The General Assembly Session has now been in session for a week and things are happening! Our jobs are to pay attention, support our Democratic legislators and build relationships with ALL.
Please commit to being vigilant this year. You can find allVirginia Grassroots Calls To Action (CTAs) in the upcoming weekly Tuesday Tidbits and BADASS Briefings.
I put this together for ALL of us to keep track and get it done! Our first Armchair Advocates will be announced on this week’s Friday Power Lunch!
I will note which CTA’s are time sensitive with *, as well as indicate which CTA’s are NEW from the previous email. This is to help us ALL be winners!
ALL IN,
Stair
PS: After you finish your CTA’s join us on the Friday Power Lunch, Protecting Public Schools
Calls to Action
Education:
These CTAs address some of the recommendations in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s (JLARC) report on the underfunding of Public Schools in Virginia. Some of these bills are already on the docket (agenda of bills to be heard) this week and the others should be on the docket soon. Marianne Burke, Denis Orsinger, Stair Calhoun and John Clewett have helped put together easy one-click-calls to action to make it very easy for Coalition members to advocate. We encourage everyone to participate and share widely with any Democrats you know throughout Virginia.
- SB104 Teachers: required to be compensated at or above national average.
- SB127 School counselors: pubic school staffing ratios, increases specialized student support positions.
- SB128 Public schools: Standards of Quality funding calculations.
- SJ9 Teacher retention etc: JLARC to study effects of salaries, employment benefits, etc. OPPOSE
- SB37 – Sage’s Law. OPPOSE
Gun Safety:
Currently in Virginia, spouses convicted of domestic abuse can’t possess a gun, YET that rule doesn’t apply to those in dating relationships who are convicted of domestic abuse. The data is clear: no abusive partner should have access to guns.
– Delegate McClure’s HB362 would close this “boyfriend & partner” loophole and help save lives. NEW
– Please Vote YES on HB2 to ban the assault weapons. NEW*
Campaign Finance Reform:
MoneyOut ACTION ALERT! Now is the time to raise your voice to get campaign finance bills voted out of the House and Senate Privileges and Elections committees. They will start hearing bills over the next week. At a click of the button, send a message to the 22 members of the P&E committee and another to the 15 legislators in the Senate. Ask them to support common sense legislation which prioritizes the voices of citizens over corporations and wealthy special interests. Let’s make this year the year of good governance in Virginia. #peoplepower #democracynow.
- Send a message to the members of the House P&E: Click here
- Contact the Senators on the P&E committee: Click here.
The January 19, 2024 Friday Power Lunch will look at how we can protect public schools in the face of onslaught and send extremists packing.
Karin Chenoweth, longtime public education researcher and writer and founder of Democracy and Education, will give us an overview of these attacks on public education and describe why she started an organization to train and support school board candidates.
Karin will be joined by two people who turned who turned the challenges they faced into opportunities.
Michael Cook’s story is one of a concerned parent stepping up to make change rather than just complain. When he decided to run for school board, he learned there was little training or infrastructure support for his candidacy. He developed his own crash course in political campaigning by talking to everyone who would talk to him and figured out how to run and win in Plano, Texas.
After serving 10 years on a good-governance school board in Conejo, California, Betsy Connolly found herself a minority member in a far-right takeover attempt. Faced with that challenge, Betsy could have departed with an “I told you so”, but chose instead to organize her community and co-found the PAC Conejo Together. Betsy was part of a successful effort to bring political organizing into down ballot elections and win against local MAGA extremism.
Nicole Cole who ran and won a seat on the school board in Battlefield District in 2021 in Spotsylvania will talk about what led her to start a PAC and lead a path to victory. She will join the conversation and share how she helped lead a team of progressive candidates to victory in Virginia in 2023.
Dr. Lorita Daniels, Spotsylvania School Board Member, will join the conversation to talk about her experience on the school board and how talking directly to voters impacted her race.
We will end the show with a Trailblazer Spotlight on Lindsey Davis Stover, one of the founders of 1953 Tequila, an additive-free, ultra premium tequila founded, farmed, distilled and led by women. In 1953, women secured the right to vote in Mexico so the name honors the courage tenacity, and boldness of the women who fought for equality then and those who continue to pursue equality for women around the world today. Lindsey, a veteran of the Obama White House and candidate for Congress in 2018, will talk about her path from politics to starting a tequila company.
REGISTER FOR THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH
