More on Our Part

Two more interesting posts today that relate, at least partially, to the "our part of the bargain" theme. I'll add them to the longer list.

PSOTD thinks we should have a system for rating voters. Intriguing idea. Some schools have wanted to grade parents. Same sort of thing. Your first reaction is "hey, wait a minute...." then "hmmm, maybe that's not such a bad idea...."

Susie over at The Suburban Guerilla recommends we all read a book that goes into some detail on the topic. (At one political event I was having a really interesting conversation with someone. Turns out he thought I was Susie and as soon as he found out I wasn't he got a sad look on his face and went off to talk to someone else. [sigh])

More News Bits

A few other news tidbits:

Joe Sestak has a few thoughts on veterans (here).

Lois Murphy and Jim Gerlach meet with Israeli ambassador to the US, from Philadelphia Jewish Voice.

Patrick Murphy's MurphyCorps got together and painted a house on Saturday.

Missing Monday

The Missing Monday project sets aside the first Monday of a month for bloggers to publicize a missing person's case. Full details of this case are available here.

Upper Providence Township, Delaware County, PA - 02/20/03
The Upper Providence Township Police Department is investigating the disappearance of Anita Scott. Anita Scott was last seen leaving her residence on Sycamore Mills Road in Upper Providence at 6:00pm on February 7, 2003. At that time she advised her husband and son that she was going out. Anita Scott has not been seen or heard from since that time. Anita Scott was driving a 1986 Volkswagen Golf, silver in color, bearing PA registration EGA-6700.

DOB: November 17, 1944
Height: 5'2" Weight: 140 lbs.
Eyes: Brown Hair: Blonde

Our Part of the Bargain: Another View

Interestingly enough, Chris Satullo's column in today's Inky discusses our responsibilities as citizen. Here is an excerpt:

People will spend hours on a Web site researching which MP3 player or hybrid golf club to buy - but claim to have no time to read up on what their government is doing in their names.

Being a citizen involves more than voting. Voting, lamentably, has become the most consumerlike activity of citizenship. Too many people judge candidates the same way they pick a Toyota dealer: Who's offering me the cheapest deal?

To be a citizen is to claim your place in a whole that transcends private interests. To be a citizen is to safeguard a legacy of liberty for which millions have dreamed, labored and risked lives. Citizens should never let partisan quarrels dwarf the bond they share with each fellow citizen.

Read the whole column here.

weekly legislative update

The legislature was not in session this week.

News Bits

A few items that caught my interest over the past few days:

Mark Cohen writes on the retirement of Bill Rieger. I looked for quotes to pull out but you really should read the whole thing yourself.

Ken Davis was reelected chair of the Montgomery County Republicans (inky article here). One paragraph that struck me in particular:

Davis, a managing director at Duane Morris Government Affairs in Philadelphia, lobbies in Washington and Harrisburg for clients including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, and Rite Aid. He also is paid $7,500 a month to lobby for Montgomery County.

Our Part of the Bargain: Other Views

As promised, here are links to other blogger's views on our part of the bargain (my view is here). Updated as needed. Thanks to all who wrote. The response has been great.

Matthew Best at PennPatriot
Liberal Doomsayer
Ellen at The Sam and Becky Boo Show
Next Direction
Trace 2000
Save Ardmore Coalition (comment on Philly Future)
The Smedley Log
Gort42
dragonballyee
eRobin at Factesque
Phillyville

Chris Satullo's column in the Inquirer (not a part of this effort but at least partly on the topic nonetheless).
PSOTD thinks voters should be rated.
Susie of The Suburban Guerilla recommends we read a book.


For further reading Carl suggests we all check out Rousseau on the social contract (wiki info here)

Our Part of the Bargain: My View

What is our part of the bargain with our elected officials? I haven’t read any of the other responses to this question yet, so these are solely my thoughts (with some input from the family). Being more of a Roman (roads, bridges, aqueducts, and manuals) than a Greek (theatre, arts, sculpture, and epics), I’m sticking to practical suggestions as opposed to theory.

What is our part of the bargain during elections?

Research the candidates, their stance on the issues, their past, their character, their record (for incumbents). Read interviews, attend debates where possible. If you support a candidate do so on the candidate’s merits instead of solely party affiliation, though they aren’t mutually exclusive.

