The Hot Sheet

Important City Council update!

ACTION ALERT! Pittsburgh City Council plans to vote TOMORROW on a package of legislation that deals with lobbyist and campaign finance disclosure and no-bid contracts, introduced by Councilman Bill Peduto.

#1 Campaign Finance Reform bill would:

• limit Council campaign contributions to $1,000 for individuals, $2,000 for PAC’s
• limit Mayoral contributions to $2,000 for individuals, $4,000 for PAC’s
• require the creation of a searchable database of all campaign contributions and city contracts.

#2  No-bid contracts bill would eliminate no-bid contracts with the city valued at more than $30,000

#3 Lobbyist Disclosure Act would require all Request-For-Proposal responses to disclose finder’s fee or payments to lobbyists or consultants.

#4 Lobbyist Registration Act would require anyone engaging in more than 30 hours of paid lobbying during a three-month period to register as lobbyists with the city.
The vote is scheduled for TOMORROW, Wednesday April 29th. This would be a major step for Pittsburgh towards good government practices and policies.

Call your city councilperson and ask them to VOTE YES for Councilman Peduto’s proposed good government legislation!

http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/

Tags: campaign finance, city council, legislation, pittsburgh, reform, transparency, vote

Check out our 2009 Voter Guide

See candidate responses for Mayor, City Council, School Board, County Council, and even the Judicial races here on our website:

http://pahotsheet.com/2009-voter-guide

We wanted to make sure we got answers from the candidates on important issues, so we collaborated with the Sierra Club Allegheny Group and Planned Parenthood of Western PA to come up with the questions for this voter guide.

Consider this one more tool in your arsenal to elect the most responsive and responsible government possible.  More voter guides are coming from groups like A+ Schools and the League of Women Voters, and we’ll link them here once they’re available, too.

And please join us for our Voter Guide Release Party, Saturday April 4th at Town Tavern on Carson Street from 9pm-Midnight.  A $5 donation gets you in for a make-your-own-taco bar with chips and salsa and also a cheese-and-veggie option, with $2 wine, beer, and well drinks.

Add in a DJ and the chance to meet and chat with some of the candidates, and you’ve got a great night and can help us with our mission to inform and turn out young voters.  (Roxanne and I are guest bartending!)

We’d love to get your feedback, so please leave a comment or send us an email with your thoughts and suggestions.

-Carly

Tags: allegheny county, candidates, city council, common pleas, commonwealth court, county council, election, judicial, local, mayor, mayoral, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, primary, school board, superior court, supreme court, vote, voter, voter guide

Voter Guide Release Party — Sat., April 4th

Join us upstairs at The Town Tavern on the South Side April 4th from 9pm to Midnight for our spring Voter Guide Release Party and fundraiser, where a $5 donation gets you:

* FREE food (build your own taco bar! cheese tray!  chips & salsa!) from 9pm-10pm

* $2 everything: glasses of wine, domestic bottles, well drinks

* Our primary voter guid e!

Roxanne will be guest bartending, and all day long prior to the party we’ll be tabling at Joseph Beth’s down the street where we get 20% of all purchases, so stop by and then hang out to get this political season kicked-off!

Tags: election, food, fundraiser, Party, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, primary, release, the town tavern, vote, voter guide, Youth

The RNC is getting a Hip-Hop makeover

As a follow-up to our recent post about hip-hop’s important role in making politics engaging, yesterday our friend Carolyn pointed out there was an article in The Washington Times that indicates the newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele realizes that hip-hop is a force to be reckoned with — and a necessary one for the promotion of his party.

“We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section … We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

“It will be avant garde, technically,” he said. “It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook.”

Though the hip-hop genre and culture has certainly grown in popularity to become more widely popular , I am wondering how artists and fans alike will respond to any fabricated attempts to harness their support this way. While one could argue that the popularization of modern hip-hop has led to a level of commercialization that might see itself as “message for hire”, I think that the very reason activism through hip-hop has been a compelling force is because the artists have had the room to talk about what is on their mind — whether it’s glorifying booty and bling or condemning violence and kids dying on the street.

As hip-hop is deliberately co-opted more and more as the best tool to target young and minority voters, will fans see through it all? Will they care?

-Carly

Tags: civic engagment, hip-hop, message, Michael S. Steele, minority, Pennsylvania, political, politics, RNC, vote, voters, Youth

Full Disclosure: the Economic Stimulus website

So today the President signed into law the hard-fought Economic Stimulus Package legislation, allowing for $787 BILLION dollars to be poured into projects that are designed to keep or make 3.5 MILLION jobs.

