Saturday, July 18, 2009

SB250 - easy, simple way to fax an OPPOSE letter

--- PLEASE CROSS POST ---

Like ALL bills in the California state legislature that advance to the
Assembly Appropriations Committee and are determined to cost the state
budget at least $150,000, SB 250 was put into the committee's suspense file
this week. This is basically automatic, as per the rules of the state
legislature. A bill can come out of suspense with as little as 2 days
notice and be voted on by the Appropriations Committee.

"The brakes" were not put on SB 250 as some are claiming. Many are being
lulled into inaction. They falsely believe that SB 250 is mortally wounded.
It most certainly is not. SB 250 is unfortunately alive and well.

We saw the exact same reaction when SB 250 was temporarily put into the
Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file in May, where the same rule
applies. Many on our side were declaring SB 250 "dead" at that time. We
let our guard down at the worst possible time.

When a bill is in one of the appropriations committee's suspense files, it
is critical to TURN UP THE PRESSURE. That's because killing a bill by never
letting it come out of suspense is the easiest way for the majority party to
kill an unpopular bill that was sponsored by one of their own. They don't
have to go on the record with an up or down vote if they simply let a bill
expire in suspense.

We let our guard down in May, and exerted very little pressure on the Senate
Appropriations Committee while it was in suspense. SB 250 came out of
their suspense file, and it advanced easily from there on to the full Senate
-- where it passed.

We need to TURN UP THE PRESSURE NOW, and keep it up until the Assembly gets
the message that SB 250 is unpopular with tens of thousands of Californians.
This is no longer just about making good arguments -- they've heard them
all. It's not about petitions, which are a waste of time.

This is about delivering an avalanche of calls and letters to the Assembly
members that is sufficient to counter both Mancuso's calls to her people for
more support calls and letters AND the huge piles of money that Mancuso is
tossing into the campaign coffers of California state legislators.

The offer from Save Our Dogs still stands. Californians can get a letter in
their name faxed at no charge to each of the 16 Assembly members on the
Appropriations Committee simply by entering their name and contact info.
into our Easy Letter form, which is here:

http://saveourdogs.net/

This is as easy to fill out as an online petition, but a lot more effective
since your No on SB 250 letter will be delivered to each committee member.
We've been told that AB 1634 died last year mainly because Californians
drowned the legislature in letters and calls. We can do it again.

Let's make it happen.

Laura Sanborn
http://saveourdogs.net/

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