I’m currently reading David Sirota’s new book titled The Uprising. There’s a very good chapter focused on the Working Families Party in it. It’s mentioned that the WFP is trying to bring fusion voting to states that don’t have it right now. I was wondering if the WFP has ever thought of starting up a PAC in those states for now? You can endorse and run candidates against both parties who don’t do right by the working poor and middle class. Yes, you won’t have a ballot line yet, but you’d still have major influence right? Hey it’s just a thought.

Technorati : david sirota, the uprising, working families party

The Working Families Party was written up in The Nation. and in the New York Times.

Unions to private equity: show us the money

The Service Employees International Union, in conjunction with a local New York political party, announced plans to raise awareness and scrutiny of private equity firms and their deals through public events, leafleting campaigns, Web-networking and Web sites.

Who’s that with the WFP t-shirt in the background?

First of all, I’ll assume that the “local NY political party” is the WFP. Such a shame that they could not even print the party’s name! Private equity funds are risky business in my opinion. I mean when you look at who’s into private equity you got your Carlyle Group and Blackstone!

“We’re shining a light on private equity,” said the union’s Private Equity Project director Stephen Lerner. “Because what’s happening to private equity is central to what’s happening to America.” Lerner pointed to the soaring profits the industry made last year in an economy “where 50 million people don’t have healthcare.”

Yesterday, was the first day that the Westchester-Putnam chapter of the Working Families Party began screening candidates for the 2007 endorsement. As a dues paying member of the chapter (sustainer) you are allowed to participate in these screenings and you even have a vote which carries influence with the executive committee of the state party later on. This is one of the most open and inviting processes that any party in this state has. I took part in this for the first time last year and it was really a great opportunity to grill the candidates on the issues that are important to the party. I highly recommend people joining the party and participating in their local chapters. And if there isn’t a chapter in your area yet. I’d say find out how to start one!

I got a letter from my local assemblyman Richard Brodsky that I thought I’d share here. I think I had contacted him through the Working Families Party site. They had set up a contact your legislator action concerning A.795. Well, its good to know that the chairman of the Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions Committee in the assembly (rather powerful committee wouldn’t you say?) supports the bill.

The Working Families Party is geared up to get people to contact their legislators to support Assembly Bill A795.

Will working families be able to live in New York City or will we be overwhelmed by luxury condos? The Working Families Party wants to increase the housing covered by rent regulations and protect the affordable housing we have now. The first step is to pass the “Save Starrett City Law”, Assembly Bill 795.

I’m happy to see that the local media and the public are being awoken to the possible sale of Starrett City and the loss of all that affordable housing. I’ve blogged once about Starrett City before. To look at the full language of the bill you can go to the NY Assembly website here.

These are the members cosponsoring:

Cymbrowitz, Wright, Greene, Ortiz, Robinson, O’Donnell, Grannis, Perry, Mayersohn, Colton, Brook-Krasny, Schroeder.

It’s multi-sponsored by:

Benjamin, Bing, Diaz L, Diaz R, Farrell, Glick, Gordon D, Jacobs, Millman, Pheffer, Towns.

It looks like it has the support in the Assembly. I don’t see why legislators not in NYC would not vote for it (Democrats anyway). It will be up to the State Senate to pass the same bill so the governor can sign it. Spitzer is in support of saving Starrett City.

I was able to pull some of the language out which I think is important:

NOTWITHSTANDING ANY PROVISION OF THIS SECTION TO THE CONTRARY, THE LEGAL REGULATED RENT FOR A VOUCHER UNIT SHALL BE EQUAL TO THE MAXIMUM RENT AUTHORIZED AND APPROVED IN CONNECTION WITH THE FEDERAL ASSISTANCE PROVIDED TO THE VOUCHER RECIPIENT OCCUPYING SUCH VOUCHER UNIT. IF AN AFFECTED DWELLING UNIT WHICH WAS A VOUCHER UNIT CEASES TO BE A VOUCHER UNIT AT ANY TIME OR FOR ANY REASON, EXCEPT FOR THOSE REASONS SPECIFIED IN SUBDIVISION THREE OF THIS SECTION, THE INITIAL LEGAL REGULATED RENT FOR SUCH AFFECTED DWELLING UNIT FOLLOWING SUCH CHANGE IN STATUS SHALL BE EQUAL TO THE SUM OF (I) THE LAST RENT AUTHORIZED BEFORE THE DISSOLUTION DATE, PLUS (II) ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO SUCH RENT AUTHORIZED BY LAW BETWEEN THE DISSOLUTION DATE AND THE DATE UPON WHICH SUCH UNIT CEASED TO BE A VOUCHER UNIT.

I believe this is what subdivision three of the section is:

IF: (A) THE TENANT RESIDING IN SUCH DWELLING UNIT AS OF THE DISSOLUTION DATE FAILS TO SUBMIT ALL OF THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION FOR THE INITIAL APPLICATION FOR ENHANCED VOUCHER ASSISTANCE PURSUANT TO THE VOUCHER ACT, (B) A VOUCHER RECIPIENT RESIDING IN SUCH DWELLING UNIT FAILS TO SUBMIT THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION FOR RECERTIFICATION FOR ENHANCED VOUCHER ASSISTANCE PURSUANT TO THE VOUCHER ACT, OR (C) A VOUCHER RECIPIENT RESIDING IN SUCH DWELLING UNIT VIOLATES, THROUGH ACTION OR INACTION, THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE VOUCHER ACT.

