Why Warren Signature Collection VS DeFranco?

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Early History Of Support For Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren Campaign

Transition to Marisa DeFranco

The Story of Signature Gathering

Rationale for Collecting Signatures Only For Elizabeth Warren

References

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Introduction

After making a number of blog posts about shifting my focus on the Marisa DeFranco campaign for U.S. Senator from my eariler focus on the Elizabeth Warren campaign, I then made some posts about gathering signatures for the nomination papers for Elizabeth Warren.

I figured that someone would eventually wonder what was going on. Responding to a Facebook reflection of the signature gathering post, Michael Horan was the first person to ask.

Steve, if, as you indicate below, you believe that DeFranco would be the better choice, why are you working on signatures for Warren?

I promised to post an answer after I returned from my day of signature gathering.

This long post tells the thrilling story of how I went from promoting Elizabeth Warren's campaign, to promoting Marisa DeFranco's campaign, to gathering signatures for Elizabeth Warren.

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Early History Of Support For Elizabeth Warren

I think I first became aware of Elizabeth Warren when I saw her testimony about the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). I posted about this in November of 2009.

I thought that most of the interview was absolutely wonderful and the points she made were great. She explains how you can be a strong proponent of capitalism and want the markets to be run transparently. In fact, if you are a strong proponent and have faith in the way it is supposed to work, then you ought to want such transparency. She explains why you need regulations to insure that such transparency exists.

I also noted more information in the interview on PBS's NOW program.

In the post about the interview Simon Johnson & James Kwak on Fin'l Reform (Moyers Journal), I noted a comment she made about the interviewees:

The best explanation yet for how the smart guys on Wall Street led us to the brink of collapse. In the process, Johnson and Kwak demystify our financial system, stripping it down to expose the ruthless power grab that lies at its center.
- Elizabeth Warren, Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; and Chair, TARP Congressional Oversight Panel

This led me to do some research on Elizabeth Warren. I found that she had given an invited lecture The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class. It covered the material in her book, The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class: Higher Risks, Lower Rewards and A Shrinking Safety Net

This is the point at which I discovered that not only does Elizabeth Warren get it, she could explain things to me that I had not even got. I even made a post Does Elizabeth Warren Get It?.

It is worth mentioning a post, Elizabeth Warren - The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke, about another book of hers.

Elizabeth Warren discusses how the dreams of the middle-class American family are being depleted by the dramatic increase in bankruptcies and foreclosures. Warren discusses the role that credit card companies and ballooning interests rates have played in rapidly increasing mortgage rates as well as how the over consumption myth is clouding our understanding of the average middle class family, who is in fact experiencing a lower standard of living than their parents and still finding themselves one payment away from losing their home.

There is a shorter version of that interview, The Heart Of The Two Income Trap.

I saw her performance as the Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) where she grilled Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner over the bailout of AIG. It was a refutation of the claim that Elizabeth Warren was going easy on the Obama administration's handling of the bailouts.

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Elizabeth Warren Campaign

Let me jump ahead to Elizabeth Warren's campaign for U.S. Senator from Massachuestts.

I posted the first campaign ad that she ran. The theme of doing this together was inspiring.

Then there was the early video of Elizabeth Warren at a house party, WATCH: Elizabeth Warren rebuts 'class warfare' charges. My comment at that time was:

Elizabeth Warren makes the case the way I wish more politicians did. It is one thing to be a supporter of the cause fundamentally. It is a major step up to be able to explain the cause in a way that does it justice.

Warren was really feisty as shown in one of the early Karl Rove attack ads that I featured in the blog post Why We Love Elizabeth Warren. Had Sharon and I not attended several Occupy Wall Street events, I suppose I wouldn't have realized how distorting of the movement the rest of the ad is. In a subsequent post, Wall Street v. Elizabeth Warren, I commented:

By the way, radical wealth redistribution has been going on for the last 30 years. There has been an upward gusher of wealth from the middle-class to the wealthy.

Elizabeth Warren's research and writings have helped provide the Occupy movement with the knowledge to start asking for their money back.

Felons always consider it a radical idea to pay restitution to their victims.

The Occupy Wall Street movement and Elizabeth Warren's founding ideas are better exemplified by the following video.

All the while the Occupy Wall Street protests were going on, Elizabeth Warren seemed to be ignoring them in her campaign. I urged her to say something about the movement. The Republicans were going to use the movement against her whether she acknowledged it or not. Better to come out with it and have a strong prepared response when the Republican blowback arrived. I was heartened when I heard her words that I quoted in my post, Elizabeth Warren Has Embraced Occupy Wall Street. What the Daily Kos article said was:

Elizabeth Warren has embraced OWS. In fact, she was fighting Wall Street long before it was cool.

