WHEREAS:
The 2008 and 2010 elections present AFSCME with a unique opportunity to elect labor friendly candidates and, because state and federal legislative districts will be redrawn in 2011, to shape the political landscape at the state and federal levels for the next decade; and

WHEREAS:
Delegates to the AFSCME 37th International Convention approved Resolution 80 that established a goal to raise an army of 40,000 activists by September 2008, representing 3 percent of AFSCME’s membership, for the upcoming elections and to mobilize no less than 2 percent of the membership to work on Election Day; and 

WHEREAS:
Resolution 80 also called for every council and large unaffiliated local union to have ongoing voter registration programs and set goals for them to increase registration figures by 5 percent each year until 90 percent of the members are registered and vote on Election Day; and

WHEREAS:
AFSCME created the AFSCME Campaign Engine (ACE) database to better manage and archive membership political data, including volunteer and activist information; and

WHEREAS:
The majority of affiliates have not met their political capacity goals.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That affiliates reaffirm their commitment to the political capacity goals approved by the delegates to the 37th International Convention; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That the allocation of AFSCME’s funding for state political programs will take into consideration affiliates’ progress on their political capacity goals; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That affiliates will make it a top priority to reach their political capacity goals and utilize the ACE database to track progress for the 2008 election and future election cycles.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY: Joseph Rugola, Executive Director and Delegate
OAPSE/AFSCME Local 4
Ohio