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For the safety of our community, we are conducting our meetings online until conditions permit us to resume assembling in person.
Monday March 21st, 7-8pm
Fighting for Our Democracy by Flipping PA!
with Andrea Koplove of Turn PA Blue
and Laila Martin Garcia of New Pennsylvania Project
Andrea Koplove, Turn PA Blue
Laila Martin Garcia, NPP
As we head into the 2022 midterms, one of the most impactful states we, here in blue MA, can focus on is (my home state) PA!
Why?
Federally, there is an open U.S. Senate seat that was Republican and that we can flip!
State-wide, the current Democratic governor is term-limited, so that seat is open - and must be won by another Dem - because the gov. appoints the Sec of State, who oversees elections!
Currently, both state houses are GOP controlled, but there are new, less gerrymandered maps, so there is finally a chance to flip one or more of these houses - and prevent more attempts to suppress and subvert PA voters!
Join IN Monday, March 21st, 7-8pm
as we hear from leaders of
2 incredibly effective, on-the-ground PA organizations about how - together - we are going to flip PA BLUE!
Andrea Koplove is a founder, and the Organizing Director for Turn PA Blue, a non-profit mobilizing volunteers across PA & the country to elect more Dems up and down the ballot in PA!
Laila Martin Garcia is the Director of Organizing of New Pennsylvania Project, a non-profit, non-partisan voting rights organization modeled after Stacy Abrams' tremendously effective New Georgia Project!
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Come with questions, friends, and your passion for winning these midterms!
NEWS & EVENTS
UKRAINE STANDOUT
LET’S STAND UP, STAND OUT & FUNDRAISE FOR UKRAINE
SUNDAY, MARCH 20TH, 12-2 PM
GRANVILLE GREEN GRANVILLE, MA [INTERSECTION OF RT. 57 & 189]
FLAGS & HAND SIGNS AVAILABLE
BRING A SIGN OR MAKE ONE ON THE GREEN!
LEARN WAYS TO SUPPORT HUMANITARIAN INITIATIVES
REFRESHMENTS OFFERED
COME JOIN US!
From our friends at Swing Blue Alliance and cosponsored by IN Rally to End Expulsion of Migrants at the Border
Monday March 21st at noon
Rally On The 2nd Anniversary Of Title 42
Monday, March 21st At Noon At Pulaski Park
Call On The Biden Administration To End The Cruelty Of This Policy And Restart Asylum
March 21st is the second anniversary of the beginning of Title 42, one of the cruelest Trump-era immigration policies that President Biden has not only maintained but expanded. Under the false pretense of a COVID public health requirement, Title 42 immediately expels migrants seeking asylum and returns them to danger in the countries from which they fled, denying them their due process right under international law to initiate a claim of credible fear.
Our partner organization Welcome With Dignity is promoting demonstrations across the country against Title 42 on March 21 to echo and uphold actions taken at the border by asylum seekers and direct service supporting organizations at the border in Nogales. Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice has agreed to organize one for Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden Counties--in downtown Northampton's Pulaski Park at noon. We would love to have you as a co-sponsor--and would really appreciate your help in publicizing this event.
This CDC policy has been widely condemned by doctors and epidemiologists and even some high-level CDC officials--Border authorities could easily implement COVID protection measures like testing, vaccinations, and masking. Commerce and tourism are now open at the border. Escape from violence should be open as well.
Some politicians, such as Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Cory Booker, are now beginning to call more strongly for an end to Title 42, joining the large number of immigration justice advocates and organizations working closely at the border, especially after last week’s court ruling that required the administration to turn back unaccompanied children, who’d previously been exempt from the ruling. This gives us a new window of opportunity to end this immoral and inhumane policy once and for all.
Please join us on March 21 and spread the word to your networks! We'll post more information on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/JAIJWM , as we finalize the details.
Sunday March 27th
From our friends at Swing Blue Alliance
Celebrate Grassroots Activism in Massachusetts!
Sun, Mar 27, 5:00pm-6:00pm EDT
Spring is almost here. Time to connect you with local grassroots groups. On March 27th, Matt Caffrey, Senior Director, Grassroots Community Organizing at Swing Left will help introduce four dynamic grassroots leaders who are working to meet the needs of volunteers in this challenging moment and through future years of activism to build a just and democratic society.
On Wed evenings at 8 pm or Fri mornings at 9 am, join Paul Spector and activists from across the country to collaborate on helping Democrats win elections. At Paul's meetings, you will...
hear upbeat political news
share questions and comments
learn about new political actions
support fundraisers with special guests -- such as Swing Left, Movement Voter Project, Flip the Senate, New Georgia Project, and Bucks County Democrats
hear inspiring music (mostly from Playing for Change).
Folks find his meetings educational, uplifting, and hopeful, and it's wonderful to see 50-100 other people at each of the two meetings. To check out the meeting, come Wednesday at 8 p.m. or Friday at 9 a.m. EDT, to this Zoom room: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87820043147?pwd=aXZ0K3QrZGtHR2dBUFlCZnk2TU1hQT09
Soundbites of Success Preaching LOUD and PROUD to our choir!
This graphic is a 'Soundbite of Success' - a reminder that even while many of our priorities are not yet realized, we need to celebrate what we have accomplished (think of what would be happening now if we activists had not come together to oust the former President, and get Biden elected!).
