Indivisible Tucson Action Alliance Zoom Meeting June 1, 2020 Dana opened the meeting by noting that the latest polls show Biden leading Trump by 10 points and Kelly leading McSally by 13. This should encourage us all to keep working hard. She noted that over 40 people had registered for this meeting, which is an amazing turnout. She announced that we will be having a slide show put together by Misty to highlight all candidates on the Democratic ballot in Pima County.
Prior to the slide show, Rex Scott, candidate for Board of Supervisors in District 1 gave brief remarks about his position and credentials. He noted that Supervisor District 1 has not had a Democrat supervisor since the 1980s. However, the District is changing. In 2016, the difference in registration favored Republicans by about 12,000. It now is only about 3300. Rex also gave a link to his website and particularly a page on leadership in the COVID 19 crisis, https//scott4supervisor.com/leadership-and-covid19/. His phone number is (520) 260-3714. He noted that the primary is August 4, and the race is wide open.
Misty and Dana then hosted the slide show with comments by various Steering Committee members on each office. Dana noted that we are not endorsing any candidate until after the primary. She also said that links to the presentation will be sent out with the minutes. Further information on candidates and events related to the candidates will be on our website. Go to slideshow here.
Margo raised the issue of plunking. In plunking, you do not vote for all the candidates for whom you are entitled to vote, thus raising the odds of the candidates for whom you do vote being elected. This practice will be of more help in the general election. For example, in LD 11, there is only one Democrat who is running for the Arizona House of Representatives, and voters can vote for two. If a voter chooses only the Democrat, that increases his chances of election. More discussion will be held on this issue as we near the general election.
Eileen gave an update on the legislature. Twenty-six bills were passed by both houses and went to the Governor for signature. One bill which has become law extends the voucher program to let Navajo nation residents go to school out of state. Eileen anticipates 1-3 special sessions, and the membership, including the state team, will need to be ready to contact their representatives and senators as well as to engage in Request to Speak activities. It is hoped that the sessions will concentrate on COVID 19 issues, although some of the bills proposed may still be ones we wish to oppose. There will be a Zoom meeting for the state team in the next two weeks.
The issue of evictions resuming in the near future was discussed. It was determined that it will be more helpful to contact the Board of Supervisors on this issue than to contact the Justices of the Peace.
Dana reported that ITAA members had sent about 1000 letters, together with follow up texts and phone calls, to educate Democratic voters about PEVL.
Chat questions were then addressed. One question was how to help Native Americans and homeless who do not have a fixed address get registered to vote. This is a question that we should address with candidates for the County Recorder, who is in charge of elections.
Eileen gave a shout out to the Letters to the Editor group. Several members have written letters, and the group as a whole has done an amazing job.
Karen noted that debates for all county offices have been or are being shown on the Pima County Democrats home page or that links to those debates will be provided there. They will also be posted on our website (www.indivisibletucson.org).
Cheryl Whited reported on her participation in the national Indivisible campaign to send out 10,000,000 letters to get out the vote. Volunteers can sign up to send as many letters as they wish on why it's important to vote. The letters can be prepared over the summer and then sent out 10 days to 2 weeks before the election (or sooner). Volunteers are given names of people to whom they should send letters, and can choose the area of the country to which they wish to send letters. Since Arizona's Senate race is seen as important, there will be many opportunities to write to Arizonans. The website for information is www.votefwd.org.
Dana reminded members that it is important to check both the national Indivisible website and our website to get new information.
Jan discussed her participation in training for the Indivisible Payback texting project. The payback software allows Indivisible to keep track of those who ask not to be contacted anymore and you text on the computer so you don't need to use Google Voice to disguise your phone. Indivisible will be doing another training on this project and Jan will send the information to Dana for distribution to all members.
Jan also raised the issue of Mark Zuckerberg's reaction to obnoxious, unacceptable postings on FaceBook. Dana suggested we have a larger discussion on this issue for our Indivisible FB page.
Dana expressed her concern regarding Trump's reaction to Minneapolis. This is just one more reason to redouble our efforts to defeat him decisively in November.
Our next meeting, via Zoom, will be July 6 at 3:30. Please send Dana or Steering Committee members ideas on how to keep ITAA active and engaged.
