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Seizing the Time: The Role of Independent Groups in 2008
"I had been inspired by the civil rights movement and the idea of people working at a grassroots level to bring about change, to get people involved in shaping their own destiny.... I believe that change comes not from the top down but from the bottom up.... That's the way political organizing should work. It means that whatever organizing we do outlasts the particular political campaign." - Barack Obama
This is our moment. This is our time.
Barack Obama said those words when he secured the nomination on June 3, and he was right. The moment we are in is an incredible opportunity to change this country for the long term, and now is the time for us to seize it. We must harness the electricity in the air in cities and towns and states all across this country into sophisticated, coordinated, unstoppable progressive change.
Contrary to earlier reports about the demise of independent efforts this cycle, the work in 2008 will be robust, vibrant, and more coordinated than ever before. In 2008, the progressive movement is taking on an unprecedented collaboration of grassroots groups to raise $100 million that will mobilize millions of new voters and engage them in effective organizations that will be around long after November 4.
Major donors across the country are as inspired as everyone else about this important moment, and significant investments are being made to make the most of this opportunity. In addition to widespread non-partisan work, many of these efforts will support progressive candidates up and down the ticket, helping elect Barack Obama, picking up Senate seats, flipping state legislatures and permanently reshaping the electoral landscape in key states across the country.
The Democratic primaries illustrated our country's hunger for a progressive agenda as millions of new and previously disengaged voters expressed their desire for change at the polls. Young people and African Americans and Latinos voted in record numbers across the country (1 million new Latino voters turned out in California alone.)
PowerPAC, an organization whose primary purpose is to advocate for social justice policies and increase voter participation for people of color, was fortunate to participate in this historic moment. We were the first group on the air in South Carolina in January with get-out-the-vote radio ads targeting African American voters. We partnered with churches, labor and community-based organizations to increase Black voter turnout in 14 states with a focus on the South, including Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland and Virginia. In California and Texas, we contacted over one million Latino voters to make sure that they were educated and prepared to make their votes count.
Following our successful work in the primaries, PowerPAC is moving to expand our efforts and collaborate with other independent grassroots groups to build a permanent progressive infrastructure that will not only have a tangible impact on this campaign cycle, but will continue to work for positive change long after the last campaign posters have come down.
The work we will do in states across the country will also impact statewide Senate races, as well as local and regional candidate and issue campaigns down the ballot that have direct impact on people's daily lives.
Through an effort dubbed the Jimmie Lee Jackson Project, PowerPAC will collaborate with groups like the NAACP, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the Pushback Network, and others to coordinate non-partisan registration, education, and mobilization efforts of African American voters during the General Election. Jimmie Lee Jackson was a 24-year-old civil rights demonstrator whose death at the hands of Alabama State Troopers led to the Selma-Montgomery march and passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Our coordinated Black voter drive will register and mobilize one million new Black voters through a $10 million, multi-state mobilization in states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia.
PowerPAC will also collaborate with the major grassroots mobilization efforts led by America Votes and its 30-plus partner organizations, representing the largest progressive issue-based organizations in the country. In a national collaborative table and a series of collaborative tables in 14 states, these groups are dividing up constituencies and coordinating communication and mobilization efforts to educate voters about the national and down-ticket races.
Working from a common voter file, long-standing groups like the Sierra Club will contact 700,000 members and other voters concerned about environmental issues; the Campaign for Community Change will organize immigrant advocates and workers; Emily's List and Planned Parenthood will carry the message to female voters; and the United States Student Association, Young Democrats of America and League of Young Voters will mobilize the millennial generation.
A confluence of factors has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reorder priorities and reshape public policy for decades to come. To seize this opportunity, progressive leaders, donors, and activists alike all must rise to the challenge.
In his victory speech on June 3rd, Senator Obama closed by saying, "Generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless." In order to convey that message to future generations, we need a massive mobilization now of Americans from all backgrounds who hunger for change. At PowerPAC, we are proud to join with our allies to do our part to make the most of this historic moment.
Steve Phillips is the Chairman of PowerPAC.org.
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This whole thing must remind Obama a lot of what he had to deal with in his early organizing efforts in Chicago. Kind of "OK, Barack, you got some stuff going - you got people excited - now we're going to do our thing".
