county, including the Indian Origin Network of Howard County, the. Jack & Jill Club, and the Thurgood Marshall Democ
GAMECHANGERS A CASE STUDY ON HOWARD COUNTY FAIR ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN The small donor matching campaign in Howard County, Maryland presents a concrete example of how social, economic, and environmental groups can come together, through the Democracy Initiative, and help win pro-democracy reforms.
GAMECHANGERS A CASE STUDY ON HOWARD COUNTY FAIR ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW Fair Elections Maryland Coalition — led by Common Cause Maryland, Progressive Maryland, Maryland PIRG, Every Voice, and Maryland League of Conservation Voters — is in the midst of a multi-year, multicounty strategy to win citizen-funded elections throughout the state. The Coalition sought to pass a small donor matching program in Howard County in 2016. Small donor matching programs allow contributions from constituents to be matched (either dollar-for-dollar or on a scale). Thirteen states currently provide some form of public financing for campaigns. The fair elections campaign presented the Coalition with an opportunity to build demand for democracy reform through the intersectionality of social, economic, and climate issues that are relevant to residents in Howard County. There was a strong desire to create an inclusive coalition that included non-democracy reform groups. The Democracy Initiative (DI) worked through its affiliate Democracy Initiative Education fund to implement the strategy for organizing allied groups to invest significantly in the Howard campaign. The DI — a coalition of 58 environmental, labor, community organizing, civil rights, and democracy reform organizations — helped engage over 36,000 members of DI organizations living in Howard County and engage groups and leaders like the NAACP state leadership, who had not previously been working in coalition on the issue of money in politics and the Communications Workers of America local leadership and activists who provided many volunteer hours. The impact of the DI’s outreach to 36,000 members is substantial in light of the 144,500 votes cast and pivotal to the campaign’s 4% margin of victory on Election Day. The value of the Democracy Initiative, in local and state campaigns, is in its ability to leverage the power of the coalition by mobilizing diverse members, building an intersectional community of activists and organizations, and strengthening the connections between democracy reform and an organization’s core mission.
FAIR ELECTIONS HOWARD COUNTY Howard County voters passed Question A on November 8, 2016 by a 52.6 to 47.4% margin. It amended the Howard County Charter to allow the County Council to establish the Citizens’ Election Fund. This fund would be a small donor campaign finance system for County Council and County Executive races.
CONTRIBUTORS Michelle Whittaker Angie Wells Wendy Fields Mark Caplan Jennifer Bevan Dangal Karen Hobart Flynn Copyright 2017 Democracy Initiative www.democracyinitiative.org
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Understanding Howard County Structure Howard County Council did not have the authority to create a financing mechanism to fund the program. The only viable way forward to create a citizen-funded election program was to amend the County Charter via referendum in order to give the Council that power. To that end, the County Council voted in early April 2016 to place the citizens’ election fund, Measure A, on the November ballot.
The value of the Democracy Initiative, in local and state campaigns, is in its ability to leverage the power of the
An important factor in making the campaign work was the solid relationship that the Coalition established with the two Howard County Council members who sponsored the legislation, Jon Weinstein and Jen Terrasa.
Citizens’ Election Fund Victory Builds for Success in Maryland and Beyond It is important to note that this was the first time a citizenfunded elections program was a standalone ballot initiative without ethics or disclosure reforms attached. The ability to move public financing as its own reform is key to expanding fair elections across the country.
coalition by mobilizing members, building and intersectional community of activists and organizations, and strengthening the connections between democracy reform and an organization’s core mission
The first stage of Fair Elections Maryland’s multi-year state strategy is winning small donor matching programs in 3 or 4 counties, while also exploring possibilities for reform in Baltimore City. In 2014, citizen-funded elections passed in Montgomery County, Maryland, the state’s most populous county (just over one million residents). Howard County was seen as the next critical opportunity, whose import was substantially raised when the decision was made to go to the November 2016 ballot. The Coalition won the ballot measure in Howard County despite a challenging landscape. The citizens’ election fund was the only money in politics (MiP) issue on the ballot – for a straight up or down vote. In almost every other campaign involving citizen funded elections, it has been paired with one or more popular MiP proposals on disclosure of campaign contributions and spending, contribution limits, strong ethics standards, and lobbyist reform. Further, the need to create a funding mechanism was central to the ballot question – almost always considered a strong detriment to ballot success. The outcome of the campaign demonstrated that citizen-funded elections can win as a standalone campaign. The campaign faced credible and politically connected opposition, led by a well-known local political leader and the head of county government, Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman. Those who financed the opposition’s campaign were large donors to county and state elections, many of whom are wealthy developers who have substantial influence on county government. Additionally, Howard County is a wealthy “purple” county, as it supported Republican Larry Hogan for Governor of Maryland and elected Republican Kittleman as County Executive in 2014, while electing Democrats to four of the five County Council seats.
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Message testing conducted for advocates when they were considering whether to advance a ballot campaign indicated that it would be a tough campaign, as Howard County residents did not see the problem of money in politics as a significant one for the county (though they certainly felt it was a major problem nationally). Initial message testing indicated there was not overwhelming support for the proposal. The advocates pressed forward with a sense of urgency and carefully assessed the ability to mount a sufficiently strong grassroots campaign. The Democracy Initiative was able to add value to the Fair Elections Coalition and Citizen’s Election Fund campaign through: •
•
• •
Educating and mobilizing a broad constituency of members in Howard County to participate in the fair elections campaign from ballot box to implementation. Building up local leadership through the pilot-program Popular Democracy training that produced 30 VOLUNTEER AT INFORMATION TABLE Democracy Champions and a number of campaign “Ambassadors” that continue to provide local leadership and engagement. Connecting allied organizations to the campaign to raise additional funds to support outreach, especially for the digital campaign. Leveraging contacts and relationships within the DI leadership to participate in the campaign, in particular Ben Jealous, Maryland resident and former NAACP president, and Ben Cohen, cofounder of Ben & Jerrys and Stamp Stampede.
With the Howard County victory in hand, chances are enhanced to win reform in other Maryland counties, and in so doing, create a pivotal strategic foundation on which to launch a campaign to win citizen-funded elections for all statewide and legislative offices in the 2019 Maryland legislative session. This victory and the way it was won sent an important message to reform advocates and legislative allies around the country about the viability of citizen funded elections as a ballot measure and the importance of a consistent down ballot education and awareness strategy.
EDUCATION AND MOBILIZATION
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A “YES ON A” HOUSE PARTY
The Democracy Initiative’s primary strategy is to mobilize thousands – and ultimately millions – of the members of its organizations to support and become actively involved in winning voting rights and money in politics reforms. The DI played an important role in educating over 36,000 members in the county – in particular those who are members of groups that
have democracy reform as a secondary issue. The environmental community really stepped up on the effort including Friends of the Earth, LCV, and Sierra Club. Labor efforts were led by CWA, and Our Revolution infused the effort with new activists. As noted earlier, this is a new approach to engaging a broader set of organizations beyond the democracy sector, in both winning reform and building a powerful democracy movement. Building a strong grassroots program was a high priority for the campaign. At least four organizers from Fair Elections organizations and CAMPAIGN ORGANIZERS (L-R): DEVON HAWKINSadditional staff from the Democracy Initiative (DI) ANDERSON (LCV), ANDREA ANDERSON (PIRG), focused on creating a robust grassroots campaign. AND JOANNE ANTOINE (COMMON CAUSE/DI) These organizers shared responsibility for voter outreach and engagement, events, communications, and GOTV work. DEMOCRACY CHAMPIONS PILOT PROGRAM As part of this work, the DI created a program called “Democracy Champions” to develop leaders and activists from the member