Over the last year, the California Alliance has built and tested a statewide civic engagement apparatus through innovative technology, topnotch training and tight coordination among anchor groups. Now, this powerful network — capable of reaching hundreds of thousands of voters — is positioned to make a real difference. This fall, the Alliance will begin to engage in statewide policy battles to reform the broken budget process and curb corporate power abuse.
Alliance Engages 330,000 California Residents, Prepares for First “Get Out the Vote” Effort
Inside a brightly-painted East LA building, twelve young men and women, mostly Latino, sit at long tables, each wearing large headphones and gazing attentively at a laptop. Speaking energetically in Spanish or in English, with both excitement and confidence, this phone bank team will have over 150 conversations with voters in under an hour.
InnerCity Struggle Phone Bank
This is what transformative change looks like. Over the course of the California Alliance’s March Civic Engagement Program, Inner City Struggle (ICS) – an East LA youth organizing group — contacted over 10,000 voters. Since last Fall, they have had over 20,000 conversations – an unprecedented feat for the organization. ICS, along with the other 18 community-based organizations that comprise the California Alliance, have collectively spoken to over 330,000 voters. This past few months’ newfound capacity dwarfs the Alliance’s previous efforts –when reaching 40,000 voters was considered a victory–and demonstrates the potential of this first-of-its kind civic engagement strategy.
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Changing the “Story” on Government and Taxes
Conservatives have spent billions creating and testing successful anti-government and -tax messages over the past 40 years, to build support for dismantling policies that regulate the free market and redistribute economic opportunity. They well know the power of ideas and well-crafted messages in this media-saturated world; in fact, their ideas now dominate public thinking. How many times have you found yourself reflexively criticizing government or qualifying a pro-tax position? Only 32% of Californians support progressive tax reform, according to recent Public Policy Institute polls — and only 13% strongly support it. In order to build majority support by reaching the “moveable middle,” a smart communications strategy is essential, with ideas, messages, even “memes” — concepts that go viral and are grasped by everyone — to attract fresh support for change.
