. Sometimes many more. The most popular before last Fall’s Florida abortion law travesty protest was encouragement to vote. We count thumbs up and those less encouraging gestures. Voting and to our amazement, support for abortion as a right were the most popular outings by far. Have beaten my flesh putting up big candidate signs into dense with rock ground. And for the last 11 presidential cycles have distributed candidate literature. We used to do the whole town when it was much smaller than it is today.
Shrinking Blue Island in an ocean of red. Hint.. 50th in most categories of state’s listing of desirable policies and funding. Behind Mississippi, Alabama and 48 others.
MomSense
I’m working on adding social media accounts/contacts to the join the fight database. Looking forward to seeing jackal snark, wit, and knowledge in action!
MomSense
@eachother:
It’s a patient process. You are doing such important work. Thank you!!!