organizations to play a strong role in expanding the mobilization capacity of their organizations. As part of the work in Howard County, the “Democracy Champions” popular education pilot program trained its first 30 champions from the memberships of DI groups, and was quite helpful in deepening the understanding of the campaign by the local NAACP chapter. It is DI’s intent to work with its members to refine this popular education/capacity-building effort in the coming two years. The trainings, framed as a “Roadmap to Democracy,” were an opportunity for members to connect how the issues impacting their daily lives (workers’ rights, climate justice, and civil rights) are connected to the corrosive effect of money in politics and the threats to voting rights for returning citizens. GRASSROOTS FIELD ORGANIZING The DI deployed a full-time female African-American organizer and connected with the 36,000 members of DI organizations living in Howard County. These member contacts represent a substantial number in light of the 144,500 votes cast, and pivotal in the 52.6% - 47.4% victory (6,500 votes) the campaign scored on Election Day. Because the DI had an organizer on the ground in the County, that staffer became central to the grassroots program, recruiting volunteers to participate in the campaign. Many organizations, particularly those who are partner within the DI, contacted their members
VOLUNTEER CANVASSER
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about the campaign and a good number did much more – text blasts, emails to members, turning out volunteers for campaign events, etc. The campaign organized an extensive presence at the polls for Early Voting and Election Day and implemented a comprehensive mail, social media, and digital program. While the paid outreach proved critical in the final push to victory, a major factor in the success of the campaign in November was the support that the DI provided – contacting 36,000 members of the DI groups who live in Howard County. It was the first major electoral campaign that the DI had undertaken and demonstrated the value of the DI’s primary strategy to mobilize a broad set of constituencies – and the members of these groups -- to actively participate in democracy campaigns.
YOU’RE EVERYWHERE The campaign heard many times that they “were everywhere” during both Early Voting and on Election Day. This generated significant appreciation and respect
The campaign focused significant efforts to recruit and engage organizations and leaders of color in Howard County. With the strong encouragement and support of the national NAACP, the campaign successfully engaged the Howard County NAACP. Progressive Maryland built connections with other communities of color in the county, including the Indian Origin Network of Howard County, the Jack & Jill Club, and the Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club. Common Cause Maryland staff had solid relationships with the African American Community Roundtable of Howard County, which allowed for personal invitations to support Measure A and engage members. Several leaders of these supporting organizations organized and spoke at events, hosted house parties, and recruited volunteers for the campaign. Having steering level leadership from organizations with leaders and considerable membership of color, and having the majority of the organizers come from diverse backgrounds, gave considerable credibility to this outreach. As the work continues in Howard there is a foundation on which to strengthen further work with leaders of color in the county.
from leaders in the
Field and Voter Contact Campaign
they received. Many of
Along with the vital work executed by the Democracy Initiative to reach 36,000 members of DI organizations, the field and voter contact work mounted by the campaign turned out to be the most pivotal and most important work of the campaign (a summary of field and social media contacts is attached in the Appendix). The key pieces of this work were:
these people said to
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Mail and phone outreach before and during early voting
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Digital and social media
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Early vote and Election Day coverage creating the perception that the campaign was everywhere and committed.
County, including the two members of the Howard County Council who sponsored the small donor legislation.
MESSAGE RECIEVED Campaign volunteers and staff noticed voters coming to precincts to vote carrying the mail
campaign workers “I know all about it, I’m voting yes!” while holding up their mail piece.
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•
Down ballot education to ensure we minimized the drop-off that happens with initiatives.
EARLY VOTING: There were record numbers of early voters in Howard County, and through the campaign’s work the proposal won the early vote by eight percentage points (59,054 voted in Early Voting in Howard, an impressive 41% of the total vote of 144,500). Early voting ran for 8 days, 12 hours a day at 3 locations and was a crucial opportunity to communicate with voters. Campaign volunteers and staff covered all early voting polls, and had conversations with more than 3,000 people, with roughly 65% conversations supportive, 12% opposed and 22% unclear. The opposition tried to respond – ordering lawn signs and recruiting volunteers, with the County Executive sending out a recruitment email. But the opposition was never able to muster anywhere near the coverage the campaign had.
