Happy Valentine’s Weekend, Politicas!

As at the time of writing we have 99 active members of whom 23 have signed back up and paid their dues. Have you had a chance to take care of this yet?
We are asking you to make a donation of $45 to allow us to make the small purchases that keep us going. See below for an explanation of how we spent your donations last year. For this year, you will receive:  a YCV t shirt, a VOTE cling for your car, and access to all our events. You can pay with a credit card through PayPal at upcoming events, by check, or cash.  Let us know your t-shirt size too.
Mail to :Politica NC, P. O. Box 12796, Raleigh, NC 27605.
Pay your dues by March 1 and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Notorious RBG.  To learn the five reasons you should read this book go to: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/10/tumblr-notorious-rbg-book-ruth-bader-ginsburg

 

NEWS:

As you may know, a ruling by the federal court held that NC congressional districts 1 and 12 were gerrymandered for race. The court denied a request to stay the ruling. The case is heading to the US Supreme Court at the behest of the General Assembly. Given that both these districts (held by GK Butterfield and Alma Adams respectively) are in play during the primary, there are many questions about the impact of this ruling. Will it delay the primary or necessitate a special primary? http://www.wral.com/nc-redistricting-case-heads-to-us-supreme-court/15343601/#1
Other issues we should be thinking about: will the finding in this case affect arguments about gerrymandering in state districts? Will all the maps need to be redrawn? This is the view from John Wynne, the more conservative half of the Politics NC partnership. http://www.politicsnc.com/chaotic-but-not-a-game-changer/ Interesting times in NC!The next set of cuts are coming. Depending on where you stand this is good (small cut in income tax) or bad (more cuts in services.) It seems inevitable that the short session will bring a push to consolidate tax cuts since there will be election year zeal. It makes for great headlines for those who aren’t paying attention or who don’t make the connection between their kids’ substitute teachers, poor road quality and poor water quality at Jordan Lake. http://www.wral.com/nc-lawmakers-begin-talks-on-income-tax-cut/15342490/

Another dreadful piece of legislation has been enacted. Read all the way to end to see the results show negligible positive results in drug tests on welfare recipients. http://www.wral.com/test-results-show-little-evidence-of-drug-use-by-nc-welfare-recipients/15343664/

Finally, a few weeks ago we shared an article that advocated voting against the school and parks bondthat will be on the primary ballot. Thanks to Lynn Edmonds we have some views from the other side. Please read.

Commissioner John Burns: “This bond, despite the cynical way it has come about, brings a lot for Wake County, and I support it. A new engineering building at NC State, significant investment at Wake Tech, $1.7mm in improvements at Umstead State Park and improvements at Jordan Lake Recreation area, as well as others. All told, over $250mm of the 2.1billion will be spent on projects in Wake County.”

Brian Fitzsimmons:   “I have to agree with the Commissioner here. This is not the perfect solution, by any stretch of the imagination. We’re doing this the wrong way, but I’m not prepared to deny Wake the opportunity to see this so that I can take a principled stance. For me, it’s too close to the GOP denying medicaid expansion simply because they don’t like the President and his policies.”

Update on Voter Registration Activities and SIGN UP!!!

Since December we have registered 403 voters, had 1217 conversations about voting and
given 195 hours of volunteer time for VR. Please send a cheer to our amazing VR team.

VR events this coming week.
Sign up!!! Nearly every slot is available right now. These are in addition to our events at CPO, Boys and Girls Clubs and the Advance Health Clinic.

Tuesday, 2/16 at Urban Ministries of Wake County, 10 am to 12 pm
Tuesday, 2/16 at Zebulon Boys and Girls Club, 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Wednesday, 2/17 at Urban Ministries of Wake County, 10 am to 12 pm
Wednesday, 2/17 at Advance Community Health, 1 pm to 3 pm

Sign up here:
http://www.youcanvote.org/events

On March 26th we will be offering a voter registration training to all Politicas. Even if you have previously done voter registration we strongly recommend you come and take the training. There are many changes to the process and our system prevents mistakes and makes every encounter enjoyable and informative.

FYI on Sunday we will be working with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Raleigh to train 115 volunteers to register voters. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Calendar
Not able to follow all upcoming primaries?  Check out this state-by-state guide of the Presidential primaries.  http://www.theskimm.com/2016-election/calendar

If you are interested in working with Democracy NC as a poll monitor at the primaries please go to this link to sign up. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hfLt5w0mEpHaYqkJKlSIZwEOJ-qd5e9iSiUdX1iFhWg/viewform?c=0&w=1

Timely Topics lunches sponsored by the Wake County League of Women Voters:
Friday, Feb. 24 – “Pathways to Third Grade Reading: The Importance of Early Childhood Experiences” at noon
Ridge Road Baptist Church, 2011 Ridge Rd., Raleigh
Free – bring a bag lunch

Save the date for our next big event: Candidate Lunch at 18 Seaboard. April 28.

Finances:
2015: Thanks to all of you who donated towards our expenses last year. Our suggested donation for 2015 was $30 per person. We had total income of $1686, representing 51 memberships plus assorted income from sales of t-shirts and window clings. Our costs were mainly purchases of materials (window clings, signage, supplies for events and stationery.) This represents about 1/3 of our costs. We invested about $200 in the website, $260 on the September event at the Mahler, some dues to partner organizations, the PO Box and we carried $300 cash forward.

2016: This year we know our outgoings will be higher, partly because it’s an election year and we will need lots of materials for voter registration but also because we will be investing some money in the website and buying a projector for future presentations. While these are more significant expenditures than we have made in the past, we feel they are essential to our higher profile and the requests we are getting to train, present to and partner with other groups.  We hope you are proud to be a part of our growth and can support us in these efforts by making your donation of $45. Please feel free to email us with any questions. And thank you.

Finally for your amusement, here is a clip from Stephen Colbert chatting about the results in the New Hampshire primary. Nobody makes you laugh about politics like Stephen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6RVKCqGhCM