Contribute to the campaign in some way. Money is good. Money is very good. Some people, however, are uncomfortable writing a check. Fine. Find another way. I’ve never seen a campaign turn away stamps. If you don’t want to write a check, take or send the campaign office 100 stamps. See if they would want a case of small water bottles for volunteers to take when going door to door. A ream of copy paper. Something. Find something you can give in support of the candidate. (Ask first if they need what you have or are thinking of). Volunteer. This can be knocking on doors or calling people. It can also be folding and stuffing. There are all sorts of things you can do, depending on your talents and comfort level. Remember, if you don’t provide money or supplies the campaign will get them somewhere else. And you may not like the option they choose.

Vote. I don’t understand people who purposefully do not vote. I just don’t.

What is our part of the bargain between elections?

Be informed. Keep track of what elected officials are doing.

Read at least one local paper on a regular basis (blogs are good, but they are in addition to, not instead of, a local paper).

Support your officials. Don’t just complain when they mess up, tell them when they’ve done something good. Want to see an elected official’s jaw drop? Mention a specific vote or stance they have taken that you like. They seldom hear this sort of thing. If someone on their staff has been helpful be sure to praise that person to the official.

Attend townhall meetings or open houses or other non-fundraiser events often enough to see each elected official at least once a year. You don’t have to ask them anything or talk to them but they need to see you and every other voter at least once a year. If they don’t have or attend such events, vote them out of office.

Be involved in at least one community-based effort or group – a religious group, a model train club, a garden club, school-based groups, the friends of the library, neighborhood watch, political party, bowling league, Drinking Liberally, something. This will weave you into the social fabric and you can hear what others in the community have to say about your elected officials and what their experiences are. If nothing else, talk with your neighbors about elected officials and see what they think.

Look beyond the edges of your neighborhood. An official who brings home a lot of money for local projects but whose votes are devastating the state or country is not a good official. Bite the bullet and vote them out. (This one comes from Mr. J.)

What is effect does this have?

Elected officials see that you and other voters are interested in what they are doing. That helps keep them honest. If you leave me alone in a room with a bowl of M&Ms and ask me not to eat any of them, the odds that I will comply are directly related to my perception of your knowledge of how many M&Ms are in the bowl. It’s human nature. If you want your elected officials to represent you and not special interests, they have to know what you want and if you are happy with them. Don’t let this information come to them solely through expensive polls at election time.

Maintenance is always more expensive and time consuming than acquisition. Anyone who has owned a house or car has learned this. Same with elected officials. Once we have them in office we have to support them. This is where community organizations can come in handy -- they can provide the hands and feet of an official’s community efforts. We can’t expect an official to accomplish everything single-handedly. We can expect them to lead, to help procure funding, to pass the laws we need, but they need our help to make where we live better, or just to keep it on track.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. This doesn’t just apply to taking jabs at the “other guy” during campaigns. It means being an active participant in the process all the time.

Patrick Murphy Endorsed by Mydd

Patrick Murphy has been added to mydd's netroots page on Act Blue. If you look at Act Blue you will see that this is one way of raising cash, sometimes lots of cash.

Max Cleland, Bryan Lentz, Paul Lang, and Me

Yesterday I took half a day of vacation to hit a couple of political events, both free (my favorite kind). Both featured former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia. I’m late posting on this so links to other posts or articles on these events are included; you can see other points of view as well.

First stop, the Iron Hill Brewery in Media, for a rally highlighting Cleland and Bryan Lentz, Democratic candidate for the 161st state house seat. It was a short event, lasting about 30 minutes once it got started.

Cleland and Lentz had toured a veteran’s museum before the rally and Cleland had a number of positive things to say about it. He also spoke about the Pennsylvania legislature’s ill-fated pay raise, saying it was a violation of trust. In the military he said officers eat last (coming from a family of NCO’s and enlisted men I was a little surprised at this) and the legislature had eaten first. Lentz’s incumbent Republican opponent voted for the pay raise.

Lentz introduced some people in the crowd, including Mike Farrell, candidate for 26th state senate district, and some of the people who had served with Lentz in Iraq. The man who had served as the translator for their unit was also there. Lentz and his fellow soldiers are hoping to help him find a way to immigrate. You have to love that. How many people would have walked away and forgotten him?

