Updates, Actions, and News
Valley Forward and Dolores Huerta Foundation Updates
Here’s the latest from the other two organizations Central Valley Matters is supporting.
Valley Forward: Canvassing for the recall election
With the resources from CVM, Valley Forward hired 15 canvassers. Contending with unhealthy air quality and 100+ degree heat for five weeks in CD 21 rural Fresno County towns, Valley Forward was still able to knock on 20,000 doors and made 5,000 contacts with inconsistent voters about the recall election.
Additional money raised this year would be used in a similar fashion for the June 2022 primary elections. In addition, Valley Forward may be able to contact those same voters on national legislative issues should a major Biden agenda item, such as immigration reform, get held up by the GOP.
Dolores Huerta Foundation: Redistricting efforts
To date, Dolores Huerta Foundation (DHF) has collected over 1,100 Community of Interest forms (600 in Tulare County, 300 in Fresno County, and 200 in Kern County) through canvassing. The forms will be used in identifying contiguous populations that should be included within a single district to ensure fair representation for the Valley’s communities when new district lines are drawn.
DHF continues to engage community members at community events, food banks, and swap meets. DHF has established redistricting working groups in each of the three counties that meet weekly to create more representative maps for the county supervisor districts within each county and other local jurisdictions. Lori Pesante, director of civic engagement and government relations, (who will speak at CVM’s November 18 event) and her team are also monitoring the redistricting processes used by local city councils and school districts to ensure that they are in compliance with the Fair Maps Act. As an example, in partnership with the ACLU, DHF has sent a letter to the Bakersfield City Council expressing concern that it is out of compliance with statewide redistricting guidelines.
Action Alert!
Please take action to help some of our allied partners make calls to “no party preference" (NPP) voters, which is valuable information for future election work. The information can be retained in Kings and Kern County Democratic Party files to help determine which NPP voters may support Democrats. This effort is hosted by Contra Costa Democrats, Swing Left Peninsula, Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Kings County Democratic Party, and Kern County Democratic Party.
You can join this effort here. Please promote this widely within your organizations, and with your friends, family, and colleagues!