My favorite moments from the campaign were the days I spent engaging Howard County residents during early voting. I relished the chance to inform voters and persuade willing listeners, many
ELECTION DAY: With more than 80 polling places in Howard of whom changed their County, the campaign focused on having a strong presence at the vote from "No" to "Yes." 30 largest polls, prioritizing those where they thought their likely supporters resided. They covered these 30 polling places with over 100 people handing out flyers and talking with voters outside the Field organizer describing her experience on the campaign polls. This was a mixture of campaign staff, staff from participating organizations, volunteers from Communication Workers, Sierra Club, NAACP and Our Revolution, and national leaders joining the 100 local volunteers leafleting on Election Day, including Cornell Brooks, President of the NAACP, Karen Hobert Flynn, President of Common Cause, and Democracy Initiative leaders Wendy Fields and Larry Cohen. MAIL, PHONE & DIGITAL OUTREACH: The opposition focused all their energy and funds on digital outreach. They employed effective messages that the small donor program would divert funds that would otherwise go to local schools and that the program was nothing more than “a taxpayer handout to politicians.” Allan Kittleman, the well-respected County Executive, was the main opposition messenger. The campaign’s field staff were hearing these messages reflected in their conversations with Democratic voters. Sufficient resources were secured for paid outreach, with a focus on mail and digital, and a small amount to run paid calls. That funding was critical to countering the opposition and allowing the campaign to reach a broader audience. •
Direct mail: Sent three pieces to voters in 35,000 households.
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Robo calls: Reached 43,500 households. Approximately 23,250 households received three calls; one from a coalition member, one from a county teacher, and one from U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin. In addition, 15,058 unaffiliated households received the teacher call.
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Digital: The campaign had an extensive digital effort. This included producing Pandora ads, Google ads, Facebook ads and promotions, Twitter ads and promotion of the campaign website. The Democracy Initiative supplemented this program with additional digital work, giving
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particular attention on the need to look “down ballot.” A description of the campaign’s digital program is attached in Appendix II. Howard County established the ability of the Democracy Initiative to make a substantial positive difference in a campaign. DOWN BALLOT STRATEGY Democracy Initiative developed down ballot messaging to educate and encourage voters to pay attention to critical local races or measures. The messaging was framed as “Vote All the Way.” The messaging stressed the importance of local decisions that impact communities most directly. While this message strategy was helpful for the ballot initiative, the messaging was used broadly throughout the fall of 2016 to emphasize important local races and measures being considered across the country. HOUSE PARTIES AND SPECIAL EVENTS The Democracy Initiative collaborated with the campaign to host several key events to build awareness around the campaign. The DI provided support to the local coalition as they organized house parties and speaking events, the campaigns most high profile events included a kick-off campaign event with U.S. Representative John Sarbanes and Howard County Council members Jen Terrasa and Jon Weinstein, an ice cream social with Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen and the Stamp Stampede (a campaign to stamp out money in politics), and a house party with Ben Jealous, a Howard County resident and former NAACP president. Similarly, after voters passed Measure A, the DI continued to provide support to the Coalition as they held house parties, information sessions, and a hearing rally around the critical implementation vote with the County Council. This included a house party in April 2017 with Ben Jealous as a guest speaker along with Angie Wells, DI senior field organizer, to discuss the benefits of the citizens’ election fund for women running for office. The DI provided digital support and mobilization for the County Council hearing and votes in April and June.
ENGAGING ALLIES AND LEVERAGING RELATIONSHIPS Solid connections were made with Howard County organizations and leaders to make them an important part of the campaign, including effective outreach communities of color in the county. Finding resources initially was a challenge but by September 2016 sufficient funds were
U.S. REP JOHN SARBANES SPEAKS TO CROWD AT RALLY BEFORE HOWARD COUNTY COUNCIL HEARING ON CB30 TO ESTABLISH THE CITIZENS’ ELECTION FUND.
