Two Down, One to Go!

TWO EARLY VICTORIES!

On Monday, 25 July, the candidate who was hand-picked by Jean McGrath to replace her withdrew from the Governing Board race because he could not defeat our challenge of his petition signatures.  Donna Davis is now the de facto winner in District 4!

In District 3, you were able to help us collect enough signatures to ensure that Marie Sullivan was safely on the ballot, and no other candidate was willing to challenge her.  Thus, we have won two of three races for Governing Board before balloting even began! 

All this means we can reasonably expect a 6-1 education, student, and faculty-friendly Governing Board!  This is a far cry from only four years ago when the Governing Board, led by Laurin Hendrix, canceled Meet and Confer and tore up the RFP.

These early victories were secured by the herculean efforts of our staff and faculty volunteers (and their families) who answered the call.  They endured late nights and hot mornings gathering signatures.  And a specially trained group spent long hours reviewing signature petitions to ensure our candidates could not be challenged off the ballot in November.   

While our early victories are sweet, we cannot be complacent.  Let’s send a strong message to those who would dismantle our community college system by electing a 7- 0 Governing Board. 

Thank you in advance for your support, your participation in putting up signs for Kelli across Maricopa County, and for stepping up when volunteers are needed.  We do this together for our students, our faculty and staff colleagues, and for MCCCD.

Barry F. Vaughan
FacPAC Chair

Thank You and Next Steps

A very big THANK YOU to all those who stepped up to brave the heat, spend valuable time, drive long distances, and talk to neighbors to ensure we have great Governing Board candidates on the ballot. Because of your efforts, we reached our goal and submitted over 1500 signatures for each of our three candidates!  It is always important that we reach a minimum of 1500 signatures, not just the minimum legal requirement of 1000; it ensures that a candidate will survive a petition challenge if one is brought. Additionally, Marie Sullivan has no challengers and is the presumptive winner! All through collecting signatures. While we have cleared the first hurdle, the race is far from over!

Next Steps

We fully recognize that not everyone is suited, or able, to collect signatures. But, we have a broad spectrum of talent among our members. We are calling on you to take the baton and clear the remaining hurdles so we cross the finish line in November.

We need fresh volunteers to finish the work that remains:

  • Reviewing signature petitions of opposition candidates (We have this covered and will share news regarding this soon! Thank you!)
  • Posting signs for candidates at intersections
  • Literature drops (putting door signs in District neighborhoods)
  • Canvassing for candidates (going door to door to provide info and solicit votes)

Emails will be coming soon from FACPAC to ask for your help with these specific tasks. Please answer the call when it comes. We need everyone to join in the race!

Again, a BIG thank you to those who helped gather signatures: You Are Heroes!

Barry F. Vaughan
FacPAC Chair

Signature Update

We are very close to having all three of our Governing Board candidates on the ballot.  Please help get them across the finish line!   

We’ve set a pace that will reach our goal, but we must maintain our momentum or we could fail.  We need you to help us ensure that we capitalize on everyone’s efforts and get Marie Sullivan, Donna Davis, and Kelli Butler on the ballot.

Will you help?

With only TWO weeks left, we need volunteers to give just one hour outside libraries in District 3 (Marie Sullivan) and District 4 (Donna Davis).  It’s easy:  volunteers just ask patrons who are visiting the library if they would be willing to sign the nominating petition to get these non-partisan, education-friendly candidates on the ballot so that voters have good choices in the fall.  Their signatures on the petition are all we need to get our candidates on the ballot.

Directions:

  1. Go to our “sign-up” page.
  2. Sign up for a slot to gather signatures.  Encourage a friend to join you and fill both slots!
  3. We will provide a table and chairs, petition sheets, pens, and water for the volunteers and collect the sheets at the end of the session.  You just need to show up!
  4. If you have questions or need to submit signature sheets that you’ve gathered, please call for assistance.

Can’t make the scheduled time but want to do your part to put Marie and Donna on the ballot? Why not spend an hour or so at a library when it’s convenient for you?  Here are some great places to show up and gather signatures for Marie:

And for Donna:

If you already have petitions with signatures – even a single one – please put them in the mail NOW (520 E. Southern Ave, Tempe, AZ 85282).  Make sure you have filled out the back of the petition before you put it in the mail.

Thank you for your support!

Barry F. Vaughn
FacPAC Chair

Urgent Signature Gathering Help!

Colleagues, 

Last weekend two of our faculty sat in front of a public library in District 3 and gathered 50 signatures each for two of our endorsed candidates in a few short hours! Wow!! That helps us out a lot, but we have many more signatures to go.  

Imagine how many we could collect if there were 10, 15, or 20 of us out there gathering signatures these next few Saturdays!

How Much Time Do We Have?

We have about 4 weeks left to collect approximately 1,000 signatures for each candidate PLUS another 400-ish for a margin of error to offset any signature challenges. That’s about 1,400 signatures for each candidate to ensure we have great candidates on the ballot for these crucial seats on our Board. Unfortunately, we are not as close to these goals as we would like to be.  We still need 500 signatures for Marie Sullivan and 300 signatures for Donna Davis, so every signature that you can collect in the next four weeks makes a difference. Your efforts here will determine whether we lose in July or win in November.

What Can You Do to Help?

It is absolutely essential that we have as many volunteers as possible collecting valid signatures at every opportunity:

  • Help canvas in front of libraries in District 3 (Marie Sullivan & Kelli Butler) and District 4 (Donna Davis & Kelli Butler).
  • Circulate signature sheets to your friends and neighbors who reside in District 3 and District 4. This is really easy if you’re having a BBQ for July 4th and can hit up 15-20 of your family and friends to sign for our candidates. 
  • Knock on the doors of 20 of your voting-eligible neighbors and ask for their signatures.

Showing up to do this work not only gets this critical job done, but it sends a powerful and important message to our candidates that we are organized, we are capable, and we will have their backs.

Next Steps

View our Upcoming Events. Pick the events you will attend and register. If you want to circulate petitions among your people, download the petitions and carefully read the instructions

Please forward this along to people you know. Help everyone who cares about students and the future of the Maricopa Community Colleges understand what’s at stake. Make this a priority.  Make this happen. It’s up to you.

Barry F. Vaughan
FacPAC Chair

Governing Board Election Results – 1/7/2020

Below if a recording of the Maricopa Community Colleges Governing Board election for president and secretary.

Marie Sullivan was elected as president and Laurin Hendrix as secretary.