Hi All. The three rebuttals (A-revenue bonds, C-commercial rents tax for
childcare, G-parcel tax for SFUSD) and two paid arguments (E-flavored
tobacco and H-tasers) were all submitted today without much fuss. The cost
of the 2 paid arguments came to exactly $900.00. So, out of the 10 local
measures that will be on the June ballot, we have excellent coverage on
almost all of the key ones. We can decide our recommendations for the less
interesting measures at our next meeting. A postcard mailing to a large
number of registered Libertarians would also be a good thing to do next
month--let's folks know that we're alive and kicking. I'll make it a point
to get the latest registered voters roster from the Department of Elections
so we have a more current listing of registered Libertarians. Last time I
did a good sorting of the data to filter the list (usually around 3,000
registered Libertarians in The City) down to folks who vote more often and
more recently so we don't waste good money sending the postcards to people
who have moved or only vote in Presidential years, and we didn't get too
many postcards returned, so it was worth the extra effort. We could also
run an ad or two in local newspapers and do some media advertising for the
June election--we can discuss at the next meeting. I'm in favor of making
the most out of this year's political activities, as last year was kind of
quiet.
Interestingly, when I was down at the Department of Elections today, just
ahead of me in line was Thomas who came to one of our meetings a few months
back. He is a very knowledgeable person regarding how government agencies
operate and was submitting a nice paid argument against G. We read each
other's arguments. He's been fighting with the school district for 13
months over how they spend their money and how they account for it--you'd
need to be Sherlock Holmes to uncover where the money goes. He noted that
the proponents for G are not even San Francisco residents or registered
here. I did not quite understand how they manage to get away with being an
author of the argument and not even live here. At any rate, I'm sure
Thomas and I were the only non-statists in line today! The lady behind me
seemed to be from the "For Universal Childcare" camp (Prop C) and was
submitting a ton of paperwork. I'm guessing that she represented the group
funding the arguments for C for all the different groups in town. How
appetizing the special interests are!
Thanks to Starchild and Jawj for the great arguments!
Aubrey