Share these soundbites and create your own! You can submit your soundbites here, and we'll help share them on all the platforms! Let the choir we're preaching to sing so loud & proud that others can't help but join us!
TEAMS
Going Bold for Democracy
Next virtual meeting: Tuesday, March 29th, at 7PM on Zoom.
Now Focused on the Critically Important State of PA!
Thursdays, 6 - 8pm!
Pennsylvania will be playing a critical role in the upcoming midterms:
There is an open Senate seat previously held by a Republican, and we can flip it!
The state houses are currently both GOP dominated (thanks to prior gerrymandered districts). New districts are more competitive, and there's a good chance to flip one or both of these houses - and prevent election shenanigans, which the current legislature attempts, only to be frustrated by the
Democratic governor. The governor is term-limited, so there is an all-important election for governor (who, in PA, appoints the Secretary of State, who manages elections!)
Phone banking continues every Thursday evening, from 6-8pm, with training!
Contact Beth, (beth@indivisiblenorthampton.org) to get more info and sign up!
Help Bucks County, PA Democrats
Register Folks to Vote by Mail!!
Why Bucks County, PA?
When it comes to electoral impact, Bucks County Pennsylvania has been one of the most important in the U.S. Bucks County Democrats use mail voting to improve turnout, and, in the most recent election, they outpaced every other county in Pennsylvania for mail ballot returns.
In 2022, the mail ballot vote in Bucks County will again have an outsized impact on Pennsylvania's state and federal races. Voters will be voting on an open U.S. Senate seat, a flippable Congressional seat, state legislative seats that are newly competitive because of redistricting, and a new Governor. (Pennsylvania's Democratic governor is term-limited and has been the most significant check on the right-wing Republicans currently in charge of both branches of the state legislature.)
Send vote-by-mail applications this month to make a big difference in PA this November!
Materials will be available in 7 to 10 days. Sign up here to pre-register and you will receive the information when it’s available!
From our friends at Swing Left Western MA:
VOTE FORWARD’S 2022 LETTER WRITING STARTS NOW
Vote Forward, a close collaborator with Swing Left, has launched its 2022 letter-writing campaign and Swing Left Western Mass is ready to get going. As we did in 2020 and 2021, we’ll be preparing “Please Vote” letters aimed at “helping to increase the participation of historically underrepresented communities in the electorate.” By encouraging infrequent voters to vote in this year’s midterm elections, these letters can close the gap in close races and produce victory for Democrats. A few hundred votes, or even less, could make a crucial difference in determining who controls Congress next year.
In 2020, we had about 100 volunteers writing letters to infrequent voters in swing states. Together with several other groups, they prepared and sent some 35,000 letters – our contribution to more than 17 million nationwide. This year’s midterms are no less of a challenge: The “conventional wisdom” is that the president’s party loses congressional seats in the first midterms, but the country can’t afford that. These letters are one tool in the effort to defy the predictions and increase Democrats’ numbers in both the House and the Senate.
If you haven’t prepared these letters before, here’s how it works:
Vote Forward provides pre-printed letters urging the recipients to vote in this fall’s elections. Each letter contains the name and address of the recipient.
For each letter, the volunteer fills in the name of the recipient in the salutation, writes one to three sentences saying why they vote, and signs the letter.
The volunteer then puts the letter in an envelope, hand-addresses the envelope and return address, and seals and stamps the letter.
Letters are held until Vote Forward’s mailing date, close to Election Day for maximum effectiveness. All letters are mailed on that date.
For a detailed description of how to prepare letters, click here.
And here’s how we run our Vote Forward campaign:
You can get your letters in one of three ways:
I can download them for you and email you a batch of letters once a week. You print out the letters and prepare them. You choose the number of letters you want to receive and the day you want to receive them. You can change either of these, or pause or “retire” at any time.
If you don’t have a printer, you can pick up your printed letters each week at one of four locations – Amherst, Leverett, Montague or Northampton – on the day specified by the location host. You take them home and prepare them. Again, you can change your numbers, pause, or retire at any time.
If you already have a Vote Forward account and have experience using it, you can download letters yourself and prepare them. I only ask that you report your numbers to me once a month so I can keep track of our totals.
Once your letters are prepared and in their addressed, sealed and stamped envelopes, you can store them at home until the mailing date or you can drop them off at the same locations used for pickups.
When the mailing date arrives (you’ll get plenty of notice) you take your completed letters to your local post office or to a mailbox and drop them off.
Vote Forward’s campaign is already underway. Now is the time to sign up and get started. (One exception: The Leverett and Northampton pickup/dropoff sites will start the week of March 14. But sign up now and I’ll begin downloading letters for you in time for pickup that week.)
Please click here to sign up or copy this link into your browser window: https://forms.gle/k391Nq12mBUQr6pJ8. I’ll confirm your signup and start downloading your letters right away.
If you have any questions, please contact Michael Dover at mjdover44@gmail.com.
When you click the link in your confirmation email, a Zoom page will open in your web browser and the Zoom app will open.
If the Zoom app does not open, here are a few things you can try. You will need to know the meeting id, which is embedded in the address of the Zoom page that opened. On the page that opened in the browser, in the address bar you'll see an address that looks something like this:
