Small Business and Self-Employed

Remember who fought for workers and helped establish the "Middle Class"!

 ENOUGH -- Why I believe so strongly in the Affordable Care Act.

You can skip my personal story and go directly to:

Five Ways the Affordable Care Act Helps America’s Small Businesses  

Published by the US Small Business Administration    Originally by Ari Matusiak, special assistant to the President & director of private sector engagement and first appeared at Whitehouse.gov on August 14, 2013.

http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/five-ways-affordable-care-act-helps-america%E2%80%99s-small-businesses

Down and Personal
Several years ago I owned a real estate brokerage, I was a self-employed Realtor with a family and several small children.  Looking out for the family health was a problem with the types of illness falling on young families.
Shopping around for health insurance we found, expensive programs with lots of limits.  At the time my office employed several sales people and a couple staff employees.  None of us had any kind of health insurance, a couple of salesman had wife's that worked and their jobs provided for them, but the majority of us had nothing.
At the same time I was serving in the Oregon Legislature and one of the fellows that was a lobbyist happened to live in my legislative district.  He was the legislative frontline for Kaiser a major HMO on the West Coast.

{Health maintenance organization (HMO)   is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded health care benefit plans.}
Henry J. Kaiser came to Portland building ships, he was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care for his workers and their families. 

At different times he would contact me and visit me at my real estate office, after all that is what lobbyist do, only he happened to be a voter in my district also. 
During one of my conversations with him, I mentioned the need for some kind of health insurance for my family and a couple of the sales staff members.  He indicated he would have someone from the group sales department contact me about health insurance coverage.

We found we could form a small group plan, giving us full health coverage, major benefits and reasonable cost with as few as ten people.  We became the first real estate office in Portland to have health insurance for our employees.  As an inducement for the the staff to join I paid a small portion of the cost and acted as the "banker" for the group.

At last a health plan for my family and something for the office staff at the same time. Not only did Kaiser have several health clinics around Portland but a major hospital too.  It worked out well for our family and the group for several years before I sold the brokerage and moved to Arizona.  Four kids, four horses and year around weather we could enjoy family living outdoors.  Believe me, Oregon is beautiful green with lakes and the Pacific Ocean,  but after 41 years of rain, snow and cold it was time to enjoy some sunshine.  Our new home in Gilbert, Arizona had air conditioning and getting four active growing kids to shut the doors was a major task in itself.  The kitchen door and the sliding family room doors opened to the patio and the swimming pool, it was a constant battle keeping the doors closed the heat and the flies out.  Remember, four horses pastured out back also.

Only when you face doctor office visits, childhood health needs without any type of health insurance do you fully appreciate the need for some type of health care coverage.  My only last word to any seniors out there on the Republican Tea Party Picket Lines with Medicare, you got yours, now halt the protests and encourage everyone to join OBAMACARE come October 1.   It's called sharing!

Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Soon at a Store Near You

As the time for Open Enrollments approach more and more is being written about the Affordable Care Act.  Check out the following links.

https://www.healthcare.gov/    From "Business USA", a web site provided by the US Government.

https://www.healthcare.gov/small-businesses/   This provided by the US Small Business Administration.

{The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is a new way to buy high-quality health insurance for your employees.}

Blue Cross reaches out over insurance law changes

Blue Cross Blue Shield leading push among health insurers to gain customers through new law.

MORRISVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Just down from the Target and Gander Mountain big-box stores and between a nail salon and dental office, North Carolina's largest health insurer opened its first retail store.
It has some exercise offerings — step aerobics classes and stationary bike workouts — but for now, its main product is providing in-person information about changes coming in October with the health insurance overhaul law.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is opening half a dozen of these offices in strip malls statewide to first educate and then, starting in October, enroll consumers shopping for coverage because of the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare." Blue Cross affiliates in Florida and Pennsylvania have had similar stores open for years.

The North Carolina company also hauls an air-conditioned showroom trailer to fairs and farmers markets to reach out to the estimated 600,000 people who will be newly shopping for individual policies — some of them subsidized by the government for consumers who might have trouble affording a policy. Many of the individual policies will be sold on a statewide Internet marketplace designed to make buying coverage comparable to finding a hotel room or rental car.