Those are big, fat numbers, and it’s certainly been a hot topic for debate whether it will work to boost or stabilize the economy or not.  We here at the PA League, we’re not economic experts, so hell if we know.  But what we DO know is that this is certainly the first time we, the people, will be provided with so much accessible, transparent information on where our money is going.

Check out www.recovery.gov, designed to explain the plans for the economic stimulus, give a timeline for how the money is to be allocated and reported on, and eventually report back on “how, when, and where it is spent.”  (And if you are either feeling really smart or really masochistic, you can also read the full bill as written.)

Having the background info for how the stimulus plan was put together is useful, but what will be really exciting is the updates on how the plan is actually working out.

And it’s a good-looking site too, with clear infographics (timelines, proportional circles, bar graphs– see below) that make some general comparisons at-a-glance.

If only we could have something as transparent for other federal, state, and local arenas of public spending and campaign contributions, we could pretty much count on a cleaner government and better opportunity for public discourse.

I’ll admit it; I’m impressed.  I hope it’s all it could be: a portal for the everyman –not just political in-the-knows — to better understand, participate, and give feedback to their elected government.  We’ll see; this might be THE example for government transparency efforts to come.

-Carly

Tags: accountability, economic stimulus, election, government, infographics, pa league of young voters, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, politics, president barack obama, timeline, transparency, vote, Youth

Everyone knows our Voter Guides rock

Ashley DiParlo at WTAE interviewed our own Carly Dobbins-Bucklad about the League of Young Voters special DIY voter guide website, theballot.org — where you can see all the League non-partisan voter guides (including PA’s!) with information on all of the down-ballot candidates and referendums, as well as upload your own voter guide.

People and organizations can submit guides all over the country, so if you’ve got a friend in another state, pass theballot.org on!

Tags: ballot.org, candidates, DIY, election, election information, League of Young Voters, national, non-partisan, online, Pennsylvania, state representative, vote, voter guides, wtae, Youth

Reasons to Vote 4

We’ve been knocking on doors asking people if they’re registered to vote and getting people to sign pledge cards that get mailed back to the address listed. Here are a few of the reasons people have given us as to why cast a ballot this fall:

“We need a change! Go vote, Mom!” — Gracie, Greensburg, PA

“The wife will shoot me if I don’t!” — D., Greensburg, PA

“My kids can’t vote yet, and there is no jobs, and minimum wage needs to go up some!” — DeMikea, Pittsburgh, PA

“Mom– Register online!” — Carol, Carnegie, PA

“I’m cool and I’m your best friend. Love, Vickie” — Cassie, Washington, PA

“The economy is dying!!!” — Jowett, Beaver, PA

“As a black female, it’s my constitutional right that so many fought for me to vote.” — Sheila

“Hi man, It may be in your interest to vote this year! Joe.” — Ellen, Allison Park, PA

“I can! I’m angry! I’m broke!” — Raymond, Pittsburgh, PA

“A closed mouth can not speak, my vote is my voice.” — Rashida, Pittsburgh, PA

Opinions expressed belong solely to the individuals mentioned and are not necessarily those of the PA League.

Tags: canvassing, civil liberties, door-knocking, election, PLYV, protection, reasons to vote, right to vote, vote

I pledge to vote because…

Dylan Lampe, headed to the post office.

1,150 people pledged to vote, for whatever reason was most important to them.

Today, we mailed all of those voter pledges back to the voters, so they will have a reminder arrive in their hands just days before election day.

Tags: election reminder, postcards, vote, voter pledge, young voters

Check our voting machines before the election!

TOMORROW, Tuesday Oct 20th at 10am there will be a Board of Elections Meeting at the County Courthouse, Conference Room 1. We should arrive en-masse to discuss software auditing as well as any other election issues. No one needs to sign up in advance to speak, but if you’d like to carpool down there or meet up early, email terry@theleague.com!

Tags: allegheny county, election, election protection, pa league of young voters, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, turnout, vote, voting machines, Youth Vote

Westmoreland Candidates Forum

Hello from the Westmoreland Co candidate forum! Put together by the League of Women Voters, candidates Anthony Bompiani and John Boyle were in attendance. I submitted a question asking if they would support a reincarnation of the Reach Scholarship; we’ll see what they have to say. TWO MORE FORUMS LEFT!!! -Carly

Tags: candidates, candidates forum, election, vote, voter education, voter guides