Hi Marcy and All! First, thanks for the pledges and for coming through. (Les, are you sure you didn't type in an extra 0 by mistake--I almost fell out of my chair!) That's a tremendous vote of confidence, and we'll make the most of it. Now we have the tools to really get out there. We will run the two student newspaper ads for sure (deadline approaching but they're not due until next week), enable Starchild to distribute more of his Gary Johnson postcards, do our regular ballot measure postcards, and a lot more canvassing. I thought I might have to seriously consider cutting back on the canvassing per Marcy's suggestion, but now we can go full steam ahead hitting as many houses as possible in the western half of The City between now and the election. We will not do apartment buildings with multiple units because it's too hard to get them inside, and the managers are likely to just throw them all away--too expensive to waste. By the
way, I do think folks will actually read our stuff, though of course a certain number are not interested in politics and toss it without reading. While Les and I were canvassing last week-end, a man was out in his driveway standing by his car when I got to his house, so I handed it directly to him rather than leaving it on the door. I continued on with my canvassing and noticed that he was still standing there reading it, even after I was several houses down. No telling what he thought of it, but he was taking the time to read it, so I do think we will reach people and expose them to our ideas. Yes, I do agree with Marcy that heavy Libertarian thought might not interest the average voter, but you compare our recommendation sheet with all the other ones that will be floating around, and we actually list the reasons for our recommendations. And yes, our ballot sheet definitely refers folks back to our website "for further explanation" and
gives the link. Plus Les's "vote as the spirit moves you" on D gives it a nice lighter touch to balance the philosophy.
Also, with more canvassing, I will see if I can find a place to make copies cheaper, since the volume is so large, and also look into getting a better deal on the Gary Johnson door hangers, since I'll be ordering lots more. Will also see if I can get more free Libertarian door hangers with The Quiz from the national people since they gave us lots for Pride.
I'll give Starchild the go-ahead to push the El Reportero or Epoche Times folks to give us a good deal for a possible third ad in one of those papers also. The El Reportero runs weekly so we have a little time left for that one. We want all our ads to come out in the first week of October, about the time the Voter's Handbooks come out.
Thanks to Marcy for the email to the discussion folks about joining or helping out now that we're on a roll. I had written up a new letter at least two weeks ago to send out to members (or potential members) for one of my membership drives and then got preoccupied with all this activity and didn't send out one single membership letter, so your group email might accomplish a lot more than I did for membership. Thanks for the swift action, like a call to arms!
Lastly, anyone who wants to join me, I will be canvassing somewhere on the Westside for a few hours this week-end. Not sure which day, but there seems to be more going on on Saturday (march to the Federal Building by the Ron Paul people on Saturday morning for Ending The Fed and also Marcy is presenting the NO arguments on A and E (I believe) to the Seasoned Women's Network also on Saturday), so I think Sunday might be better for canvassing. But I'm flexible for helpers. It's a good way to help get the word out there, and also great exercise and good to be out there and breathe our fresh bay air. No clipboards to carry because we hit every house, and you get to see interesting neighborhoods that you might not normally frequent. I provide all the canvassing material and extras that might be needed (buttons, scotch tape (if needed for windy neighborhoods), hats, sunblock, water, and a canvassing bag if you don't have one). Let me know if
you can join in this week-end, and by all means don't feel obligated to canvass every week-end if you do it once. We all have other important things to do, so we only do what we can--and that's plenty for me.
Thanks to all for a tremendous group effort. The Libertarians can actually work together and get stuff done!
Aubrey