PNN Newsletter: It's Election Time! Canvass, Flier, Call, More
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PNN’s mission is to engage, educate and empower our neighbors to make our City a better place to live. Here’s what’s coming up in each of these areas:
Engage: Fliers on Saturday, Canvass on Sunday, Join Our Call Squad
Educate: Testify at SEPTA to Save the Train
Empower: Lobby on Budget at City Hall, "No Kings" Rally
Please Vote on Tuesday!
Tuesday, May 20th, 7AM-8PM, Your Polling Place
Did you know that your vote carries extra weight in this election? That's because many part-time voters tend to stay home during this election, mistakenly believing that our District Attorney is a shoe-in, that it doesn't matter who the judges are, and not knowing that there are long-term matters at stake with three important Ballot Questions that need a YES vote.
If you're on the fence about voting, or if you need more information on the candidates and Ballot Questions, please check out our recommendations below. You can get more detailed information by clicking through to "Reasons for Endorsement Recommendations".
Other things to consider:
Don't Know Where to Vote? Find Your Polling Location Here
The deadline to request mail-in ballots has passed. If you have applied for one, but did not receive it, call the City Commissioner's Office ASAP at 215-686-3460
We recommend that if you have not yet mailed your ballot, that you instead drop it off at one of the satellite offices or drop boxes. On Election Day, you can take it to your polling place and surrender it (envelopes and all) and vote in-person.
Your Mail-In Ballot must be received, POSTMARKS DON’T COUNT, by the Philadelphia County Board of Elections no later that 8 PM on Election day.
__________________________________________ PNN Actions ________________________________________
Election Fliering at Safety & Justice Event
Saturday, May 17th, 10AM-1PM, Vernon Park, 5800 Germantown Ave
Join us on Saturday outside the "Center in the Park" building in Vernon Park for a fliering event. This is an opportunity to engage with neighbors in a high-traffic area. We'll talk about the upcoming election and how important it is to re-elect Larry Krasner as our District Attorney. And we'll inform people about Ballot Question #3, which would establish a Prison Oversight Board, and about the important work that must be done to build our community.
We'll also encourage folks to take our Three Question Survey that will help us determine what issues folks care most about, what skills they bring to the organizing table, and where they get their news. If you haven't yet taken our survey, please do it now so you can walk others through it during your conversation with them.
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Canvass Your Neighborhood or "Buddy Canvass"
Sunday, May 18th, 11AM-2PM, Lovett Library, 6945 Germantown Ave
Join us outside Lovett Library at Germantown Avenue & Sedgwick Street to knock some doors on a sunny Sunday afternoon! We will talk with neighbors about our endorsed candidates and our recommendations on the Ballot Questions. And we'll ask them to take our Survey.
Sunday is the best time to find folks at home and ready to talk. We'll go over your conversation with them, get you buddied-up with a fellow activist, and go knock doors together.
We have found that our activists really enjoy canvassing as a team - you meet a new activist friend, have someone to talk with between doors, and someone to share the conversation when you're talking with neighbors.
But, if you'd like to go it alone, we're happy to give you turf around your own home to knock. Being able to say, "Hi, I'm your neighbor from around the corner..." gives you immediate credibility. You're not some stranger dropped into their neighborhood to talk with people you'll never meet again; you share the same streets, and many of the same concerns.
Either way, let us know and we'll see you outside the Library on Sunday!
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Lobby City Council on Budget Priorities
Thursday, May 22nd, 9AM, City Hall
Please join PNN and our partners at the Alliance for Just Philadelphia on May 22nd, to visit Council offices to protest plans to decimate the City’s business tax.
Why do we need to do this? Sadly, as Democrats fight tooth and nail in Washington to stop Trump from cutting taxes for the rich, Philly Democrats are busy emulating those tax-slashing MAGA Republicans.
It’s true. Our Mayor has proposed virtual elimination of the City’s main business tax, the Business Income and Receipts Tax (“BIRT”.) When fully implemented over a period of years, BIRT repeal would take about $700 million annually out of the City treasury.
While doing the bidding of the rich, the Mayor also proposed eliminating a shield for small businesses that made the tax at least minimally progressive, namely an exemption from tax for the first $100,000 of receipts.
