meetup notes
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August 14, 2011 Meet-Up
Guest Speaker: David Snyder, Organizer, Jewish Community Action
David began with a couple of stories of how JCA and the NCRC have helped individuals fight back against foreclosure and how these individuals then became volunteers for the organization.
Ways that JCA and NCRC are reaching families facing foreclosure:
June 12, 2011 Meet-Up Guest Speaker: Ken Martin, State DFL Chair Twenty people attended the June 12 SD44 Meet-Up.
Some notes from his talk: Republicans holding the majority in both the MN House and Senate had a five month legislative session to come up with a budget and a jobs creation package (their declared platform before the election) and only managed to put a marriage amendment on the 2012 ballot and create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist with a Voter ID Bill, which was vetoed by Governor Dayton. In two recent "highly litigated" state-wide recounts (2008 Senate Race, 2010 Governor's Race) Zero cases of Voter Fraud were identified.
Throughout the session, Governor Dayton hosted a weekly breakfast in the Governor's Mansion - with MN Republican legislative leaders - to keep dialogue open and discussion civil. This style of open/civil discussion outside the chambers never happened during Tim Pawlenty's years as Governor of Minnesota. At the end of the session, Governor Dayton also appeared in front of the Republican Caucuses and answered their questions for an hour.
Governor Dayton's approach to a balanced budget was to look at reform, cut where needed and find new revenue sources from the state's richest 2 %. The Republican approach was one of all cuts with no new revenue stream. Currently the tax structure in this state has the wealthiest paying 10%, the middle class paying 12% and the poorest among us paying 14%. The DFL and Governor Dayton want a fair tax code to level the field. Governor Dayton has "moved a mile" in his attempt to find middle ground with the Republican majority. The Republicans have not moved an inch. The Republican majority appears to have lost all critical thinking skills and take their direction/talking points/marching orders from the MN Republican Party Chair, Tony Sutton and Associate Chair Michael Brodkorb. Ken Martin views his role as Party Leader (providing leadership and guidance) not party boss (giving orders and ultimatums)!
Looking back at 2010 and ahead to 2012 elections - Ken Martin feels very optimistic about taking back the majority, but we cannot take off this "off year" because we need this time to get the message out. It will require 6 six seats in the house and 8 seats in the senate to retake the majority.
The 2010 loss of the majority in the house and senate was by less than 800 votes. It is shocking the apathy of traditional Democratic voters in MN in 2010. 94,000 fewer Democrats voted in 2010 compared to 2006. Clearly too many stayed home. Why? Some thoughts: The base wasn't excited, there was an enthusiasm gap, time was spent on independent and swing voters with the assumption that Democrats would come out in force. On the Republican side - they were all about jobs and taxes that attracted independent voters but alas, in the legislative session, no jobs were created and the Republican majority refused to support Governor Dayton's bonding bill which could have created about 28,000 jobs. The Republican Majority in the MN House and Senate instead chose to write hate into the constitution and worked to kill government.
Ken Martin believes that the DFL needs to reconnect with businesses in MN. While Sutton and Brodkorb insist that the DFL wants to put a "closed sign" on businesses by raising taxes, it simply isn't true. Businesses care deeply about this state as demonstrated by Roger Hale's opinion/editorial in the June 7th edition of the Star Tribune. (Roger Hale is the former CEO of Tennant Co and director of 5 NYSE companies)
Ken recommends reading "A Political Mind" by Drew Weston to learn about messaging. Young voters are motivated by issues. We need to frame the discussion. Democrats like to reason and educate. Republicans find their success using fear and emotion leading with a "values or moral" position.
Winding up his talk - Ken Martin challenged all of us to: 1. Think about our values and be able to articulate them when we talk with people.
Observations by Ken Martin and others in attendance: It is clear by their actions that Republicans in MN and across the country want to break the economy and thereby destroy President Obama. Democrats must remind folks how much the Obama Administration has done in the last 2 years.
It is possible that Tim Pawlenty may be on the GOP (Presidential or VP) ticket in 2012. Minnesotans MUST get the word out about the 6.2 Billion Dollar deficit Governor Dayton inherited from him and his lackluster record of poor leadership in MN.
