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Themes: “Vote your Values”
and ‘You can change the
world through grassroots
efforts” |
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Events |
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January 15th:
Held a
presidential candidate forum
and early primary attended
by more than 400 people
moderated by Newsweek’s
Jonathon Alter. At the
event we distributed
hundreds of position papers
prepared by BlueWaveNJ for
both the Republican and
Democratic candidates
outlining their different
positions on the issues.
Co-sponsored by the
Montclair Democratic County
Committee and Garden State
Equality. |
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March 16: Annual
Women’s Film Festival on
"Women Who Are Changing
the World". We showed
two films about Sister
Jeannine Gramick’s support
of gay rights within the
Catholic Church and Malalai
Joya who, despite death
threats, was elected to the
Afghanistan Assembly at the
age of 27 and continues to
speak out against corrupt
warlords. |
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April 6:
Over 125 people attended an
environmental forum
where Montclair town council
seat candidates answered
questions on local
environmental issues,
co-moderated by BlueWaveNJ’s
Michael Yellin and included
a presentation by Gray
Russell, Montclair’s
Environmental Affairs
Coordinator. The forum was
co-sponsored with the
Interfaith Environmental
Coalition of Greater
Montclair. Videotape of the
forum was shown on the local
access cable channel and
YouTube. |
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April 24:
Amy Goodman and her brother,
authors of “Standing up to
the Madness,” came to
discuss how ordinary
individuals and small groups
are successfully defending
our civil liberties and
racial justice. |
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May
20th: Held a
“house party,” with Garden
State Equality, and
contacted legislators urging
passage of the
marriage-equality bill
sponsored by Senator
Weinberg and others. |
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May 18:
Second annual Eco-fair “Save
the Planet in Your Own
Backyard” in Edgemont
Park in Montclair, organized
and planned by Montclair
High School students and
attended by over 300
townspeople before the rains
began. |
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June 3:
BlueWaveNJ’s first annual
foreign policy forum on
Middle East Peace with
Mary Alice
Williams moderating and
expert panelists Scott
Lasensky, co-authored
“Negotiating Arab-Israel
Peace”; Nadia Hijab, author
and co-director of the
Washington Institute for
Palestine Studies and Daniel
Levy, part of the
negotiation team for both
the “Oslo B” agreement and
the Geneva Initiative and
Director of the Prospects
for Peace Initiative at the
Century Foundation. We
videotaped this important
discussion. |
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September 13:
BlueWaveNJPAC ran an
election training seminar at
Montclair State University
attended by over 600 people.
Speakers included Governor
Corzine, Senators Lautenberg
and Menendez, Congressional
candidates, the president of
Republicans for Obama and
communication experts.
Co-sponsored with the New
Jersey State Democratic
Party and Garden State
Equality. |
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Oct/Nov:
BlueWaveNJPAC sent over 650
volunteers to eastern
Pennsylvania, who
knocked on over 30,000
doors. Hundreds of
volunteers called 14,000
households from our Election
Action Centers, canvassed
for Obama and congressional
candidates in New Jersey,
and registered over 3,000
new voters at college
campuses, shopping malls,
the YMCA and in
Philadelphia. |
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Meanwhile, BlueWaveNJ
continued to push for
positive change:
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- We urged NJ
legislators, in person,
via email, and by phone,
to pass legislation such
as the family leave
bill, the marriage
equality bill, one gun a
month bill, and a ban on
50-caliber guns; extend
the clean elections
pilot.
- We pushed for
changes in proposed and
existing legislation in
order to protect our
most vulnerable citizens
and our constitutional
rights including changes
to the education funding
formula and Senator
Vitale’s health care
bill.
- We held press
conferences on universal
health care, the
proposed Horizon Blue
Cross/Blue Shield
privatization and gun
control.
- We sponsored a
twice-monthly
information table at the
Montclair Farmers Market
promoting recycling, the
Clean Power Choice
Program, and other
eco-friendly activities.
- We sponsored
“living-room” discussion
sessions focused on
local environmental
issues with each
Montclair mayoral
candidate prior to the
Town Council election.
- We testified at an
FCC hearing on media
responsibility in the
license renewal
application of WWOR-TV
to assess the service
provided to the citizens
of New Jersey.
- We protested two
extensions to the
mandated voter verified
paper trail for the
existing (and
vulnerable) Sequoia
Advantage election
devices in testimony
before the State Senate
Government Committee. We
advocated junking the
machines and
substituting paper
ballots with optical
scans.
- We joined a
coalition of 22 NJ state
organizations to create
a clean elections
program in New Jersey
including NJ Citizens
Action and the League of
Women Voters.
- We awarded three
high school scholarships
for leadership in
promoting and
contributing to
anti-violence
initiatives and ran a
grade school
anti-violence art
project to promote
peaceful behavior and
community service.
- We continued our
health care
presentations to senior
citizen groups.
- We participated in
Montclair’s Fourth of
July parade with the
theme of “Vote Your
Values”
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