Elizabeth Warren is running for office in the most high-profile race in the country not involving Barack Obama. It's a position that calls for some tact. So what does she think about the Occupy Wall Street protests that are roiling the country?

I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do, she says. I support what they do.

Warren's boast isn't bluster: As a professor of commercial law at Harvard and the force behind Obama's consumer-protection bureau, Warren has been one of the most articulate voices challenging the excesses of Wall Street.

No one else has Warren's gift to send the right into a sputtering frenzy.

Well the inevitable blowback came about in the Karl Rove attack ad.

I had a suggestion for how Elizabeth Warren could respond to this attack ad. I suggested that they make their own ad and replay this clip:

Then Elizabeth Warren would step in and say:

I am so glad you asked about the intellectual foundation I provided. Much of it is available in my two books, The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke and The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class: Higher Risks, Lower Rewards and A Shrinking Safety Net.

She could have added some of the above videos where she explains how our economy was put in danger by deregulation. The tremendous value of this type of response would be that it would start to educate the rest of the public about those intellectual foundations.

The campaign did not take my advice. Instead they came up with this response (or maybe it was the response to an earlier attack ad). Click on the play button to start the video.

Elizabeth Warren exhorts us to tell our neighbors the truth, but she doesn't provide any sources for us to look for that truth. I have plenty of it in this blog post. I went to house parties for Elizabeth Warren and some of her strongest supporters were completely unaware of the supporting information for Elizabeth Warren's claims to intellectual foundation.

I even spoke to Elizabeth Warren in person at a party where I suggested that her web site should be broadcasting some of this great information rather than hiding it. She said, What a good idea. I'll talk to my staff about it. I never detected any action from resulting from that exchange.

In a posting on the wall of Elizabeth Warren's Facebook site, I mentioned something that I observed happening just before I got to speak to Warren.

I kept pushing these ideas on her facebook page and in emails to her field organizers and other staff.

One of the responses to my exhortations appears on Facebook.

In my post Warren And Brown Are Two Sides Of Same Tarnished Coin I discuss a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe authored by Randy Slaughter of Cambridgeof and with the same title as my post.

I wrote an email to a Warren field organizer in which I said:

Today there is a Boston Globe Letter to the editor that expresses a feeling that may be growing. It is something that has me worried. Elizabeth Warren these days seems to be a toned down version of the person who first attracted me by her performances questioning Tim Geithner as head of COP and her lectures and interviews about her two books.

When you compare Elizabeth Warren's debate performance to that of Marissa DeFranco's, it seems that Marissa is channeling the old Elizabeth Warren that we all long for. The new Elizabeth Warren is not doing as well as the old one would have.

I have been putting the aforementioned videos on Warren's Facebook page because the campaign seems to be unwilling to do it. I even made the suggestion of using those videos when I met Elizabeth Warren at Kate Donaghue's party. Warren said she thought it was a good idea and would speak to staff. I have seen no action but my own.

I am at a loss as to what else to do to wake the campaign up and at least respond to these issues.

The campaign's response is how I knew my days as a campaign volunteer were numbered.

Hello Steve-

I know what Elizabeth stands for, and I'm committed to seeing her win. For me that means building a great field organization for Elizabeth.

I'm working with volunteers who also are committed to her. This email makes me think we might not have your vote on Sept. 6th. I hope that we do.

Please let me know!

I am not committed to Elizabeth Warren. I am committed to the idea of having an effective progressive senator from Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Warren's own words in her book The Two-Income Trap shows the dangers a candidate faces. In an interview quoted in Elizabeth Warren And Hillary Clinton Trade Lessons she asks a question that could now be asked of herself.

So the veto was important, and I believe she was the cause. And that's what's so disheartening. She changed her vote in the Senate. If Hillary Clinton, one of the strongest, most independent politicians of her generation, felt that she needed to conform her voting to the desires of the banking industry once she held elective office, what hope is there for the rest of the politicians?

Putting it all together, I began to fear the disappointment that might come my way when Elizabeth Warren gets elected. A friend accused me of playing armchair psychiatrist by blowing these indications way out of proportion. My response was that as a voter, I have to make a decsision on who to vote for based on inadequate information. There is no way to get sufficient information to know exactly how well a person will behave on the job. If I chose to ignore these signs, I would be playing armchair psychiatrist just as much if I chose to believe that there was something to worry about. No matter which way I decided, I was choosing from the good and bad pieces of data that I had as to which ones to rely on in making a decisison. Just as in interviewing and hiring someone, you go with the best data you have. Whatever will be, will be. You probably will never know if you pass up the opportunity to hire someone who could have performed way beyond your expectations. You will definitely know if you hire someone who performs way below your expectations. That's life. You pays your money and you takes your chances. Are there any other cliches I can add to make my point?

