I had a thought the other day, and I guess this is aimed at the more politically active members of this, and other boards, it may even have been mentioned before as it isn't any earth shattering concept...

I realize it is a little late for the most recent round of elections, but for next time...The power in the OHV Lobby, obviously, is registered voters. That being said, would it not behove us to make a simple, easily dissemenated flyer which has a list of "friendly" candidates on one side, and "enemy" on the other. The number of well-intentioned, but un-informed people that enter a vote is appalling. This pamphlet gives the duning, and off-road community "guidance" as to who would benefit them the most. Of course, a copy should also find its way to the offices of Vicki's friends, and more importantly, enemies in Sacramento.

The common goals of the individual groups that comprise the OHV Lobby could easily agree on candidates for different districts, and distribute to their members one unified list. The power we need to influence change is increased considerably with the # of voters present within our ranks...The cost, inconvience of having voter registration at the booths present at events such as the SSSS, and off-road expo could be far outweighed by helping to bring in the ever-absent young vote.

We need to excercise the power base we have available to us...aka Voting.

my $.02, for what they're worth.

Geoff

Try this site:
http://www.clorv.org/index.html

This is OUR organization that helps find those candidates who are PRO-OHV and Multi-use common sense people. Please help and support this effort as your future of OHV use may rely on it...

Excellent thought Geoff!

Sanduners is right... CLORV is a good beginning, but our particular interests may require a little more insight into the candidates that support our particular area. CLORV is a great organization but can't be the end-all for us.

For instance, let's take Bob Filner. He's the Congressional representative for the ISDRA. CLORV doesn't support any candidate for his seat right now and I really doubt they would ever actively support Filner but he did sign a couple of letters that were Glamis friendly and there are several OHV organizations that seem to be pretty supportive of him.

We've been warned, however, repeatedly, to be very careful in our support of Filner (anyone who was at the San Diego Congressional hearing should already see the train coming). It is clear in political circles that he and his backers are very aware of the power of the OHV lobby and are anxious to keep us from supporting any other candidate. How can they do that? By appearing to support our issues. So when I point out his recent "support" the response I get is... It's called keeping us off-balance until after he's voted back into office and we're screwed. And I'm told to look closer at that support and to analyze it more clearly.

And there are other candidates that CLORV may not necessarily have looked into closely and they need the input and insight from constituents so the ball is back in our court.

Voting records, public speeches, signatory support on legislation... those are the things we need to watch closely for.

Between our paying closer attention and organizations like CLORV working for us, we can change any election.

Vicki

We still need to get people to register and vote! Big problem here.

Guy in my company, always complains about things politic. Who did you vote for? I ask him. He replies that he's not registered to vote!

Well, he is now. I hammered him for a long time to register.

Talk to all the people you ride with, all your friends. You can register when you renew your drivers license.

Shoot, I even changed party affiliation over the internet! They filled out the card for me and sent it via snail mail and all I had to do was sign it! It's easy.

And remember, Filner is a snake in the grass.