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Romney for President

"The Strategy of Jill Stein for President" +
  6:46 web video from June 24, 2012.

Ben Manski: Hi there, I'm Ben Manski.  I'm campaign manager for Jill Stein for President and I'm here to talk with you about our strategy.  Early in my days with the campaign I had lots of people asking me what our strategy was going to be in this election year; how we were going to be successful.  And without trying to be mysterious I told them our strategy is a triangle.

And really what I was trying to say is there were three points to our campaign strategy.  There are really just three things that we have to focus on very intensively in the course of this campaign in order to be successful this year.  And those are, number one to get on the ballot, number two to raise money, and number three to get our message out.  So think of those as three points of the triangle.

And for much of the campaign, in order to focus our energies in this very much grassroots volunteer-driven campaign we had to focus on getting on the ballot.  That was the lead point on the triangle that was leading us forward.  And we have been hard at work on that.  Getting on the ballot in Utah, in Hawaii, in New Mexico, filing suit in Alabama, helping people across the country to get their petition drives going and then focusing in on some of the hardest states, states like Illinois and Indiana and more recently in Pennsylvania in order to get thier ballot drives going. 

And overall we've had a lot of successes, but we've also had setbacks.  But of course in order to have successes, we can't just rely on volunteers.  We've had to raise money, and thankfully many people have been helping.  We've been able to put that money to good use.  We've hired people on the ground in key states in order to mobilize and inspire and coordinate volunteers, to make sure that the paperwork is done properly.  We've used money to pay for transportation for volunteers from around the country to fly to key states.  In Illinois right now we have volunteers from around the country where we have provided them with transportation money.  They have gone, they're donating their time and they are working day and night in the heat to put Illinois on the ballot. 

And that has been really our focus, and we are in the throes of that right now.  We are in a moment right now where there are 15 states that are make or break in terms of getting on the ballot, and then in the following month there will be 15 more states, and we've also of course been focused on these other two points, on raising money and also on getting our message out.

Getting our message out has not been our main focus, but it has been something we've paid attention to, and in that area we've been very focused and deliberate too.  We haven't been putting out press releases left and right on every issue in the news.  We don't expect the media is going to pay that much attention to things that Jill Stein has to say at this point in every press release blow by blow.  So what we've been focusing on is getting her into big media, pitching key journalists, identifying journalists who are more fair-minded and are interested in having a real debate in this country, and as a result Jill Stein has been in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, she has appeared in the L.A. Times, she's been on CNN and we've had other successes as well.  So message has been part of our strategy, but if I'm honest, and I'm trying to be honest with you about what we're doing here, we've been very focused on the other two points for the beginning period of this campaign.

Now right now we are still focused on ballot access but we've actually had to turn that triangle.  If you imagine that triangle that I was describing earlier with ballot access as the lead point, it's sort of been rotating to focus on raising money in a particular way.  We've been focused intensively in the last couple of weeks and especially in this final week on securing federal matching funds, because when we secure federal matching funds not only will Jill Stein be the first Green Party presidential candidate who has succeeded in doing that, but it will mean that we double our money, essentially double our green for the Green Party and that we will have an immediate infusion, over $100,000 into the campaign which we can then use to turn the triangle back another, you know another third of the way to—it'll be 120 degrees right—to turn it back to focus on getting on the ballot in the remaining states.  So these points are related and we need your help right now in order to do that. 

We have just until this Saturday, June 30th, to qualify for federal matching funds.  We have to do it by raising $5,000 or more in qualifying donations in each of 20 or more states.  We're well over half the way there.  We know we can do it.  We're making incredible progress day by day.  We have volunteers, we have hundreds of volunteer hours that are accounted for right now where volunteers are calling over ten thousand people who have donated to the Greens in recent years.  The candidate, Jill Stein, she's on the phone constantly.  We're holding house parties around the country.  We're going to make it with your help, so what I urge you to do, if you want to get on the ballot is to make a donation if you haven't already done that in the last couple of days.  Maybe you did it a month ago, but this is a good time to do it in this last week before we qualify on June 30th, and to spread the word to people in those target states.  You can find the list of target states on the website.  It's very prominent.  There's actually a map on the home page of JillStein.org that shows you our progress and we're updating that map as well as our target numbers day by day.

But really all you need to know is that if you go to JillStein.org and you make a donation and we qualify, the first $250 out of the donations that you make (made?) will be doubled with public financing.  So we've got to do this in the coming week.  Once we've succeeded in getting federal matching funds, we will succeed in getting on the ballot across the country.  Once we've succeeded in getting on the ballot across the country we will succeed in being able to turn to the third point, really what people were thinking of when they were asking me what's your strategy, how are you going to get the message out, how are you going to get people's attention, how are you going to make sure that people who are going to the polls know that they have an alternative that will make a difference in this election year, that their vote will actually count for something, that they'll be investing their vote in buiding something—a political party and a movement that aim to not only oppose what's going on but to transform this country, to implement a Green New Deal, to transition to a sustainable and fair economy on which democracy and sustainability can be based.

What are we going to do to achieve that?  Well we can get to that point of making those arguments, of delivering the message if we succeed this week in getting federal matching funds, and we then are able to apply that money to getting on the ballot so people are able to vote for Dr. Stein come November and so that the media and the voters pay attention to what we have to say.  So please, go to JillStein.org, find out about the matching funds campaign—it's called Double your Green, you can find the information all over the website.  Just click on matching funds map to get the latest information.  Make a donation, spread the word, and thank you for your support and your commitment.

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