Dear Indivisible Friends,
This last week was a stark, stunning reminder of the current power structure in Washington. It was a valiant, well fought effort to fully vet Judge Kavanaugh prior to the vote. But the levers of power in government belong to the GOP, so we were outgunned.
We must do all we can to take back control of those levers of power.
There are 30 days left until November 6th. What can you do? Get out the vote! Support your local candidates! See below for actions.
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From Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1776
"Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and, will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
ISB PROFILE: AMMAR CAMPA-NAJJAR - CA-50
Demoralized Democrats in the 50th District, including the suburbs of northern and eastern San Diego County, hope that this year the 50th will swing blue. Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar is running in a Republican stronghold that voted for Donald Trump by 15 percentage points. His progressive platform includes Medicare For All, a $15 minimum wage, women’s right to choose, comprehensive immigration reform and getting big money out of politics.
Perhaps the most powerful thing he has going for him is the fact that his opponent, Duncan Hunter, has been indicted along with his wife, for using hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign funds for personal use including flying a pet rabbit across the country and Hunter’s affairs with five women. Hunter replaced his father ten years ago, after he held the seat for 28 years. Campa-Najjar is betting that he can bring the Hunter political dynasty to an end.
Campa-Najjar ran a grassroots campaign to defeat corporate Democrats in the primary. His introduction to politics started as a regional field director with the Obama campaign. Since then he has worked in the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) as Communications and Marketing Director promoting the economic growth of Hispanic-owned small businesses. To win the Congressional seat, he will have to sway the independent voters and disaffected Republicans who are turned off by Trump and Hunter but who don’t much care for Obama and the Democrats either. He has the support of the San Diego Union-Tribune as well as Justice Democrats, the Progressive Caucus, Move On, and J-Street.
His most recent endorsement, from a progressive Jewish group, is significant. Sixteen years before he was born, Campa-Najjar’s Palestinian grandfather helped mastermind the murder of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics and was killed by Israeli commandos in 1973. In 1994, when Campa-Najjar was 5, his immigrant father returned to Gaza, leaving his Mexican wife and two sons in San Diego County. Three years later, she and the boys moved to Gaza, returning in 2001. Campa-Najjar is Christian, but he has been subject to blistering racist attack ads claiming he is an Islamic terrorist.
The ads seem to be working. Hunter is now leading. Nevertheless, Campa-Najjar is confident he can win; as he says, “America has never been at the mercy of one person, or president, whatever the color of their skin. Even if they’re orange.”
What we can do:
Donate here.
Sign up to phonebank HERE.
VOLUNTEER TO HELP REPRESENTATIVE SALUD CARBAJAL
Rep. Salud Carbajal is locked in a very tight race with Justin Fareed. Mail-in ballots are being sent out on Monday. The time is now to ramp up our GOTV efforts and encourage voters to fill out and mail in their ballots as soon as possible.
What we can do: One of the most effective GOTV voter outreach tools is canvassing—talking to voters directly. You can volunteer to canvas for Salud Carbajal and other local candidates every Saturday and Sunday until election day.
Click HERE to volunteer.
Feel shy about canvassing? You are not alone. Read this.
There is also a local fundraiser for Salud Carbajal. Click HERE for more information.
Can’t make the fundraiser? Donate to Salud Carbajal HERE.
REGISTER STUDENTS AT CITY COLLEGE AND UCSB
We’re only two weeks away from October 22, the voter registration deadline, and we’ve already registered over 4,000 students and Isla Vista residents! But we really need to push for the next two weeks to hit our goal of registering 10,000 new voters before the deadline.
What we can do: Volunteers are desperately needed to register City College students. Contact Vanessa: vyvera@pipeline.sbcc.edu
To volunteer to register students at UCSB and Isla Vista click HERE.
VOLUNTEER TO HELP BLACK VOTERS IN THE SOUTH
Black voters in the South need our help! Black Voters Matter is dedicated to fighting back against voter suppression and turning out Black voters across 7 states in the south. We can join them in texting voters with these simple steps:
A) Read the instruction sheet: https://rr.team/bvm-instructions,
B) Sign up here to start texting: https://resistancelabs.com/volunteer/text,
C) If you we are new to texting with them, take this short training.
Find out more and sign up here.
MIDTERM REMINDERS
- Your Vote-By-Mail ballot is being sent out this Monday. Complete and mail it in as soon as possible (and remember to sign the back of the postage pre-paid envelope!). Remind your friends to do the same.
- Registration deadline is October 22. Make sure to let people you know who have moved since their last election that they need to re-register.. They can check their voter status here. Encourage any 16-17 years olds in your life to pre-register so that they will automatically be registered on their 18th birthday.
