Forum Post: After 20 years
Posted 11 years ago on Sept. 12, 2013, 10:43 a.m. EST by owshelpermonkey
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After 20 years of City Hall celebrating privilege and imposing authoritarianism, watching the next mayor's daughter celebrate victory in the Democrat primary — it promises a welcome change of pace.
That De Blasio won traditionally reactionary sections of the city on a campaign about the "two cities" — opposing stop-and-frisk and promising some kind of regime change...
If people want some real gains, now is the time to push hard. Everywhere at once.
In compliment: It's a good week to be a progressive.
Tuesday night, we won big. The news cycle was dominated by the NYC Mayoral race, but if you look a little more closely at the down ballot races -- in both Connecticut and New York -- you'll find some amazing developments that we hope will make you proud.
-- In New York City we added 12 new progressives to the City Council, including Carlos Menchaca, who won despite a flood of real estate cash for the incumbent, and Antonio Reynoso, who defeated the corrupt Vito Lopez Brooklyn machine. We helped get Kathy Sheehan over the finish line in Albany, where she will be the first female Mayor. Tom Suozzi won in Nassau to set up a crucial general election against a Tea Party County Executive. And much more.
-- In Bridgeport, Connecticut, in a truly astonishing result, a slate of Working Families-backed progressives swept the elections for the Board of Education against the "No Child Left Untested" corporate-funded education "reform" machine Democrats. We had the Connecticut Education Association, Diane Ravitch and some great volunteers. They had the privatizer-in-chief Paul Vallas. A very sweet win indeed, given the havoc he wreaked in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Haiti...
These are huge steps forward for progressives in New York and Connecticut -- and we're working hard to replicate this in some new states.
Can you donate $5 to help Working Families reach our goal of getting off the ground in two new states before the end of this year?
It's a strategy we’ve honed over the last 15 years, and Tuesday’s elections show yet again that it gets results. We find progressive local leaders, recruit and train them to run for office, and help run their campaigns under the guidance of top-notch staff. We do things the grassroots way, knocking on doors, making calls, and talking to voters one-on-one. And it works!
Victory is both art and science. When you mix together the right combination of people -- affordable housing organizers, union stewards, environmentalists, and energized young activists -- with the right issues like paid sick days, minimum wage, stop-and-frisk and fracking, the choice at the ballot box couldn't be clearer. Voters like voting for candidates with the Working Families Seal of Approval.
That's how we do it, but we can’t take it to the next level without you.
Give $5 right now to keep the fight going as Working Families expands to new states across the country:
https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=8929
In solidarity,
Dan Cantor Working Families
I am not a fan of top-down order whatsoever, but we are all in a system here, and I would be helping this guy.
The key afterwards that most of the Obama campaigners in 08 completely didnt understand (myself included but quickly understood) is that after an election in a representation-democracy, the work has to pick up again.
Election night is your night off. The months ahead of time are insane. The day of the election all the work is done, sit back and watch the tv with friends.
But after that election is done, then its time to get right back at them and push the people you put in there. Hold their feet to the fire like you are paying them, because YOU ARE.