The Garret Gazette March 2020

With COVID-19 (Coronavirus) "stay-at-home" orders in place, the campaign has been a little quiet the last couple of weeks, but Garret has been posting his thoughts about Coronavirus response on social media and wrote up a longer post. In a nutshell: Garret supports:

Immediate relief for workers: expanded unemployment, paid sick leave, rent and mortgage freeze/forgiveness so no one is homeless. Everyone deserves a living wage of at least $20 per hour, and those working outside deserve hazard pay during the health crisis.
Single Payer Healthcare is clearly needed, healthcare shouldn't be tied to your employer and lost when laid off.
Cancel student debt, especially medical school debt for the nurses and doctors on the front-lines of this fight.
A Green New Deal to get people back to work in green infrastructure and renewable energy as soon as the Coronavirus health crisis passes. No fossil fuel bailout!

Garret is working on essays and videos about these topics to share on social media and get the word out. Now is a critical time to put the Green vision out and set the public discussion. Garret's opponents have not had much to say so far; incumbent Anita Kulik (D) attended St Patrick's Day bar crawls and posted photos to her campaign page during the Coronavirus pandemic, and challenger Danny DeVito (R) has been busy suing Governor Wolf to force non-essential workers back to work amid a pandemic. Neither are taking Coronavirus seriously, nor do they have serious plans to deal with the economic crisis that it caused. It will be up to Garret and Greens to lead the way!

Interview with Rust Belt Revolution

Garret was recently interviewed by Ron Gavalik for the Rust Belt Revolution channel. Garret and Ron had a great conversation for about an hour on a number of topics including a Green New Deal, criminal justice reform, Coronavirus and healthcare, and more. Check out the full interview video here.

Speak Out Against HB 1100!

We previously spoke out about Representative Anita Kulik's Yes vote on House Bill 1100, which is a bill that gives away billions of dollars to the petrochemical industry in subsides. Governor Wolf last week finally officially vetoed the bill, which is good news, but the bill originally passed with a supermajority capable of overriding a veto. It's VERY important we reach out to representatives and senators this week to demand that they oppose a veto override vote, and let Wolf's veto stand.

Click here to find your state representative and senator and send them an email opposing HB 1100!

Don't let Wolf's veto fool you though -- he cited the reason for the veto being that he wanted to negotiate subsidies individually for each project rather than passing a blanket provision. So he's not against it in principle, but wants to leave room to negotiate. So while it's good he vetoed this particular bill, we need to remain vigilant and watch for any other attempt at subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Considering Wolf plugged his fracking-friendly "Restore PA" plan during a Coronavirus press conference on Monday, it's very likely more fossil fuel bills will be on their way and we need to be ready to resist.

Help Garret get on the Ballot During COVID-19

Normally we would be out petitioning and canvassing to collect the signatures necessary to get on the ballot, but with "stay-at-home" orders in place now through at least the end of April, it's looking more and more like it won't be possible to safely do this before our August 1st filing deadline.

We've shifted to a new strategy of petitioning the Governor and the General Assembly to create a special ballot access waiver this year, effectively eliminating the signature requirement for Green candidates this year. Pennsylvania has already moved its primary back to June and is considering moving to a mail-in ballot, and many other states have already moved their voting and petitioning requirements online. With time running out, it does not seem an unreasonable ask to ask a waiver for signature requirements -- other requirements like the filing fee would still apply.

We've therefore sent a letter from the Green Party of Pennsylvania's steering committee to the governor and other officials asking for this waiver. If it is not granted in the near future, we're already considering legal action to preserve the right of Greens to appear on the ballot.

We're asking for folks to endorse the letter and electronically sign on that you support our demands and want Garret and other Green candidates on the ballot!

Will you sign the petition for the signature requirement to be waived? Thank you! Please share this statement and petition widely.

Sign The Petition To Put Garret On the Ballot!

Coming Up Next Week

With COVID-19, we're all stuck indoors, but that doesn't mean we can't keep in touch! We're considering an online teleconference to just meet up and talk about local issues and the campaign sometime in the near future. We could make it a "town hall". What do you think?

In the meantime Garret is working on some essays and videos to share online. Keep an eye out on social media! If you have a special request and would like Garret to write or speak about a specific topic, let us know what you have in mind!

Please reply to this email if you have any questions or would like to volunteer!

Are you following Garret on social media yet? Click the links below to follow and stay up to date on the latest news, events, and actions! I often "live tweet" events I'm at. Thank you for your support!

Would you be able to chip in $5? We're going to be printing materials soon and buying campaign supplies, and every little bit helps! We're a small grassroots campaign that doesn't take big donor or corporate money, we rely on community members like you! Thank you for your help!

Chip in $5 or more to Garret's campaign!

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