On March 17th three members from Indivisible CA 11 United – a coalition of Indivisible groups from Congressional District 11 – met with Congressman Mark DeSaulnier’s main campaign staff. The primary purpose was to build a relationship with Rebecca Barrett, learn about DeSaulnier’s stance on a variety of issues and to learn about his plans for his upcoming recess and how Indivisible can help. At this meeting we learned that Congressman DeSaulnier is considering holding a large conference called Resistance Assistance with breakouts on a weekend in late April to assist activists with some tangible tools and capacity building opportunities.This event has not been confirmed – but we ensured that Indivisible supports the event and will assist in any way that we can. His district staff will also be holding traditional Town Halls during his recess. We made it clear that we expect better targeted outreach toward low-income and people of color and provided many recommendations for how that can happen. Ms. Barrett will share our recommendations with the district staff. Finally, we expressed our deep concern regarding the Sheriff’s contract with ICE and urge the Congressman to take a stronger public stance against the Sheriff. Ms. Barrett assured us that he stands with us and recommends mobilizing our constituents to write letters to the editor and focus on the moderates in Contra Costa County urging them to support SB 54. The moderates that we plan to target are: Tim Grayson (Concord), Steve Glazer (Orinda) and Jim Frasier (District 11 – Brentwood/Antioch)
The general consensus as we closed the meeting is that we are all excited to foster these relationships and that the partnership is just beginning. DeSaulnier loves Indivisible! – Rebecca Barrett
Our next meeting is April 19th from 7-9pm, location TBD
For more information or to stay connected contact Kristen indivisiblerichmondca@gmail.com