As people who have been uninsured or had their coverage provided by employers start shopping around, BCBSNC is reaching out like never before to expand on its 375,000 insurance policies for individuals, marketing director Bruce Allen said. The goal is explaining the federal law, which requires everyone to have coverage or pay a fine and subsidizes many middle-class consumers who might otherwise not be able to afford policies on their own. The law also prohibits insurers from rejecting customers who have pre-existing health conditions.
"There's a big segment of the population that really wants to talk to someone face to face about it," Allen said. "It's a new market that's entering that doesn't have health insurance, never had it, and really needs kind of that step-by-step walk-through to understand a really critical decision for them to make."
Across the country, Blue Cross companies are among the health insurers most aggressive in reaching out to build consumer trust and capture their spending on policies. Spots for a broad new print, television and online advertising campaign are multiplying. Meetings with civic organizations community groups, and religious institutions are taking place from Vermont to Texas. The North Carolina company has rented movie theaters and invited guests to watch first-run films, with the addition of a 15-minute ad explaining the Affordable Care Act and laptop-ready staffers in the lobby offering individual guidance on the law.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the umbrella organization for the country's 38 Blue Cross companies, launched a campaign last month with the Walgreen Co. drugstore chain, with signs and brochures in about 8,000 stores.
WellPoint, the largest operator of Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans, is teaming up with Spanish-language TV and radio network Univision in California, New York, Colorado and Georgia for meetings, broadcast advertisements, and newscast segments describing what coverage means and how to buy insurance on an online exchange.
Blue Cross Blue Shield companies already are some of the country's biggest sellers of health insurance policies for individuals. Seven Blue Cross companies, including North Carolina's, were among the top 10 at the end of 2011, according to Atlantic Information Services Inc., which specializes in health industry data and news.
"For other insurers, the majority of their experience is in the employer-provided market, so they don't know the individual market as well and are unsure whether this will be profitable, so they're moving very carefully," said David Ridley, director of the health sector management program at Duke University's Fuqua business school. "In contrast, Blue Cross Blue Shield — with their experience in the individual market, its experience interacting with government as the insurer of last resort — is moving much more aggressively and creatively."
Outside the Blue Cross Blue Shield world, Humana Inc. has signaled plans to station representatives in grocery stores and pharmacies in the 14 states where its policies will be sold on online insurance marketplaces. Pittsburgh-based UPMC Health Plan has set up kiosks in six western Pennsylvania malls to reach insurance consumers with questions, and it launched a computer application in an effort to offer a fun way to understand the details of the law and its polices.
Spokesmen for Assurant Health and Aetna described no novel marketing twists tied to the upcoming changes.
Government, too, is ramping up efforts to reach the working poor, young people and others without health coverage. President Barack Obama's administration and many states are launching campaigns this summer to get the word out. Grassroots organizers are recruiting pastors, barbers and mothers to convey the message. In some neighborhoods, volunteers organized by a coalition of health companies and advocates hand out brochures.
But any company marketing efforts come as most Americans are confused or uninformed about what the new health insurance law means to them. Only about one in five had heard about the health insurance marketplaces as of June, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"There is a lot of misinformation out there. One of the things that we hear often is that I have to go buy a government plan on the marketplace," Allen said. "We spend a lot of time explaining to people, 'You're going to buy a private insurance plan. There is no government plan.' "
######################################################

Sen. Harry Reid: Obamacare 'Absolutely' A Step Toward A Single-Payer System

When I speak to conservatives about health care policy, I’m often asked the question: “Do you think that Obamacare is secretly a step toward single-payer health care?” I always explain that, while progressives may want single-payer, I don’t think that Obamacare is deliberately designed to bring about that outcome. Well, yesterday on PBS’ Nevada Week In Review, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) was asked whether his goal was to move Obamacare to a single-payer system. His answer? “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Many Progressives say, "That's the best news ever, from Harry Reid."

HOW DOES THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT WORK?  Click Here

AND...the misinformation continues!


Are 75 percent of small businesses firing workers or reducing hours because of Obamacare?

It’s been a long, hot summer, but the political rhetoric isn’t taking a vacation!

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio recently claimed that the majority of small businesses 

 -- 75 percent! -- "say they are going to be forced to either fire workers or cut their hours."

We dug into the survey  {Read more on survey}     and found the numbers told quite 
a different story. Pants on Fire!

Real FACTS for Small Business Owners 

and Employees.  Affordable health care is a top concern for businesses. 

 In a few quick steps, this wizard can help you understand what you 

need to know about new insurance options and other health 

care  changes as well as find health care related resources.   Click here    

Health Care Changes: 

A New Tool for Small Business Owners  Click here

        

How Does Obamacare Work?