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Transition To Marisa DeFranco

I first heard of Marisa DeFranco at the debate at Lowell University in October of 2011. I posted a replay video of the debate in conjunction with The Boston Herald article headlined, Warren shines in debate debut

My post was a dissent from the headline. My observation recorded in that post was as follows:

I was not that impressed with Elizabeth Warren.

The format was a mix of long form answers that lasted 1 minute, and quick answers that were supposed to take 10 to 15 seconds. This is not a format that a champion debater has honed her skills on. Debate skills are almost useless in this format.

The skill you need is to quickly come up with a short answer to a surprise question that finds the pithiest reflection of your deepest beliefs. There was one person there who managed to do this for almost every question. That woman was Marisa DeFranco. I had never heard of her before. Until tonight, I didn't know she was running.

I liked her explanation of how direct government investment creates jobs and how to negotiate with Republicans in Congress in the video clip in the post Marisa DeFranco For Senator From Massachusetts

You can also see Marisa DeFranco's performance in the Stonehill College Debat in the post Marisa DeFranco in Debate Among U.S. Senate candidates. In this post, I edited this down to 23 minutes of questins and DeFranco, answers. The full 90 minute debate replay is in the post, Strong Medicine For Elizabeth Warren In the post with the 23 minute version, I made the following observation:

Notice how Elizabeth Warren also puts emphasis on public involvement in getting legislation to pass through the blockades in Congress. That is what I find so frustrating when Elizabeth Warren refuses to use her time in the limelight to educate the public on the issues that require their involvement.

In my post of December 27, 2012, Marisa DeFranco For U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, I explain why I have decided to swicth my support to Marisa DeFranco. This is where I first show the button about wimpy politicians that I found on the DeFranco web site. I made my own version of the button which I use occasionally on my blog.

When Elizabeth Warren started talking the Iran nonsense propaganda from the Obama administration as if she had bought it hook, line, and sinker, I was pleased that Marisa DeFranco took a more nuanced view. I mentioned this in my post, Senate Candidate Who Talks Sense on Iran. I used the following quote in that post:

DeFranco also took issue with some of the tough talk Warren had delivered about her stance toward Iran.

I have clients, through my law practice, in Iran, DeFranco said. I have an on-the-ground perspective on what's happening there. When Elizabeth Warren says that 'nothing is off the table' when it comes to dealing with Iran, to be blunt I think that's reckless and ignorant. Saber rattling does nothing to help the situation there. Any action we took would have civilian casualties, and we couldn't have a limited engagement because of Iran's ties with Russia and China. There has to be a better way to deal with countries with whom we have serious problems in the 21st century.

I also posted a great radio interview with Marisa DeFranco in my post, DeFranco Not Retreating - If You Don't Listen, You Will Not Know .... I used the following quote describing the interview:

Candidate for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, Marisa DeFranco, is still fighting. The Dem field quickly winnowed with the sudden fame and fund-raising success of Elizabeth Warren, but not Defranco. She's a solid progressive and an activist immigration attorney. Expect to see her going head to head in the race toward the Dem primary. She updates her on her campaign.

In the blog post, U.S. Senate candidate Marisa DeFranco takes on healthcare, immigration and Elizabeth Warren. In that post, one of the points I make is about how Marisa DeFranco campaigns in the way I wish Elizabeth Warren would.

A lot of people will say to me that their grandparents came legally, and why can't immigrants do that today? DeFranco said. But what they don't realize is that back then there was an open border policy. Now you can only come through an immediate relative or through business. There are asylum cases, but those are much more complicated. It is not easy or cheap to become a U.S. citizen, although the process does have its fair points such as a citizenship option following five years with a green card.

The reason why I like the above quote is that it demonstrates a point I have been making about running for office. When you support a certain point of view and you get some flak for it, you don't just try to hide what you believe. You explain why you have that point of view, and you try to educate people as to that viewpoint's merits. How will a politician ever get to lead the country in a better direction, if that candidate always backs away from promoting any idea that the public does not already like?

