JW Mason wrote:
>In my mind, it's to support Kerry, but in a way that builds our own
>organizations and makes us stronger to oppose him down the road -- i.e.,
>starting one day after he takes office. Random example: There's a huge
>campaign right now to register a million new voters in Florida, focused on
>people of color and in conjunction with a ballot initiative to raise the
>state minimum wage. That's smart. It will help Kerry win, sure. But more
>importantly, it taps into the huge amount of energy and anger (and money)
of
>the anti-Bush campaign and uses it to bring the prople any future
>third-party effort will need into the political process.
-Excellent ideas. Is the WFP doing anything like that in New York?
WFP is of course leading a broad coalition to raise the minimum wage in New York, but the lack of an initiative process means they can't use a ballot measure to link it directly to the election. But New York's not a swing state.
I will put a plug in for people helping out the Florida minimum wage campaign, since I drafted the initiative that's going to the ballot and am organizing the legal support for the campaign :) While my work on this campaign is of course strictly non-partisan with no interest in effecting the election outcome, other people have noted that it might be useful to defeating Bush by turning out poor voters in the state.
Mobilizing a large state like Florida does take resources, so anyone inclined to contribute to the Florida minimum wage campaign can do so here: https://www.floridiansforall.org/ffabd/ffa_address_mo.php?ssl_invoice_number=menoaw04
Nathan