We encourage anyone who reads this to go to the Move to Amend page, and sign on as an individual supporter.

To quote from Move to Amend:

There are two conceptions of corporate personhood. The first simply bestows upon corporations the ability to engage in many legal actions (e.g. enter into contracts, sue, be sued, etc). This is widely accepted and we do not object to this.

However, corporate personhood also commonly refers to the Supreme Court – created precedent of corporations enjoying constitutional rights that were intended solely for human beings. We believe this form of corporate personhood corrupts our Constitution and must be corrected by amending the Constitution.

www.pdhdfa.org

Contact: Joy F. Sabl, Meeting Host

(jfsabl”at” gmail “dot” com)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 15, 2011

Pittsburgh, Pa.–The participating members of Pittsburgh’s Democracy for America chapter, Democracy for Pittsburgh (DFP) just endorsed the following candidates at our April 14th meeting:

• Darlene Harris, City Council District 1
• Bruce Kraus, City Council District 3
• Chris Zurawsky, City Council District 5
• Lucille Prater-Holliday, Council District 9
• Rich Fitzgerald, County Executive
• Alex Bicket, Allegheny Co. Court of Common Pleas

The “do not endorse in this race” option did not win for any seat, though in several races, no one candidate reached the 70% threshold for endorsement.

As always, DFP endorsements require a supermajority vote (≥70%) and allow for ranked voting.  Nonendorsement may imply an absence of good candidates (“do not endorse” is a voting option) or multiple good candidates who split the vote. We do this because we hope that the vast majority of our membership can feel comfortable working for any and all of our endorsed candidates.

Endorsement questions are written / revised in open meetings. Our goal is to learn something about how the candidate thinks, and how they approach a problem when there is no pre-formulated “right answer.”  We reason that in real life, single, simple “right answers” are rare. If you would like to participate, please come join us!

Meeting reminders are posted at http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/PGHDemocracyforUSA and occur monthly, almost always on the third Thursday of every month.

Note that candidates are welcome to submit answers at any point, if they would like to have their responses available on our website.

# # #

City Council District 1

• Wilson
• Harris  (Incumbent) Darlene Harris 2011 DFP
• Pallus

City Council District 3

• Kraus (incumbent) Kraus_2011_DFP
• Robb Robb_2011_DFP (sent after others were online)
• Koch

City Council distict 5 (no incumbent/”Shields seat”)

• O’Connor
• Zurawsky (attended Meetup) Zurawsky_2011_DFA
• Caliguiri

City Council distict 7

• Ceoffe
• Calfo (update: did not file, please don’t vote to endorse him)
• Dowd (Incumbent) Dowd_2011_DFP

City Council distict 9

• Prater-Holliday (meetup attendee / member) PraterHolliday_2011_DFP
• Burgess (Incumbent)
• Copeland-Mitchell (made contact, responses not yet received)

County Executive

• Flaherty Flaherty_2011_DFP
• Fitzgerald Fitzgerald_2011_DFP (sent after others were online)

County Controller

• Wagner CWagner_2011_DFP
• Matta
• McDonald-Roberts McDonaldRoberts_2011_DFP

Commonwealth Court

• Boockvar  Boockvar 2011_DFP_FINAL revisions made after some other responses were posted
• Ernsberger Ernsberger_2011_DFP

Common Pleas

• Bicket (attended meetup) Bicket_2011_DFP
• Bush ebush_2011_DFP
• Satler
• Duncan
• Marmo Marmo_2011_DFP_1

District Judge 5-2-35

• Shields  Shields_2011_DFP
• McGough (response expected shortly)
• Pollock  Pollock_2011_DFP

Some people on this list may have withdrawn, or be withdrawing. Updates will be made after the withdrawal deadine.  Candidates in uncontested seats (no primary contest) are not listed, unless they send in a response.

If you are aware of additional candidates who’d like to participate whose responses are not up here, or candidates who are not listed, please contact JFSABL “at” gmail “dot” com . I also hope to have time to add links to candidate web pages by 3/26/11, and also to endorsement materials from other organizations.

