Subject: Re: Happy New Year! Thank You! and of course a couple of things....
From: Amanda Renteria <[email-masked]>
To: John West <[email-masked]>
Cc: John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Kim Frederick <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 13:35:48 -0500

Thank you John for taking the time to write this. You make some solid
points. Texas is a very important state for us and we have got to get it
right.

A couple of updates:
We will have our Regional Director, Jessica Mejia, on the ground on Jan 15
through the primary and an organizer to follow.  We agree, we can't do TX
with just one person.

We finished out that year doing a number of organizing events as she
traveled to March states as we did on her last TX trip.  But, the schedule
is very difficult and will get worse since she needs to be in IA and NH as
much as possible. But, we hear you.

The comments about office, surrogates, and events will improve with folks
on the ground, but it sounds like we have some catching up to do.  Thank
you for the Intel.

Again, we really do appreciate all that you are doing, including taking the
time to share these suggestions.

Talk to you soon and Happy New Year,
Amanda

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 6, 2016, at 12:22 PM, John West <[email-masked]> wrote:

Dear Amanda and John,

First off, thank you for the holiday card!  That was a lovely surprise to
come home to and made my day!

Wishing us all a year of great things in 2016!

A tremendous amount of hard work by Hillary's team and her grassroots is
paying off and it’s wonderful to see that reflected in donations, recent
polling, online and in the media.

But there are three areas, in my opinion, I would like to bring your
attention to.

#1   TEXAS.  I spent a lot of time there in previous elections.  You won't
find a more dedicated and experienced group of Hillary supporters than in
Texas. Over the summer they had events, booths and did all kinds of great
work but everything has stalled there as a result of having no access to
VAN and no organizer/s.  Bernie's campaign has hired some very well known
organizers, has offices, done public free events and has been hitting it
very hard.  Houston is particularly problematic. We need to get organizers
hired and VAN up and going!  They were also told no phone banking.  Is it
possible to have at a minimum, a VPB link for Texas going so our
volunteers/grassroots can start up phone banks?  That would be a huge
help!  Folks were told that there would be staff last year, VAN would be
available last year, etc etc but still nothing. TEXAS is the largest
delegate reward on super Tuesday and they start early voting while the
first four are voting.  Much of the Democratic party activists/party
leaders/county chairs there, are supporting Bernie and they have a head
start on us, not to mention a huge advantage!  In Houston alone, the party
chair has invited Bernie people to speak at events, use the party office,
begged Bernie to come to Houston when he found out they were going to
Dallas, but hasn’t let the Hillary people have the same advantages.  25% of
Dem votes come from Houston alone.  With Bernie hiring paid staff in later
states and not dropping the DNC lawsuit, it becomes all the more important
for us to consider that this might be a long primary and that every
delegate will matter.  The DEMS/liberals of Texas were mighty burned after
2014 and that situation coupled with Texas’ innate outsider personality,
makes Texas ripe for Bernie.  The fundraiser only events are upsetting and
discouraging folks as well, big time.  It’s even becoming a problem for the
fundraisers because every time they post that an event is happening, they
are immediately met with complaints that regular people can’t afford that.
The appearance of it has even turned off some Hillary supporters, not to
mention how it must look to those on the fence, or undecideds.  Texas is
the size of 5 states and one organizer will not be enough, although even
one would be appreciated at this point. They are less than a month and a
half away from early voting.  Anyway things can be expedited? We have super
volunteers with a year of VAN experience, on the ground campaign
experience, and organizing experience, ready to go! We need a green light
and fuel! President Bill Clinton is very popular, could he be sent?  To do
some free townhall/rallies.   I can't stress enough importance of investing
in TEXAS.

#2    Small Dollar Donations: Kim Frederick recruited me finally to be a
Hill-Raiser. It would be great if we could build up/encourage low dollar
donations by using incentive's like you do for the Hill-Raisers.  Take the
$1 a day, $3 a day, or $5 a day pledge, provide a donation link with those
options (that can be tied to a Hillraiser too) and having a recurring
button that automatically does that for the donor who is taking the
pledge.  Upon completing the pledge, each level, $1, $3, $5, gets a special
button :)  That really would help drive up the number of low dollar
donations and reward folks for participating!  Maybe provide incentives to
Hill-Raisers who get a certain percentage of their donations from $100 or
less? Also, we need an army of surrogates out there for $25-$100 events.
I'm seeing surrogate events that are wayyyy too high and not diverse at
all.  Lena Dunham at $150 - $1000?  That excludes our target demographic
for her completely!  And some areas aren’t seeing any surrogate events at
all.

#3   Something Bernie hasn't talked about at all is the Creative Class.
Yes free college or debt free college is great. But what about a job
afterward?  So many students in the Arts (of all kinds) leave college with
few good job opportunities.  What about a CREATIVE CLASS JOBS BILL? I think
Hillary could hit that up and tie it to the UNIQUELY AMERICAN quality of
creativity and ingenuity that cannot be OUTSOURCED. :)  This would appeal
to youth of all kinds.

Just some thoughts...but please please don't let TEXAS slip by!

Thank you,

John West
Illinois Volunteer