Credits to:   By Diane Bullock Jul 26, 2013  as published by MINYANVILLE

ProCon.org does have definitive answers right now to many of our burning queries. Following are a sampling with clear-cut yes or no replies that we thought most relevant to Minyanville readers.  {This is shared because I feel it is put in simple understandable terms and answers many questions still on people's minds  Use the links at the bottom of this article for access to Minyanville.com.}


1. Can this thing still be repealed?

The big challenge to this came from the constitutional question -- which was answered 5-4 -- so it’s not going to get repealed by the Supreme Court. The other place it could’ve been axed was in Congress. The House of Representatives has voted over 30 times to get rid of Obamacare but it’ll never happen without passing the [Democrat-controlled] Senate. And even if it did pass the Senate, there’s no way Obama would sign it. So, between the Supreme Court, the legislature, and then the president all saying “no,” it looks like Obamacare is here to stay.


2. What parts of the Affordable Care Act have already taken effect?

In September of 2010 we started having coverage for young adults up to age 26 on their parents’ plan. We’ve had free preventative care for services such as mammograms and colonoscopies, being done without a deductible, copay, or coinsurance. Insurance companies can’t rescind your coverage if you make some kind of technical mistake on your form (like forgetting to put your middle initial). If your insurer says, “We don’t approve your new heart valve, our policy doesn’t cover it” you can appeal that. The lifetime limits on insurance coverage were lifted. And this is all nationwide, as federal law. In 2011 we started seeing more services for senior citizens. They can now get free wellness visits and free personalized prevention plans on Medicare.

Also, insurance premium rebates took effect if health insurers profit by more than 15%; so at least 85% of all the premium dollars they collect have to be spent on health-care services and health-care quality improvement. If they spend less than that they have to give back rebates to their members. Here at ProCon.org, we have received checks from our insurer because they were compelled to do so as a result of the Affordable Care Act.


3. So what’s left to kick in?

January 1, 2014 is when a lot of the meat of Obamacare takes effect. The big ones are the establishment of state-run health insurance exchanges and the individual insurance mandate that requires every single person in the United States to have insurance coverage. If you’re not insured, you have to pay a fine.


4. Is anyone off the hook for buying coverage?

There are literally some exceptions to the mandate. If someone already has insurance through Medicaid, Medicare, an employer, or a veterans health program, they don’t have to buy insurance because they already have it.

Prisoners, undocumented immigrants, some religious groups -- those who have been historically exempt from the Social Security system such as the Old Order Amish and religious groups whose members pay for one another’s health care. Also, if you’re an American Indian and subject to the sovereign laws of your tribal community.


5. How will the fines work for not buying coverage?

It’s a little bit complicated. First, they give you a year and they shake their finger at you. [Referencing the Cleveland Plain Dealer] in 2014, the penalty is either $95 for every adult and $47.50 for every child under the age of 18 in the household, or 1% of taxable income for the household, whichever is larger. And then it gets worse.

In 2015, they start shaking their fist. It's $325 for every adult and $162.50 for every child (up to $975 for a family), or 2% of taxable income, whichever is larger.

In 2016, that fist turns into a foot and it goes up to $695 for every adult and $347.50 for every child (up to $2,085 for a family), or 2.5% of income, whichever is higher. After 2016, the penalty increases annually by the cost-of-living adjustment.


6. How will the subsidies work for those who can’t afford coverage, and what kind of criteria need to be met to qualify?

There will be no penalty for those who can't afford insurance, including those who don't make enough to file federal taxes or whose insurance premiums will cost more than 8% of their household income. The government will help them pay for it and try to do what it can to make that insurance affordable.

The White House says broadly that there will be tax credits for middle class families, small businesses, and millions of Americans will soon be eligible for tax credits, and if you can’t afford insurance, it basically says don’t worry about it, we’ll help you.

The way Consumer Reports describes it, if you buy insurance on an exchange as an individual, you may qualify for a subsidy in the form of a tax credit if your household income is between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level.

7. How does the mandate work for employers?

The way the Affordable Care Act is written, the term “applicable large employer” means a company that employed an average of at least 50 workers during the preceding calendar year. They’ll have to pay a fine of $2,000 per full-time worker if any of their employees turn around and get premium tax credits through the new health insurance exchanges. So if the small business has 51 workers and one of those workers gets a tax credit to help them buy insurance, even though they’re already getting insured through their company, then the business has to pay a $2,000 fine per employee, per year.