Lentz pointed out that he took a pay cut to join the Reserves and go to Iraq, in contrast to the legislative payraise. He asked that we judge his future actions by his past actions. In his case, those are pretty good actions. (read Inky article here and Atrios’ take here). Lentz's web site has video of part of the rally here. I counted 30 some people but there may have been more.

Back to the car and off we go, heading northeast on the Blue Route and then the Turnpike.

Cleland appeared at an event for Paul Lang at the Disabled American Veterans post in Levittown. The room was chock full of candidates. Lentz accompanied Cleland. Mike Diamond, candidate for 31st state house district against incumbent David Steil, and Republican Joe Hogan who is running for the 141st state house district was there as was his incumbent Democratic incumbent Tony Melio. (Everyone was civil.) Bucks County Commissioner Sandy Miller, Milt Berkes and other local officials were also there. Patrick Murphy stopped in and was loudly applauded.

Cleland’s remarks were similar to the ones he gave at the Lentz event. He is a very approachable fellow and can tell a good story.

Lang gave a short biography. He graduated from Council Rock High School. He was initially turned down by the Coast Guard Academy but the baseball coach noted his skills in that area and next thing you know he’s in and eventually captain of the baseball team. Lang outlined his service in the Coast Guard, working as a law enforcement officer (wearing a 9 mm on his hip), stopping drug smugglers and unlawful immigrants. One point he made was that the crew often worked with outdated equipment and that his bulletproof vest had expired 6 years earlier. He discussed the incident when faulty equipment broke and dumped him and 8 other men (he was at the bottom of the pile) into the 32 degree Bering Sea. Initially doctors didn’t think he would walk again but with extensive physical therapy he recovered. He has also worked as a congressional liaison and the Department of Homeland Security.

He says he is running for veterans and the middle class, and that Republicans in Harrisburg have made the race a class issue (this point was met with great applause). As a contrast to the incumbent, Lang said he had more supporters with callouses on their hands than connections to special interests.

See the Bucks County Courier Times article here and eRobin’s take here. I counted about 45 in attendance.

It was great of Max Cleland to stop in and be seen with local candidates. Over the weekend he was campaigning with Chris Carney. My thanks for the Lentz and Lang campaigns for letting me know what was going on.

The Last Refuge of Scoundrels

Both patriotism and prayer have been described as the last refuge of scoundrels. Combining these, you might come up with the prayers offered at the opening of each day's session of the legislature. Now that the Senate Journals are online it is interesting to browse the opening prayers. If you know a theology student or a dual religion / poli sci major, you might suggest these as a thesis topic.

In the "when will the lightening bolts strike" category, here are some phrases I liked:

"We come to ask Your wisdom and guidance from above, that the things that take place here would be in accordance with your purposes and they they would result in blessings and good things for the people of this state." (3/15/06)

O holy and loving God, every one of our great religious traditions require us to remember the least, the lost, the lonely, the poor, the marginalized, and the disenfranchised among us. May we always keep in mind our children, young, and senior adults, for they are often the ones who have no voice and need to be heard. Help us remember those who are different from us in race or ethnicity, orientation, or ability, and may every citizen of Pennsylvania benefit from the work being done in this body today. (3/21/06)

and my personal favorite:

Lord, help us in our weaknesses, deliver us from jealousy, selfish amibition, and denial of the truth, but let us seek instead that wisdom which is from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, and impartial, so that in finding this wisdom, we will see a harvest of righteousness, the righteousness which exalts a nation. (3/22/06)

and then you have this phrase:

We pray also for the Members of this Senate. We pray for their health, and we pray for any who are going through treatment for illness or injury. We pray for Your blessings upon them. We pray for their families. We pray for their other personal needs, financial and otherwise. (3/15/06)

I think some of those folks are praying for their financial needs enough themselves so maybe the public prayer can skip that part.

Reminder: Fun Times on Tuesday

In a previous post I listed two events for tomorrow, Tuesday, May 30, featuring Max Cleland, former US Senator. One is for Bryan Lentz (Democratic candidate for state house district 161), the other for Paul Lang (Democratic candidate for state senate district 6). Both free of charge. See my previous post or either candidate's web site for details.

