October was another great month for DownsizeDC.org. Here are the details . . .
* We made budget for the third month in a row (Thank You!)
* We cleared an extra $2,040 to spend on advertising (a first!)
* We recruited 493 new Downsizers, our fourth best month this year
* We have a record number of subscribers to the Downsizer-Dispatch: 23,730
* We sent 16,629 messages to Congress
Overall…
* Our Downsizer army now stands at 15,145
* Total messages to Congress now stands at 425,355
* 45,515 people have now heard about Downsize DC through our Tell-a-friend system and tens of thousands more by forwarded emails.
Word has been spreading in other ways too. Here’s what radio talk show host Jerry Hughes told his listeners in early October . . .
“Let me say something here, and if it were not so, I simply would not say it. I get a lot of email magazines if you will, e-zines and such, and a lot of email newsletters. And I subscribe to Downsizer-Dispatch, which folks can do by going to DownsizeDC.org. You guys put out more information — better information — more regularly than anybody else. In fact, I dare say, that Downsize DC is working harder than any other group that I subscribe to for their information — for their releases and such. It a constant barrage of _extremely_ important information and I encourage my radio audience to go to the website and sign up for the Downsizer-Dispatch.”
Isn’t that great? I can’t tell you how satisfying that was.
We’re also making more inroads with Congress. Alexander Peak, one of Downsize DC’s most active supporters, recently had a public exchange with his Representative about the “Read the Bills Act.” He got a positive response. You can read about it here. Thanks to another DC Downsizers, we’ve also had a positive response from Representative Cooper, which we’ll post on our blog shortly.
Of course, no one in Congress has yet had the courage to anger the leadership by sponsoring this legislation, but their courage will grow as we grow, and apply more pressure. It isn’t a matter of “if” we’ll find a sponsor for RTBA, or “if” we’ll pass it. It’s only a question of “when” and how long it will take to reach the required size and visibility. Alexander Peak’s story is a sign of what’s possible. No one in Congress can really say no to RTBA in public, and this must eventually translate to a “yes” in Congress.
And that means we need to keep up the pressure. We need to keep pressing, keep asking, keep demanding. Send Congress a message now using our proprietary system.
Here’s the link.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.