Measure A endorsement and mobilization<\/p>\n
It was in this context that, in April, DSA San Diego voted to endorse Measure A and mobilize for its passage. Partnering with the Alliance San Diego Mobilization Fund (ASDMF), which ran the Yes on A campaign, we organized 100 canvassing shifts across three separate canvasses and knocked on 2,831 doors (nearly tripling our electoral capacity from the ARCH campaign in 2024). Our chapter, by itself, was responsible for 15% of the doors knocked for Measure A, and 17% of the Yes IDs.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, though, Measure A did not pass. Once all the votes were counted, it narrowly failed, receiving 47% of the vote. Why did Measure A fail? There are a number of factors. First and foremost: capitalism. Real estate interests spent over $1.5 million dollars to scare voters against Measure A, whereas the Yes on A campaign was able to raise $300,000 in the ten weeks available to run a campaign.<\/p>\n
The second factor was clearly timing. Not only did the truncated campaign period make it hard to build a sufficient head of steam to win this measure and counter the effects of capital arrayed against us, but placing a tax measure on a primary ballot of a midterm election, during a time of economic uncertainty, created too many headwinds to overcome. Despite that, the closeness of the election demonstrates that, even in the least favorable terrain possible, there was a mass audience for this message. In addition, the fact that the late votes broke so heavily in favor of Measure A (every batch of votes released after election date had Measure A either tied or passing, with the eighth batch of votes counted on June 10 favoring Measure A 64%-36%) shows that, with a longer period in which to campaign, Measure A might well have passed.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there was also clearly a third factor at play \u2013 too few organizations prioritized campaigning for (not just endorsing) Measure A. DSA may have accounted for 15% of the doors knocked for Measure A, but we accounted for a full 96% of the doors knocked by volunteers (the remainder were knocked as part of a paid field program by ASDMF). Had there been more left-of-center organizations committed to knocking doors for Measure A, it could have passed, despite all the odds.<\/p>\n
Credibility among allies<\/p>\n
Despite these obstacles, we in DSA San Diego threw ourselves into the breach. In the process, we gained considerable credibility among community allies and grew our chapter\u2019s membership and electoral capacity. Our campaign in support of Measure A demonstrated to the community the value of having DSA on your side, and it demonstrated to us the urgency of building our electoral capacity so that we may effectively contend for power, because this moment demands it.<\/p>\n
As DSA San Diego said in a statement on election night:<\/p>\n
Moneyed interests spent over a million dollars fighting against us, spreading lies and fear before Measure A even made it on the ballot. As we wait for every vote to be counted, it is clear that Measure A\u2019s performance is proof of a seismic shift in San Diego. Working people are tired of a status quo that offers austerity instead of bold solutions while the wealthy hoard resources. Win or lose tonight, San Diegans have shown that they\u2019re ready to fight for an economy that works for all of us, to ensure that all of our neighbors can live in dignity in housing they can afford, and to make the rich pay their fair share.<\/p>\n
Measure A is just the beginning. Across the country, from New York City to San Diego, DSA is proving that not only are democratic socialist policies popular, but democratic socialists should govern. Join us in the fight, we have a world to win!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Measure A endorsement and mobilization It was in this context that, in April, DSA San Diego voted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-306322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}