After spending two great afternoons this weekend knocking on doors and making phone calls to talk with voters about what Alan Khazei can offer to Massachusetts and our country, I would like to share with you why I - along with the Boston Globe, General Wesley Clark, BlueMassGroup.com, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, the Cape Cod Times, Max Kennedy, Vicki Strauss Kennedy, Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Harris Wofford, and over 500 citizen leaders - support Alan Khazei. (The Globe endorsement is at http://www.alanforsenate.com/globeendorsement)
* Why Alan? Alan has the potential to be a game-changing U.S. Senator, a senator who can build and lead coalitions and marshall citizen power to drive progress on the urgent issues of our day. Alan has deep experience affecting change by engaging people and changing politics, best exemplified by his co-founding of City Year. As a citizen activist he has worked with Senator Kennedy and four U.S. Presidents to pass three major pieces of service-related legislation and to successfully rally a citizen movement to fight back against former Republican leader Tom DeLay, who tried to dismantle AmeriCorps.
* How Is Alan Different From the Other Candidates? While all the Democrats share some policy positions, Alan sets himself apart from the other candidates on a number of crucial issues. According to Newsweek, Alan is "the only candidate in Massachusetts who stands fully with the President on education," in looking to offer great options to all of our children, through higher pay for teachers, differentiated pay, and expansion of successful charter schools in high-need communities. On health care, Alan is a strong supporter of a reform plan with a robust public option, and, unlike Martha Coakley and Mike Capuano, he has said he would vote for the current house or senate health care reform plans, while imperfect, because they expand coverage to 36 million Americans. And on the economy, Alan has laid out detailed plans to stimulate the economy through a comprehensive green jobs initiative, a small business hiring tax credit, a main street stimulus initiative and fully funding the Kennedy-Hatch ServeAmerica bill to create more than 250,000 service jobs.
* Can Alan Win? The answer is yes. Only one sixth of the 3.7 million eligible voters are expected to vote in this election; that means as few as 200,000 voters could win the election. Recent polls have charted Alan's rapid rise, which is a testament to our unmatched grassroots field operation. Our citizen field teams have knocked on tens of thousands of doors, with many more on the way. With the majority of voters still undecided, we absolutely can win this race.
* What Can You Do To Help? I hope you'll join me over the next few days by canvassing, emailing your friends, posting on Facebook and Twitter, or building support for him in any other way you can: http://www.alanforsenate.com/gotv.
You can find a complete list of upcoming events where you can volunteer at http://www.alanforsenate.com/page/event/search_results?orderby=date
Another way to help is to make a donation at http://alan.helpmycampaign.com/HarryMattison/donate. Alan is not accepting money from PACs, lobbyists, and special interest groups, so it has to be contributions from citizens like us who fund this campaign, put ads on TV, and spread the word. Together, we can make a difference!
I hope you will support Alan on Tuesday -- let's take this chance to elect a real reformer to represent us in the Senate.
Thanks for your consideration,
Harry
www.AlanForSenate.com
The first time I heard Alan speak, I believe it was on Greater Boston, I was impressed. He had my vote. After the debates, especially the last one, he lost my vote. I liked his substanse when he started. He seemed to lose focus after that.
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