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DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
raised so that vibrant field and digital campaigns could be launched, which ultimately was a key difference between winning and losing in November. Over the course of 2016, the advocates, who began the campaign with a number of contacts with organizations or leaders in Howard County, built further solid relationship with groups and leaders there giving the campaign the important credibility of having local roots. Campaign staff held dozens of meetings and presentations with local leaders and community organizations, many of whom endorsed as did the local committees of the Democratic and Green parties. Reflecting the ownership of the campaign by Howard volunteers, numerous house parties were organized across the county. More than a dozen small businesses endorsed the campaign and many put up signs. Democracy Initiative partners were able to build on the funding received from foundations like Piper and Voqual. DI raised an additional $36,000 towards the campaign largely through the efforts of Our Revolution, a new ally and partner. In addition, $45,000 was raised for appropriate public education and outreach on money in politics issues. Overall, $300,000 was raised for the campaign by coalition partners and the DI to adequately fund the work described. The National NAACP along with Howard County NAACP raised the profile of the campaign for African Americans in the county. NAACP National President Cornell Brooks leafleted a polling place on Election Day, joined by Howard County NAACP President David Steele and 10 local members. Sierra Club sent multiple communications to Howard County members and recruited a total of 16 volunteers to cover polls during early voting and on Election Day. The Communications Workers of America provided 15 shifts to help cover 4 polls on Election Day. The power of the Democracy Initiative to support local campaigns is in its ability to harness the resources and capabilities of partner organizations and their membership. Non-democracy reform groups messaged their members about why money in politics reforms help to advance their core issues.
BEN COHEN, BEN & JERRY’S COFOUNDER, WITH ZACH WEINSTEIN, MARYLAND LCV ORGANIZER
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CONCLUSION The Howard County campaign was a vital win – clearly important to both the national money in politics movement, as a victory on an up or down vote for citizen funded elections, and a major step on the road to winning citizen funded elections statewide in Maryland. The win also demonstrated the potential to engage a diverse range of organizations who have not been significantly involved in democracy reform in the past to engage in a campaign to make our democracy more responsive to their thousands of members and the public at-large. The import of the victory and the narrowness of the margin, emphasizes the value of each piece of the campaign that was well organized by the state organizations and their leaders and the connections that the Democracy Initiative made in reaching over 36,000 members of DI member organizations, who live in Howard County. On June 5, 2017 the Howard County Council passed Council Bill 30 (CB30) which enabled the funding for the county’s small donor matching program. The Council passed CB30 on a 4-1 vote which can sustain a potential veto by County Executive Kittleman. On June 13, Kittleman vetoed the bill, however, the Council is scheduled to override the veto on July 3. The Fair Elections Coalition and the DI both know that, though the work here was substantial and successful, more needs to be done to move reform efforts forward in Maryland and beyond. To that end, the DI organizations are looking to identify the campaigns that are most important to advancing reform in states and localities around the country and where they can have impact. For the Maryland organizations, they will turn their attention to several potential counties and possibly Baltimore City as the next campaigns for small donor matching -- all leading to a major push for statewide reform. This case study demonstrates that a strong foundation is being laid by the Fair Elections Coalition for additional victories to follow. If they can garner sufficient resources for their multi-year work, then, when all of this comes to fruition – multiple county victories, followed by statewide victories -- Maryland may well have the most comprehensive set of small donor-driven systems in any one state at all levels of government.