8. So the mandate doesn’t apply at all to companies with under 50 employees?

No, and there’s no debate.

9. Can you keep your current coverage?

The White House says yes, and the answer is technically true, but -- and this is a big but -- a lot of the insurance providers will no longer be offering the exact plan. Part of the reason is that Obamacare mandates a certain level of quality and a certain number of services to be offered in their insurance packages. So if the insurance package you currently have doesn’t perform a certain service that Obamacare requires, that insurance plan will likely become a different plan. So your exact same plan may no longer exist because now they have to comply with some of the requirements of Obamacare, which are the ones intended to increase quality coverage.

Whether the forced, low-tier plans will cost more is still subject to debate because -- and this is one of the main theories of the Affordable Care Act -- by mandating that everyone get insurance, they are creating this big carrot for the insurance company. They’re saying we’ll give you 30 million more customers and that will help your bottom line. In exchange for doing that, we’re going to ask that you provide them a little more coverage. And in effect we hope that, on net, it’s a plus for all because more people are insured, you have more customers, they are still profitable, everyone’s happy. That’s the theory.

Whether it increases premiums or not, we won’t know until the mandate has kicked in. I can tell you that [at ProCon.org] for our particular company plan, our premiums have not gone up. In fact we’ve received rebates. Other people will say the opposite, that their premiums have gone up. So the bottom line is to be determined on that one.


10. Will Obamacare raise my taxes?

There will be 19 new taxes in the form of brand new taxes, fees, and penalties that have never existed and in the elimination of tax deductions. For example, we’ll see a $50,000 tax penalty on charitable hospitals that fail to meet five new requirements, a 2.3% excise tax on medical device manufacturers, and a removal of executive salary tax deductions for health insurance companies that compensate executives over 500,000 a year.

For individuals and families, an increased penalty of 20% will apply to early withdrawals from health or medical savings accounts, and people who buy indoor tanning products will incur a 10% excise tax.


11. What if I have [insert chronic disease]? Will I get to participate in the exchange? Will there be a limit on how much carriers can increase my premium, and how can they afford to cover me anyway?

A press release from the Department of Health and Human Services said that under the Affordable Care Act , in 2014, Americans with preexisting conditions cannot be denied coverage, cannot be charged significantly higher premiums, be subject to an extended waiting period, or have their benefits curtailed by an insurance company.

There’s specific language to the effect that increases have to be reasonable. The government will help subsidize what it calls “high-risk pools” so that it is not as cost-prohibitive for the insurers to offer those types of plans. But the law is very specific in that it says they cannot be denied coverage for a preexisting condition. No debate.

Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/personal-finance/articles/what-is-obamacare-obamacare-cost-affordable/7/26/2013/id/50889?page=full#ixzz2aFhomHlz

Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/personal-finance/articles/what-is-obamacare-obamacare-cost-affordable/7/26/2013/id/50889?page=full#ixzz2aFhXssRB

Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/personal-finance/articles/what-is-obamacare-obamacare-cost-affordable/7/26/2013/id/50889?page=full#ixzz2aFh98oG3

Walgreens and BlueCross BlueShield have teamed up across the United States and will be helping answer questions on the Affordable Care Act. Following is a lead from their website.
 How healthcare reform affects you.

Whether or not you're insured, the Affordable Care Act affects everyone in America.

What if I'm already insured?

If you're currently covered by your employer, Medicaid, Medicare or you pay for
your own coverage you may not experience many changes. You may have access
to new benefits like preventative care screenings, emergency services, prescription
drugs and more. If you pay for coverage yourself, you may qualify for new tax credits 
or financial assistance. You'll also gain the ability to insure adult children up to age 26.

What if I'm NOT insured today?

There's a lot of reasons why people in America are uninsured. Maybe your job doesn't
offer health insurance. Or maybe you had problems getting coverage because of an
existing health problem. Perhaps you are one of the millions of Americans who can't
currently afford health insurance.

