Green-Rainbow Party Candidate Recruitment Plan
Approved by Green-Rainbow Party State Committee, Sept 13, 2003
This
document describes the Green-Rainbow Party’s candidate recruitment process for
2004. It covers:
·
Our candidate
recruitment goals and timetable;
·
The regional nature of
our candidate recruitment process;
·
Our candidate criteria;
·
Post recruitment
follow-up activities;
·
Post signature drive
activities;
·
A budget for this
project.
This
activity will be one of a small number of major activities for the party from
mid-September to the end of May. The
success of this venture will result in increased support for the Green-Rainbow
Party among voters, citizens and inhabitants of Massachusetts, as well as
greater attention by the media. Our success
at recruiting the number of candidates outlined in this document will expand on
the foundation we laid in the 2000 and 2002 campaigns.
Decision: We will define a number of state house/senate
districts that we wish to target depending on a wide variety of factors
including: party of incumbent, leadership role of incumbent, whether we did
well there in 2002, whether we can reach out to people with low-incomes to help
build our base. We will also identify
districts where we do not want to run candidates. We are open to all running in all other districts, but we will
not concentrate our efforts there, but will encourage candidates to run. We will encourage members to run for town
offices, but will concentrate our efforts on recruiting for the state
house/senate districts.
Rationale: We need to pick our races so we can get the maximum impact from our efforts.
Decision: The candidate recruitment process will be
decentralized by region. The party must
encourage activists and state committee members to participate on these
committees since there is a great deal of work to do. The state party must notify members on a frequent basis of our
progress in recruiting candidates as well as help to coordinate the efforts of
the regional recruitment committees through weekly status meetings.
Rationale: There is no way the candidate development
committee or any state party entity can recruit all of the candidates we
need. Regional committees work as a
stopgap measure while the number of local chapters is low. At the state level, we must publicize our
efforts to create a bandwagon effect that will encourage more members to run.
Decision: We have from September to January to recruit
46+ candidates. We could go until
February or March, but that cuts into the time we will need to support
candidates gathering signatures. We
have set out a monthly timetable and seven members (all men, one non-white);
have indicated an interest in running so far.
Rationale: If we don’t have goals, we will not be able
to measure our progress.
Decision: We must focus greater attention on
recruiting candidates who are women, African-Americans, Latinos, LBGT, youth,
etc.
Rationale: We must ensure that the candidates we field
are representative our the diversity or our party and Commonwealth
Decision: We set minimum expectations for candidates
that emphasize getting our message out and working with other Green-Rainbow
partisan campaigns that overlap with their district. We will provide training, materials, web support, and issue
information for candidates. Additional
levels of support are available as candidates who get on the ballot.
Rationale: We must have minimum requirements for
candidates as well as backing them up with support based on our limited
resources.
Decision: Regional recruitment committees must follow
up with candidates to ensure that they get on the ballot and help with
resources towards this effort.
Rationale: Identified candidates who do not get on the
ballot are a loss for the party.
Decision: The total budget is $5700 between 2003 and
2004. $4200 of this spending is on
Trifold Party flyers.
Rationale: We will need certain expenditures for
recruiting candidates.
5 Candidate Recruitment for Targeted Districts by Regional Committees
9 Post Signature Drive Activities
12 Appendix A - Towns with Representative Town Meeting
13 Appendix
B - Key Dates for 2003
Green-Rainbow Electoral Activities
14 Appendix
C - Key Dates for 2004
Green-Rainbow Electoral Activities
Decision: We will define a number of state house/senate districts that we wish to target depending on a wide variety of factors including: party of incumbent, leadership role of incumbent, whether we did well there in 2002, whether we can reach out to people with low-incomes to help build our base. We will also identify districts where we do not want to run candidates. We are open to all running in all other districts, but we will not concentrate our efforts there, but will encourage candidates to run. We will encourage members to run for town offices, but will concentrate our efforts on recruiting for the state house/senate districts.
Rationale: We need to pick our races so we can get the maximum impact from our efforts.
Primary identification of districts, conducted by the
Candidate Recruitment Committee, should be finalized for the September 2003
state committee meeting. Some secondary district identification,
augmenting of the work of the committee, should be expected, based on factors
such as incumbent constituent service quality to both municipalities and
individuals, as Green-Rainbow Party members gather to constitute regional
candidate recruitment committees.
Our
goal is to run forty (40) candidates for the state house of representatives.
The
Candidate Development Committee will use a number of factors to identify the
districts where we would have our candidates would have their best
opportunities for success. A number of
the factors, though not necessarily listed in priority order, are:
1)
Republican legislators,
notwithstanding their district demographics;
2)
Finneran lieutenants,
and conservative Democrats as identified by certain key votes from this and
previous years – especially those who have not faced contested elections in
more than six to eight years;
3)
Districts that have a
large number of people with low-incomes;
4)
Districts where the vote
for the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Treasurer exceeded 10%;
5)
Districts that had a
high percentage of blanks;
6)
Districts that were
contested by only one party;
7)
Office holder voted
seldom to override the governor’s budget vetoes;
8)
All open districts.
The
districts the Candidate Development Committee identifies are districts for
which the Green-Rainbow Party will actively seek out candidates.
Members
whose districts should be exempted from active recruiting are – Democratic
incumbents running for re-election who:
1)
Voted present or
absented themselves from the January 2003 vote to elect the Speaker of the
House;
2)
Where the voting
information is available, cast a 2003 significant number of votes to close tax
loopholes for corporations and wealthy taxpayers to generate revenue to reduce
cuts to state services, local aid to cities and towns, and Chapter 70 school
aid.
If a
Green-Rainbow Party candidate comes forward on her own in one of these
districts, then she should be supported, but not to the same extent as
Green-Rainbow Party candidates in targeted districts.
Our
goal is to run six (6) candidates for state senate.
The
Candidate Development Committee will use a number of factors to identify the
districts where we would have our candidates would have their best
opportunities for success. A number of
the factors, though not necessarily listed in priority order, are:
1)
Republican legislators,
notwithstanding their district demographics;
2)
Districts that have a
large number of people with low-incomes;
3)
Districts where the vote
for the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Treasurer exceeded 10%;
4)
Districts that had a
high percentage of blanks;
5)
Districts that were
contested by only one party;
6)
Office holder voted
seldom to override the governor’s budget vetoes;
7)
All open districts.
The
districts the Candidate Development Committee identifies are districts for
which the Green-Rainbow Party will actively seek out candidates.
Members
whose districts should be exempted from active recruiting are – Democratic
incumbents running for re-election who:
1)
Where the voting
information is available, cast a 2003 significant number of votes to close tax
loopholes for corporations and wealthy taxpayers to generate revenue to reduce
cuts to state services, local aid to cities and towns, and Chapter 70 school
aid.
If a
Green-Rainbow Party candidate comes forward on her own in one of these
districts, then she should be supported, but not to the same extent as
Green-Rainbow Party candidates in targeted districts.
Our
goal is to run at least one (1) candidate for each of the thirty-eight (38)
towns with representative town meeting.
The thirty-eight towns are listed in Appendix A.
The
Candidate Development committee will encourage members to run for town offices,
especially for town meeting member offices, by providing an article in the
December newsletter talking about running for town offices. The Candidate Development committee will
draft a brief “How to run for town meeting member or other town office” guide
by December 1st, 2003.
The
regional candidate recruitment committees must suggest to town committees,
clubs and members to they work to identify and get candidates to run for their
town’s offices. The primary
responsibility of running candidates for town offices rests with the
Green-Rainbow Party members who live in towns.
Decision: The candidate recruitment process will be decentralized by region. The party must encourage activists and state committee members to participate on these committees since there is a great deal of work to do. The state party must notify members on a frequent basis of our progress in recruiting candidates as well as help to coordinate the efforts of the regional recruitment committees through weekly status meetings.
Rationale: There is no way the candidate development committee or any state party entity can recruit all of the candidates we need. Regional committees work as a stopgap measure while the number of local chapters is low. At the state level, we must publicize our efforts to create a bandwagon effect that will encourage more members to run.
Since we are a decentralized party, we will setup
regional committees to focus on the primary effort of contacting potential
candidates and convincing them to run.
However, the state party must take efforts to create a
bandwagon effect that encourages members to step forward and run. Those efforts will include:
1)
Keeping
track of all of the candidates who have stepped forward to run and placing
their contact information on the web site.
2)
On
a weekly basis, telling the communications committee who the latest candidates
to sign on are so that they may announce their names and contact info in the
newsletter and email update.
3)
Making
sure that each regional candidate recruitment committee is aware of the
progress of the other committees as a way to spur them all on.
4)
Creating
a front page article for the November/December newsletter that details the
progress of the candidate recruitment drive, urges members to run, tells them
the basics of running, lists the support available and includes forms for
prospective candidates to fill out and mail back to us for more info. Perhaps this issue could focus on this
effort.