Meet-up regular, John Anderson, shared the following important information: The American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC - http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Model_Legislation1) is a conservative activist organization funded by wealthy right-wing persons such as the Koch brothers. One of their initiatives consists of writing boiler-plate conservative legislation. Republican state legislators around the country have used this service to introduce similar radical legislation. This is analogos to college students buying online term-papers to cheat academically. May 15, 2011 Meet-Up Guest Speaker: Michael Rose, Editor / Stlouispark.patch.com Daily online paper owned by AOL- part of Huffington deal -Launched in November, 2010. The site brings online local news to communities Over 20 MN cities have a Patch site, including: Edina, Mtka, Lake Mtka, SW Mpls, St. Louis Park, GV, Hopkins
MAIN PAGE Stories on Elected Officials, City Council, School Board, Political coverage. The stories do not remain on the page for an extended period of time, unless the number of hits per story remains at a high level. Community Blog – Under Local Voices header - Local issues/Can include links Community Calendar- Individuals can post events (users need to register) Garage Sales/ Open Houses/Block Parties No company sales like $10 haircuts Can cross post to multiple PATCH sites (or contact Mike and he can post) State high school sports,and other tournaments The site reports police calls Photo Gallery -Community Events
Comment Stream – Leave a comment, leave a note, respond to stories (160 characters) Businesses (header) –listing of local and national companies/ mapping available Facebook – like, comment, share (post to your page or another Facebook user) Contact Mike Rose for any questions or concerns regarding the St. Louis Park Patch site. Go to Contact Us-Local Editor to email Mike. April 10, 2011 Meet-Up
21 people attended the SD44 Meet-Up on 4.10.2011 on the topic of health care and the HMO's in MN. Many thanks to Judith Moore for sharing her notes (below) from the meeting. ****************************** Sarah Greenfield of Take Action MN addressed the group on health care and the HMOs in Minnesota. She gave an outline of the work Take Action has been doing on health care including advocating in the legislature and addressing the work of the HMOs. She also gave a brief outline of the history of HMOs in Minnesota.
Minnesota turned to private “not for profit” organizations to administer the state run health care programs several decades ago. Mike Hatch took on the HMOs and tried to make them more transparent. This was the time when Medica was split off from Allina. The relationship of Medica to United Health does not appear to be completely transparent. During the past several years the HMOs have built up vast reserves that amount to about $2.5 billion. Take Action has been calling on the HMOs to use these reserves for health care or return them to the State. A group of Take Action members demonstrated during a speech United Health’s CEO Hemsley gave at the Carlson School. They made an open call for the return of the reserves. After this meeting U-Care gave $30 million of their reserves back to the state. Blue Shield, Medica and Health Partners have agreed to a cap of 1% going forward under pressure from Governor Dayton, but it appears that although they conceded the cap, they made no commitment on the reserves they now hold. Take Action is working to keep the issue of the reserves on the table.
Take Action is also working to get: 1. Competitive bidding for state health care programs that are tied to cost and quality of care. 2. Annual state audits of HMOs 3. New programs for health care to overcome the expected cuts 4. Progress on health care exchanges that are part of the Federal Health Plan The next six weeks will be very important in the legislative process. Take Action has a meeting scheduled on Wednesday, April 13 from 8:30-1:00 at the Capital. They also have planned phone banking and letter writing campaigns. Take Action MN is made up of 10,000 members who contribute money though their membership. Take Action also receives some funding from their member organizations. A small amount of funding comes from grants. Their website is www.takeactionminnesota.org
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Because of Mother's Day in May, the May meet-up has been moved to May 15. Many thanks to Nancy Gertner for making arrangements for program and speaker.
We'll discuss use of media in distributing the message - progressive, liberal, or conservative. Our guest will be the Community Editor for Patch Saint Louis Park, Michael Rose, who will tell us about the Patch concept that AOL recently implemented in 18 states (and the District of Columbia) including 20 communities in Minnesota, and how he interacts with the community to cover the local news.
March 12, 2011 Meet-Up
February 13, 2011 Meet-up
Immigration attorneys Julie Harrison (from D61) and George Maxwell (from D44) Important links:
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/features/pdf/FINALREPORT10-09.pdf ; www.aila.org; www.dreamact.com 28 people attended the meeting with a focus on Immigration. There was a lively discussion and a desire to be active. Carol Just and a small committee will facilitate us to write letters to the editor and to Congress people and Legislators at the Next Meet UP. A picture of the Statue of Liberty kept flashing in my eyes as people spoke: “Give me your tired, your weary, your poor” is the inscription on it. First, people who do not have papers are not “…..Aliens”. They are “Undocumented”. We need to make sure we change this in all of our language communications. George Maxwell presented the “alphabet soup” of laws and status relating to immigration. He said he would be referring to a large group of regulations in the hopes of cutting through false rumors. He described the categories in this way: A. United States Citizen C. D. a) Non immigrant – never permitted resident status (either for work or status) Untrue Rumor Rumor’s Flaw: NEXT MEET UP: March 13, “THE NEW NORMAL-DEMOGRAPHICS & REDISTRICTING” -- Tom Gillespie & maybe Tom Simpson. John Anderson suggested we have a presentation on low power FM & Internet Radio to broadcast our Meet Ups.
May 15, 2011 Meet-Up. |
