Reply #11: Here's a copy of an email I just received here in North County San Diego! [View All]

[cascadiance]

Just had dinner with someone else tonight who also was seeing people getting kicked off store property when they were "countering" the "guest" petition signers. We've got to crank up efforts to stop this crap!

------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: Sun Apr 3, 2005 7:58:00 PM US/Pacific
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Add YOUR Story to the Tales of the Counter-Leafleters! It's working!


Grassroots volunteers are responding to the calls to counter-leaflet Arnold's signature-gatherers throughout San Diego County!

Bryan, in the Carlsbad area (who also led our Don't Be Fooled Overpass Team there on Friday aftn), reports: " (I) Showed up around 5:30p to take on the Petitioner (at Von's in Carlsbad). Things were friendly yet political. I hung out and stopped a good twenty people from signing up. Got a lot of support from the local union down there too. Lots of Vons employees had a good laugh at his expense! I ended up leaving around 8:00. I believe he was the same guy at Stater Brothers. He mentioned that he hangs out around La Jolla."

From Fran, in the San Marcos area: " I handed out some fliers to people signing petitions in front of the San Marcos Wal-Mart on Nordahl. Some people said they wouldn't sign the petitions but there weren't many people even willing to stop. The guy said he had some liberal petitions I could sign. One was about electric rates that my husband read and told him he wouldn't sign because it was too ambiguous and you were not sure what you were signing. Maybe people learned from last time and are not so ready to sign petitions."

From Nell, in Lakeside, to the "Stop Arnold Hotline": "You might as well have leaflets at every shopping center and school! The petitioners are all over. My son is one of them, and he is a City College and plans to go to SDSU. He said he is also being paid $1 for every Republican he registers but $0 for Democratic voters. They are always at SDSU. I saw one at Trader Joes on Friday, and in front of the Henry's in Santee (even had a discussion with one of them about the PERS to 401K plot, but he needs his $1 a signature so he won't stop). I think we should start signing the petitions with false information every time we see a petitioner, and we should engage them in conversation. Ask them to explain each petition, etc. They still get the $1 and we take up their time. If you have the text of the leaflet, please send it out to the group list so we have the information to combat these petitioners, ourselves."

From Miriam in La Mesa (who organized our Don't Be Fooled By Arnold Rally downtown on Friday):
"I went grocery shopping today, but when I spotted an Arnold petition gatherer in front of the Vons store in La Mesa, I grabbed a stack of flyers out of my car and started passing them out to everyone approaching his table or entering the store. This guy looked more professional than some that others have described. He was an older fellow, reasonably well dressed and actually seemed to know at least some information about what was in his petitions. He became very annoyed when I stood right next to him, and he asked me to leave. I politely told him that this is a public place, and I have as much right to be there as he did. He then pulled out a camera and took my photo.

"I called the hotline in hopes someone else would show up. Meanwhile I passed out flyers and talked with people for an hour and a half, during which time only two people signed his pile of petitions. Many thanked me for telling them the truth, including several teachers. One man said "I'm a Republican, and I don't like what Arnold's doing." Several people offered to sign up as volunteers to help our cause.

"After a while, the petition guy called in a reinforcement. The new guy was pushy and obnoxious, interrupting me to call me a liar and insist that I must be paid. When that didn't work, he tried accusing me of only being interested in money. I said, "Sir, if wanting to stop an unnecessary special election that will cost $70 million makes me concerned about money, you're absolutely right. My child's 80-year-old school is falling apart. The state says there's no money for repairs. My oldest is applying for colleges, but the tuition's gone way up and there are no state scholarships available anymore. So YES OF COURSE I"M CONCERNED ABOUT SEEING $70 MILLION THROWN DOWN THE DRAIN ON AN ELECTION WE DON"T NEED!"