5)
Creating
a front-page article for the Spring newsletter that details our progress of
recruiting and getting candidates on the ballot and may urge members to run.
The
State will be broken up into regions based on natural divisions, media market
reach, etc. From what the drafter
personally knows, there should be a Worcester County committee, a four-county
western mass committee, and 5 other regional committees composed of 10-15 folks
each. These committees’ primary job
will be to use their local knowledge and a suggested process to identify
Green-Rainbow Party legislative candidates.
Some
Massachusetts House and Senate districts will overlap two or more regions. In those cases, primary responsibility has
been given to a particular region. As
such, regional recruitment committees will likely find party members in their
geographic region who want to run for a state office, but are in a district
covered by another region. In such a
case, the regional recruitment committee who finds the prospective candidate
will share the contact information of the candidate with the regional
recruitment committee tasked with finding a candidate for that district.
The
regions will be broken down as such:
|
Area Covered |
||
|
Region |
Counties |
House |
|
|
|
|
Districts |
Number |
|
Western |
Berkshire,
Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire |
All
Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire districts |
21 |
|
Worcester |
Worcester |
Worcester
districts |
18 |
|
Middlesex |
Middlesex |
Middlesex
districts |
37 |
|
North
East |
Essex |
Essex
districts |
18 |
|
Suffolk
and Norfolk |
Suffolk,
Norfolk |
Suffolk
- Norfolk districts |
34 |
|
South
East |
Bristol,
Cape and Islands, Plymouth |
Bristol,
Cape and Islands, Plymouth districts |
32 |
|
Area Covered |
|
|
|
Senate |
|
|
Region |
Districts |
Number |
|
Western |
Berkshire,
Hampshire, and Franklin Hampshire
and Franklin Hampden First
and Second Hampden and Hampshire |
5 |
|
Worcester |
First
and Second Worcester Worcester
and Middlesex Worcester
and Norfolk Worcester,
Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin |
5 |
|
Middlesex |
First
– Fourth Middlesex Middlesex
and Essex Middlesex
and Worcester First
and Second Middlesex and Norfolk Second
Suffolk and Middlesex |
9 |
|
North
East |
First
and Second Essex First
– Third Essex and Middlesex |
5 |
|
Suffolk
and Norfolk |
Bristol
and Norfolk Middlesex,
Suffolk and Essex Norfolk
and Plymouth Norfolk,
Bristol, and Middlesex Norfolk,
Bristol and Plymouth First
and Second Suffolk First
Suffolk and Middlesex Suffolk
and Norfolk |
9 |
|
South
East |
Cape
and Islands First
and Second Bristol and Plymouth Plymouth
and Barnstable First
and Second Plymouth and Bristol Plymouth
and Norfolk |
7 |
All
regional Green-Rainbow Party candidate recruitment committees should meet in
September if at all possible. The
presidential primary process will begin in earnest after Labor Day and conclude
by 2 March 2004, if not before. The
college year schedule, which has a significant impact on many areas of
Massachusetts, usually begins immediately after Labor Day.
Each
regional candidate recruitment committee must initially to review the list of
targeted House districts in their region and the basis on which the candidate
recruitment committee made each targeting decision. Recruiting for districts with Republican incumbents or open seats
(districts where the incumbent has announced a decision not to run again or has
already left office) ought to go forward.
Information on Democratic-held districts that a regional committee
believes should not be targeted, or an incumbent Democrat the regional
committee has good reason to add to the targeting list should be sent to the
candidate recruitment committee, with a final decision weighted toward the
judgment of the regional committee.
The
technology committee must provide to each regional committee a list of the
registered Green-Rainbow Party members in their region, with all voter
information we have, and the phone numbers and email addresses of for those
voters we have. This information should
be provided to the regional committees by 27 September 2003, and no later than
4 October 2003. Periodic updates must
be made available as the technology committee acquires updated voter lists.
The
candidate development committee will hold periodic teleconference meetings with
representatives from the regional committees so that every committee can
provide its status and we can get a sense of our progress. The timetable for the number of such
meetings is:
|
Month |
Frequency |
|
October |
2 a
month |
|
November |
3 a
month |
|
December |
3 a
month |
|
January |
1 a
week |
|
February |
1 a
week |
|
March |
1 a
week |
|
April |
1 a
week |
|
May |
2 a
month |
The
candidate development committee will also setup a non-public emailing list on
which will be all regional committee members as they desire and all regional
committee representatives. The active
members of the candidate development committee will also be on this list, as
they desire. The purpose of this list
is to share status and recruitment tips.
However, the email list will not be a substitute for the teleconference
meetings.