Netroots Nation 2015: A few thoughts

...and a few pictures (of course :) )...

This week, Netroots Nation 2015, a conference of progressive activists from all over the country, took place in downtown Phoenix.

Thousands of people journeyed to the Phoenix Convention Center to share their stories, knowledge, and (hard-won) wisdom with each other over an exhausting but exhilarating three-plus days.

The most-noted high points of the conference were the appearance of progressive icons Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for an address on Friday and a "town hall" with presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland on Saturday.

There was also an emphasis on immigration actions, including a massive march and rally, protesting Joe Arpaio and his nativist policies.

Warren addressing (and "wow-ing") the conference

Both of the above pics are of the town hall crowd while Sanders was speaking

However, the best part of the conference was in meeting people who are fighting the same battles as we are here in Arizona (it turns out that Kansas can make a strong argument that the politics there are as thoroughly insane as they are here) and also learning from them about successes and yes, failure, in their fights to help make the world a little better.

Now, I can't talk about *all* of the trainings/panels/caucuses/event - at any one time, there would be 7-12 (or more) going on, and it was impossible to be in more than one place at a time, but here are a few impressions -

Best panel:

#EpicFail: A Look at GOTV Failures (So You Don’t Repeat Them)

Organizers, from the grass roots level to national organizations and campaigns, talked about GOTV ideas that sounded brilliant as proposals, but were viewed as something other than "brilliant" after they were implemented.  Like an initiative to help register voters that cost $250K, registered a whopping six voters, and saw only two of those six actually vote.

Oops.

There were others, some painfully funny, some just painful.

There were three main lessons from this -

1. No matter how brilliant an idea may seem, have someone (or more than one someone) with no vested interest in it examine it, looking for flaws or unintended side effects.

2. Don't lose sight of the your intended audience; doing something that just turns off parts of the base (say, with incessant email blasts) is counterproductive.  One of the primary tenets of professional medicine is "First Do No Harm".

As it turns out, that's a good thing to remember in many fields of endeavor.

3. A fail doesn't really become "epic" unless you don't learn the lesson 

Biggest disappointment:

It seemed that all of the sessions were focused on "preaching to the choir" and how to be better at that.

My biggest pet peeve in politics is not the people that I disagree with (of course, they are wrong :) , but that's just politics.  Seriously, if you are freaked out by disagreement, stay away from politics.  It's all about disagreement.).

Nope, my biggest pet peeve are the people I refer to as "proudly apathetic" about politics.

We all know these people and may have been them at some point.  They're the people who dismiss politics as being beneath them, and not worthy of attention.

They may be registered to vote but for 23 months out of a typical 24-month election cycle, can't be bothered to pay attention to what their elected officials are saying and doing.

Can't say that the omission was much of a surprise - the conference is attended by people who are politically active and engaged and are used to dealing with people who are already at least engaged.

However, in my opinion, in Arizona (and elsewhere) the most significant reason for the election is eligible voters (registered or not) who don't vote. 

Those are the people who have to be reached by folks who are looking to improve society (or at least, their little part of it). 

Best event:

Chairman (Emeritus) Pub Quiz 2015: Number 9, Number 9 

What ensues when you get a bunch of political geeks together, mix in some trivia, and stir in some alcohol to taste?

Fun. 

Some of the assembled Pub Quiz contestants, before the contest started.  See that cluster of people at the back of the picture on the left side?  That's the bar (putting the "Pub" in "Pub Quiz" :) )

 

Best non-conference related entertainment:

Four days of riding the light rail (most of which was pretty boring).

 

- While going home on Wednesday, two drunks got on the LR, sat across from each other and started trying to throw Fritos into each other's mouth.

They missed.  A lot.

- On Friday evening, there were three women who were returning to Tempe when they noticed it was raining.  One of them took out a pair of jeans and proceeded to wrap them around her head - apparently, she had just had something done to her hair and couldn't allow it to get wet.

Locals rate for attending Netroots Nation: $195.00

 

A day pass for riding the light rail: $4.00

 

Seeing someone walk off of the train and down the street essentially wearing their jeans as a hat while not drunk or otherwise intoxicated (I think): Priceless. 

 

- Also on Friday, a kid (by that, I mean that he looked like he was in his late teens or early 20s), was standing in the train car (it was an SRO trip).  He then leaned against the nearest wall.  Which had an emergency intercom box on it.

