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POLITICAL
HOTSHEET
The Full House to Vote on Voter Choice Act 2/1/00!
What you can do to help build our
Campaign to Democratize Ballot Access
It was a long and eventful day.
First, let me express my own appreciation and that of this Coalition's
member organizations for the time and energy of the Libertarian, Green and
Reform Party activists who helped us in the halls today, plus my sincerest
gratitude for everyone who took five minutes to make a phone call or an
hour to fax a letter. It has been your activism which allowed the
conversations we had today to mean anything. It has been your work that
has brought the leadership to the table.
Again, here you'll find the latest news and our NEXT STEPS STRATEGY FOR
ACTION, including the names, phone numbers and other contact information
for some key members of the legislature. The strategies described below
are relevant until our bill goes to the Senate. To check the status of
HB-672 during office hours, call 404/ 656-5015, the House Clerk's office.
After hours, check out the bill's status and action alerts at:
http://www.ganet.org/services/leg/ShowBill.cgi?filename=1999/HB672&year=1999
BREAKING NEWS --
A) We met with Speaker Murphy today who confirmed that he will call our
bill to the Floor on Tuesday, February 1st, 2000. He also confirmed that
Majority Whip Jimmy Skipper and Majority Leader Larry Walker will bring a
Floor Amendment to the debate. Walker was denying his sponsorship of the
Floor Amendment just an hour earlier. I guess that means that Skipper is
carrying it. Skipper said he did not yet have any language to offer.
B) We polled nearly half of the members of the House today. If the
numbers extrapolate we could see a close vote Tuesday. We talked to 85 of
180 members.
See the map at: http://www.voterchoice.org/graphics/support1.jpg. or for
the details on what your legislator is telling us, look them up
at: http://www.voterchoice.org/lookup.php3. To see a summary (yet to be
updated), link to: http://www.voterchoice.org/support.php3. The Yea's are
outpolling the nay's almost 2:1, even when we correct for the Sponsors, the
bench mates and the House committee, we're still much better than 1:1, and
half of the members are saying they are undecided. Again the favorably
disposed outnumber the unfavorably disposed, among the undecided just over
2:1. 30% are completely undecided or begged ignorance.
C) We started the day with news of another editorial endorsement, this one
from the Savannah Morning News. Read the details at:
http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/smn/stories/012700/OPEDone.shtml
D) Today, the House adopted HR-815 by Rep. Larry Walker and Rep. Jimmy
Skipper. It changed the Rules of the House to allow the Rules Committee to
set the agenda for Floor Debate starting on Legislative Day #11, instead of
#16. We were concerned about the possibility of being forced prematurely
into Rules, but we kept our focus on our bill while the House rewrote their
Rules, even though it seemed quite personal, when we first became aware of
HR-815 yesterday. To read the details, see:
http://www.ganet.org/services/leg/ShowBill.cgi?filename=1999/HR815&year=1999.
NEXT STEPS --
Our next steps are:
1) Keep doing what we've been doing. It's working!
2) Complete our poll of every member of the House.
3) Persuade the Undecided! This is the key!
We need your help to poll the rest of the membership on their position on
HB-672, to learn who will vote with us, who will vote against us and who is
as yet undecided. There is no sense bringing our bill to the Floor if we
don't have the 91 votes we need to send it to the Senate, except perhaps
for a recorded vote to organize with in coming campaigns. But it is our
intention to benefit from the Voter Choice Act's enactment this year.
Some of this work can be done by phone across the weekend. In fact, it is
very important that we all get on the phones as soon as possible. The
report of our survey, with a map of how your legislators say they will vote
are on the website already. I urge you to look up the map and make the
call that is appropriate to your legislators. See
http://www.voterchoice.org/graphics/support1.jpg.
If you are going to help us poll the members, let me caution you to listen
conservatively. I record a poll of the members as one of six
responses. 1) supports, 2) favorably disposed, but undecided, 3)
undecided/ uneducated, 4) unfavorably disposed, but undecided, 5) opposed,
6) unknown. Don't be so enthusiastic about expressions of support that you
hear a "maybe" as a "yes". If you are not sure, report a member as being
undecided. We need accurate information and only pleasant surprises.
Engage the Member in conversation about their position. If they are
opposed or undecided, find out what their concerns are. We need that
information, too. If they support us, ask to what extent. Will they
oppose the Skipper/Walker Amendments and any other Amendments? Will they
follow our Sponsors on the procedural motions? Know that some of the
"yea's" mailto:hesco@greens.org,helmut@atlanta.com we've counted have said
very explicitly that they were pledging to
support the House Committee Substitute. We lose their vote if any
amendment is adopted to our bill. Consider downloading and reading our
FAQs about HB-672 which addresses most of the clarifying questions,
misinformation, myths and concerns we've encountered. See the ever
expanding FAQ at: http://www.voterchoice.org/activist.php3#refinfo.
Please report all conversations that would change a Member's recorded poll
response, by writing .
Everyone is invited to join us at 9:00 am or at any time later in the day,
on Tuesday, February 1st, 2000 to help us secure the 91 votes we need on
our bill. It takes 100 people to fill the galleys that overlook the Floor
of the House. Its always educational. Bring the kids and your friends.
If you can't join us between 9:00 am and 12:00 noon, you might want to call
404/ 656-5015 and ask: "Has the House yet considered HB-672?" Don't bother
to ask the folks in the clerk's office when the vote is. Only the Speaker
and the few people he tells, when he tells will know. And if you wait till
the debate begins, you'll miss the conversations we need you to have in the
morning (or afternoon, or evening) before that.
