GoreWatch: Filing Deadlines = Time for Action!

Recent unscientific polls here on daily kos have established that a majority of Gore diary readers believe that, if Al is going to jump into the race, he must do it by late October. I share this opinion. There are several reasons stated around several diaries including past GoreWatch diaries but I won't rehash all that here.

I have been tracking primary filing deadlines in GoreWatch to help illustrate a picture of when Al Gore needs to get his organization in gear. Remember, many of these filings require HIS signature, not just ours. I've been really busy at work this week but I managed some time to do research into filing deadlines.

I've organized and sourced the filing deadlines for many key primary states. The picture is becoming absolutely clear that the Draft Gore movement needs to kick it into high gear STAT!

-- full story with GoreWatch calendar below the fold --

First, let's take a look at the GoreWatch calendar and then a full analysis of the filing deadlines and a call for action!

Al Gore still has booked no new events in recent weeks. That means his schedule remains relatively clear after the Nobel Peace Prize. There are no updates to Al Gore's calendar specifically except for a confirmed source that he will be attending an event for Barbara Boxer on October 11th. Nothin' but crickets.

All events are sourced including primary deadlines. (These generally point to legalese pdf's but will be very helpful for your state's Draft Gore movement. If "Filing Deadline" is a hyperlink, it refers to that state's Draft Gore movement. I hope to be adding more of these links in the coming days. Let me know if you're building a My State for Gore website and I'll add it.

September 24 – Scheduled event (New York, NY)

At the United Nations

http://www.nytimes.com/...

September 29 – Scheduled event (Vancouver, BC)

Speaking arrangement at the Westin Bayshore.

http://algorevancouver.com/...

September 29 – Scheduled event (Victoria, BC)

Speaking arrangement at the Victoria Conference Centre.

"The tour did not include Victoria initially, though Gore is scheduled to appear in Vancouver Sept. 29. He will now do the Victoria stop earlier in the day before heading across the water for his evening engagement.
Jacobson managed to land Gore after he hit the Internet and tracked down Gore's agent to feel him out about a possible Victoria visit."

http://www.canada.com/...

September - Declined event (Colombia)
"Officials in Bogota said Gore also called off a planned September visit to Colombia, Washington's closest ally in Latin America."

http://findarticles.com/...

September - Cancelled event (Taiwan)
"Former US vice president Al Gore will not be able to make it to Taiwan this September to address the issue of global warming, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said yesterday. Tien, who invited Gore to visit Taiwan to promote awareness on global warming, told reporters yesterday that she received an e-mail from the Harry Walker Agency, which has the exclusive right to arrange Gore's speeches, saying that Gore had canceled all his scheduled events in the next six months. The visit to Taiwan had been postponed to next year, she added. Tien said the reason for the cancelation was that Gore was considering a presidential bid." Take this with a big fat grain of salt. Gore's schedule was obviously not cleared for six months.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/...

October 1 – Scheduled event (Austin, TX)
Speaking arrangement at the Theatre at the Frank Erwin Center at the University of Texas.

http://www.statesman.com/...

October 2 – Scheduled event (Denver, CO)
Speaking arrangement at Wells Fargo Theater.

http://www.vividseats.com/...

October 3 – Scheduled event (Rio Rancho, NM)
Speaking arrangement at Santa Ana Star Center.

http://www.gettix.net/...

October 6 – Declined event (India)
“The chieftains have invited Gore to their remote village for the award ceremony on Oct 6 where they expect 300,000 local people to attend.  The award will consist of some traditional gifts and a "small amount of money."
A spokeswoman for Gore said he was "very humbled" to hear of the award but did not know whether he would be able to attend the ceremony.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

October 8 – Scheduled event (Cupertino, CA)
Celebrity Forum Speaker Series. Flint Center.

http://www.celebrityforum.net/...

October 9 – Scheduled event (Cupertino, CA)
Celebrity Forum Speaker Series. Flint Center.

http://www.celebrityforum.net/...

October 11 – Scheduled event (Cupertino, CA)
Celebrity Forum Speaker Series. Flint Center.

http://www.celebrityforum.net/...

October 11 – Scheduled event (San Francisco, CA)

Sen. Barbara Boxer Fundraiser; Westin St. Francis Hotel, Grand Ballroom San Francisco, 4 to 6 PM

http://www.dailykos.com/...

October 12 – Nobel Peace Prize Awarded
No scheduled events.

October 17 – Scheduled event (Chicago, IL)

Economic Club of Chicago in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency.

http://www.suntimes.com/...

Rally also scheduled.

October 21 – ABC Debate
Democratic candidates debate on “This Week with George Stephanolopoulos”

No scheduled events.

October 23– Filing Deadline for Michigan Primary

November 1– Filing Deadline for Georgia Primary

November 1– Filing Deadline for South Carolina Primary

November 2 – CNN Debate
Democratic candidates debate on CNN. Cosponsored by Nevada Democratic Party.

No scheduled events.