- Make a plan to vote. Help friends to do so as well. Know your polling place if you’re voting in person and help transport family and friends who may need a ride to the polls.
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IMMIGRATION
1. Protest Prison Camps for Children
The Trump administration, mired in its self-made crisis of an increasing population of migrant children, continues to separate children from the lives they know. Children are now being moved from the smaller licensed shelters and foster homes in which they’ve been living and are being transported to 20-person tents in the desert tent city of Tornillo, Texas. The tent city is not being held to any of the rules that group homes or foster care facilities are subject to. Those existing safeguards had already proved inadequate protection for unaccompanied minors. The Department of Health and Human Services has instead offered a thin set of guidelines. But while the tents are air-conditioned, children will not have regular access to schooling or legal services. This is child abuse.
More Info.
Contact: Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, Office of the Secretary Health & Human Services
200 Independence Ave. SW, DC 20201 Phone: 202-690-7000 Email: Secretary@HHS.gov
Sample Script: I am outraged that immigrant children have been moved to the tent city in Tornillo Texas. This tent city is not being held to any of the rules and standards that group homes or foster care facilities are subject to. And those existing safeguards had already proved inadequate protection against physical abuse, sexual assault and emotional torment. The Department of Health and Human Services must offer stricter guidelines that will protect these children from abuse and allow them regular access to medical care, schooling and legal services.
Additional ways you can help:
GUNS
2. Stop Gun Shows in the Santa Maria Fairpark and Earl Warren Showgrounds
Four years after the mass shooting in Isla Vista and one year after the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland Florida, gun shows are still held at the Santa Maria Fairpark and the Earl Warren Showgrounds. It's time for them to stop. These venues are state-owned property managed by a division of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and run by board members appointed by the CA governor. Each show features hundreds of tables where firearms are bought, sold, and traded. The guns are also marketed to children -- admission is free for children under age 12. Let’s petition these venues and tell them gun shows are not welcome in Santa Barbara County.
Petition the Santa Maria Fairpark HERE
Petition the Earl Warren Showgrounds HERE
PROFILE IN COURAGE AWARD
3. Nominate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
Among the many moments seared into our collective memory from the Kavanaugh hearing is Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s statement, “I am here today not because I want to be….I am here today because I believe it is my civic duty.” Since coming forward she has been vilified by Trump and the right-wing media, and has been targeted with harassment, email hacking, and death threats. As many of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is a “profile in courage.” Let’s thank her by nominating her for an award that honors her courage.
More Info.
To nominate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for the Profile in Courage award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Go HERE. For the question about “positions currently or formerly held,” say that she is a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University and a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
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Senator Dianne Feinstein
Washington, DC: (202) 224-3841
San Francisco: (415) 393-0707
Los Angeles: (310) 914-7300
San Diego: (619) 231-9712
Fresno: (559) 485-7430
Email
Senator Kamala Harris
Washington, DC: (202) 224-3553
San Francisco: (415) 355-9041
Los Angeles: (310) 231-4494
San Diego: (619) 239-3884
Sacramento: (916) 448-2787
Fresno: (559) 497-5109
Email
Congressman Salud Carbajal
Santa Barbara: (805) 730-1710
San Luis Obispo: (805) 546-8348
Washington, DC: (202) 225-3601
Email
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CALIFORNIA:
Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson
Santa Barbara: (805) 965-0862
Oxnard: (805) 988-1940
Sacramento: (916) 651-4019
Email
Assemblywoman Monique Limon
Santa Barbara: (805) 564-1649
Ventura: (805) 641-3700
Sacramento: (916) 319-2037
Email
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The good news is Gov. Brown just signed the strongest net neutrality law in the nation. The bad news is the Trump administration’s Justice Department wants to challenge it.
For more information on CA bills signed into law click here.
For the first time in 16 years, The Fresno Bee is not endorsing Devin Nunes. Citing Nunes damaging partisanship, the Fresno Bee recommends that voters choose Andrew Janz.
Democrats have found their answer to the Koch brothers in small online donations that in August neared $36 million. The cash infusion is almost six times more than Democratic online totals in August 2016, which stood at just $6.2 million.
Get out your marching shoes. January 19, 2019 is the date of the third Women’s March with the main event to be held in Washington, D.C. and with sister marches all over the country. Find more information here.
Additional, disturbing news about David Nunes’ activities, including lying for years about the location of his family dairy farm—in Iowa, not California—and the family’s hiring of illegal immigrants, despite Nunes’ allegiance to Trump’s policies can be found here.
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Take a look at the new and improved Indivisible SB website. There is up-to-date information on how to get involved, important upcoming events, links to the "Activist Buddy Network" and more.
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