Tuesday will be the last day that the Speaker gets to decide when what bill
comes up. It could be a long day. They have worked till 12:00 midnight
before under such conditions. Today they met until about 1:00 pm. There
seems to be far less tolerance among the bi-partisan leadership to working
much past 6:00 pm or 9:00 pm of late, which can be a good and a bad thing
for our bill. Our bill is not the only one racing through, everyone has
just one more bill they want to send to the Senate before they have to
spend another week working Rules on it.
If you can, please join us Tuesday morning at 9:00 am in the Capitol lobby
in front of the Speaker's office on the Third Floor.
If you can not attend our lobby day to help count the House vote, please do
the following:
1) Call Speaker Murphy at 404/ 656-5020 or fax him at 404/ 656-5644
everyday. Tell him to support HB-672. Tell him to oppose the
Skipper/Walker Amendment and all other amendments and to send the House
Committee's Substitute to the Senate.
2) Determine who your elected representatives are by linking to:
http://www.voterchoice.org/lookup.php3.
(Consider coming to the Capitol and picking up your copy of the "face book"
a directory of your state legislature. It has many more details about how
to reach your legislators than are available on the on-line
directories. They are free from the Public Information Office to anyone
who walks in or sends a SASE.)
3) Write/ Fax/ Call YOUR legislator and the House Leadership in support of
HB-672.
Copy both your Senator and Representative on your correspondence.
4) Educate two friends about the barriers to democracy in Georgia and urge
them to also take these actions, including passing on the word.
5) Write letters to the editor. Clip your published letters and send them
to the leadership, copied to your representatives. Send a copy to the
Voter Choice Coalition. If you are wondering where to send those letters
to the editor, check out the possibilities at:
http://www.greens.org/georgia/ga_media.htm.
6) Subscribe to the activist list for frequent updates tracking our
progress toward enacting HB-672, the Voter Choice
Act. http://www.voterchoice.org/email.php3.
You only get what you're organized to take!
Help us take our democracy back.
Get involved. Participate.
Agitate and Educate.
Mobilize and Organize
Let the Members of the House Leadership know
that you insist they Democratize the Ballot Access Laws!
If the Leadership of each of the Parties hears from us, if they know we're
not going to let up, they may withdraw their opposition to our bill and
allow their respective caucuses to vote for our bill and send it on over to
the Senate.
Speaker of the House Thomas B. Murphy (D); 332 State Capitol; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5020; fax: 404/ 656-5644; work: 770/ 537-5201.
Representative Jimmy Skipper (D); 415 State Capitol; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5024; home: 912/ 924-7398; work: 912/ 924-9316;
work fax: 912/ 924-6248; Capitol fax: 404/ 656-5024.
Jskipper@americus.net
Majority Whip
says he opposes our bill
intends to amend the House Committee's recommendation in order to kill it.
Representative Larry Walker (D); 415 State Capitol; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5024; Capitol fax: 404/ 656-5024.
work: 912/ 987-1415; work fax: 912/ 987-1077.
Majority Leader
says he opposes our bill
Chairman Calvin Smyre (D); 415 State Capitol; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5024; home: 706/ 563-1794; work: 706/ 649-2243;
work fax: 706/ 649-2479; cell: 706/ 326-3888; Capitol fax: 404/ 656-5024.
says he's undecided.
Representative Lanett Stanley (D); 415 State Capitol; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5024; Capitol fax: 404/ 657-8278; home: 404/ 794-8357.
Her position is as yet unknown.
Representative Bob Irvin (R); 408 LOB; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5058; fax: 404/ 656-0114.
work: 770/ 643-5157; work fax: 770/ 645-7158.
Minority Leader
says he opposes our bill
Representative Earl Ehrhart (R); 408 LOB; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-5058; fax: 404/ 656-0114.
home: 770/ 943-8568; work: 770/ 437-7536; work fax: 770/ 432-1146.
Minority Whip
says he is undecided about our bill
Representative Mike Evans; 604 LOB; Atlanta GA 30334
Capitol: 404/ 656-0265; fax: 404/ 463-7652.
home: 770/ 889-4512; home fax: 770/ 889-5258.
Minority Caucus Chair
says he supports our bill
Your letters and calls are having an impact. We had the conversation with
Speaker Murphy about Floor action on HB-672, not because we're at the
Capitol every day (as important as that is to keep the bill moving), but
because of your communication with them. There are fewer than twenty of
236 House and Senate districts statewide where a legislator has not
received at least one or two emails or faxes, plus regular educational
information from our Coalition. In some parts of the state we've generated
dozens of constituent contacts.
If you were not doing the work across the state, the House would not be
voting on HB-672 next Tuesday. It's that simple.
The message is simple. Your communication with your Representatives is
working. Ramp it up and bring it on. We can pass this bill in 2000 and
enjoy Voter Choice in November's Elections.
Please keep up the pressure.
-- Hugh Esco
chair, Voter Choice Coalition
_____________________________________________
Hugh Esco * hesco@greens.org * 706/ 896-7464 (hm)
*** *** *** ***
clerk, The Georgia Green Party
A Party of Compassion, the Politics of Hope!
http://www.greens.org/georgia/
P.O. Box 5332; Atlanta Georgia 31107-5332
770/ 635-3496 * 800/ 447-6694 (vm)
*** ***
Chair, Voter Choice Coalition
Help democratize the ballot access process!
please sign our cyber-petition at:
http://www.voterchoice.org/sign.php3
Comments on the controversy can be posted on our BULLETIN
BOARD!
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