Subject: Mad about SCOTUS Voting Rights Decision? Open this.
From: Denise Cardinal <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 12:29:52 -0500 (CDT)

::: ProgressNow - Advancing Progressive Agendas, State by State ::: 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We're also mad about today's SCOTUS decision. The one that
allows state and local lawmakers to more easily pass restrictive
voting bills by foregoing review by the Department of Justice. To
quote the Executive Director of our Virginia entity, Anna Scholl
"Great, Now the bad guys can go ahead and enact racist laws
first - and deal with whether they're legal later."

But I'm here to tell you that ProgressNow is ready. As the
21-state network of local, hard-hitting communications hubs,
we've been fighting these "bad guys" on the ground
for years. It was our Wisconsin affiliate that exposed the Koch-funded
Bradley Foundation behind voter suppression billboards in Milwaukee
and our Minnesota affiliate that developed smart messages to beat back
the voter ID law on the state ballot in November. And Anna in Virginia
has been an instrumental part of coordinating state-based groups to
unite and fight against some of the most extreme attempts to create
barriers to voting in the nation.

With today's decision, we know our communications expertise and
hard-hitting tactics are needed even more. With the fight for voting
rights happening state by state, it's the ProgressNow network
that is already on the ground and ready to go.

To help our states at the ProgressNow national ProgressNow office
we've even hired a staff member to focus almost solely on voting
rights issues. John Neurohr comes to us from America Votes (he is a
shared staffer - how's that for alignment and
coordination?) and has years of experience in communications, media
relations and progressive issues. He is working every day to make sure
our states have the resources, information and tools they need to
fight back on state efforts to take down voting rights.

But we can't do it without you. Our national office is lean
- only four Full Time Equivalents - and this SCOTUS
decision means we'll need to beef up our efforts and get John
some help. Can you donate to ProgressNow national to meet this growing
need? Our state fights can't be successful without the tools,
technology, expertise and national connections the ProgressNow
national staff provides.  You can donate here, or contact me to
get more details about our plans for fighting for democracy, state by
state.

http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=4iagha9KfA9CC56oIoJkRg

http://progressnow.pnstate.org/site/R?i=tnu44xasSbM0hhgQI0ahLQ

Thanks for all you do - and don't lose hope. We can win
this with your help.

Denise Cardinal
Executive Director
ProgressNow
ProgressNow Education

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