If he had jumped any higher when the train operator got on the intercom and instructed him to stop hitting the call button, he'd be a cinch to make the US Olympic team.


Other takes on NN15:

Pamela Powers Hannley wrote on a "Black Lives Matter Matter" demonstration during the "town hall with Sanders and O'Malley here and here. 

MSNBC coverage of the Arpaio protest, written by Nisha Chittal, here. 

More MSNBC coverage of NN15 in general, written by Chittal and Yasmin Aslam, here. 

AZRepublic coverage of Warren's speech, written by Dan Nowicki, here.
 

Random pictures from NN15:

 

Is anyone really surprised that an event with "Netroots" in the name had a lot people with laptops, tablets, and more?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(l-r) Brad Baumann, former ED of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA): Lily Eskelsen García, President of the National Education Association; Arshad Hasan, ED of ProgressNow. Panel: Education in the 2016 Presidential Campaign

From Wednesday: Thousands of "swag bags" after being filled

An interview on the main floor of the conference

Rep. Mark Takano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the start of the meeting of the Arizona Caucus

From the panel: A New 50 State Strategy: Reversing the Democratic Collapse in the States (l-r) Michael Sargeant, ED of the DLCC; E.J. Juarez, ED of Progressive Majority Washington; Nina Turner, former state senator (OH) and wearer of many community activist hats; and Monica Perez, former legislative candidate in Arizona and community activist

From: 2020 War Room: Update from the Fight to End GOP Gerrymandering, Arizona State Senator Martin Quezada

 

From: 2020 War Room: Update from the Fight to End GOP Gerrymandering, Arizona State Rep. Charlene Fernandez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Renowned author and former AZRepublic columnist, Jon Talton

Guess where next year's conference will be held?

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), introducing Sen. Elizabeth Warren

 

 

 

 

 

 

Netroots Nation 2015 is here!

...OK, almost :)

It starts on Thursday...

The official events actually start on Wednesday with a Pool Party Kick Off but the "official" events start on Thursday morning at 9 a.m.  NN hits the ground running; there are 14 trainings and panels scheduled for 9 a.m.

They will run the gamut from "Daring to Internet While Female 2.0" through "State Battlegrounds: The Real Fight for Voting Rights" to "Arizona's Latino Civic Engagement from SB1070 to Now" (I'm leaning toward attending "Creative for All: The Keys to Creating Compelling Content", but there is so much interesting stuff going on then that I haven't fully decided yet).

There will also be progressive-themed music, traditional Native American, hip hop, folk, and more, presented throughout the entire conference.

Thursday evening, the opening keynote speeches will be given by speakers both local and national.

The speakers will include Arizona activists and leaders like Alfredo Gutierrez, Petra Falcon, Isabel Garcia, Erika Andiola, Marisa Franco,  and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (subject to change).

The speakers will include national figures like US Rep. Donna Edwards, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (yup, he's a national figure, too), Joel Silberman and the evening's host, HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski (also subject to change).

Others speaking throughout the event include (but are not limited to): Millennial Activists United’s Ashley Yates, US Reps Ruben Gallego, Keith Ellison, Mark Takano, Hank Johnson, Robin Kelly, and Raul Grijalva.

Oh yeah - there are three "big" names scheduled to speak (and the others are pretty "big" in their own right) - US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Friday) and presidential candidates US Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (Saturday at a "town hall" event moderated by journalist, filmmaker and immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas)

O'Malley, courtesy Twitter

Sanders, courtesy Twitter

Warren, courtesy Twitter

There are also a number of events that are "unofficial" (not part of the official festivities, but sure to be loads of fun).  AFT has a list of them compiled here, but the ones that I am most interested in are both on Friday night: "Candidate Happy Hour Presented by ActBlue and Democracy for America" (among others, my LD's state senator Katie Hobbs will be featured) and "Chairman (Emeritus) Pub Quiz 2015: Number 9, Number 9" (watch or participate as political geeks with vast cesspools of useless knowledge knowledge of political trivia compete for fun and bragging rights)

Another event, not directly related to Netroots Nation, is a campaign event featuring Bernie Sanders on Saturday night will take place Saturday evening at the Phoenix Convention Center.

Details:

Saturday, July 18 at 7:00 PM
Phoenix Convention Center
100 N 3rd St
Phoenix, AZ

In case you didn't see the pic at the beginning of the post -

:)


Note: The official NN15 program can be found here.

