We’re Watching You
an update
To those who are participating in the “We’re Watching You” group.
I want to bring you up to date on what’s been done so far. It looks like we have 5 volunteers to gather information, and for now, that’s probably enough. We are in Stage One, that is gathering data on the dems, determining the list criteria, and producing the target list. I will be forwarding (via an Excel attachment) the working list to the volunteer group today or tomorrow. As will always be the case, I am soliciting comments and suggestions on anything that will improve our ability to filter the list by meaningful criteria.
Once that is finalized (I expect no later than next week), we will need to get the list publicized by any means possible (publicity is Stage Two). For this, we’ll need everyone who can spare a little time (minutes) to help generate contacts.
We’ll want to contact local talk shows in our respective areas in hopes that they will help publicize the movement. We will also want to get information to Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, etc. and use any other methods that will help get exposure, like Tea Party groups, etc..
I have secured a domain name (werewatchingyou.net) and a hosted website on which we can explain the program and suggest activities. We will NOT take contributions or solicit donations via the website, it will be informational only. The idea is that we may find it easier to get a mention of a website from a media personality than any lengthy explanation. Then, if an interested party goes to the site, he/she will find an explanation of our activities. The site is currently “under construction,” and should be available for initial viewing (absent full content) by Friday, this week.
My hope is that we can get talk show hosts to say something as simple as: “I’ve just been made aware of a group that is working towards retaking democrat House seats, check them out at: werewatchingyou.net,” or something like that – the important thing will be to mention the website.
I have also begun composing a “boilerplate” letter/e-mail to go to the media folks. I’ll forward a draft to members as soon as it’s done. I will be soliciting input in the form of comments and suggestions from all members at each step of the process. This needs to be a group activity, and many heads are better than one.
I have located reputable sources for the following data on the representatives:
- The CPVI (Cook Partisan Voting Index) which calculates the “lean” of a district – towards Republican or primarily democrat, and by how much
- Ratings by interest groups, in two sets:
- Liberal groups: SEIU, ACLU, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood
- Conservative groups: National Taxpayers Union, American Conservative Union, Eagle Forum, and Freedom Works (FYI, I originally included the NRA, but almost all of the 27 currently on the list had an “A” rating so I dropped the NRA as not being a worthwhile filter)
- Identification of those districts that will be targeted by the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) for campaign activity to unseat a democrat incumbent
- How often does representative vote with his/her party (percent voting the party line and sticking with Pelosi)
- Campaign contributions (in dollars) in the war chest to date (reports look like most are dated in June or July, 2009
- The number of terms served
Additional sources for ACCURATE data will be welcome.
This data is already entered into the spreadsheet for 27 democrat House incumbents. Not all data is available for all reps - e.g., freshmen reps are too new to have ratings by the interest groups yet.
And just for grins, I included a line for Barney Frank and John McCain, and plugged in their ratings just to see how they compared!
I feel like we need to look at the other democrat representatives and add additional ones to expand the pool from which we choose the “finalists.” I’d also like to see a survey of major topics that interest us (as conservatives) so we can weight the information categories properly.
There you have it. If we can create some momentum, we can have a good start down a path to take back House seats and reverse the headlong liberal move away from Constitutional government.
This is still a matter of timing – the sooner we can begin to get our message in the hands of the targeted democrat representatives, the sooner we can have an impact.
Let me know of your comments, thoughts, and suggestions.
Garnet92