Ducks, Wetlands and Clean Water Rally

[Giant_Jackpot]

Well BLB, I am kind of surprised that no one else has commented on this issue. The duck rally was a great start but people need to get involved.

Anybody else out there write to their representatives?

[Farley]

I wrote to Dean Johnson last week after they shelved the 2006 ballot bill. You know, the one that Sen. Johnson "promised" would pass that week about putting on the ballot in 2006 "Should a portion of the sales tax be dedicated to conservation". What a crock.

I also filled out the card at the rally that was sent to the reps telling them how to vote on the conservation issues.

[Giant_Jackpot]

I guess I don’t remember him promising it would pass but it was disappointing to learn that they shelved it for this session. It is still alive in the House though. Make sure you write to both of your representatives.

As far as the cards we filled out at the rally, I don’t think they are going to do much good as far as persuading a representative. I’m not saying it is a waste of time for the rally organizers to do this, but a personal note from 5000 people would do far more to help the cause. I listened to Mark Holston (when he was a senator) give a talk to a group a few years ago and he said that if he got even a small number of letters from individuals he would sit up and take notice. It seems that “we” just don’t let them know how we feel often enough. Encourage all of your friends to write to their representatives and we can make it happen.

[tealitup]

As a lot of you know part of my job is being a lobbyist. The rally made alot of people at the capital talk. In fact, for the first couple days afterwords thats all anyone was talking about. Here is the problem:

After the rally everyone felt good about what they did. In fact, most of the non governmental people did not follow through. Instead, they thought wow see we did great- we had all these people.

The action plan should have had some follow-up. For the next month there should have been a phone call campaign followed up with a letter campaign.

It was a great rally that brought groups together, but without more it will be forgotten.

I was released from my contracts for one week so that I could speak out on these issues. That time has passed, but I would be willing to do it again in order to facilitate more conversations with the right people.

All the people who read this - maybe 200? 2000? You would be amazed by the response 100 letters get by your reps.

[Farley]

Quote:

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It is still alive in the House though. Make sure you write to both of your representatives.

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I wrote to my reps and got this answer:

Eric, We tried in the House. Sen. Marty's committee killed it in the

Senate. Dean

Dean Urdahl

State Representative, District 18B

521 State Office Bldg

100 The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd

St. Paul, MN 55155

Phone: 651-296-4344

Fax: 651-296-1478

I think that means it's over for this year. Still waiting to hear from the other one.

[lumbertick]

It is definetely NOT over. We have 40 days to get this thing brought back to life....it is even more critical now to put the pressure on...keep writing those letters. The rally committe had a meeting yesterday and it was decided that the coalition that was formed is going to continue as an organized group....all the bugs were not ironed out on that yet, but the urgent business at hand was to put pressure on at the capitol. I am terrible at remembering names, but one of Pawlenty's aids was there and said it was greatly to our advantage to keep the pressure on and not sit back and wait till next year. The HSOforum for the rally will be updated again soon, but you can still use the legislative finder on that site to find who to write letters to. I would recomend sending them snail mail as they probably have more impact, but if you don't have time, an e-mail is better than nothing. It sounds like some of you have been doing a good job with the letters, that's great! We have had people at the capitol putting it in the politicians's faces (I beleive a group left from the meeting to go "attack" the capitol yesterday).

I will try to keep this up to date...please, don't give up yet...we have there attention and now we must keep it!!!

lt