Subject: Re: Submission: "My Hand Shall Be Against the Prophets"
From: EllJhns8@aol.com
Date: 8/13/08, 14:11
To: barriticus@gmail.com
Great. Here is some more information about the pac. We only have a board of advisors so no one can fire me. We do not have members. People donate money to the pac which we donate to campaigns.
I occasionally go to Congressional fundraisers in DC which you saw if you went to the website.
I think our focus should be to do what the religious right did 20 or so years ago. Ralph Reed wrote the handbook for us. He wrote a book called "Active Faith" and it is was his gameplan for the religious right to become political heavyweights. They became influential at the local level. This is what we are beginning to work on. We are completely ignored at the national level so we have to show that we are a voting bloc with some power.
We have a professional campaign advisor who offers his advice to candidates who we support. He is an Atheist.
Please know that the GAMPAC is concerned first and foremost with state-church separation issues and the civil rights of non-believers. We can't be concerned about other social, political or economic issues. There are other organizations and pacs to work for them.
If a local candidate comes to us and asks for our endorsement or support I find out if they are an Atheist. If they are - fine. If they are not - fine - as long as they support the separation of state and church, and will do so if elected to office.
They can run as "stealth" candidates. That is fine with me if they want to keep their Atheism a secret - as long as they don't pretend to be religious.
I also want to know enough about a candidate to know that they aren't a nut. Again, we endorse in a non-partisan way and this may upset some people but if a Republican happens to be an Atheist (and there are plenty) and they want our support they would get it. Believe me, that isn't going to happen too often.
I ask our diverse board of advisors for their opinions on almost everything but I make the decisions. My decisions are not carved in stone. I can be reasoned with.
We relied on American Atheists webmaster to do our website work but he is not reliable and too busy to do the amount of work we needed. We have decided to scrap that site and start from scratch with a new server and new content.
Among other things for the site, we will post links to newspaper articles related to our issues.
We will send out action e-mail alerts and press releases on candidates who we oppose and support.
We will link to CafePress with GAMPAC merchandise.
We will have a blog at our site.
Your ideas are welcome. You are welcome to be part of any of it. Please let me know if want to help in any of these areas or something else.
Thanks so much.
Ellen
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