Hi Team,
I’m excited to share with you all my first VNP Update email as the new Executive Director of Voters Not Politicians!
The Headlines
I am thrilled to be joining this team because our democracy is truly at a tipping point–and I believe that there is nothing more important than fighting back against these unprecedented attacks. From the Department of Justice demanding access to voting machines, to the deployment of the military in Los Angeles for the sole purpose of intimidation, to open defiance of the Judiciary–we are facing very real threats to the progress that Voters Not Politicians has worked so hard to achieve over the last seven years.
The good news is: Voters Not Politicians has done amazing, impossible things before, and we are going to do it again. To me, it feels like T.E. Lawrence was predicting Voters Not Politicians when he wrote: “All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake to find it was vanity. But those dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes to make them possible.”
In today’s update, I want to share more about the audacious goals that Voters Not Politicians is going to be taking on next. We will dream together, with our eyes open, and make a truly better world possible.
The Details
- First, I want to lay out my priorities and vision for Voters Not Politicians’ future:
- Continue the fight to strengthen democracy by doing democracy and showing the public that our democracy, when it is allowed to function properly, delivers for people;
- Remain nonpartisan to maximize support from across the political spectrum, including from people who don’t feel like they have a home in either major party, to ensure reforms put Michigan voters first; and
- Prioritize campaigns that change the rules of the game by rooting out the corruption and the structural failures that undermine our democracy.
- For years, Voters Not Politicians has been a leader in combatting voter suppression and expanding access to the ballot for Michigan voters. We will continue mobilizing our volunteers and collaborating with organizational partners to protect the improvements Michigan voters have made to our election systems.
- During last week’s Board of State Canvassers meeting, Americans for Citizen Voting sought and received summary and form approval for two different voter suppression petitions. This means they could choose to circulate either petition, and during their testimony they indicated that they had not decided which version of the petition they were going to circulate. They did, however, clarify that they were unlikely to try to circulate both petitions.
- This means that there are three total voter suppression petitions that could be gathering signatures this year: two from Americans for Citizen Voting, and one from Committee to Protect Voters’ Rights. These organizations have claimed they might coalesce around one of the approved petitions. Stay tuned!
- We all recognize that the corrosive influence of money in politics is one of the greatest threats to our democracy. Earlier this month, Voters Not Politicians officially announced that Money Out of Politics is our next ballot initiative campaign.
- In Michigan, corporations that are reliant on government support and intervention for their profits, such as monopoly utilities and government contractors, spend heavily in politics in order to ensure that laws passed in Lansing serve their own best interests. Lawmakers should be working to deliver policies that serve their constituents. This unchecked flow of corrupting money has eroded the public’s faith in democracy itself, and it allows these corporations to avoid their responsibility to taxpayers.
- Voters Not Politicians attempted to address the problem of money in politics through the legislative process, as part of the Taking Back Our Power coalition, but as predicted, these bills never got a hearing or a vote. Lansing politicians wouldn’t pass this important policy package, so now we’re taking this fight directly to the voters of Michigan.
- As a leading member of the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics coalition, we’re ready to start collecting signatures to pass a citizen-led ballot initiative that bans political contributions from regulated monopoly utilities, such as DTE and Consumers Energy, as well as corporations that seek or hold large state and local government contracts.
What’s Next
I am thrilled to be joining you, Voters Not Politicians volunteers, partners, and supporters in our shared fight for a democracy where all political power is inherent in the people.
Because democracy is not a dusty academic idea. Democracy is a living, breathing thing we do with each other, for each other. I can’t wait to fight with all of you, for all of us.