Western North Carolina Advocacy Projects

North Carolina Congressional District 2018 Activities

LINK> NC Congress D-11 2018

Video Resources

Demand Progress

Open Democracy

New Hampshire Rebellion

Root Strikers

MayDay US

Represent Us

Open Democracy was founded by Granny D and the New Hampshire Rebellion (NHR) is the flagship project of Open Democracy (OD). The NHR began on the one year anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz, he was a 21st Century Corruption Fighter.

This was the first walk for the NHR. Many more thousands of miles were walked over the two years leading up to the 2016 Presidential Primary Election as part of the One Question Project - all done to make corruption a major issue in this election cycle.

New Hampshire was waiting for the candidates and when they came, the voters were waiting for them.

Press Reports: Portsmouth Herald: N.H. primary turns political world upside down. Feb 11,2016

On Day 2 of the NHR Lawrence Lessig and others speak about why they were doing the walk and how Granny D and Aaron Swartz had inspired them to join in the fight of corruption in politics.

Published in Reader's Forum

May 25, 2007

Yancey County Times

The Yancey county political

activist group LeadS is working

on many issues that need to be

reformed in our political system.

LeadS, short for Love and Skill,

formed in February of this year

and consists of 110 individuals

from all parts of Yancey County.

Within LeadS there are two

action teams, Social Equal-

ity and Anti-Corruption. The

anti-corruption action team

presented “The American Anti-

Corruption Act” created by the

national organization, Repre-

sent.Us (https://represent.us) to

Mayor Coletta for town council

consideration. She has placed it

on the agenda for June 1, 2017

town council meeting. This Act

is being ratified by government

entities across the United States

in a grassroot effort to end po-

litical campaign corruption.

Studies show this is a non-

Did Russisians make a difference in our election?

partisan issue. Large majorities

of Republicans, Democrats,

and Independents feel that our

politicians have become corrupt

because of the ample flow of

money into campaigns.

Briefly, here is what the

Act contains: The American

Anti-Corruption Act (https://

anticorruptionact.org) is model

policy that sets a framework

for city, state and federal laws

to fix our broken political sys-

tem. It fundamentally reshapes

the rules of American politics

and restores the people as the

most important stakeholders

in our political system. The

Anti-Corruption Act has three

primary goals: Stop political

bribery so special interests can’t

use job offers and donations to

influence politicians. End secret

money so people know who’s

buying political power. Fix our

broken elections so the people,

not the political establishment,

are the ones in control.

LeadS believes that change

needs to happen locally, and

then grow. We would greatly

appreciate the Burnsville Town

Council setting the example

for western North Carolina in

cleaning up the political elec-

tion process. LeadS can take the

town of Burnsville’s actions to

other governing bodies and use

Burnsville as an example for

other cities and counties, and

with enough momentum, go to

the state legislature.

We need to restore faith in

our political system. A resolu-

tion supporting and endorsing

The American Anti-Corruption

Act would be a huge leap in

achieving this goal.

Heather Dawes

Burnsville, NC

Submitted to Yancey County Times

May 19, 2017

Not published.

Dear Sir,

I have recently learned that the Burnsville City Council shall be reviewing the American Anticorruption Act during their June 1st meeting. I would welcome your consideration of the following to be published in the Forum the week of June 31. I enjoy getting the paper delivered at home especially look forward toreading the Forum.

Thank you.

Readers' Forum Submission:

Now is the time for action and maybe next time elections roll around, the system just might be better for electing our representatives to fill public service offices. The system isn’t broken, it is fixed. Grassroots organizations across the country are rallying around common sense ideas and demanding progress for election reform, including here in Yancey County. Corruption was one of the biggest issues of the last election and it has angered voters in the Republican, Democrat and Independent camps who now realize that political corruption is actually legal. America’s anti-corruption laws are dangerously out of date. While certain corrupt practices are illegal, there are many perfectly legal ways to exchange money in return for favorable treatment from politicians.

The American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA) criminalizes “legalized corruption” to ensure that America’s government works for the people. The public is demanding progress to stop political corruption. We demand a Stop to Political Bribery and an End to Secret Money. Fix Our Broken Elections and Enforce the Rules.

The American Anti-Corruption Act addresses all four of these issues and is being promoted by the non-partisan group called Represent.Us. The Act was crafted by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter in consultation with dozens of strategists, democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum. The plan as presented through Represent.Us, is to engage you and me through grassroots support to care enough to speak up and out about corruption. If our cities, towns and states across the country support the AACA, it can become the law of the land.

