In This Message:

1) Park Slope Greens Meeting - Monday 11/9/09

2) Pechefsky Campaign - Thank You!

*************************************

PARK SLOPE GREENS MONTHLY MEETING
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 2009 - 7PM

Please join us for our November meeting where we will
be discussing all the NYC Green Party election results,
specifically David Pechefsky’s campaign.

We will be concentrating on the following:

1) Campaign wrap-up/overview and some ideas for base building (David)
2) Developing electoral operations infrastructure ideas (Jonathan)
3) Planning for local post-campaign event

Park Slope Greens meetings take place on the second Monday
of each month at the Park Slope Methodist Church, corner of
8th Street and 6th Avenue, basement/garden entrance.

For more information please call Dani at
(718) 788-2260 or e-mail at daniliebling@yahoo.com

All are welcome!

*************************************

DAVID PECHEFSKY CAMPAIGN
WRAP-UP AND THANK YOU!

A very heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support, time,
and effort.   I feel very happy with the race we ran — it was
principled, engaging, substantive, and fun.

By now many of you have seen the numbers and the truth is that
I cannot help but feel disappointed.  According to the unofficial
count we got about 1,500 votes or 7%. (Although our own tally from
the polls we closed was closer to 1,750).   All day long yesterday,
people — many of whom I had never seen before - passed me giving
me the thumbs up, or came up to shake my hand, or after a last
minute entreaty from me or one of my team came back from the poll
saying “I voted for you.”  And the numbers we got from MS 51 where
I ended the night were closer to 20% so I really was feeling pretty
good walking to our party.

How to explain it? Of course one thing is that the two-party system
is so entrenched that it is very, very hard to get people to vote
otherwise.  But here are a couple of ways of looking at the numbers
that tell a more positive story.

First there are only about 360 registered Greens in district.  So even
discounting for those who voted for me mostly out of personal loyalty,
we probably got over 1,000 non-Greens to vote Green.

Brad Landers’s (D) vote total represented the equivalent of 30% of
registered Democrats.  Joe Nardiello’s (R) 40% of registered Republicans.
But ours 400% of registered Greens!

We also gained more votes than 2 of the 5 Dems who ran in the primary,
despite those two being good candidates who considerably outspent us.

And in Park Slope we beat the Republican by 957 votes to 517, gaining 19%
of the total!  The difference between these numbers and the overall outcome
highlights that the 39th Council District, which extends from Cobble Hill to
Borough Park is not a “Park Slope District” nor for that matter a particularly
progressive district; although the fact that the Democratic nominee tends be
someone deemed progressive makes it very hard for a challenger from the left.

I hope this puts things in perspective a little bit.

And certainly no other campaign brought more smiles to people’s faces then we
did with the funny t-shirts and our high spirits, nor was more fun for kids
with our activity book and free puppet shows.

For a nice summary of the campaign please read Louise Crawford’s piece in
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn: (this should be all one line but we had to put it on two)

www.onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com//only_the_blog_knows_brook/2009/11/the-hardest-working-candidate-in-brooklyn-david-pechefsky.html

So, was it the right thing to do?
Absolutely, not the least because of the all the new friends I made and the
old friends I reconnected with.

And in political terms?  Absolutely.  Many people asked me in the course of the
campaign why with my strong resume etc. I wasn’t running as a Democrat so I would
“have a chance at winning.”  No way!  The City Council doesn’t need any more
deal-making Democrats who compromise their principles to get appointed the chair
of some good sounding committee etc. etc. and the political system as a whole
needs to be pushed on the Green party principles of ecological wisdom, social
justice, grassroots democracy, and non-violence.

So keep an eye out for us Greens and consider coming to some Park Slope Greens meetings.
We usually meet the second Monday of the month at the Methodist Church on 6th Avenue and
8th Street. There is lots to be done.

Best,
David

For more info go to: www.pechefskyforcitycouncil.com

***************************************

MORE INFO ON THE PARK SLOPE GREENS

For more information about anything in this message,
please contact Dani at (718) 788-2260 or by e-mail
at Daniliebling@yahoo.com

For more info on the Park Slope Greens, see our
website at: www.parkslopegreens.net

For up to date information on the Ratner
Arena/Stadium opposition go to: www.dddb.net

For More Information on The Green Party of Brooklyn
e-mail: info@gpbk.org or go to www.gpbk.org

For more information on the David Pechefsky City Council
Campaign, go to www.pechefskyforcitycouncil.com

For More information on The Rev. Billy for NYC Mayor Campaign
go to www.voterevbilly.org