Our Part of the Bargain

We in the blogosphere write and comment a lot on what we want from candidates and elected officials. Things are seldom a one way street however; other than voting, what is our part of the bargain? What should we be doing during campaign season? If our candidates are elected, then what? Do we just sit around until the next election? I asked Joe Hoeffel this question in the most recent interview and he gave this answer

Q.: In the bargain between elected officials and voters, what are the responsibilities of each?

A.: Great question with a simple answer. Voters must stay informed, and officials must stay honest.

What do you think? Are we making a bargain with candidates? If so, what is our part? If you have your own blog and are interested, write on a posting on this topic sometime next week and let me know when your posting is up. I’ll compile a list of all of them on Friday. If you don't have your own blog, leave a comment on this or another participating blog. Let's see what we can come up with.

weekly legislative update

A few bills were shuffled, a few "cause of the month" resolutions introduced, otherwise our legislature was quiet this week. Our accountant friends at PICPA did compile an update of other news.

Memorial Day Memories

When I was a girl Memorial Day was a working holiday, a ritual that I enjoyed and looked foward to. My grandfather and my mother would cut some of the better looking flowers from their yards, peonies mostly, with some others thrown in. They would have saved up orange juice concentrate cans, which were then covered with aluminum foil to use as vases. My grandfather had moved into the area as a boy and his parents and some of his siblings were buried nearby. We made the round of cemeteries. There was almost always someone at the gate of the graveyard collecting money for upkeep. My grandfather would hand over a plain white envelope to each one. My mother would bring clippers and we'd spruce up the graves we visited, trimming back any encroaching weeds.

I've moved away from those cemeteries. In fact, I haven't visited my father's grave since his death, and my grandfather's only once or twice. It bothers me this time of year that I am not close enough to visit my dead. In rural areas old family cemeteries that were tucked away in an unused section of farmland are falling into disrepair. Mr. J's family helped care for a small graveyard that housed many of his ancestors as well as other pioneer settlers in that township. But most of the families have moved away or died out. The tombstones are broken and weathered to the point of near illegibility. (We took rubbings of some of them and trascribed as many as possible years ago.) Soon the cemetery records in the local public library will be all that remains of them.

While this bothers me, it is not the first time our families have faced this dilemma. With each wave of immigration or internal migration, we move away from our dead. The only way to avoid it is to never leave your birthplace. I miss the ritual though and have not found a way to replace it.

How to Work This Blog

Various segments of the political and activist communities are looking for ways to publicize their candidates or causes through blogs, and working with blogs and bloggers is a topic often seen in the schedules of training sessions for activists and operatives. While there are likely to be commonalities it seemed prudent to spell out the best ways of utilizing this blog in particular.

First off, my readers aren’t going to send you money. To the best of my knowledge, candidate mentions on this blog have resulted in exactly two campaign contributions, one of $50.00 and the other denomination unknown. There may be others but these are the only ones I’m aware of (see “the nicest thing….” below). For big money you need the big dogs.

What you can get here is exposure. As for the blog audience, sitemeter statistics tell me the greatest majority of my readers are from Pennsylvania (go figure). Many are from within government, federal, state, and local, or associated industries (lawyers, lobbying firms, media), but there are also quite a few readers coming in from verizon, comcast, etc., that appear to be just interested folks. At least a third of my business comes from search engines, people looking for specific information. Searches for candidates or causes will retrieve interviews, descriptions of events featuring candidates, information on organizations, and so on, months after those postings appeared. Since the blog is updated frequently it often shows up higher than might be expected in search engine results. The rest come straight to the blog or from aggregators such as Philly Future, Leftyblogs, or PoliticsPA.

I focus on the Philadelphia suburbs (Montgomery, Bucks, and Delaware counties, sometimes Chester), but occasionally venture into the city or further afield geographically. I am a Democrat and focus on Democratic candidates and progressive causes, but I’ve highlighted a few Republicans along the way.