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The Story of Signature Gathering

When Marisa DeFranco put out the call for signature gatherers, I did not offer to help. I prefer operating behind the scenes, and I could not picture myself spending countless lonely hours scrounging for signatures. I don't know enough people in Sturbridge to collect any decent number of signatures. Moreover, among the people I did know who were politically liberal, all were supporters of Elizabeth Warren. When I mentioned Marisa DeFranco to them, it was usually their first time hearing the name.

If I were standing in front of a local gathering place indicating that I was collecting signatures for Marisa DeFranco, I could imagine being completely ignored.

Around that time two other Sturbridge residents met with me to see what we could do to stir up some more campaign activity in Sturbridge. I don't think we have an official name, but I call us Sturbridge Progressives. One member of the group has considerable experience in community organizing. I was glad to let him drive the entire effort. I couldn't raise any interest in Marisa DeFranco in this group. As long as they were interested in Elizabeth Warren, I supplied the contact information I had from my stint as a Warren volunteer and let the experienced organizer try to get something going.

From the Warren field organizer, we learned that the Warren campaign wanted signature gathering and people to run for convention delegates in the upcoming caucuses. I read the materials that the Warren campaign suppplied on how to collect signatures. They also supplied signature sheets and Warren brochures.

I was tempted to just opt out at that point, but I started to see how we could collect signatures. I also realized that I would be working with others, so it would not be the lonely job I had imagined.

At this point I figured out how to make the adversity in getting any recognition for Marisa DeFranco in Sturbridge into an opportunity. I thought that my compatriots could set up a table to collect Warren signatures, and I could set up a table next to them to collect DeFranco signatures. I might not get as many signatures as they did, but at least they would generate some traffic.

Having passed up the opportunity to volunteer to collect signatures for Marisa DeFranco previously, I sent an email to the DeFranco campaign explaining what I wanted to do and asking for supporting materials. I had already started advertising on my blog and on various Facebook pages that our group was going to collect signatures. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised when I got the following reaction from the DeFranco campaigm.

Hello Steve-

Thank you. We did notice that you are collecting signatures for Warren. While of course we respect your absolute right to volunteer for any and every campaign, we hope you will understand that our signature gathering team are volunteers who are dedicated solely to Marisa's campaign.

No worries if this time around you cannot commit to her campaign. We have appreciated your posts, and if you feel you can jump on board all the way, just let us know.

I tried to be as tactful as I could be in my response back:

I am sorry that you feel that way about collecting signatures for more than one candidate.

In Sturbridge, where nobody has even heard of Maris DeFranco except for me, there is no way I could attract any attention for signature collection if I didn't also offer the chance to sign Elizabeth Warren papers.

I have found that people don't even open email that I send that has Marisa DeFranco in the subject.

I wish you the best of luck if you think you can get noticed without any reference to the opposition. I am only an amateur, so you probably know better than I how to get this done.

It almost felt like I was being asked to marry the DeFranco campaign and pledge my commitment. I have only pledged a lifelong commitment to my wife - children and grandchildren, too, of course. If I am going to marry anything political it is only to the idea of getting an effective progressive elected as U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Does that refrain sound familiar?

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Rationale for Collecting Signatures Only For Elizabeth Warren

I am sorry that the DeFranco campaign does not want me to collect signatures for them. However, I have committed to my Sturbridge Progressives pals to work with them in their signature collection drive.

My worries about Elizabeth Warren are about the possibility that she may not be the change agent I had hoped for. I have little doubt that she will be a more progressive Senator than the incumbent, Scott Brown.

As I said earlier, you make decisions on who to favor based on necessarily inadequate information. That means that you could be wrong about the candidate you choose to favor and the ones you choose not to favor.

Besides, standing in front of a supermarket for hours getting to have political discussions with passersby and my Sturbridge Progressives pals turns out to be a lot of fun. I have learned a lot about how to do this by trial and error. If we have till May to collect our signatures and we were able to get 50 in one day, there is even the possibility of the dream of collecting 1,000 signatures as expressed by our esteemed Sturbridge Progressives leader. That would be 10% of all the signatures that Elizabeth Warren needs from the whole state for her to get on the ballot. What an interesting challenge.

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References

Here are some links to my previous blog posts that I have used to compose this one.

