Going Where It Matters
With hopes dashed that the Electoral College would refuse to rubber-stamp his Presidency, and House Republicans more than happy to watch civil liberties be drowned along with government in Grover Norquist’s bathtub, Resisters are now turning toward the future in hopes of building a Congressional firewall against Trump’s autocracy. New organizations like Sister District and Swing Left are helping to organize people in Democratic-held Congressional districts to work on “flipping” Republican seats or holding vulnerable Dem seats.
Last week, Swing Left held more than 600 launch parties across the country last Saturday, with more than 10,000 people reported to have attended. The day before, my sister and I were trying to find a party to attend and found that all of them were full. I decided to host one instead. On less than 24 hours’ notice, I had nine people show up, 2 of them who found my party on the Swing Left website and who, like me, couldn’t find anywhere else to go. The rest were friends of mine from different parts of my life (school, neighbors, family) with varying levels of experience in being political involved. We all live in the 13th Congressional district, represented by the solidly left-leaning Barbara Lee. Our closest swing district is CA-10, represented by Republican Jeff Denham, who won by only 8,201 (3.4%) votes. Clinton won this district: 116,000 (49%) to 109,000 (46%) for Trump. CA-10 includes Tracy, Modesto, Manteca and the surrounding areas (but not Stockton).
The end result of our hour-long meeting was to organize a voter registration event in Tracy in May. We also set up a logistics and training meeting for April. We posted it on the Swing Left Events Calendar and took a group selfie. We were ready to go.
But I’ve done this before, and know that folks do not like outsiders coming on to their turf to do stuff without talking to the people in the area who have already been doing the work, so I emailed the San Joaquin Democratic Party and the San Joaquin League of Women Voters (I haven’t heard back). Other Swing Left organizers had the same idea and reached out to me to coordinate. They’ve met with the head of the Dems in Stanislaus county, who is interested in coordinating with us, and got an invitation to come to the Democratic Club of Greater Tracy. They invited me along.
The meeting was held at a chain diner in Tracy. There were about 20 people there, including four of us from Swing Left groups. The mayor spoke and a city council member attended as well. The mayor talked about his five-point plan for Tracy, and it involves improving 911 response times (calls are dispatched from Stockton, which is a problem), attracting businesses to create jobs in Tracy, expanding Tracy’s sports fields so they can host baseball and soccer tournaments (and attracting a hotel to support that), and better signage on Tracy’s main entrance road. In a great illustration of the tension between local and national politics, a woman asked if Tracy is a sanctuary city and if the Tracy police would be cooperating with ICE to deport her neighbors. The mayor said he couldn’t stop ICE from doing what they were going to do, and the group didn’t like that very much.
There was a guy there with a permanent name tag that said he was already a candidate for the Congress in CA-10. According to his website, he has run three times and intends to begin campaigning June 7, 2017 for 2018. He didn’t speak while I was there.
The Democratic Club had a lot of business to get through before it could address issues our group might raise. In the end, Swing Left folks had a little time to introduce ourselves to the group and explain what we hoped to accomplish. My sense from others who were there (I had to leave just before the end), was that Club members were a little baffled by the attention from outsiders and unsure how best to collaborate with us. I did get an email from the Club President today letting me know that they are working on a Voter Registration and field plan for Tracy and Manteca and will keep Swing Left groups in the loop on that.
The other thing I learned while I was there is that the DCCC has already assigned two field organizers to CA-10 and they will be in district very soon. Although one woman reported grumbling about them hiring people from outside the district to do the work, I was heartened that the DCCC is implementing its ground game now. Best case scenario would be for them to merge with Swing Left and Sister District so that we have access to their VAN and registration tools, but that’s almost too much to ask.
Stay posted!