The new healthcare law expands access to individuals and families who have not had
or could not afford health insurance. Starting on October 1, 2013, U.S. citizens and
legal residents can use the online marketplaces called 'exchanges' to purchase health
insurance. 

www.LearnAboutReform.com

Tear Down This Wall

This is published in regards to HB2305 recently passed and signed by the Governor in Arizona. While it applies only to Arizona other states controlled by Republican Legislatures with Republican Governors have enacted or attempting to enact laws that create roadblocks to ALL United States citizen's "RIGHT to VOTE". These tactics of "Voter Suppression" are desperate attempts by Republican politicians who are "hell-bent" to buy time to remain in POWER. The Republicans across the country have chosen between two masters, the voters who elected them or the money interests that provide the millions of dollars to help keep them in office. This outright suppression policy of keeping minority voters, young and new voters from registering to vote and blocking easy access to the ballot box can be demonstrated with this ONE of many facts from the 2012 election. Republican officials in their plush offices paid for by special interests yelling for less government, really meaning, no regulations, no consumer protection, no environmental or occupational safeguards know this ONE fact from the last election.
MAKE NO MISTAKE Keep the Power in the
!!!!!!Latino Voters, who overwhelmingly voted for President Obama's reelection and Democratic candidates are a KEY to the GOP remaining in Power and holding on to elected positions. In 2012 Latino Voters numbered 11.2 million ballots cast, however, another 12.1 million Latino United States citizens were eligible but DID NOT vote.!!!!!!

Republicans in political power in Arizona, a state with a large population of Latinos, this year passed legislation in HB2305 designed to build walls around the election process, limit the citizens use of the Constitutional guaranteed rights to INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM and RECALL.

Tucked into HB2305 provisions to destroy Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) by a process of purging voters who fail to vote by mail in four elections over two years. Voters who sign up for "Mail Ballots" RISK being "purged by postcard" if they miss just one vote by mail. {You're on the Permanent Early Voter List, unless Purged.}

HB 2305 attacks minor party candidates access to getting on the ballot, imposes almost impossible legal standards on VOTER sponsored ballot initiatives, while leaving wide open access for Legislative Ballot Measures. (Arizona voters have turned down as many or more of the Legislative Ballot Measures as they have citizens Ballot Initiatives. This is why such organizations as the Animal Defense League of Arizona are participating in the Grassroots Effort to stop HB 2305 and give the citizens of Arizona an opportunity to vote on HB 2305 next year.)

The Democratic Party is hard at work with petitions to put the question and voter roadblocks in HB 2305 on the ballot. Strict rules are in place for collecting signatures and handling petitions, almost to the point of kicking volunteers in the chin who are getting signatures and exercising their Constitutional Right of Referendum.

HB 2305 if left to become law will make Citizen's Initiatives more costly and overly complicated, just another maneuver by the Republican controlled Legislature in their efforts to discourage wide citizen involvement in the election process. You can help tear down this wall of voter suppression, volunteer to help in the petition drive to Kill HB 2305.

Your help is needed in collecting these signatures. Petition packets are available at various offices:At the  Green Valley Democratic Headquarters.  Hours are 10 AM - noon, weekdays, Monday - Friday. The Headquarters is located in the Continental Shopping Plaza in Green Valley (next to CVS).  Trained LD-2 Precinct Committee People will be available to assist with procedures for signing the petition.    

At the Pima County Democratic Headquarters, 4639 E. 1st St., Tucson (One block west of Swan, one block south of Speedway), please call Shasta McManus, Executive Director of the Pima Democratic Party, at 520-326-3716.  

In Cochise County please call Pat Fleming, Chair of the Cochise County Democratic Committee, at 520-249-5228. 

At the Arizona Democratic Party Headquarters, 2910 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix.  Please call Barbara Lubin, 602-234-6800 or Jacqueline Adams, 602-234-6803.

The Permanent Early Voting and returning of Mail Ballots will become better understood as voters use the system.  One easy effort that would not cost a penny is to print a notice of the mailed ballot instructions and notification of the enclosed material.

Print on the outside of the mailed ballot, "OFFICIAL November 4, 2014 Ballot, RETURN in enclosed prepaid envelope by US MAIL no later than October 31, 2014."   This simple statement informs the voter what they are receiving and how to cast their mail ballot.  No fuss, no cost and it will be very plain for the voter to know exactly what they have received and how to return to get their vote counted.