• U.S. Senate candidate Marisa DeFranco takes on healthcare, immigration and Elizabeth Warren
• Elizabeth Warren Signature Gathering
• DeFranco Not Retreating - If You Don't Listen, You Will Not Know ...
• Elizabeth Warren on her Super PAC pact
• Senate Candidate Who Talks Sense on Iran
• Elizabeth Warren On Daily Show: Washington Must Fight For The Middle Class
• Scott Brown: What About All The Rich Schoolteachers?
• David Stockman on Crony Capitalism
• Elizabeth Warren on Grassroots Government
• Marisa DeFranco in Debate Among U.S. Senate candidates
• Wake Up Elizabeth, Wake Up
• The Elizabeth Warren Train Wreck
• Marisa DeFranco For U.S. Senate from Massachusetts
• Warren And Brown Are Two Sides Of Same Tarnished Coin
• Elizabeth Warren And Hillary Clinton Trade Lessons
• Elizabeth Warren Explains the Financial Mess in Terms Anyone Can Understand!
• Elizabeth Warren Makes Timmy Geithner Squirm Over AIG and Goldman Sachs Bailouts
• Andy Rooney Muses Over Elizabeth Warren and Newt Gingrich
• Postings On Elizabeth Warren's Facebook Page
• The Heart Of The Two Income Trap
• Elizabeth Warren - The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke
• Why Voters Are Calling This Candidate 'Mr. 1%'
• George Monbiot: This Bastardised Libertarianism Makes Freedom an Instrument of Oppression
• Talking Points For Elizabeth Warren Ad Rebuttal
• Elizabeth Warren Fights Back
• Tell Everyone That Karl Rove's Latest Attack on Elizabeth Warren Is A Lie
• The top 1% have the money, the other 99% have the people
• Strong Medicine For Elizabeth Warren
• Prosecuting Wall Street - CBS News
• Does Elizabeth Warren Get It?
• Senate defeats challenge to indefinite detention provision
• Sen. Bernie Sanders: GOP lost in super committee failure
• Heaven Is a Place Called Elizabeth Warren
• Books By Elizabeth Warren
• Dealing With the Budget Deficit: Does the Middle Class Have to Take the Hit?
• Wall Street v. Elizabeth Warren
• Elizabeth Warren's First Campaign Ad
• The Case Of The Missing Testicles
• Targeted by Rove, Warren doubles down on 'Occupy Wall St.' support
• Karl Rove Attacks Elizabeth Warren
• Why We Love Elizabeth Warren
• Why the Left Won't Accept Success
• Elizabeth Warren Has Embraced Occupy Wall Street
• The Case For Elizabeth Warren Instead of Scott Brown
• Elizabeth Warren: There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own
• Marisa DeFranco For Senator From Massachusetts
  For the format of this debate, the skill you need is to quickly come up with a short answer to a surprise question that finds the pithiest reflection of your deepest beliefs.
• Elizabeth Warren's Story
• Elizabeth Warren Announces Her Bid for Senate - Humor
• A New Bush Era or a Push Era?
• Elizabeth Warren: Markets Need to Be Regulated
• Elizabeth Warren, Speak Up, I Can't Hear You
• Senator Sanders Responds to Occupy Wall St.
• Warren shines in debate debut
• Meet The Democratic U.S. Senate Candidates
• Elizabeth Warren Endorsed By Russ Feingold
• Elizabeth Warren Visited Lowell on September 15
• Gov. Daniels' Rational Conservative Economic Plan
• WATCH: Elizabeth Warren rebuts 'class warfare' charges
• The Other 98%
• Elizabeth Warren: Who's Lobbying For Middle Class Families?
• Elizabeth Warren's Mass Appeal
• Elizabeth Warren Interviewed By Rachel Maddow
• Elizabeth Warren YouTube Channel
• Elizabeth Warren Senatorial Campaign Announcement Video
• Democrat Warren to announce Senate candidacy targeting Scott Brown
• Elizabeth Warren: America's future depends on jobs
• Republicans Falsely Call Elizabeth Warrren A Liar
• A Republican voter seeks answers from Brown
• Elizabeth Warren forms Senate exploratory committee
• With 'listening tour,' Warren tests waters for a Senate run
• Elizabeth Warren - Coming Home
• Listen To Elizabeth Warren Speak
• Elizabeth Warren Available To Run For Senate
• Draft Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts Senate in 2012
• Watch Sen. Al Franken Thank You For Helping To Get Warren Appointed
• Obama Puts Bark In Consumer Watchdog: Elizabeth Warren
• Elizabeth Warren Rap Video- Got A New Sheriff
• Elizabeth Warren Uncovered What the Govt. Did to 'Rescue' AIG, and It Ain't Pretty
• The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class
• Simon Johnson & James Kwak on Fin'l Reform (Moyers Journal)
• Biden On The Bailout: 'Socialism For The Rich And Capitalism For The Poor'
• Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)

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