PowerPAC appears focused on riding the coattails of the Obama movement. There will be ample time after the election. Obama got where he is by keeping an ironclad rein on what his campaign stands for. He has not allowed himself to be pigeonholed as a standard-bearer for any particular group or interest or even political philosophy. As a direct result, voters across cultural, racial and political lines have a comfort level with him whether or not they agree with all his positions. All that needs to occur is PowerPAC producing a polarizing or slanted ad to assail that comfort level, raise questions as to whether he is more 'extreme' that perceived to be. He may have no literal 'control' over what PowerPAC puts out to the public, but only an impossibly naive person would believe that he will not be held just as accountable. He has been under a microscope since he announced.
What's stopping the members PowerPAC from advocating within guidelines set by the campaign? Well, apparently because "MAJOR DONORS are as inspired as everybody else...SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS are being made to MAKE THE MOST OF THIS OPPORTUNITY." Sounds like harness racing at the Downs.
I think Barack Obama will be a great president. He will shuffle things around and probably do his best to help all of our citizens the best he can.
There will be hope for the next generation and the one after that.
I hope Bush and Cheney are taken down somehow at some point for all the horror they have caused so many people.
Independent for obama '08
WOW! How many of you people who are saying "politics as usual" actually READ the entire article? All you read was the headline.
This PAC has not said they were going to run political ads, all they said was they are running voter registration drives and collaborating with other grassroots organizations like the Sierra Club to get out the vote.
Do you ever wonder why so many people are getting on the Barack Hussein Obama bus?
Could it be that this nation is becoming colorblind and does not care if a good person is black, white, red or tan?
Could it be that the American people don’t care if a person worships as a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or Jew?
Could it be that people remember the scandals of the Clinton And Bush years?
Could it be that the American people know that if it was not for the Clinton’s filth and scandals that Al Gore would be completing his second term in office.
Could it be that the American people remember Bush and McCain looking into our eyes and saying, believe me there are weapons of mass destruction?
Could it be that the American people are shell shocked that over 4,000 precious lives have been lost fighting the wrong war in the wrong country against the wrong enemy?
Could it be that the American people realize that Carl Rove politics brought our nation to where it is today?
We hope so.
I was watching Gore's speech yesterday when he endorsed Obama and it HURT to think how different America and the world could have been, had he been elected. It physically HURT.
Karl*
LOL.....Lot of new posters here at Huffpo......like to gently stir.......the pot
"politics as usual"... isn't this a Clinton tactic?
It's ok now because it's Obama? I hope what words have been spoken by him are true and he plans NOT to be another Clinton.
It would be a shame to win the nomination on a specific premise of change, and to then fall back and act hypocritical now that he has the nomination by following the path of those he considered to be corrupting the system.
I didn't vote for him, but would rather not see him lower himself to be another politician liar. This would mean everyone was duped yet again by another politician.
And it's not ok for him to fight fire with fire, when his mantra he used during his campaigning was for change and to not allow money pushers to control our government. That was his message was it not?
and still is!!!
Obama doesn't support this PAC, and this PAC does not directly support or coordinate with Obama. Obama asked all Democratic PACs to shut down and this one didn't. Obama can't force it to shut down.
So, it sounds like you don't really have a point to make?
How did Obama dupe you? How is Obama a liar? How is he yet another politician? How is he not changing things when he has been the first politician and now the DNC is the first major political party to not accept PAC money?
And yes, Clinton, McCain and the Republicans all accept PAC help and money. Obama still doesn't.
The fact is he didn't dupe anyone. He didn't lie to anyone. This person is nothing but a Republican DOLT and has nothing better to do than to get paid by the McCain campaign to stir up shit on liberal sites.
Free speech issues. The whole point of 527s is that they are supposed to be completely independent of the political campaign. He can discourage them but he can't shut them up. Somehow, I find that comfortingly democratic.
Obama can only do exactly what he said: he doesn't accept money from PAC. In a free country, he can't stop other people from doing what they want to do. That is not his fault.
Sweetie is your brain lost in space? Sen. Obama says what he means and means what he says. He told the Dem PACs to disband, most did and one didn't. Even though POWERPAC decided to continue, I'm sure they're going to be very careful how they frame their message. The kind of people that support and plan to vote for Sen. Obama in November are not interested in scurrilous attacks on the other fellow. Obama is sticking to the issues. got to barackobama.com and get involved at the local level. We're doing the Unite for Change campaign all across America on June 28th. Find out about a meeting near you by going to www.barackobama.com.
I believe Obama is making a terrible mistake to deny himself the help that can be provided by 527s. He is up against a huge force in the Republican 527s and must be able to counter them if he is to win. He cannot do this all by himself, and, as much as he would like to stay above the fray, he will not be able to win if he doesn't fight fire with fire. Even young David needed a stone to go in his slingshot. I hope his advisors will do what they can to change his mind.