Donald Trump accuses Phoenix officials of willfully endangering thousands of lives...

...or maybe Trump is just inflating the numbers of his supporters in order to boost his own ego...

The above tweet was posted this morning, but even before the event, he was engaged in shameless number inflation (posted on Twitter Saturday morning) -

Let's be clear, the capacity of the venue is 4200 people at maximum (depending on the configuration of the room, that capacity may be lower; for the sake of this post, I'm assuming that they used the configuration with the highest capacity).  From the website of the Phoenix Convention Center -

The funny thing is, a turnout of ~4500 for an event at this point of the presidential election cycle is incredibly good.

However, by needlessly puffing up the numbers in order to puff up his ego, Trump undercut his already-limited credibility.

Of course, that predilection does lend some insight into why Trump is almost as famous for his serial bankruptcies as he is for his TV show.


Notes:

The entire Phoenix fire code is available here.

The Phoenix municipal code is available here.  I'm not a lawyer (in other words, do your own research if you think action in this area might be fruitful), but if Trump is willing and able to present evidence of malfeasance by "convention center officials", section 1.5 of the Phoenix City Code seems to indicate that those officials could possibly be guilty of a Class One misdemeanor.

Though with the alleged number of people allegedly endangered, someone may be able to bootstrap some felony charges...of course, if, as seems likely, Trump is just talking out of his ass, felony charges may still be warranted.

Different charges, though. :)

Nativists Planning To Party In Phoenix On Saturday

As pretty much everyone knows by now, the infamous Donald Trump, America's Wealthiest Loudmouthed Bigot, will be the featured speaker at an event hosted by the Maricopa County Republican Party later today.

From the event ticketing webpage -

AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona does an excellent job of dissecting Trump's presidential candidacy in general and  the visit to Phoenix in particular, here.

Right now, there are three announced speakers - Tyler Bowyer, chair of the MCGOP; Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County (and one of the few people in America who doesn't have to take a step back from Trump in the category of "shameless media whore"); and, of course, Trump himself.

Left out of any announcements that I've seen thus far is a list of the "good ole boys" who will be sure to make an appearance, even if they aren't on stage  - the Russell Pearces, John Kavanaghs, AJ Lafaros, and more.

You know, the ones that have done their part to make Arizona a "must visit" on any bigot's national travel itinerary.

Where it could get surprising, and interesting, is seeing which B-teamers try to use the event as an opportunity to hobnob (OK, the 21st century version of "bow and scrape") with the nativists' equivalent of "royalty".

They won't be "establishment" Republicans - that breed of R is running as fast as possible and running as far as possible, away from Trump.

Nope, they'll be people who are looking to challenge establishment Rs, people such as State Sen. "Chemtrail" Kelli Ward (R-Lake Havasu City), who is looking to unseat US Sen. John McCain (R-Never Met A War That He Didn't Monger).

Of course, as soon as she (or any other non-establishment R challenger) is successful, they will become enthusiastic members of the R "establishment" - that's where the money is, after all...but I digress...

Of course2, in Maricopa County GOP circle, legendary bigots such as Arpaio, Pearce, et. al. *are* the GOP establishment, so Saturday afternoon in downtown Phoenix is sure to be colorful.

Originally, the event was scheduled to be held at the Biltmore resort in Phoenix, but it outgrew that venue...and the rather well-heeled residents of the Biltmore area realized that a visit from Trump also means a visit from protestors.

Protestors that might disturb the tender sensibilities of the residents.  Trump's bile filled speeches aren't bothersome, at least not as bothersome as truth.

"Top Two" primaries: Propaganda vs. truth

It's baaaack.

"It" referring to the "Top Two" primary proposal.

In 2012, Arizona voters soundly defeated a proposal to change Arizona's primary election system so that the two top vote-getters each currently-partisan race would go on to the general election, regardless of partisan affiliation.

As of this writing, there is no record on the AZSOS' website of such a proposal being in the works for the 2016 election, but Jackie Salit, who fronted the scheme in 2012 and is still out pushing it, had an op-ed piece published in the Arizona Republic in late June.

Note: AZBlueMeanie at Blog for Arizona has a response to Salit's piece here.

The stated goal of the scheme was/is to both reduce the effects of partisanship in the electoral process and to increase voter participation because more non-affiliated voters would participate.

The method was approved by voters in California in 2010 to cover elections in 2012 and beyond.