The Burnsville City Council is slated to review the AACA during their June 1st meeting. I hope they shall find the Act to be a benefit to the citizens of Burnsville and will consider joining other local jurisdictions in passing a resolution in support of the AACA, as other communities in North Carolina have done, like Carrboro, NC did on April 19th. Let's show how we can lead the way for a better, corruption-free democracy for our country. For more information visit Represent.Us.

Draft Letter to the Editor

(Last edit - 03-12-17 9:59 AM EDT)

Yancey County

Burnsville, North Carolina

At a recent Yancey County community meeting for getting more individually involved in the political process, the issue of gerrymandering came up. What is gerrymandering and what does it have to do with your vote? Gerrymandering is a practice that intends to establish a political advantage for a particular party by manipulating voting district boundaries in the process of setting electoral districts. You may know that on August 11, 2016, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ruled that our state’s legislative district map constituted an illegal racial gerrymander. The court determined that the North Carolina General Assembly had put too many minority voters into a small number of districts, which diluted the impact of their votes. Although the court allowed the existing map to be used for the 2016 general election, it ordered our lawmakers to draft a new map at their next legislative session. That map is due March 15th.

The politicians of our state have the license to draw the lines for the voting districts without checks and balances to ensure fair representation for all community members. The system is rigged and the meaning and value of democracy (rule for the people, by the people) fails. Whichever party is in power wants to draw the lines to their advantage, not for the good of the people but for the retention of power. And so it seems today that the vast majority of our politicians on all sides are no longer working for the people and what the people say is best, they are working for the money that buys them, keeps them in power, and their own self-interest.

It is time for a new rebellion against the professional politicians who are not public servants. It is time to demand progress and take control of the political process.

This past election, corruption finally made the national discussion, for the “elephant in the room” big issue it actually is. In the Issue One-Ipsos Poll | Conducted June 17-20, 2016 an overwhelming 93 percent of respondents believe that elected officials listen more to deep-pocketed donors than regular voters. The corruption in government is so far out of hand that it makes our individual vote seemingly worthless. Gerrymandering is one of the root causes for the continuation of this malignancy of corruption and average democrats, republicans and independents are demanding progress in many states, including ours. NC legislators entered a bill that that would take the politics out of redistricting and it will be voted upon in April. One of the ways to take the politics out of redistricting is to do it with a non-partisan or bi-partisan commission. Eight states are already using non-partisan or bi-partisan commissions to do redistricting. None of them have had to deal with court cases challenging gerrymandered voting districts. North Carolina is working with the type which Iowa currently is using.

How is gerrymandering related to your vote? Your vote can only count and be truly heard if it is cast in a functioning democratic political system, one that is not rigged by gerrymandering. Please call, write or email our elected officials and tell them you want to have a non-partisan commission for redrawing the voting district lines. Now is the time. Right now we have a shot at stopping some of the systemic corruption that is represented in the professional politician. Check out represent.us if you want more information about getting corruption out of politics.

03-12-17

someone's name

someone's town

(Draft Letter to the Editor - PRIOR TO 03--12-17 10:00 AM EDT)

Yancey County

Burnsville, North Carolina

Edit:3:55 Thank you Deana!

The politicians of our state have the license to draw the lines for the voting districts without checks and balances to ensure fair representation for all community members. The system is rigged and the meaning and value of democracy (rule for the people, by the people) fails.When politicians have the license to draw the lines for the district you must vote in without checks and balances to ensure fair representation for all community members, the system becomes rigged and the meaning and value of democracy-rule for the people, by the people- fails. Whichever party is in power wants to draw the lines to their advantage, not for the good of the people but for the retention of power. And so it seems today that the vast majority of our politicians on all sides are no longer working for the people and what the people say is best, they are working for the money that buys them, keeps them in power, and their own self-interest.

It is time for a new rebellion against the professional politicians who are not public servants. It is time to demand progress and take control of the political process.

One of the ways to take the politics out of redistricting is to do it with a non-partisan or bi-partisan commission. Eight states are already using non-partisan or bi-partisan commissions to do redistricting. None of them have had to deal with court cases challenging gerrymandered voting districts.

old:

One of the ways to take the politics out of redistricting is to do it with a non-partisan commission. xx states are already using non-partisan commissions to do redistricting.

None of them have had to deal with court cases challenging gerrymandered voting districts. Edit: 12:41 Thank you Heather!

Added:

North Carolina is working with the type which Iowa currently is using.