Ballot and voting instructions

Here is the endorsement ballot, including voting instructions. Two formats, same content. Voting Instructions and ballot DFP 2011.pdf and  Voting Instructions and ballot DFP 2011.doc

There are three ways to vote.

a) classic secret ballot.  Print out a ballot.  Vote.  Do not include any identifying marks on the ballot.  Seal the ballot in an unmarked envelope. Next, put that unmarked envelope in another, larger envelope. Send it to DFP c/o Sabl, 7008 Willard st. Pittsburgh PA 15208.  Make sure to include your SIGNATURE overlapping the flap of this outer envelope.  Make sure it is postmarked by Monday April 11, 2011.

b) for those who say “I don’t care who knows how I voted, make this painless”: you can e-mail your choices to me at jfsabl@gmail.com, right in the text of the e-mail.  Your e-mail will be printed out, showing your name and e-mail address, for verification of identity.  Then the voting portion will be ripped lose and added to the tally.

c) show up at the mini-meetup which both precedes and follows MoveOn meetup, usual location, noting the unusual date: April 14, not April 21.  The ballots will be tallied there, and that is the absolute last moment to vote.

Results:

Joe Hoeffel was endorsed for Governor.

DFP commits to actively supporting the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in the general election.

Joe Sestak was endorsed for Senate.

DFP commits to actively supporting the Democratic Senatorial nominee in the general election.

————————————-

In addition to these endorsements, a couple of write in votes for other races included mention of Barbara Hafer for PA-12 (“Murtha’s seat”) and Tonya Payne for statehouse.  The deadline for a formal endorsement is past (and more to the point, we don’t have the person-power to go through another round of formal endorsements).  However, members are encouraged to look into these campaigns, and we may have a more informal vote of support / support by acclaim via http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PGHDemocracyforUSA and/or at the next meetup.

Click here for Sestak_Responses

Specter’s campaign said they would be sending a response, so we consider that a request for endorsement.  Responses will be posted if we get them today. Update: a response came in on March 2 (4 days after the deadline, after the final reminder, and after the other responses were available online).  They also lack a statement saying that the Senator stands behind the answers. With those caveats, click here to see the SpecterResponses.

Click here for Wagner_Responses

Click here for Onorato_Responses

Click here for Hoeffel_Responses

To vote: if you have been to two DFP meetups and/or DFP sponsored events since Feb. 2009, and if you do not intend to vote in person at Tazza d’Oro on March 3, please do the following.

1. print out DFP Endorsement Ballot 2010.

2. vote.

3. place the ballot in a BLANK, white envelope.

4. place the blank envelope in a second envelope.  Address that envelope c/o Joy Sabl, 7008 Willard St, Pittsburgh PA 15208-2841.  Also sign your name across the flap of the outside envelope. If you’d like to tape, glue, put a fingerprint over, or otherwise tamper-proof the outside envelope, feel free.

5. send it ASAP.  If you are housebound or if it’s getting late to mail it, call for pickup: 412…208…4913.

On Wed. March 3, Meetup attendees will examine the outer envelopes.  One person will open the outer envelopes in a bag, and hand off the inner envelopes.  Another person will open the inner envelopes and hand off the ballots for tallying.  Results will be reported as “endorsed” (at least 70% support) or “no endorsement.”  Some members have expressed fears of “hard feelings” or “retribution.” Therefore, unanimous votes, if any, will not be announced as such.

If you find any broken links on this site, please report them by posting a comment.

If you find any broken links to this site, we can’t do much about that. Let the webmaster of the other site know.

Please come to “The Goals We Share,” a family-friendly, alcohol-free potluck/tailgate at West Penn Ballfield at the edge of Polish Hill.

This was an unusual spring where the super-heated rhetoric of primary politics hit Pittsburgh hard. Lets eat together, relax together, and talk to each other, in a low-key way, to re-find our common ground. Bring a dish (optional), family, friends, “fun stuff” (soft frisbees, musical instruments) and goodwill.

Various groups are invited, but the focus is on us…as people.

RSVP online at http://crush3r.com/page/mygmfcbpri or for more info & another RSVP link (requires sign-up), go to http://tinyurl.com/DFP-Goals-potluck Want to RSVP for several people at once? Leave a message at (412)731-7020 (voice mail).

.

Agenda: meet a candiate / possible candidate endorsement (local race). Brainstorm on mitigating the P.O. / voter registration fiasco. Show up for more details!

RSVP: http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=28119

and

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
Chairman, Democratic National Committee
Invite you to

JOIN THE PARTY!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

The Church Brew Works
3525 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA

4:30 PM
“Join the Party” Reception
$25 per person

RSVP Here

One more participant putting impeachment on the table: