Twin Cities MoveOn Meets to Organize 'Other 98' Campaign

Community organizers for the progressive group MoveOn gathered at the Southdale Library on Thursday night, June 24 to brainstorm how to carry out a new campaign dubbed 'The Other 98', a title that refers to the two percent who own most of America. The Southdale Library is in Edina, Minnesota, a trendy Minneapolis suburb.

The goal of the campaign is first to get 200,000 signatures on a petition that supports 1. Amending the Constitution to in effect repeal the Supreme Court decision giving carte blanc to corporations to buy elections, 2. Passing the Fair Elections Now Act, a public financing bill for all candidates, and 3. passing the Lobbyist Reform Act, which prohibits government employees from using their government contacts and experience in private-sector, lobbying positions (aka the revolving door).

Attendees at the Southdale event, including this reporter, brainstormed a list of influential progressive individuals, companies, and social or religious groups that might be powerful endorsers for the Campaign. They also volunteered for community signature-gathering events in their localities, and organized into another group to contact and support progressive representatives Keith Ellison and Jim Meffert.

The Pledge is as follows: "Endorse the Pledge - Lobbyists and the big corporations they represent have run roughshod over our democracy for too long. That's why, this year, people from across the country are joining together to force politicians to work for the rest of us. Endorse this slate of ideas and join the other 98% of us--who don't have lobbyists representing us in DC--to send a strong signal to candidates and elected officials that, this year, business as usual is over." That's the ringing message from the MoveOn web page on the Other 98% campaign.

To date 128,810 people have signed.

Attendance at the library session was greater than expected, with perhaps 60-75 people. This reporter trudged up the stairs to the second-floor meeting room and managed to claim a chair only because she arrived early. MoveOn plans future meetings with members and volunteers at the Uptown Lunds grocery store community meeting room on July 6 and August 3, from 7:30 to 9 pm.

Public anger over the controversial Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of cash in election campaigns has boiled over into grass-roots efforts to repeal or render ineffective the decision. Other efforts have included proposals to tax corporate spending on political campaigns. The long-running project to pass public financing laws on a state-by-state basis has gain renewed steam.

Sources:
Sosnowski, Laura, attendee and eyewitness reporter.
The Other 98% Pledge for a Better Democracy, MoveOn.org, www.standfordemocracy.org/ratify/index.html.