We here in Pima County like to point north for the source of what ails our poor state. We blame the deep red suburbs and rural areas in Maricopa county for electing ridiculous and racist legislators, gun nuts, and kleptocrats.
But maybe we have pointed too far — only a few miles out of town we can find some of the sourest nuts, Mark Finchem and Vince Leach. They sponsor bills to force the city of Tucson to put seized guns back on the streets, who attack the petition process and support racist, tourism-killing bills that make our state a laughingstock across the country.
Yet LD11, where these yahoos reside, is often written off by the Democratic Party. Brave candidates running in this tough district have not been supported in a serious way. Let’s change that in 2020. A strong slate of candidates combined with an impressive turnout could finally flip one or more seats this year!
- JoAnn Mendoza, ex-marine and single mom running for State Senate: mendoza4arizona.com.
- Dr. Felipe Perez, local doctor and community leader running for State House: perez4arizona.com.
The Arizona Ground Game even has a unique project supporting LD11: https://azgroundgame.org/ld11. You adopt 50 LD11 voters and make *three* contacts with each one, in a personal way, letting them know you are a real person and giving them specific information about early voting in their location.
I’ve been working my list, and I particularly like this approach because of the direct person to person aspect — trying to let voters know that you remember them, that they can contact you back, and customizing each contact based on the ‘context’ of the household. I prefer this greatly to using an auto dialer and just chugging through calls. However, that has to happen too!
The coordinated Democratic campaign is helping too, of course – https://www.mobilize.us/missionforaz. I’m sure many of us are connected there.
For me, the personal touch is the most motivating. And if I am not getting things done, jumping onto a video call with a friend who is also doing the project is a nice way not to feel too isolated.
The lists for the Arizona Ground Game project are being cut by Tig Gardiner of the Northside Democrats. She will give you a contiguous group of Dems and independents in one neighborhood, so that you can send everyone in your group the same information about the nearest early voting locations. Maybe you can even mention local notes to them that you learn from others in the group.
Now is the best time to be contacting voters! Those not on the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) can still sign up for it up until Oct. 5, and providing early voting and drop off locations can help make the essential “plan to vote.”
For the mail contacts, a great source of cute and motivating postcards is this collection at Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/market/postcards_to_voters ; my favorite is the kitten on a box of wires looking up with the words “Together, we can fix this.”
Because together, we can. Even in LD11.
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It is important to remember, and to remind others, to only vote for Dr. Perez and not anyone else in the State House race. You could vote for two people but if you do you are canceling the advantage Perez would get compared to voting for only one.