This summer, ACT NOW will be holding a series of phone banks every Wednesday from 6:30-8:00PM where we will be reaching out to first-time Obama voters about the importance of supporting reformer Joe Sestak for Senate.

If you’ve heard enough about projected Democratic losses in the upcoming midterm elections and are ready to stand up and do something about it, we urge you to join us now in an early show of force for Joe Sestak!

Please specify if you are joining us on July 7th, 14th ,21st, or 28th.

Note: Tonight’s phone bank is located at the McManus Democratic Association at 321 West 44th Street at 8th Avenue. Please RSVP, so that we can send you the contact number needed for buzzing you in.

Hon. Andrea Stewart-Cousins

Hon. Craig Johnson

Hon. Joseph Addabbo

Hon. Jose Peralta

June 17, 2010

Dear Senators,

As one of New York City’s major progressive grassroots organizations, we call on you and your colleagues not to leave Albany for the end of the legislative session until real campaign finance reform passes the New York State Senate.  Voters at the national and state levels have recently become fully aware of the dangers posed by wealthy special interests that dominate our government, our regulatory agencies, and much of our public life.  That makes this the time to act and bring fundamental reform to our system.

Campaign finance is often relegated to secondary status in the face of more “immediate” concerns.  But it lies at the heart of so many of the biggest challenges that face our state.  We cannot fundamentally reform the way that business is done in Albany until we can give voters the confidence that their elected officials are working for them, not for big contributors.

New York State has some of the most lax and un-enforced campaign finance laws in the country, allowing special interests to spend millions of dollars to dominate our elections.  As just one example, the infamous “LLC loophole” allows real estate developers and other special interests to donate unlimited amounts of money simply by setting up multiple shell companies.   How can citizens possibly have equal access to their government when they are competing with the unlimited funds of some of the most powerful interests in the state?

ACT NOW is proud to have worked directly on all of your election campaigns, providing on-the-ground citizen volunteers at critical moments when your campaign needed them most.  This grassroots engagement is what we hope to see fostered throughout New York State, rather than the backroom politics-as-usual system that has dominated our state for so many years.  We worked hard on your campaign because we believed that you would be an advocate for meaningful change in Albany.  We hope to see that commitment in action now.

We would ask that you let us know whether we can count on you to pass real campaign finance reform before leaving Albany for the end of the legislative session.  We can be reached at 212-714-7125 or info@actnowny.org.Thank you for all of the good work that you do.

Sincerely,

ACT NOW Board of Directors

This July, ACT NOW is staking out the Union Square Farmers Market on Saturday mornings to help spread the word that NYC’s own state Senator, Eric Schneiderman, is running for Attorney General! 

As state Senator, Eric has been a tireless reformer of our notoriously dysfunctional state government. He has sponsored and passed legislation on Wall Street reform, criminal justice reform, and (just this year) the first meaningful ethics overhaul in decades. As Attorney General, he’ll be in a position to make sure these crucial legislative gains are actually enforced.

So join us at Union Square, from 8:30-10:30 AM on Saturday mornings to get the word out about Eric.  We’ll meet at the usual place (George Washington Statue, southeast corner of the park), but please RSVP below and we’ll send you contact numbers for the day of.

For five years, ACT NOW has organized, trained, and deployed progressive Democrats from all over New York to bring new leadership and much-needed reform to Albany and Washington, DC.

To do it, our ACTivists have piled into buses to Pennsylvania and trains to Connecticut, Queens, Westchester County, and Long Island, just to name a few. Along the way, we learn about the turf we’ll be covering, the voters we’ll meet, and the issues most important to them — all so we can hit the ground running and reach as many people as possible.And it works! On the national level, our 1,000-plus active volunteers have played a role in sweeping Democratic victories in the House and Senate and - our shining achievement — the election of Barack Obama, whose campaign was built on just the type of direct voter contact methods we believe in.On the state level, we have won four seats as part of our ongoing “Seize the Senate” campaign, finally bringing an end to 40 years of Republican rule in the New York State Senate. We still have much work to do to reform our dysfunctional government in Albany, but we’ve finally crossed the first hurdle and we’re ready for the road ahead.The year 2010 will be full of more opportunities and we are currently in talks with our progressive allies and leadership to plan our upcoming campaigns. We also want to hear from you, our ACTivists, because your involvement is the heart and soul of any winning strategy. So click below and let us know!Click Here to Help Plan 2010!

Click here to help support Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination.

Once again, Obama has picked an unassailably well-qualified candidate for the bench. Kagan served as a clerk in the late 1980s for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and also for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. She was the first female dean of Harvard Law School before becoming the first woman to hold the post of solicitor general. But don’t expect her credentials to sway Mitch McConnell and his minions of naysayers.

We’re going to be calling into states like Massachusetts, Maine, and Ohio, where moderate Republican senators may be persuaded to confirm Kagan. There will be a lot of pressure from Republican Leadership trying to keep these representatives in line, and we need to make sure they feel even more pressure from their progressive constituents.

Click here to help support Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination.

So join us in the coming weeks as we contact voters and their senators to ensure Kagan gets an up or down vote. Let us know you’re interested and we’ll send you all the details.

New York State has some of the most lax campaign finance reform laws in the country — allowing corporations and special interests to spend unlimited sums of money on campaigns — and we have had enough. We must begin strengthening our state campaign finance regulations now, before this legislative session ends.

That’s why ACT NOW wrote this letter to the four State Senators we helped elect as part of our ongoing “Seize the Senate” campaign. Because it’s not enough to elect a Democratic New York State Senate. We must hold them to a progressive agenda — and that means campaign finance reform.

Click here to read our letter.

Click here to find your State Senator and write your own letter.

Part One:

Part Two:

As grassroots political activists, we are asking, what does this mean for democracy and for our work in 2010? Will corporations (like Goldman Sachs, for instance) really be allowed to spend unlimited sums writing political ads in support of candidates who promise to do their bidding? How can we be prepared? How can we fight back?

To answer these questions, ACT NOW, Living Liberally, and several of our progressive ally organizations convened a public forum of campaign finance reform experts and advocates, and we’ll have footage of that panel discussion on-line very soon. We’re also continuing to learn more about what we can do to combat corporate influence in politics on a state and federal level, and beginning to lay plans for our response, in concert with our progressive allies.

In the meantime, please take a moment to educate yourself further on the Citizens United ruling and also look over this information on the DISCLOSE Act, spearheaded by New York’s own Senator, Chuck Schumer. We think it’s an excellent start and, if you agree, we urge you to call and email your representatives in the House and Senate and say that you stand behind it. (This only takes a minute!)

Next, read up on the package of campaign finance bills put forth in the New York State Senate (including one introduced by our panelist, New York State Senator Daniel Squadron), and contact your State Senator to say you want to see them pass.

While you’re doing that, we’ll be meeting with our progressive allies and conjuring up many more ways to make a difference in this extremely important fight. So stick around! (And, as always, it is the ideas and passion of our volunteers that shape our campaigns, so please contact us and tell us what you think.)

Panelists include State Senator Daniel Squadron, outspoken advocate of campaign finance reform; Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, campaign finance reform expert at the Brennan Center; and Jerry Goldfeder, professor of election law and an expert on campaign finance.

The event takes place on Wednesday, April 28th from 7:45-9:00PM at the NYU Law School’s Lipton Hall on 108 W 3rd Street between MacDougal and Sullivan.

Please RSVP using the form below and we’ll look forward to seeing you there!