If the applicant fails to do the above it looks like the unit can then be considered a market unit.

I must say that no one was really surprised by this. The Republicans on the city council were not open to this bill for the most part either. This living wage bill is an effort of the Westchester – Putnam  chapter of the Working Families Party. I will say that it appears that mayor Amicone seems open to compromise which is good. He wants to see a “better bill” in his opinion. I wonder what he has in mind? We all know that politics and governing employs the art of compromising. Its either you compromise with the mayor or get one of the Republicans on the city council to vote for an override. Either way some sort of negotiating would be involved.

A few days ago the city council in Yonkers, NY passed a living wage bill. From what I’ve heard about the bill it is a very robust and strong one at that. It covers a lot more people that other living wage bills have been unable to in the past. The question now is if the mayor Phil Amicone (R-Yonkers) will sign it or not. Most likely there’s going to have to be some compromise and the bill will have to be modified in order for Amicone to sign it. So it seems the goal would be to get as much of the bill passed as possible. The only other option would be to seek an override by the city council which means that proponents would have to get one of the Republicans on the council to change their vote. Needless, to say that would proabably have to include some sort of negotiations as well.

I got my first Working Families Party newsletter in the mail today. They call it Raising The Standard which I think is a fitting name considering all the work they do to raise the standard. Tomorrow in White Plains, NY is the Westchester-Putnam Chapter’s February meeting which I’ll be attending. They aim to organize support for their affordable-housing plans across the county. For directions and information you can visit the chapter’s website at wpwfp.org.

The first thing I read however was the news that one of our members passed away last month. I did not know about this but it is still sad to hear especially when its someone who’s involved in the fight. Her name was Elky Shatzkin and though I did not know her or may have briefly met her last year when the WFP Westchester-Putnam chapter was interviewing candidates; I feel that I should at least pay my respects.

From the newsletter:

Elky Shatzkin, long-time member of the Westchester-Putnam chapter, passed away last month. As a political activist, Elky was a model to emulate. This past November, her determination to see John Hall elected to Congress spurred her to convert her home in Croton-on-Hudson into a local campaign headquarters. She single-handedly energized dozens of members of the lcoal community, organizing them into a dedicated legion of phone-bankers and door-to-door canvassers on Hall’s behalf. These efforts earned her followers the endearing name of “Elky’s Swarm” at John Hall’s victory party. She will be sadly missed. But we can uplift our spirits by following her example-by continuing our relentless phone-banking, door-knocking, and letter-writing activities until the working families of Westchester and Putnam have affordable housing.

The John Hall for Congress website also did a memorial page for her and you can view it from the above hyperlink.

Indeed, I’ve heard of a few good activists who have left us recently and it does sadden me every time I hear this sort of news. As a young political operative and activist all I can do is carry on the work they believed in. Personally, I feel that its my responsibility, just like they must have felt when others from the past passed on as well. I know that my generation is not exactly the activist/freedom-loving/liberty- protecting progressive group as generation’s of the past were; so this makes it all the more important for people who are active in my generation to carry the torch. I think Reagan and his voodoo economic conservatism brainwashing really has hurt Generation X and the Millennials. Although I hear the Millennials are more liberal, though I’d like to see more of it in action. Whatever you guys do please don’t fall for David Horowitz’s garbage to try and brainwash you on campus!

Other highlights from the newsletter was this cartoon they reprinted which I thought was rather truth-telling.

It goes like this:

Corporatist #1 – A minimum wage employee needs to work over 100 hours per week to afford the rent on an average apartment!

Corporatist #2 – Just a couple of more hours at the workplace and they would’nt need an apartment!

Sadly, that is how many of them think and these developers/builders with their luxury apartments are not helping the situation.

Overall, I think this is a really important newsletter and it goes hand in hand with the WFP’s Daily Bacon email blast. I’d suggest that people sign up to be dues paying members (even if all you can give is five bucks a month like me) and get on their email list too.

the albany project

But there’s no way the state Republicans have 100 people going door to door, much less 500 or 700. The thing about canvassing is, if you’re out there canvassing for hours and the other side is out there canvassing for hours then each side’s canvassers are going to run into each other. But I asked our 45 canvassers, who are knocking on thousands of doors every night, if they’ve seen a GOP door knocker.

Where oh where art thou? I’ve never heard of a ground operation with 500 people out there going door to door. That is simply amazing. I can see statewide it being possible, but not just for one state senate district. I wonder if Mondello meant 50 or 70 LOL.

On another note I must say that I love the targeting strategy of the WFP:

And it’s not like we stick to the areas where turnout has historically been in our favor. Our targeting is pretty advanced, so we can pick out the voters likely to go our way even in areas that don’t look promising overall.

This is what the Republicans did on a national level during the 2004 presidential elections. It’s good to see the left catching up with its targeting strategy. It’s all about the voter file and any other demographic data you can gather.