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Newtonian

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All the assembly seats are in contention, primaries and general election in five months; no senate seats. 

 

So if we really bust our humps to support the Republicans in the assembly,and are successful in turning it, but the Senate is still controlled by the Dems, what have we gained?  A show of gun owner force, at most..

 

Newtonian, now it's my turn to play Devil's Advocate, and your turn to explain.  

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So if we really bust our humps to support the Republicans in the assembly,and are successful in turning it, but the Senate is still controlled by the Dems, what have we gained?  A show of gun owner force, at most..

 

Newtonian, now it's my turn to play Devil's Advocate, and your turn to explain.  

then we'll have a state legislature doing its impression of congress, with dumbocrats blaming republitards for lack of anything happening. this will occur for a short period of time, then the republitards will buckle, and give the dumbocrats what they want. just like they just did in congress this past week. again.

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So if we really bust our humps to support the Republicans in the assembly,and are successful in turning it, but the Senate is still controlled by the Dems, what have we gained?  A show of gun owner force, at most..

 

Newtonian, now it's my turn to play Devil's Advocate, and your turn to explain.  

I'm not claiming anything will result from these efforts. Unlike other people I cannot predict the future.

 

I will consider this initiative successful if we can swing a lot of votes the other way in several districts. And by the way there's no law that says it cannot be undertaken even in non-competitive districts. But certainly in the 38th, where the two Rs lost by around 900 votes, I think we could make a difference.

 

WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE SENATE BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT UP FOR ELECTION. That's out of our hands. But perhaps, if we do this right, we can show the democrats that they are not invulnerable, that we'll be back in '17 as well. Will that cause them to void their bowels? I have no idea. 

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So if we really bust our humps to support the Republicans in the assembly

Nobody will need to bust their hump. This is not one of those "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" situations.

 

This is a grassroots, viral effort. Trickle down politics if you will. We will reach 100x more gun owners by hanging out at a range for an hour, talking to shop owners, and renting appropriate lists from ANJRPC and NRA, than by knocking on doors. 

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I just looked up my district.  Looks like I'll be in the 21st, and all voted 'no' on the 10 rd bill, as well as the gun buy-back program.  I have a question, though.  I noticed that there are two R candidates and two D candidates.  The two R's say "bracketed with" then list each other's names.  Same for the two D's.  What does this mean?

 

Since I'm keeping PA as my primary residency, I won't be able to vote, but my husband will.

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I just looked up my district.  Looks like I'll be in the 21st, and all voted 'no' on the 10 rd bill, as well as the gun buy-back program.  I have a question, though.  I noticed that there are two R candidates and two D candidates.  The two R's say "bracketed with" then list each other's names.  Same for the two D's.  What does this mean?

 

Since I'm keeping PA as my primary residency, I won't be able to vote, but my husband will.

From the ballot the other day it seemed the bracketed candidates were more or less running together. But that was 3 days ago and I'm probably mis-remembering that detail.

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Feet on the ground.  Buy a mailing list of republican households and get people knocking on doors.  You'd have to know some demographics about each household and custom taylor the message to each home since not ever Capital R household is a gun household.  If you knocked on 1000 doors on the weekend before the election, you might get 50 more people out to vote - some of the elections could be won this way.

 

The problem is the same problem every one of our ideas have - we need people on the ground getting their hands dirty.

This is why the plan should concentrate on what should be an easily motivated demographic given the nonsense coming out of Trenton lately, namely gun owners. We are the principal targets of the NJ Legislature's spitefulness.

 

Imagine if Democrats were proposing laws against people of Hungarian descent and you wanted them out of office. Would you waste your time cajoling Puerto Rican Republicans? I'd hit the Hungarians first. They have the most to lose/gain.

