Political Affairs Report - August

Special Election 28B
MAPE PAC endorsed candidate Linda Pfeilsticker in the 28B special election. The election was held August 7th to replace outgoing representative Steve Sviggum. MAPE PAC made a significant contribution directly to the Pfeilsticker campaign and to the Minnesota Voter Project effort. In addition, the MAPE political staff and member volunteers lent their time to assist the campaign. Unfortunately, Pfeilsticker lost by 53% to 47%. It was, however, a very strong showing it what is normally an extremely unfriendly district for labor aligned candidates.

MAPE Action Team Training – November 9th-10th
MAPE will once again be working Erik Peterson from Wellstone Action to implement an Action Team training November 9th and 10th to be held at MAPE HQ in Shoreview. This training is based on the Camp Wellstone model and is an excellent entry point into legislative and political involvement. For more information please contact Political Affairs Coordinator Kendal Killian at kkillian@mape.org.

Team MAPE website
MAPE PAC has entered into an agreement with Tipping Point Strategies to design and implement a new PAC website. The new site will utilize robust, interactive technologies and will provide a more transparent one-stop-shop for legislative and political information. The new site will be a joint venture of both the PAC and the Government Relations Committee. It will be unveiled in Mid-September.

MAPE GRC
The MAPE Government Relations Committee recently met to plan to plan their activities for the next year. Their first priority will be to establish the 2008 MAPE legislative positions document, to be ratified at Delegate Assembly. In addition, the committee designated individual committee members to serve as “key leads” in the following task areas: legislative positions, Team MAPE website, Day on the Hill, legislative communications and caucus coordination. 

MAPE PAC
The MAPE Political Action Committee board met earlier this summer to lay out plans for the two-year election cycle. The PAC adopted a 2007 budget and will be operating on a quarterly meeting schedule in 2007 to conserve funds. Three PAC board members stepped forward to head up core tasks: budget, fundraising and communications. The PAC will be kicking of a “dollar a paycheck” fundraising campaign this fall to in preparation for the 2008 elections.

If you have any questions about the MAPE Action Team, MAPE PAC or our legislative efforts, feel free to call or email me at any time at 651-270-3832 or kkillian@mape.org. Also, if you know of juicy political gossip, please share!

In solidarity,

Kendal Killian
MAPE Political Affairs Coordinator