He can fight fire with fire without the use of 527's. His campaign HAS to stay above the fray AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, otherwise his call for "new politics" will be looked at as phony. His Team is already assembling in every state, getting ready to fight smears, attacks and swift boats.
Another weapon he's got is US. The American people. WE have to NOT turn a blind eye to corruption, to bigotry and to smears. We have to be involved. It is OUR responsibility to learn fact from fiction...........especially in this computer age. If WE, as his supporters and decent Americans do OUR part, then Barack and his team can do theirs.
Democratic 527s will still be around. Its just they wont be headed by the people on Obamas campaign.
Uh ... I'm sorry ... and the problem with PowerPAC working FOR Obama is what???!!!
none that i know of. they are going to say o is playing dirty no matter what.
Obama has one message that has connected with millions of new voters: "I will not play the old style politics- I will change the system".
If the 527s go negative and start sliming McCain (rather than focusing on the laundry list of issues he is wrong on), it will look as if Obama is playing the same old games that got us into this mess.
During the primaries there are those who screamed for him to go negative, to get in the mud. He won't win without doing that, they said. But he was right and they were dead wrong.
The single best thing the Dems could ever do is have an election that actually gets decided on the issues. But if a bunch of politically tone deaf 527s go out to settle some old scores, they eliminate the chance of that and undermine the single most appealing characteristic Obama has- his integrity.
Obama doen't accept money or help from PowerPAC and would prefer if they didn't operate. However, he has no control over them and they are free to do whatever they want.
Also, if they cross the line, I'm sure Obama will denounce any comments that stray from his message.
We Need 527s supporting the Dems.
All these smears about Obama are being spread by GOP 527s, and McCain is getting away with a lot, because there are things that need to be said about John McCain that, needless too say, would be inappropriate for B O himself to say, so we need 527s!
Once you go down that road it is politics as usual.
If you want to change how the system works, you can't try and outslime the slimers.
A 527 does not necessarily need to use slime like the Republicans do. All they need is the truth.
You can if you simply point out the truths that the MSM aren't reporting about McCain. There is zero need to slime McCain. His own flip flopping on positions and the positions he holds now is more than enough to defeat him. All they have to do is educate the public.
No slime needed.
so we are going to be kerry again? that road did not work the first time.
I like the moral reasoning in this portion of the thread. Thank you.
What we are witnessing is a movement that will not be stopped. This movement was born on two close occasions on two separate bridges in the deep South about forty years ago. It has taken us years to come as far as we have. Obama might not want us to run with him, but we are. In fact, the run has turned into a sprint. Obama, I love you, guy, but not even you can deny us our right to participate in this election and the years ahead based on what we are doing now: uniting to bring about change within various aspects of this democracy we have almost lost.
Go, Obama. And go, all of us who work with Obama's team and with other organizations we help fund and engage in actively to upset the imbalance Big Brother has brought about.
One of the few issues that Obama has raised that I strongly disagree with is his call to financially starve independent groups. He is wrong on this one. I don't care how amazing his campaign is...he can't do it all. The progressive revolution will require efforts that simply can't be or aren't best handled by a political campaign. It will need multiple organizations accomplishing a wide range of tasks, and those organizations need the resources to succeed. I hope people keep giving to orgs like this one, because we need them!
I whole-heartedly agree. Grass-roots organization may benefit enormously during an election year that favors such momentum, but after November, it will still be up to these groups to push through the agendas of progressivism.
I agree and disagree with you. you are right he can't do it by himself, that is what we are for and you don't need money to tell the truth, by you writing the truth or, telling some one the truth of things, that is more valuable than any thing put on TV although TV does reach more people. I think what he is trying to do is control his message because honestly any thing they put out if it appears negative they will attribute it to him and i know he does not want that. I think if they inform with out being "negative" and keep it on the positive so to speak. no one will disagree with that not even obama. Everyone knows how out of hand these things can become, he wants to avoid that, but we do need these groups. I think they will be helpful if done right
I would like to see the Dem 527's researching and detailing the people behind the Rep 527's. Lets make them public figures, well known to all. That would be money well spent.
I don't see a problem with this. Obama said he wouldn't take theur money, not that he wanted to drive them out of business.
no you're thinking of lobbyists...he has called for outside groups (527s) to not run ads for him
This is a PAC, and he has vowed that his campaign and the DNC would not take money from them. Also, he can't control PACs or 527s. All he can do is ask them to not run ads.
your right to, good point
Agreed
amen
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