[PAA-Discuss] Town Hall Meetings With Gene Green to Promote Clean Elections

Tue Aug 5 11:46:19 EDT 2008

As a clarification, we want to ask Gene Green to co-sponsor the Federal
legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives calling for publicly
financed campaigns on the congressional level. U.S. Congressman John Larson
(D) of Connecticut is sponsoring this legislation. He wrote a letter to his
colleagues in November of 2007 asking for their support of the Larson Bill
and their co-sponsorship of same. We want Gene Green to co-sponsor the
Larson Bill. We also want him to support publicly financed campaigns in
Texas, and we want public officials in Texas to sponsor/co-sponsor
legislation on the state level for Clean Elections beginning with the state
judicial races.

As a side note, I am strictly playing things by ear regarding tonight's Town
Hall meeting at the Denver Harbor Multi Service Center on Market Street. I
was planning to attend tonight's meeting and possibly be the one to ask Gene
to support the Larson Bill and Clean Elections in Texas, however, I am
watching this weather closely. If it appears the roads will be flooded I
will not be getting out and driving to East Houston. I'll make my mind up
later today. Hopefully, this tropical storm will blow on through and the
rain will stop. The rain is coming steadily down in my neck of the woods as
I write this.

If anybody has any questions just drop me an e-mail. I'll do my best to
answer them.

Kris

  _____  

From: Ron and Kris Graham [mailto:graham2639 at mindspring.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 5:46 PM
Subject: [PAA-Discuss] Town Hall Meetings With Gene Green to Promote
CleanElections

I got an e-mail today from Andy Wilson of Public Citizen in Austin, TX. Andy
is going to be in town next week. He wants a bunch of us to be present at
one or more of the Town Hall meetings scheduled with Congressman Gene Green
next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Gene has indicated he is in favor of
publicly financed campaigns in Texas, and we need to be present at the town
hall meetings to ask him if he will co-sponsor the Larson Bill provided to
him by Public Citizen calling for publicly financed campaigns in Texas
beginning with the state judicial races. Gene did sign the Voters First
pledge in 2006, so hopefully he will agree to co-sponsor legislation getting
publicly financed campaigns in Texas for all elective offices. I am pasting
the e-mail exchanges between Charlie Mauch, Andy Wilson and me today
regarding the three (3) Town Hall meetings coming up with Gene Green next
week. Please let Charlie and me know if you can attend one or more of these
meetings. We need a large presence at the meetings to show great support for
Clean Elections in Texas. 

Charlie had some questions about the Town Hall meetings which Andy answered
below. Please look over the e-mails I have pasted below. They should answer
any questions you might have. It is extraordinarily important that we get
legislation passed in the 2009 session that makes publicly financed
campaigns a reality in this state. Please do your best to attend one or more
of the meetings. Thanks a bunch.

Kris

The basic point is this: he is doing these meetings to hear from his
constituents to hear what is on their minds.  Most questions will be about
pressing issue (gas prices, economy, etc) and we can't let him forget his
commitment to campaign finance.  Especially since the action is so simple
and you might think not many people care about it, we want to show him that
people DO care about this issue.

Let me go point by point quickly:

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 12:45 PM, <ChasMauch at aol.com> wrote:

I am not familiar with the procedure at townhall meetings so would
appreciate some details:

1. I think there is a Q & A (public comment) part of the meeting. Would we
have a spokesman from our group ask him to co-sponsor the legislation? Would
we ask the same question at all three meetings? That would seem kind of
redundant since he would hear the same thing 3 times.

We need different people to ask (basically) the same thing at every meeting.
This will be most effective if the people are a) from Gene Green's district
and b) diverse.  (This is why I would be a bad "messenger" - from Austin,
work for an advocacy group, younger white male-- not Gene's constituents for
sure)

2. Why do you need a group to attend the meeting if only one will speak?
Would others get up and make the same request or just provide moral support,
applause, or whatever?

One will ask the question, then we have the rest of the group
applauding/holding signs/providing support, etc.

3. Would you plan to attend the meetings? You would be the best spokesperson
since you are familiar with the legislation and could answer any questions
he might have. Otherwise someone will need to be educated about it.

I will be there and I'm happy to write the question for someone.
Ultimately, what I envision is 1 person asking the question, flanked by me
and another person from Common Cause, LWV, etc-- something like that.  They
are asking the question but I can provide a follow-up, support, etc.

4. Are you proposing that we get up a group to meet with Green about
co-sponsoring this bill? If so that could be done at his office, couldn't
it? Or would it be better done after one of the meetings?

We may not NEED a meeting at his office if we get enough people to these
meetings.  I can then just follow up with his staff to make sure things
happen.  But when I spoke to his Chief of Staff she told me if the
Congressman was interested we could maybe have a short talk before/after one
of the meetings.  Of course, we may need a meeting, but the meeting will be
about facts and figures, these townhalls are about showing public support.

Feel free to call me to coordinate any of this better.  Let me know if you
think you can get several people there, do I need to make signs or will you
make them, etc?

Andy Wilson
Public Citizen TX
512-477-1155 (office)
917-238-0761 (cell) 

In a message dated 8/1/2008 11:58:14 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
andy.citizen at gmail.com writes:

It's Gene Green and he is doing some townhall meetings next Mon, Tues, and
Wed that i would like to make sure we make our voices heard on public
financing: he signed the "Voters First" pledge in 2006 to support public
financing and I would like him to co-sponsor a piece of legislation to make
it happen.  I have been in touch with his Chief of Staff so he knows we're
putting a group together and we may have a chance to briefly meet with him
about supporting this draft legislation.   Let me know if you can come to
any of these and feel free to forward this to other people who want to help:

Topic:   Town Hall
Official:  Rep. Green (D-TX-29th)
When:  08/04/2008
Starts:  06:30 PM
Where :  Aldine Branch Library
11331 Airline Drive
Houston, TX 77037

Call (281) 999-5879 for more information.

Topic:   Town Hall
Official:  Rep. Green (D-TX-29th)
When:  08/05/2008
Starts:  07:00 PM
Until:  08:00 PM
Where :  Denver Harbor Multi-Service Center
6402 Market Street
Houston, TX 77020

Call (281) 999-5879 for more information.

Topic:   Senior Citizens' Issues Forum
Official:  Rep. Green (D-TX-29th)
When:  08/06/2008
Starts:  10:00 AM
Until:  11:00 AM
Where :  South Houston Community Building
1007 State Street
South Houston, TX 77587

Call (281) 999-5879 for more information.

Thanks,

Andy Wilson
Public Citizen TX
awilson at citizen.org
512-477-1155 (office)
917-238-0761 (cell)

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