That exemption has left almost ¾ of all businesses in the City without a tax obligation. Now, every mom-and-pop store in the City will have to pay up.
This is the moral equivalent of MAGA cutting aid to the poor to finance giveaways to the rich. We cannot let these ideas become law.
On May 22nd we will fan out at City Hall to let Council members know that we are watching what they do, and that we will not forget in the next election if they put in place this disgraceful proposal, or anything like it that robs City services in the name of trickle-down, voodoo economics.
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Make "Good Trouble" Phone Calls
Thursday, May 22nd, 6PM-8PM, RSVP for Location
We continue to have success with this organizing tactic. We have targeted Congressman Robb Bresnahan from PA-08 around Scranton because he is brand new and barely won his race - which means that he is most likely to break with Trump and MAGA if his constituents pressure him to do so.
And they have been applying that pressure - because we have been calling his constituents to call him! Every week our Call Squad has been engaging folks in PA-08 in conversation about what deep cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will do to their neighbors, their local hospitals and their local small businesses - all of whom depend on the funding that comes from these programs.
And it's working! Bresnahan (and others who have been targeted by similar groups around the country) has signaled that he is not happy with these budget cuts. This has forced Speaker Mike Johnson to delay a vote on the GOP budget because he doesn't have the votes!
And remember this is all so Trump can deliver on his campaign promise to his billionaire buddies of a permanent $5 trillion tax cut! Everyday Americans are getting sick of this behavior, regardless of their political identification.
Help us keep up the pressure!
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Save the Date: "Stand Up to MAGA" Mass Meeting
Tuesday, May 27th, 6PM, 56th Street & Girard Ave.
Following on the success of our first "Stand Up to MAGA" Mass Meeting in April, the Coalition to Defend Democracy will be conducting our next Mass Meeting at Vine Memorial Baptist Church in West Philly. Join us as we share knowledge, make plans and to build collective power across this city to stand up to the bullies and bigots who dominate our political scene.
More details as coming. Add your name so we can keep you in the loop on our plan.
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Public Testimony on Tax Policy
This past Tuesday, City Council held a hearing on the proposed tax policy that would essentially eliminate the BIRT tax, thus starving the city of vital funds at a time when the Trump regime is withholding funding to pay for tax cuts to the morbidly rich. PNN co-founder Stan Shapiro appeared in Council to protest the proposed tax cuts. Click here for his testimony.
_________________________________ Actions with Our Allies ________________________________
"Save the Train" Rally at SEPTA HQ
Monday, May 19th, 10AM, 1234 Market Street
Join your neighbors as they take the train to save the train this Monday for a rally at SEPTA headquarters, where they will be holding a public hearing starting at 11AM. You'll have the opportunity to testify at this hearing or just be there to support others who will speak.
Both Chestnut Hill lines are on the chopping block as SEPTA tries to slash their budget. So folks who live in the area will take one of those lines and meet on the train to travel to the rally together.
Here are the train schedules:
Chestnut Hill West train leaving from Richard Allen station at 9:03, Upsal at 9:07, Chelten station at 9:11 and Queen Lane at 9:13
Chestnut Hill East train leaving from Mt Airy station at 9:07, Stenton at 9:10, Germantown at 9:15 and Wayne Junction at 9:23
See you there!
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"No Kings" Rally
Saturday, June 14th, 12PM-3PM, LOVE Park, 16th & JFK
Join our allies for a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies.
We have a long battle ahead of us to rid our politics of this fascist blight. But every time we show up - to large rallies like this one and to small working groups - we are making history and showing the courage it takes to stand up to these bullies and criminals.
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Word Scramble
NLTGLSOEAII
Hint: Laws or the process of making them.
Last Week - IMPEACHMENT (MMNHPTEECAI)
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This Week in History:
May 17, 1954 – Brown v. Board of Ed. In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that racial segregation in public educational facilities is unconstitutional.
May 18, 1980 – St Helen's Fallout. Mt. St. Helen's in Washington State erupted, killing 57 and causing an ash plume that covered eleven states.
May 20, 1862 – " Go West..." Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act to provide cheap land for the settlement of the American West.
Thanks for your activism!
Tim Brown, Organizing Director
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