And if the stated goals are used as a measuring stick, it is an abject failure.

While the measure has caused an upheaval in certain district races (basically, two minority party candidates making it to the general election in a district dominated by the other major party because there were so many candidates from the majority party that the vote was diluted), no non-major party candidate (meaning Democratic or Republican) has won a general election race.  In fact, only one non-major party candidate has even exceeded 40% of the vote in a general election race.

It hasn't even impacted voter turnout.

California's general election turnout figures, since 1992 -

Year	Turnout %
1992	75.32
1994	60.45
1996	65.53
1998	57.59
2000	70.94
2002	50.57
2004	76.04
2006	56.19
2008	79.42
2010	59.59
2012	72.36
2014	42.20

In chart form (visuals really help when looking at things like this :) ) -

As you can see from the chart, California's voter turnout has been trending downward for the last quarter-century.  While there have been upticks in presidential election years (a marked uptick in 2008), the overall trend has been almost inexorably downward.  2014 saw a record low turnout, but "Top Two" may not be the proximate cause of that - the overall trend was downward before the implementation of "Top Two".

On the other hand, it sure as hell didn't slow the decline.

Well, maybe it had an impact in turnout in primary elections.  The turnout figures for California's primary elections, since 1992 -

Year	Turnout %
1992	47.46
1994	35.05
1996	41.88
1998	42.49
2000	53.88
2002	34.59
2004	44.21
2006	33.63
2008	28.22
2010	33.31
2012	31.06
2014	25.17

In chart form -

Let me be clear, I have no problem with and would support true election reforms that result in reduced apathy and increase participation on the part of voters.

However, "top two" isn't one such "reform".

Some people, such as Salit, might argue that partisans exercise an outsized influence on American politics.

Some people, such as me, believe that the group with an outsized influence on American politics is a group that Salit purports to represent, the apathetics.  By not "showing up", by not participating in a major part of civil society, they help to elect bad politicians.

And increasing the influence of that group would not serve to improve America's political culture.


Supporters of the scheme, such as the editorial board of the LA Times, argue that there hasn't been enough time to see if "top two" works, but that if we keep using the method, it will eventually work.

Kind of the same thing said by proponents of never-ending tax cuts for corporations and 1%ers (aka - "tinkle-down economics").


California's election data can be found here.

2016 Committees Update

...This will be a quick post because a lot of plans are on hold, waiting for Monday's pending decision by the US Supreme Court on the Arizona Legislature's attempt to usurp control of the state's redistricting process from the people of Arizona.  Once that decision is made public, the dominoes will start falling...


- In Maricopa County, Royce Flora, the deputy county treasurer, has filed for a run at the top spot in the office, currently held by Charles Hoskins, who is retiring.

Won't say that he is the "annointed" candidate, buuuuttttt... :)

From his campaign paperwork -

- The cities of Mesa, Tempe, and Scottsdale have been quiet on the candidate filings front.

- Filings for legislative seats have been quiet, though that will change once the Supreme Court hands down its decision.  Some legislators will decide to run for Congress, others will take a pass.  Which names do which will vary depending on the decision.

- Filings for runs for Congress and US Senate have also been quiet, and pretty much for the same reason.

While she hasn't filed anything yet (none that I could find, anyway), Democratic State Rep. Victoria Steele has announced that she is exploring a run for the Congressional seat, representing the 2nd Arizona district (basically, southern Arizona).

The seat is currently held by Martha McSally.  If the Supreme Court supports the Republicans in the state legislature, it is expected that they will strengthen the R advantage in that district (and most of the other Congressional districts in AZ, for that matter) and that Steele will take a pass.

If the status quo of having Congressional districts that are drawn by a voter-created Independent Redistricting Commission is maintained?

McSally is probably out of a job.

Watch President Obama deliver eulogy at Rev. Pinckney's funeral

AZ State Senator equates affordable health care to slavery...

...and spent the rest of the day saying "No, I didn't!"...

Yup, she went there, "she" being State Senator Kelli Ward (R-LD5), an ostensible challenger to US Senator John McCain (R-never met a war he didn't monger).

Right now, she's exploring a run at McCain; many more days like this one, and she may not get beyond the "exploring" stage...


...After today's momentous Supreme Court decision upholding a vital part of the Affordable Care Act (aka - "Obamacare"), Sen. Ward tweeted the following -

As much as she insists to the contrary, she *did* go there.  Wholeheartedly, in fact.