Online organizing network representing nearly 100,000 Californians overwhelmed by petition response
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2008
CONTACT: Wendell Potter, Rick Jacobs
Online organizing network representing nearly 100,000 Californians overwhelmed by petition response
Statement by Rick Jacobs, chair of the California-based Courage Campaign, on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut state employees’ pay
LOS ANGELES, June 18, 2008 — The announcement that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to slash the wages of more than 200,000 state employees has been met with such outrage that one of the state’s leading political organizing groups has been inundated with responses since it began soliciting signatures and comments on a petition asking the governor to drop the plan.
“In my experience leading the Courage Campaign, I’ve never seen such an overwhelming rapid response to an issue,” said Rick Jacobs, chairman of the Courage Campaign, an online organizing network he co-founded three years ago to empower grassroots and netroots activists to build a progressive California. In just the last year, the organization’s membership has tripled in size to nearly 100,000 members and supporters.
Shortly after the Courage Campaign deployed its email message, True Majority sent the same message to its full California list.
“Within hours after we posted a story on our Web site and sent an e-mail to our members, we had more than 10,000 signatures — a record in such a short period of time.”
“What the governor is trying to do is absolutely outrageous and unconscionable. Imagine trying to pay your bills on $6.55 an hour. Those are poverty wages, and the irony is that many state workers may need to seek aid from the very state services that employ them. The governor has shown us what post-partisan truly means: subsidizing the rich with yacht tax loopholes while borrowing on the backs of state workers. Shame on him.”“
Jacobs said his group would continue collecting signatures until Monday morning when it plans to deliver the signatures to the governor’s office.
To see the petition and two TV ads highlighting the Yacht Tax loophole, go to:
PETITION: http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold
AD #1: http://www.couragecampaign.org/success/131/yacht-party-tv-ad-campaign
AD #2: http://www.couragecampaign.org/YachtParty2
The Courage Campaign is an online organizing network empowering nearly 100,000 grassroots and netroots activists to make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California.
Rick Jacobs is the founder and chair of the Courage Campaign. He chaired Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in California. He is also the co-founder of Brave New Films and a featured contributor to Arianna Huffington’s Huffingtonpost.com. Rick has an extensive background as an investor and senior executive.