• Home
• Contribute
• About
• Programs

PowerPAC in Politico

Ben Smith writes about our plans for the Fall in today's Politico:

PowerPAC.org, which aided Obama in the Democratic Primary, is launching a voter registration drive in the African-American south and a media campaign targeting Hispanic voters in four Western states, said the group's president, Steve Phillips. He said the aim was to capitalize on Obama's momentum to benefit progressive causes and candidates around the country.

"This is a larger movement—it's not just a question of getting one man elected," said Phillips, a former president of the San Francisco Board of Education.

Contrary to the headline, we don't actually have $10 million -- though that is our fundraising target for the Fall program.

Steve Phillips: Seizing the Time

PowerPAC Chairman Steve Phillips wrote in the Huffington Post recently about the independent groups on the progressive side, and our role in this historic 2008 election. One of the points of the piece was that unlike the "Swiftboating" that took place in 2004, and all the attempted character-assassination John McCain is engaging in this cycle, the role of independent groups this cycle is to mobilize the progressive base in key regions:

Contrary to earlier reports about the demise of independent efforts this cycle, the work in 2008 will be robust, vibrant, and more coordinated than ever before. In 2008, the progressive movement is taking on an unprecedented collaboration of grassroots groups to raise $100 million that will mobilize millions of new voters and engage them in effective organizations that will be around long after November 4.

Major donors across the country are as inspired as everyone else about this important moment, and significant investments are being made to make the most of this opportunity. In addition to widespread non-partisan work, many of these efforts will support progressive candidates up and down the ticket, helping elect Barack Obama, picking up Senate seats, flipping state legislatures and permanently reshaping the electoral landscape in key states across the country.

If we fund these efforts, we can beat the Republicans and their low-road tactics, and without stooping to the low road. If ever there was a year to execute this strategy, 2008 is it.

Somebody Died for Me

By Steve Phillips

In 1988, I took a delegation of California students to the South for the first-ever Super Tuesday to help mobilize African-American voters in the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. An idealistic college student at the time, I met many of the key leaders of the Movement and even visited the grave of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young civil rights demonstrator who was shot and killed by a state trooper during a voting rights rally. Jimmie Lee’s death sparked the Selma-to-Montgomery march and led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Jesse Jackson says that the Voting Rights Act was written in blood before it was signed in ink. As a result of that ’88 trip to the South, I became deeply connected to the legacy of those who died for me, for millions of others, and for democracy itself.

Twenty years later, we are facing another historic moment. The nation and the world must confront life-and-death challenges such as global warming, terrorism, globalization, poverty and disease. In the Presidential primaries, people are already turning out in record numbers, for a slate of diverse candidates including a woman, an African American, and a Latino.

All of us are called to respond to this historical imperative, and PowerPAC is doing its part. Building on our work in 14 stats during the Primary, PowerPAC will be helping to coordinate a national effort to register and mobilize 1 million new Black voters in the 2008 election. This work will be focused primarily in the American South – where the critical battles for democracy, justice, and inclusion were waged -- collectively represent more than half of the national African American electorate.

Our goal and primary mission is to honor the legacy of Jimmie Lee Jackson and ensure that all of those whose franchise was secured by struggle and sacrifice in the Civil Rights Movement know about the upcoming elections and turn out to vote.

In addition to our core work of voter mobilization, from time to time, PowerPAC also supports candidates of conscience, who we believe will help expand democratic participation and advance the cause of social justice. This is one of those times, and we will independently promote the candidacy of Barack Obama, the first African-American nominee for a major party, during his historic quest for the White House. We will be reaching out in particular to Latino voters, who are an emerging force in American politics and who are poised in 2008 to become a permanent constituency of the progressive coalition.

2008 comes forty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and twenty years after my first sojourn to the Black-Belt South. Those for whom Jimmie Lee Jackson and Dr. King died can now pick the next President, and PowerPAC is going to do all it can to ensure that as many people as possible participate in this historic election. Jimmie Lee would demand nothing less of us.

Faith, Hope and Justice in 2008

Dear PowerPAC friends and supporters,

This is the moment we have been waiting for.

For the last eight months, I have been working on a new campaign called Vote Hope, supporting Barack Obama's historic campaign for President of the United States. Obama's campaign is both riding and propelling the kind of positive movement for social change that this country hasn't seen in nearly 40 years. I'm writing today to ask you, supporters of this movement in California, to join me in this effort. I believe that if we give our all over the next two and a half months, we can not only help Barack win the Democratic nomination, but we can also solidify a multi-racial movement for justice and hope that will truly signal a new era in this nation.

Vote Hope, is working deeply in communities that have been historic levers for social change -- African Americans, Latinos and students -- and our goal is to emerge after the primary on Feb. 5, 2008, as a network that is larger and stronger than ever before.

Join this network for hope and change now!

continues...

Rights for Immigrants in San Diego Continue to Smolder: An Update

In the aftermath of the fires, as the weather turns cold, thousands of individuals, many of them immigrants, are still struggling to survive. Some have lost their homes and many more have lost their jobs--they were the farmworkers in the fields that burned or the nannies, lawn care workers, or day laborers who earned their living in the houses and neighborhoods that no longer exist. Many of them are unwilling or unable to access "official" relief resources out of fear that they will be subject to immigration inspections, will not be able to communicate with relief workers, or will be humiliated. Instead, they are turning to the community organizations they know for help.

The San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium calls for continued donations to the Fire Fund managed by the Foundation for Change. The Fund is focused on vulnerable populations and makes grants every two weeks to the grassroots and community-based organizations that are getting these populations the supplies, services, and information they need. We anticipate that vulnerable communities will be in crisis survival mode for at least another two months.

continues...