The blog is written under a pseudonym; I don’t meet candidates or officials in person or talk with people on the phone. The easiest way to approach me is just to email me (see “view my complete profile” for the email). People do that all the time. They send me press releases, notices of events, links to relevant articles, and information on what they are doing. Sometimes I post it, sometimes I don’t. It depends on what else is going on and whether or not I agree with you and how substantive what you’ve sent is, and how often I’ve written about that candidate / cause lately. I may post on your topic but take the opposite or a variant stance on it. It may take a few days for a posting on your topic to show up. The blog is a hobby, shoehorned into days already full with work and family, so it can take time for me to investigate something.

Your email doesn’t have to be fancy – in fact the plainer the better. Flattery is neither sought nor appreciated, but “please” and “thank you” are always welcome. Heated campaign rhetoric will not win points. A long string of press releases on how awful the opposition is won’t have as much impact as a few examples of what you are doing, not what you plan to do or believe, but what you are actually doing or have done. I don’t always open attachments and won’t use your fancy graphics anyway, so cutting and pasting into an email is easier, at least for me. If the info is available online, provide a link, too.

Interviews with candidates and officials have been popular posts and I am open to doing more. If you are interested, let me know; interviews are done via email. The questions I prepare are detailed and specific to the candidate and the district. I’m told they are tough to answer. Since it takes time to research and prepare the questions and often takes weeks (sometimes months) to get the answers back, I won’t be taking interview requests after Sept. 1 for candidates running for office in the November elections. I don’t think there would be time to do a good job before the big day.

If you plan on a continuing contact with blogs, appoint a blog liaison. Personally, I like to have one main contact with a campaign or cause. That’s not to say that others shouldn’t get in touch; they are welcome to do so – it’s just easier to develop good communication with one person. Then I know what is an official communiqué and what is a side conversation. Otherwise there are bound to be conflicting messages and I get frustrated with that – trying to figure out whose messages take precedence or what is the burning issue of the day. The primary contact can be anyone from a volunteer to the candidate. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as I know who to contact with questions.

The nicest possible thing you can do for me is give me feedback. If you are working on a campaign and people tell you they have read about your candidate here, let me know. It will make my day. I can get some idea of what posts are being read and see what posts elicit comments but beyond that I’m in the dark.

That’s about it. As the song goes, “send me a postcard, drop me a line, stating point of view…”

A Few Links

eRobin was part of the MurphyCorps day of action last week. Read her report here.

BenPA at Young Philly Politics has a few things to say about the Lynn Swann campaign.

Max Cleland, Bryan Lentz, Paul Lang, and You

TUESDAY, MAY 30

Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator, will be in Pennsylvania on a whistle stop campaign to support local candidates.

2:30 Bryan Lentz, Democratic candidate for the 161st house district. Join Lentz and Cleland for a rally at the Iron Hill Brewery, 30 East State Street, Media, PA. details and directions here.

5:30 - 6:30 Paul Lang Democratic candidate for the 6th state senate district (and one of my favorite people) will be joined by Cleland for a coffee and cheesecake reception. Disabled American Veterans Chapter 117
5915 Bristol Emilie Road, Levittown, PA 19057. details and directions here. RSVP to info@electlang.com to reserve a spot, they are going fast!!

There is no charge for either event, but I'm sure both candidates would be more than happy to accept contributions.

2005 House Journals Online

My thanks to Russ Shade for letting me know -- the 2005 House Journals are now online. Oh, huzzah!!! Progress!!

Of course, it would be better if at least some 2006 issues were there, but this is definitely a move in the right direction. I will be skipping around all day.

Senate Journal Update

As promised I’ve read through the newest group of Senate Journal issues made available. Issues are released mid-month and are one month behind. So for May we have journals for March 14, 15, 20, 21, and 22.

There wasn’t much in the journal for March 14th.

Two items of interest in the 15th. Sen. Tartaglione brings up the minimum wage and wants to know what is going on with that bill (see p. 1357). On pages 1358 and 1359 there is an interesting exchange between Sen. Brightbill and Lt. Gov. Knoll on whether or not it is legal for her to sign a bill on Monday or if it has to be signed that day. You would think she would know this and not have to ask him.