"That shut him up, until I finally ran out of flyers and had to leave to go pick up my daughter. Unfortunately, no one else from CFD came to replace me, so as I drove away, I saw to my dismay that these two creeps had throngs of people standing around their tables, waiting to sign. Please, all, help recruit more volunteers!"

Please, add your own story and help with this very effective, neighbor-to-neighbor outreach to tell people the truth about these harmful petitions and wasteful $pecial Election. Download your own leaflets at Saving California from Termination - Resources | CALIFORNIA FOR DEMOCRACY

Here's my offer -- whoever will volunteer to be the contact for a certain store/location in their area where they've seen signature-gatherers, I will post that location with your contact info to my (rather extensive) network of e-mail addresses, so that other people in your area can sign up with you to help cover that location. (e.g., folks can sign up for a specific day and/or a certain time slot each day, and/or you can set up a "phone tree" so that when someone needs a reliever, they can call people to see if anyone is available -- it's up to you and your group how you want to do it) THIS IS A GREAT WAY FOR A GROUP OF PROGRESSIVES TO DO SOMETHING CONCRETE AND EFFECTIVE TOGETHER (and to meet other progressives in your area).

We CAN do this, folks! Let's show $chwarzenegger and the big money folks that they can't rely on folks not reacting this time around. Here's the list of locations in North County that have been reported over the past week: pick one in YOUR community (or another place you've noticed has "Arnolds") and help lead our grassroots resistance! I'm willing to post Site Coordinators for the rest of San Diego County, too.

Carlsbad

Vons, 7710 El Camino Real


Encinitas

Henry’s (El Camino Real/Encinitas Bl.)
Stater Brothers, 1048 N El Camino Real
Target on El Camino Real/Leucadia Blvd

Escondido

Target on W. Valley Parkway, just west of the I-15

Oceanside

Trader Joes - Vista Way and Fire Mountain
Albertson's - Mission Ave. and El Camino Real

Poway

Target at Twin Peaks/Pomerado
Wal-Mart on Community, just north of Poway Rd.

San Diego (Mira Mesa)

Target Store, corner Mira Mesa Blvd and Camino Ruiz

San Marcos

Wal-Mart on Nordahl (just north of the 78)

Vista

Stater Brothers, South Santa Fe and Bobier

THANK YOU for all you do, and WILL do, in our common cause!

Martha

Martha Sullivan, Communications Chair/North San Diego DFA
Political Action Director/North County Unity

"When you trade your values for the hope of winning, you end up losing and having no values--so you keep losing." Howard Dean from "You Have The Power"

Don’t BE FOOLED!
DON’T SIGN ANY INTIATIVE PETITIONS!

$chwarzenegger’S $peciaL ELECTION IS A $70 MILLION SWINDLE

∑ A special election costs taxpayers $70 million. Initiatives could be voted on for no extra cost at the next election in June 2006.

∑ $chwarzenegger’s big corporate donors are spending $50 million to force initiatives onto our ballots that hurt California’s people and public education.

∑ $chwarzenegger wants to privatize pensions for teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees—replacing a secure pension system with a very risky plan. It even eliminates survivor benefits for widows, widowers and orphans of men and women killed in the line of duty!

∑ Who benefits? Corporate robber barons--the big financial and brokerage institutions on Wall Street.

∑ $chwarzenegger is “outsourcing” verification of voters’ signatures to India—which has no privacy protection laws.

∑ Another initiative would force mid-decade gerrymander of California’s Congressional and legislative districts, using Census data that is 5 years old or more.

∑ A special election would be held on unverifiable voting machines with NO paper trails! A new law requiring paper trails for voting machines doesn’t take effect until 2006.

∑ CALL THE HOTLINE—REPORT ARNOLD’S PETITION GATHERERS: 206-350-7233
∑ SIGN A PETITION TO STOP THE SPECIAL ELECTION: www.contestthevote.org
∑ HELP STOP THE SPECIAL ELECTION! See www.californiafordemocracy.com for details.