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Society as a whole has become more complacent and less willing to participate in any of the "normal" processes that our parents and grandparents felt were very important. Due to this laziness, the voter turnout numbers are dropping dramatically. A solution that comes to mind is indulge this laziness. Registered voters are permitted to vote by mail if they are not able, or willing to go to the polling place on Election day. With that being said, there is a form that they can fill out and mail in (probably the hardest part) and the Board of Elections will mail them the ballot, and (IIRC) provides it as a no postage required return option. This will allow the voter to exercise their right, without having to leave their couch. As we are talking to our fellow gun owners, perhaps having a few of these forms on hand or in your range bag isn't a bad idea. After the first time of doing a mail in ballot, you typically continue to receive them until you stop it. 

 

With regard to the boots on the ground efforts, they sound great on paper, but for a vast majority of them, it isn't worth the time and effort. I was recently re-elected to a position. In my district, we received 44 voters (rain, cold, bad weather all impacted this). Typically we have well over 200. A crew of 5 guys spent 90 minutes going door to door posting reminder stickers about voting, and still only received 20% of our usual voters. Individuals with great track records of voting, simply answered that they forgot. 

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So far no response from my guy Parker Space. The NJ GOP headquarters basically hung up on me yesterday. So I tried this message to Chris Brown, whose fellow GOP candidate lost by 40 votes in November, 2013:

 

Dear Mr. Brown,
 
I belong to group of like minded NJ sportsmen and firearms owners who would like to contribute to the success of Republican candidates in the upcoming elections, particularly in vulnerable or competitive legislative districts. I have identified those assembly districts as the second, fourteenth, eighteenth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-eighth. As you are aware we lost two seats in the thirty-eight district by a combined total of fewer than 900 votes, and your "running mate" lost by 40 votes. 
 
Voter turnout during the last midterms was about 27%. According to common belief there are roughly 1 million hunters/gun owners in this state. I've churned through the numbers, applying various pessimistic assumptions as to voting district, physical ability, party affiliation, etc. and concluded that convincing just 5% of normally non-participatory individuals in this group to vote -- and perhaps to bring someone along with them who usually does not vote -- could easily turn the tide in those aforementioned districts.
 
My strategy does not involve cold calling or knocking on doors, which in my opinion is wasteful. Rather, I plan to harness the potential of gun clubs, ranges, hunting associations, and large interstate vendors to reach out to clients and customers in these districts. Customers and clients who should be motivated by virtue of having been targeted by spiteful, ill-conceived legislation, all of which will likely be signed into law in early 2018.
 
I have been trying without success to reach the campaign managers for Assembly candidates in the districts listed above. Could you or someone on your staff help me? I'm thinking specifically of Messrs. Will Paul, David Jones, Philip Kaufman, Synnove Bakke, Teresa Hutchinson, Mark DiPisa, and Anthony Cappola. Is there perhaps someone at NJ GOP headquarters who can provide this information? I called them this week and was pretty much hung up on.
 
I look forward to your response.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
 
 

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Society as a whole has become more complacent and less willing to participate in any of the "normal" processes that our parents and grandparents felt were very important. Due to this laziness, the voter turnout numbers are dropping dramatically. A solution that comes to mind is indulge this laziness. Registered voters are permitted to vote by mail if they are not able, or willing to go to the polling place on Election day. With that being said, there is a form that they can fill out and mail in (probably the hardest part) and the Board of Elections will mail them the ballot, and (IIRC) provides it as a no postage required return option. This will allow the voter to exercise their right, without having to leave their couch. As we are talking to our fellow gun owners, perhaps having a few of these forms on hand or in your range bag isn't a bad idea. After the first time of doing a mail in ballot, you typically continue to receive them until you stop it. 

 

With regard to the boots on the ground efforts, they sound great on paper, but for a vast majority of them, it isn't worth the time and effort. I was recently re-elected to a position. In my district, we received 44 voters (rain, cold, bad weather all impacted this). Typically we have well over 200. A crew of 5 guys spent 90 minutes going door to door posting reminder stickers about voting, and still only received 20% of our usual voters. Individuals with great track records of voting, simply answered that they forgot. 

This is a great idea but how do we get absentee ballots to these folks? Don't they have to request them?

