Advocacy Matters: Are You a Citizen Lobbyist?

Advocacy Matters: Are You a Citizen Lobbyist?

CCNY offers a Masters in Public Policy and I joined a Zoom on Advocacy; the presenter asked the audience about the word “politics.”  In the chat: “corrupt,” “underhanded” and other negative terms appeared; politics is the process that drives our political system and yes, it can be a tough business.

Sadly too many of us choose not to participate, we don’t vote, we’re turned off by what we perceive as a dysfunctional system.

A little history lesson: the Constitutional Convention dragged on for months, there are no minutes, and the final product is made up of backroom “deals,” large states versus small states, the 3/5^th compromise, the Electoral College, all deeply flawed, our Constitution was created through that ugly word: politics. (Read “Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits and the Struggle for the Constitution” (2005).)

A majority of the current Supreme Court calls themselves “originalists,” without a Ouija Board we have no idea about the original intent of the Founding Fathers.

The Hamilton/Reynolds/Jefferson Affair is juicy, a sex scandal, bribery, all the “good stuff,” in the 1790s, not 2023.

When folks claim, “its all politics,” they’re right, and we’re watching as nations move from perhaps flawed, at times dysfunctional democracies to autocracies.

Standing on the sidelines and complaining is forfeiting the decision-making to autocrats with dire outcomes.

Back in my union rep days I realized a local political club “influenced” educational decisions, and, yes, in the ideal world educational decisions should be made by educators; however, we live in political world, I began to attend the club meetings, and became part of the political process. The club influenced the selection of principals, not a good thing, and also funded pre-K programs across the district, a very good thing.

Today the UFT, the teacher union is immersed in politics, at the local and state level.

The selection of candidates, the City Council primary will be held on June 27^th and the general election on November 7^th. In the last City Council primary over 300 candidates ran for the 51 seats, New York City uses Rank Choice Voting (See description here)  and public financing, donations of $175 or less are matched 8 – 1. (See detailed description here) and elections are highly competitive.

New York City is a strong mayor system, the mayor appoints all the deputies and commissioners, about 300 folks, the 51 member City Council has “oversight responsibility,” holds public hearing, and must approve the mayor’s budget by June 30^th, the budget is usually approved by mid June, although this year the discussions between the Council and the Mayor are contentious.

The UFT endorses candidates and UFT members have a high turnout rate in elections, the union plays a major role. 

Are you a registered voter?   Are you registered as a Democrat?  If not, you cannot vote in the primary.   Do you know your elected representatives?

You can check here.

Have you ever spoken with one of your elected representatives?

I know, you think it doesn’t matter, the rich and powerful run everything. Yes, “independent expenditures” are outside of the funding process, Bloomberg contributed $5 million to Governor Hochul and suddenly she became enamored of charter schools. (“Bloomberg Buys a Governor: A Romance or a One-Night Stand/”).

UFT members live in every district in the city and the union has the ability to text, e-mail and call every member, it’s called Get Out the Vote (GOTV).

An elected at a public meeting questioned the need for more education dollars, I included in my newsletter along with his office phone number. I don’t know how many people called, he demanded I retract, I told him to publicly correct his “misstatement,” which he did, in speeches, for months.

In November, 2021 38 of the 51 Council members were newly elected and in the June budget vote a number voted to reduce education funding and rapidly reversed their votes, attended rallies and jumped on board the “restore the education funding” team.

The budget battle between the Council and Mayor and the June 27^th primary are an opportunity and education funding  will become a major issue, I’m sure candidates will be loud and aggressive supporting full funding of schools.

Don’t sit back and bitch, it makes you irrelevant, get involved, pick up the phone and call your electeds office and express your opinion, attend a community meeting, and maybe even run for office.(“How to Become a District Leader”)

The turnout in the June 27^th primary will be low, abysmally low; it makes your vote more powerful.

“If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain.” George Carlin,