Worth your time!
Affordable Care Act 101 Weekly Webinar Series

The Small Business Administration and Small Business Majority are launching the Affordable Care Act 101 weekly webinar series.  Each week, SBA representatives will walk through the key pieces of the law so that small business owners can understand the facts and make the most informed decisions they can about providing health insurance for their employees.
This free series will focus on both federal and state provisions to help small business owners understand how the law will affect them.  More, Click here

Real Immigration Reform

Stop wasting money on fake border security, it's not the border, it's legal entry turned illegal.
It's the expired visas stupid!
The leadership of the Republican party isn't ready to give up cheap labor for their corporate contributors just yet, as long as we have a huge pool of  underground workers too many are happy to exploit the employment situation.  "Right to Work" and undocumented workers is too high a price to pay for the GOP social agenda, but that is what we have.  A sick employment picture, lack of worker protections and no government controls on excesses.
Let's get real about our immigration reform. 40% of the "illegal population" has nothing to do with our Southern border. People entered the country legally then have gone underground when their visa time was up. This country needs to revisit the "Good Neighbor Policy" as offered by President Roosevelt March of 1933. Eighty years ago FDR set down a program to improve relations with Central and South America. We need to add Mexico and totally revamp our relationship not just with the government but the Mexican people.
We need to recognize some simple facts, Mexico is part of North America just as is Canada, which is treated much differently. Mexico has the 14th largest Gross Domestic Product in the world. Mexico is the sixth largest oil producer in the world. Mexico is the ninth largest holder of United States Debt. Mexico is the largest "auto-producing" country in North America recently surpassing Canada and the United States.
Whose real interest is served by our continued bashing our fellow North Americans, certainly not those of us in Arizona? Our economy depends upon the soon to be 2 million people in the Sonora region, Tucson and Nogales.
A short twenty years from now, will folks look back and a declare how intelligent we were to pursue a new sensible immigration policy recognizing the roots put down by millions of undocumented people many too young to have made their own choices about living here. They are not people from around the world who came to this country for a limited time and purpose but stayed to enjoy what we want to deny our North American family members.
We here in Arizona should be leading the fight for Immigration reform doing otherwise just doesn't make sense. One last thought, without cheap underground labor where would our local economy be today?

Building the Arizona Democrat Party

Just in case you haven't noticed the Republican absolute control has taken Arizona to the bottom of a big dirty pit, last in almost every measure of public services including education and health care.

Every day that we let the Republicans keep a legislative majority,  we lose more teachers from Arizona schools as a result of education funding cuts.  Our children have diminished life-long opportunities as a result of greed and profits in the name of "school choice" attempting to maintain a dual system of public education. 

We can’t wait for Autumn of 2014 to begin taking Arizona back from the GOP majority in Phoenix.  Get active right now by getting involved in the Arizona Democratic Party.  Join a Democrat Club, become a volunteer in your local Democratic Legislative District organization, become a precinct committee member, make a donation and give financial support to the building of the county and state Democrat party.

Democrats across Arizona are using traditional and social media to educate their neighbors about the Republicans’ terrible record in Phoenix.  If you would like to participate in that effort, the Democrats of Oro Valley welcome you.  Sign up on their Facebook Page, follow the news on the club web site.

Through Letters to the Editor, Facebook, Twitter, and targeted direct mail, we can educate swing voters about what Republicans are doing tearing down Arizona in Phoenix—but we can’t do it without your help, so please contribute and volunteer today.

Now is the time to hold Republicans accountable for their record and walk shoulder to shoulder with others in our quest to return Arizona once again to a strong, proud, progressive Western frontier state.

Time to take back control of our and especially our children's future.  The economy and good paying jobs with safe working conditions, health care available to all, education meeting modern standards of excellence, a protected and sustained environment is the choice or more of the drift to the bottom of a deep black hole.

Simple time tested proven result methods of recruitment.

*1*  Word-of-mouth:  ask for a commitment, ask for a prospect, ask for a recommendation and best of all spread the word, Arizona Democrats are on the move!

*2*  Making individual phone calls, "walking" lists.  Precinct lists available from the party. Cold turkey calls to determine political interests, issue invitations and establish contacts.

*3*  Phone banks, joint efforts with prepared scripts and "seasoned" campaign leader.

*4*  Door-to-door canvassing using "walking" lists.  Signing candidate's petitions, advocating an issue, registering voters and signing up for permanent early voting.

*5*  House parties, candidates, issues, etc.

*6*  Recruitment tables, Democratic meetings, voter registration tables in public places, County Fair, etc. 

*7*  Print and handout cards to Democrat web sites, local club contacts, county party office phone number.

*8*  Involvement Cards, every Democrat event should have cards printed for information, volunteer options, and registration for future notifications of everyone attending the event.