The 4-1 vote by the Howard County Council, adopting a small donor match for county elections, is a huge step forward for the county and beyond. I am proud of the leadership of the Democracy Initiative in mobilizing DI members who live in the county to support the ballot measure and council legislation. We are demonstrating that we can take back elections from big money interests at all levels of government. Larry Cohen, DI board member and chair for Our Revolution
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APPENDIX I A. List of Organizations Involved in the Campaign African American Community Roundtable of Howard County, AFL-CIO Citizens’ Climate Lobby of Howard County, Clean Water Action, Common Cause Maryland, Communication Workers of America (CWA), Democracy Initiative, Every Voice, Food and Water Action Fund, Free Speech for People, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Howard County Citizens Association, League of Women Voters of Howard County, Maryland League of Conservation Voters, Maryland PIRG, NAACP, Public Citizen, Progressive Maryland, Represent US, SEIU, Sierra Club, The People’s Voice, and U.S. PIRG. B. NAACP: •
Multiple email blasts to 2,800 Howard County members
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NAACP National President Cornell Brooks leafleted a polling place on Election Day, joined by Howard County NAACP President David Steele and 10 local members
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Turned out volunteers for campaign activities
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Six NAACP members participated in Democracy Champions training
C. Sierra Club: •
Four separate emails to 2,227 members: educational emails on the issue, pledge to vote, volunteer recruitment, and Get Out the Vote
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Mobilized Sierra Club members to volunteer: For Early Vote, 6 volunteers for multiple shifts; For Election Day -- 10 volunteers
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To accomplish this, volunteers phone banked over 900 Sierra Club households in Howard reminding them to vote and asking them to volunteer for Election Day.
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Sierra Club Maryland Chapter & local Sierra Howard Group held an outing with 40 members & discussed Fair Elections and recruited volunteers
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Paid to promote Sierra Club's digital actions on Facebook; amplified on social media
D. Our Revolution •
Raised over $36,000 for ballot campaign through email solicitation of their national membership
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Hosted virtual phone banks https://go.ourrevolution.com/page/content/hocophonebank
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Created 2 videos for campaign
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Sent texts and emails to 4,000 Howard County residents to recruit volunteers; turnout to events
E. Communication Workers of America •
Provided 15 shifts at 2 hours each, helping to cover 4 polls Election Day.
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Sent 3 texts, 4 mail pieces and 3 emails to 600 members in Howard County
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George Kohl, Senior Director for Research and Development, along with numerous CWA members attended the Campaign Kickoff
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APPENDIX II Campaign Digital Program •
Pandora ads: The campaign produced both a recorded ad and a display ad targeting Howard County 18-39 year olds. The projected reach was 35,823 monthly unique visitors; market share 41% of the population. The Mobile Audio had 67,987 impressions and 375 clicks for a CTR of .55; the Mobile Display had 194,355 impressions with 1,285 clicks for a CTR of .66 Cost: $3500.
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Google ads: The campaign ran multiple Google ads against numerous campaign keywords and phrases, generating 68,079 ad impressions targeted to Howard County residents, resulting in 2,787 clicks to the website, for an average cost per click (CPC) of $1.42 and an overall click-thru rate (CTR) of 4.09%. Cost: $3,968.79
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Facebook ads and promotions: o o o o
The campaign ran 12 ads, and reached 38,639 Howard County residents, generating 4,076 clicks to the website at an average cost of $.37 per click. Cost: $1,500. The campaign’s first set of promoted posts (through early voting) targeted Howard County residents and reached 27,482 people. Cost: $604.80 The final weekend of promoted posts reached 6,996 Howard County residents, generating 578 post engagements at an average cost of $.26 per post. Cost: $150.00. Video that was produced from interviews at the polls generated 13,916 views and reached 19,796 people for an average cost of $0.02 per view. Cost: $278.
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The paid mail vendor also ran digital ads to the same targeted universe as the mail. Cost: $4,000
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Twitter ads: The campaign promoted six tweets to Howard County residents, gaining 173,920 impressions, generating 402 clicks for a CTR of .23% at an average cost of $1.24 per click. The group of tweets in total received 48 retweets and 5 replies for an engagement rate of .85%. Cost: $500.
Website: From October 28 through November 8, FairElectionsHowardCounty.org had 16,061 page views from 5,550 unique visitors. The bulk of the visitors arrived at the site on November 4 and 5 (same time frame as their phone calls). The top pages visited, besides the home page, were the Sign-Up page and the What Question A Does page.
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