Also on the 15th, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Pat Dugan is introduced as the winner of the National Sean MacBride Humanitarian Award from the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Dugan is a member of the Army Reserves, headquartered in Norristown and served most of 2004 in Iraq. He gave a speech, a very good one that I would recommend you read. One paragraph jumped out at me though. Dugan also wrote about this in a letter to the Inky. He describes his commander, who happened to be Bryan Lentz who is running for the state house seat in district 161 against Tom Gannon. Read:

You have not heard about my commander, Major Bryan Lentz, a Philadelphia attorney and former prosecutor who gave up his practice of law to serve and lead our company in Iraq. One time we were in a village just outside of Telafar, a town that was depicted on “60 Minutes” last Sunday. A small village just south of there, a hotbed of insurgency, an old man there held up a container of water and went up to my Commander to thank him and said every time I drink from this I will thank America. Now, this is a village in Mesopotamia, the land where the Ottomans came through and never took the time to dig a water well for this village. It was the first time they had water running in their village. The Ottomans did not to it, the Romans did not do it, Alexander the Great did not do it, Saddam did not do it, but every time anybody in that village drinks a glass of water, they will remember that Americans were there.

On March 20, on p. 18, Sen. Vince Fumo gave a speech that focused on President Bush and his policies that I thought was ill-timed and out of place with the business at hand.

On March 21, if you look at pages 5-6 you will find some examples of senators doing good, with some heartfelt discussion on the Ounce of Prevention Bill for early intervention in fragile families. I recommend you read through that as well.

On the 22nd, though, I found some very entertaining passages. Again the topic was the minimum wage bill. In the pdf version online check pages 9-17. I have referenced here the official page numbers. If you are familiar with Shakespeare, you may remember his play “Julius Caeser.” When I read it in high school my English teacher pointed out that Marc Antony appealed to emotion and Brutus to reason and that appealing to emotion most often wins out. Many of our political figures seem to have noticed this as well. In any event, after Sen. Tartaglione again brings up the minimum wage bill, Sen. Piccola and Sen. Hughes get into a discussion that reminds me of the dichotomy represented in “Julius Caesar.” You can guess who plays what part.

Sen. Piccola: Madam President, over the last few months I have been listening to the debate on the minimum wage, and while I am a Member of the Committee on Labor and Industry, I am not engaged in that debate. But last week during this part of our agenda, the lady from Philadelphia [Sen. Tartaglione] challenged those of us on this side of the aisle who do not support minimum wage to, I believe her words were, search your souls. I took her challenge to heart, Madam President, and I searched my soul. I looked in every nook and cranny, I turned it inside out, and I also searched the library, because this is not just about feeling good, this is about facts, this is about economics, it is about reality and it is about jobs. After I did that search of my soul in the library, I found that I am on the side of the angels, at least in my view. (p. 1401)

I love that imagery – searching your soul in the library. More of us should search our soul and search the library and perhaps both at the same time. Piccola even includes a chart to enforce his views.

In page 1403, Senator Hughes makes some interesting statements:

So here we have voodoo economics, the costs are going up, the incomes are going down. Look at this spread, look at the spread between the two, and you are telling me that all my people are doing better with less money in their pocket? What kind of drugs are you on? What kind of hallucinates are you doing? What kind of chemical medications are you investing in? That is ridiculous. That is absurd. Okay, if it is that good, you work for less. Why do we not all work for minimum wage around here? Lord knows, if Mr. Diamond and his whole crew had their way, we would be paying people to work this job. Why do we not try that? Let us see how great that would be. Voodoo economics, costs going up, income going down, the spread is greater, the spread is increasing, and I am supposed to be happy. I have $20 in the right pocket, $5 in the left pocket and the left pocket is really going to get me to the promised land. Right? That is the idea?

On page 1404, Sen. Piccola picks up again:

Madam President, very briefly, I just took a couple of Excedrin before I came up, but that is all, no illegal drugs.

On page 1405 Sen. Conti offers this in part of his remarks:

I will be brief, because I know the hour is running late for a Wednesday. Having my good friend from Philadelphia confide how much money he has in his pocket, which is much more than I have in mine, I would like to meet him for lunch shortly, so I will get through this as quickly as I can.

Of course, much of the debate focuses on the particulars of minimum wage and how raising it would affect the state’s economy and again, I urge you to read it for yourself.

Unfortunately I cannot report on anything happening in the House because they don't make the House Journal available online and it takes several months for it to show up in the law library closest to me, where I go to search the nooks and crannies of my soul. [Update: I am corrected on this -- the 2005 House Journals are now online.]