November 5 – Filing Deadline for Illinois Primary

November 16 – Filing Deadline for New Hampshire Primary

November 20 – Scheduled event (Turks and Caicos)

"Former US Vice President Al Gore will be the keynote speaker of the first ever Environmental Conference hosted by the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, in collaboration with the Ocean Conservancy and the National Coral Reef Institute, to examine the mutual interdependency between local actions and global initiatives."

http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/...

November 20 – Filing Deadline for Missouri Primary

November – Unscheduled event (Israel)

“While on the subject of global warming, former US vice president Al Gore, who is now making a career promoting global warming awareness and ecological threats in general, is scheduled to come to Israel in November to boost sales of his book The Inconvenient Truth, which laid the foundations for his documentary film of the same name. The Hebrew version is to be published by Ziblin Youth Communications.”

http://www.jpost.com/...

December 3 – Filing Deadline for Maryland Primary

December 3 – Filing Deadline for New York Primary

December 4 – Filing Deadline for California Primary

December 10 - Filing Deadline for Delaware Primary.
December 13 – Filing Deadline for Tennessee Primary

December 14 – Filing Deadline for Virginia Primary

December 17 - Filing Deadline for Arizona Primary

December 20 – Filing Deadline for Connecticut Primary

December 21 – Filing Deadline for Massachusetts Primary

December 31– Filing Deadline for Florida Primary

January 2 – Filing Deadline for Texas Primary

January 7 – Filing Deadline for New Jersey Primary

January 22 – Scheduled event (Gothenburg, Sweden)

On January 22, 2008, Gore will go to Gothenburg to receive the award at the city's public Save the Climate Event. "This will be an unforgettable evening with prominent artists - and with a speech by the most important opinion maker today on Planet Earth," Edman said.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/...

January 29 - Filing Deadline for Kentucky Primary

January – ABC Debate
Democratic primary debate yet to be scheduled for “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”.

Early primary deadlines

The biggest red alarm here is the filing deadline for the Michigan primary. Michigan for Gore (whoever you are, please share your info in this diary) needs to gather over 12,000 signatures by October 23rd. That's no small feat and organization needs to begin now!

The last I heard about this was a diary from kimberlywheldon raising the alarm. The last news from that diary was that the Michigan Draft Gore folks would get back to us soon and needed to raise money for the signature drive. Click on over to that diary to see how you can help.

Strong netroots organization is a MUST for the Michigan signature drive.

It's a roller coaster after Michigan. A few other key states join the early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina in an early rush in late October-early November. A few weeks of more signature gathering and then there's a windfall of deadlines throughout December. The Draft Gore movement can pull off some wins for these early deadlines and a couple others in December such as California and Massachusetts (who are heavily organized) but only a funded campaign can realistically get Al Gore on all those ballots.

The time to take action is NOW!

What you can do

The current Draft Gore infrastructure. Several sites including state-specific Draft Gore movement are being coordinated through americaforgore.org. You can find a lot of good resources there including CA, MA, NJ and New England.

But to get involved, you're going to have to dig a little deeper. Join AlGore.org and visit the local blogs. If there's nothing going on in your area, you can get things started there. Of course, another way to get involved with the Draft Gore movement is Meetup. There's TONS of Draft Gore meetups. I weighed them myself.

Once you start looking around, you'll be blown away how many of us there are.

Write about Al Gore on your favorite blog. Ask questions of other commenters about organization. Writing "Run Al Run" contributes to the Gore noise machine but try to propose productive ideas. Seek out campaigns like My Two Cents.

Draft Gore 2.0

So what more do we need to do as a movement? In my opinion but in no order:

1. Your online presence is your nerve center. Your state's Draft Gore movement needs a website. It doesn't need to be something fancy. Register domains like californiaforgore.com and newyorkforgore.com. (Those are both taken.) You can easily provide open blogs, bulletin boards, build email lists, organize events, etc.

2. A stronger national website making sense of all this alongside a robust fundraising arm with goals (think Howard Dean bat) that also builds a national database of emails. I'm not sure what the plans for the existing sites are so I'll just say: we need this badly. A scoop site with open diarying would be preferable.

3. Street-level action is the best way to get the word out. Standing outside the supermarket with fliers will reach people we do not online. Having rallies and waving signs on street corners is great in small towns. Gathering signatures is the perfect excuse to take Gore's message into the community.

4. Fill in the gaps. If you don't see someone organizing area, don't feel resigned that someone out there must be taking care of it. Start your own meetup. Write on message boards about what you're doing. Believe me, it fills up surprisingly quick.

5. Caucus strategy please! Does anyone understand caucuses? Can you shed some light on what we can do for Al Gore in the early caucus states? If it's as simple as sending Gore supporters to firehouses, let's nationalize that strategy through an online network!

This diary is for organizing. If you want to argue the merits of Al Gore or whether he's running, this isn't the place. Write here about what you are doing in your state or what you are looking for.

-fink