Front page of today's @denverpost - Amazing what the successful #CORecall started - Keep it going - #tcot pic.twitter.com/hFyGSHkaRz

— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) September 12, 2013

We are going to soon announce our new plan for civic education in Colorado. It's very possible this site and our companion Facebook Page Good Neighbors We Vote http://Facebook.com/GoodNeighborsWeVote had no impact on the election that were just held. Then again, maybe our civic education, focused on the grassroots tool, the recall, did make a bit of a difference.

  "Before Tuesday's elections in Colorado, only 36 state legislators nationwide had ever faced a recall effort, and roughly half survived. Colorado is one of 11 states that allow for a political recall of elected officials." From Reuters (click here for article.)

From that same Reuters piece:    "What Coloradoans really hate is extremists on either side," said Katy Atkinson, a Denver political analyst... "Overall, it was a sense of arrogance," Atkinson said.

 Denver independent pollster Floyd Ciruli agreed. "There was a sense that people were not being listened to and felt shut out from the aggressive agenda put forward by Democrats in the legislature," he said, noting that an 8-to-1 spending advantage by recall opponents failed to stave off defeat. 

 The Colorado recall battle drew more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions. But the bulk of it - nearly $3 million - came from opponents of the recall drive who support stricter gun control, figures from the secretary of state's office showed. And that's exactly the problem recall and the threat of recall was intended to solve.

 Referendum, recall, and initiative, along with the caucus-assembly system for nominating to the primary ballot. were the progressive reforms intended to stop some of the abuses of power that had become common place.

Same day registration now allowed.

Colorado Election Guide http://www.bringinthevote.com/. 

In the past, to vote you needed to be registered 30-days before the election. No more. We will get a chance to see just how well this works in the upcoming recall elections. 

Good reason to talk with neighbors, encourage early voting and invite them to your 1st or next neighborhood gathering. 

Recall, Teddy Roosevelt's Grassroots Tool.

We are observing the recall efforts in Colorado, will have a workshop right after the elections in November to look at the grassroots tools we have in Colorado, try to help more people understand how to use them to help the common person serve in elected public office.

Neighborhood representative wanted for new project.

I just posted this on www.JohnWren.com. Will you help? Call me! John Wren (303)861-1447 

For years I've had an interest in the Colorado caucus-assembly system for nominating to the primary ballot, in my opinion the best chance the common person has for serving in elected public office. See http://www.COCaucus.org 

Here's a new idea. Let's created a new business, doing well by doing good, with grassroots civic education and a Welcome Wagon type neighborhood marketing network. 

Let's write a handbook for Colorado citizens, update every year, sell to newcomers through a network of neighborhood representatives who will welcome newcomers and be the hub for neighborhood communications.

The citizen handbook will cover the caucus system, referendum , recall and initiatives, as well as how to get elected to public office. 

If you'd be interested in being part of this project as a sponsor, neighborhood representative, writer, or advertiser, contact me via John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447 see http://Facebook.com/goodNeighborsWeVote PLEASE SHARE 

It takes a neighborhood to have a fair election.

There is concern on the left and right that we are loosing the necessary condition for the voice of the common person to be expressed through our representative democracy: FAIR ELECTIONS! http://harpers.org/archive/2012/11/how-to-rig-an-election/

What can you do? Strengthen your neighborhood. How? If you don't know, join us at an 
IDEA Cafe Startup Workshop, raise that as a topic.  
http:// Meetup.com/Small-Biz-Chamber

Everyone should read this book. Describes the problem, decline across the board in social capital, the market system, representative government and civil society. What's the solution? See  review of the book and John Wren's suggested solution (click here), along with his comment about the role of groups like Rotary, Lions, and Optimists (it's not what you think) and the Church.

The Great Degeneration

By Niall Ferguson

(Penguin Press, 174 pages, $26.95)

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