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Here is a link to the form. I was wrong, it does require a stamp. The benefit to these is they can be hand delivered. An assistor (info on app) can hand deliver up to a certain amount (10 IIRC) to the Board of Elections. Have it in your range bag, get into a conversation with someone, they fill it out, you can either mail it for them or hand deliver it. When I used to go door to door and register new voters in my area, I always made sure to offer to handle the paperwork once they completed it, as I know that if I put something on my desk, it might disappear into the pile and not get done. Taking the responsibility off of that person to submit this form, makes sure that they get it done. 

 

http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/form_pdf/vote-mail-ballot-012712.pdf

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Here is a link to the form. I was wrong, it does require a stamp. The benefit to these is they can be hand delivered. An assistor (info on app) can hand deliver up to a certain amount (10 IIRC) to the Board of Elections. Have it in your range bag, get into a conversation with someone, they fill it out, you can either mail it for them or hand deliver it. When I used to go door to door and register new voters in my area, I always made sure to offer to handle the paperwork once they completed it, as I know that if I put something on my desk, it might disappear into the pile and not get done. Taking the responsibility off of that person to submit this form, makes sure that they get it done. 

 

http://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/form_pdf/vote-mail-ballot-012712.pdf

Thanks for a very useful contribution. I hadn't thought of this.

 

Now we need a way to get these to people. I'm certainly not going to stand around waiting for 3500 people to complete the forms. Possibilities include printing out 20,000 and distributing them with an appropriate message to our focal points -- ranges and shops. Staples will print in bulk, B&W for $0.017 per page. That's just $340+ tax. I would pay for it but it might be worthwhile, if I ever connect with the calcified NJ GOP organizations and/or candidate campaigns, to suggest the campaigns pay. It's a drop in the bucket for them; a couple of dinners out with the family for me.

 

Timing will be of the essence. Has to be "in time" but late enough to convey a sense of immediacy, and too late for the antis to mount a counter attack. Oh and early enough to be counted before the R candidates deliver their inevitable concession speeches.

 

Suggestions? So far the responses have been seriously underwhelming. And I haven't even asked for $$$ or time -- yet. Just ideas.

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I believe the county B.O.Elections keeps printed copies on hand, unknown how many any one person can take but if that's the cost from Staples, that's not bad considering the quantity that you will receive. 

 

Timing is very important, but not in the scope that you are thinking. Once a vote is cast, the county BOE knows how many are sitting in their office, and will not allow a winner to be announced until these are counted and verified. Same with provisional ballots. With that in mind, the candidates should be alerted to the fact that there is a huge push in mail in ballots and to hold off on anything too rash. 

 

Manning a booth at local gun shows, events, etc would get these forms into the hands of the individuals that you are looking to target, while preventing the cold call mentality. What's likely a scary number, is the amount of people simply not registered to vote. Voter Registration forms are also simple, downloadable, and easy to fill out and submit. I have a stack sitting on my desk just so as I notice new voters moving into the neighborhood, I can introduce myself, and get them registered, or update their address, as it is often not one of the first things we consider doing when we end up in a new location. 

 

I have a meeting Monday night for our reorganization purposes, I'll see what other ideas people have for increasing voter turnout. 

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Please, if anybody has any inside connection with anybody in the NJ Republican Party please message me privately. So far I have called the state GOP headquarters twice and emailed them, my state senator, my assemblyman, and the fellow down in district 38 who barely won in 2013 and whose "running mate" lost by just 40 votes. Nada.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if staffers are instructed to acknowledge mail on specific subjects and trash everything else.

 

Suggestions?

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I have waited long enough to hear back from those individuals.

 

Today tried the office of State Sen. Steve Oroho, to obtain information on the campaigns of the 7-8 candidates whose names I posted a couple of weeks ago. I was told by a lady whose college major must have been Eerie Silences that they have nothing to do with campaigns, but that Oroho's campaign office might be able to help.

 

So I left a message with them. Will they respond?

 

Here is the note I plan to leave with them:

 

Sir/Madam,

 

Could you please provide contact information for campaign officials for the Republican candidates listed on page 2 of this letter? I am interested in helping them in the 2015 election for N.J. State Assembly.

 

Sincerely,

 

Can anyone provide any suggestions or edits, additional comments??

 

 

 

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