On Legislative Leadership – who do you blame?
Nobody said legislative leadership was going to be easy –the Speaker and the President cannot avoid conflict; they must confront it, resolve it, and take the blame for it. from 4th Edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring. Chapter 3 of Lobbying explores the decision making dynamic in legislative bodies from State Houses to city counsels...
advocacy / civic engagement / fast forclosures / housing discrimination / Justice / organizing / policy change / redlining
50th Anniversary of the disastrous Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (BBURG)
We go a letter from Lew Finfer. “This is the 50th Anniversary of the disastrous to Dorchester and Mattapan program called the Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group (BBURG). This program that ran from 1968-1972 was supposed to enable African-Americans to buy homes after a century+ of housing discrimination largely prevented that. However, it instead became...
On the 50th Anniversary of Stopping a highway from cutting through Boston.
“So organizers started to do something about it. On Jan. 25, 1969 — just days after Governor Francis W. Sargent’s inauguration — the 2,000 people gathered on the State House stairs to protest the highway. The governor’s son, Francis W. “Bill” Sargent Jr., joined them. In December 1970, Sargent declared a moratorium on the highway...
When Dogs Don’t Like It – The Importance of Value Based Messaging.
You are a dog food manufacturer and you are very proud of your product. But it is not selling. You have called together your entire sales force in one room. You make a speech and ask for sincere feedback. “Our dog food has the finest ingredients, it is packaged in the most colorful attractive cans...
Attracting attention on your lobby day !!
You have made detailed plans – delegations from 10 different communities from all over the state have hired buses, posted pictures in the local press, notified their legislative delegations they are coming. You’ve been lobbying this bill for 4 years. Last year you found yourself in competition with a pro life demonstration on the front...
Being bold – two Boston city counselors say “We are in crisis and we proposing to do something about it”
“We are in a crisis,” said City Councilor Lydia Edwards, the plan’s lead sponsor along with Councilor Kim Janey. “That we are suffering in one of the biggest booms in the history of our city is unacceptable.” In the thick of an affordable housing crisis that has taken hold across Greater Boston, city councilors have...
We’ve come a long way on LGBTQ rights Baby – well maybe not yet. Back to our Barricades
The U.S. Senate last month unanimously passed a bill that would explicitly make lynching a federal crime. Not everyone, however, is pleased with passage of the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act.Liberty Counsel, an evangelical nonprofit that opposes gay rights, and its chairman, Mat Staver, are taking issue with the bill’s inclusion of LGBTQ people....
Likability doesn’t matter when you are building a winning coalition in a Legislature
Remember the Hero Opportunity? A compelling problem or crisis that provides policymakers with public occasions to be the champion of a solution that makes a positive difference in the lives of a critical mass of their constituents/customers. From Chapter 2 of the 4th Edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring
State income tax to drop, edging closer to 5 percent, meanwhile the state is projecting to lose millions in revenue
“Rejoice, Massachusetts taxpayers. You’ll have a bit more money in your paychecks come January, and, if state assumptions are correct, another long-awaited reprieve — with potentially bigger budget ramifications — could follow…….. Chip Faulkner, associate director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, which pushed the ballot question. “Either you win or you lose. But this one...
Relationships Matter
When two hill town girls from Western Massachusetts get together in Florida – they have fun. Jane Swift and I go way back to our roots in Western Mass, to small town politics, to shared values and commitment to social, racial and economic justice as we pursued our separate careers in the public policy arena...
Celebrating National Adoption Day – Like many women in this lobbying business I started as a volunteer 45 years ago.
Like many women in this business, I started as a volunteer. I belonged to an adoptive parent group. We had decided to “do something” about an existing law that forbade the adoption of children across religious lines. Through our parent support network we had learned that more than a thousand children, legally free for adoption,...
On winning; “It felt great, It felt like we were able to accomplish something huge.”
NEW LAW WILL BOLSTER CIVICS EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS Rep. Andy Vargas, a Haverhill Democrat who joined the House after winning a special election last year, visited the State House for the first time eight years ago as a high school student to lobby for a version of the bill. He gave his first speech as...
