Proposal 6. Define Active level of campaigning.
Amend BusRule 2. Purpose.
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[Insert “Active”, and increase count, so it reads:] “The NJLP welcomes candidates of all 3 4 levels of commitment – Trademark, Active, Impact, and Challenge – defined as follows:”
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[Insert a sentence after “Trademark:”] “Active: “ [Prop 6A would insert here.]
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[In “purpose” section, Insert after Trademark:] “Active: To develop “our” issues for disenfranchised voters to record their disaffection with the status quo. Useful to foster individual candidate development, and promote county party activism and develop local contacts and issues. Help voters and growthe Party. “ [Bulk of this is just moved from the current Impact tier.]
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[Amend after Impact:] “Impact: Procure a “wedge” of votes (goal of 3% or more) to shake up the Demopublican establishment and to affect policy choices by legacies. and to develop “our” issues for disenfranchised voters to record their disaffection with the status quo. Also useful to foster individual candidate development, and promote county party activism and develop local contacts and issues. “ [Deleted sentence is moved to Active]
Rationale. We need to define a tier of candidate effort more than paper, and less than impact, because that’s how most of our candidates are actually running – neither Trademark nor Impact. The reason for two “Active” mentions, in that BusRule 2 enumerates them twice: first defines the tiers, and then lists their purpose. The reason part of the “Impact” is shifted into Active because promotion and candidate development can be done at the Active level of campaigning, while “wedging” is only at Impact.
Better defining this “Active” tier of campaigning would help manage candidate expectations. Candidates and members may be confused by conflating Active and Impact style-campaigning. It’s simply impossible for most of our “active” candidates to run at Impact level. This is a feature of the district, and the overall race, and the likely margin between legacies. On the other hand, semi-active candidates now don’t know what to expect. This mismatch of expectations feeds into tensions and problems.
Proposal 6A.
[This proposal should only be considered if Proposal 6 is adopted.]
Amend BusRule 2. Insert after “Active:”
“Candidate is expected to do at least some of the following: maintain a website and/or social media presence, raise funding and/or commit own, spend money and effort trying to attract attention, reach out to voters, recruit campaign team and new members, conduct events and otherwise help voters and the Party.”
Rationale. The Proposal 6 would redefine our campaign tiering from 3 tiers to 4, to better differentiate between Active and Impact. Proposal 6A would go further and define more specific activities to better guide candidates.