Political Affairs Report - December

MAPE Election Recap

The overall goal the MAPE Victory 2006 plan was: to motivate and mobilize MAPE members to ensure electoral success for MAPE allied candidates. We succeeded both on a micro level with our organizational efforts and on a macro level with the overall election results.

• Ensure electoral success for MAPE allied candidates
  • MAPE PAC endorsed candidates won three out of the four state-wide constitutional offices
  • MAPE PAC endorsed legislative candidates won nearly 75% of their races, establishing strong MAPE allied majorities in both legislative bodies for the first time in eight years
  • Over 90% of candidates that received a financial contribution from MAPE PAC won their races
  • 73% of all MAPE members survey were identified as being supportive of our endorsed candidates
• Motivating and mobilizing MAPE members to participate in electoral processes
  • Over 115 MAPE members participated in our campaign effort
  • 47 members took Election Day off to help Get Out The Vote
  • Overall, 3700 member to member contacts were made
  • 337 member-to-member hand-written "notes for votes" persuasion cards were sent to undecideds
  • 84 previously "undecided" members were persuaded to support endorsed candidates
  • 900 GOTV reminder calls were placed to identified supporters of endorsed candidates
  • Over 200 additional personal email addresses were collected

 

Coordination with partner organizations

The Political Affairs team is continuing to represent MAPE through strategic affiliations, such as America Votes, Alliance for a Better Minnesota and Take Action Minnesota. These groups had a tremendously successful election year and will continue to operate throughout the down cycle. Our membership in these groups is vital to the continued success of the progressive and labor movements in Minnesota.

 

Government Relations

Preparations are being made for the upcoming legislative session. Staff is working with the GRC to finalize our legislative priorities. Staff also is tracking committee assignments, sending appropriate congratulatory and holiday correspondences and lining up meetings with key and new legislators.

Grass Roots Action

Staff is supporting efforts to initiate a true MAPE grassroots action team that aims to have members on the ground in legislative districts taking the lead in localized government relations and electoral action. 

 

Operations support

Political Affairs staff is collaborating with the other members of the operations leadership, generating a coordinated strategy for more efficient utilization of our database tools. These products, such as Get Active, Labor Key, Go Members and the Voter Activation Network (VAN), all perform "best in class" functions. However, improvements in our in-house processes are necessary in order to improve the "sync" functions between the various databases. As the Political Affairs representative in this work group, I will work to ensure that these products are effectively aiding our organizing, political and government relations efforts. We will prove regular updates on our progress.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kendal Killian
MAPE Political Affairs Coordinator