FamilyFoundationBlog.com

It won’t be long before school is out and students will receive their final grades. Our sister organization, The Family Foundation Action, is preparing to issue its own grade report — its 2010-2011 Virginia General Assembly Report Card. This bi-annual compilation grades all senators and delegates in the General Assembly on their pro-family voting record over a full two-year General Assembly cycle, and is released to coincide with the next General Assembly election, which is this November. It provides voters every legislator’s voting record on issues relating to life, marriage, religious liberty, parental authority and constitutional government based on a wide range of key bills and Family Foundation priority legislation.

The Report Card has become a favorite of individuals and churches across Virginia and is one of the commonwealth’s most anticipated political documents and will be available by mid-May. They will be available to order free of charge for distribution at churches, schools or community groups. To be among the first in the state to receive the Report Card, click here to go to our order page, complete the form and they will be sent to you directly from the printer. Please consider placing your order before May 15 to ensure you receive your Report Cards in a timely manner. This also helps The Family Foundation Action by allowing it to prepare for Winning Matters 2011 (more on that in a future post) rather than the fulfillment and shipping of hundreds of orders.

This is another critical election year in Virginia, as all 140 seats in the General Assembly are up for election. It will be the first time in four years (when it elected a new majority) that the Virginia Senate has faced the voters, giving Virginians the opportunity to determine whether or not they like the direction the state Senate has taken since 2007.

Our Founding Fathers knew that an educated electorate was essential to good government. This has never been truer than it is today. Be sure to order enough Report Cards to have some extra for your friends, family and work associates.

Here’s more information about the voter guide for the November 2 11th Congressional District election. They are non-partisan guides that give the candidates’ positions on issues important to people of faith such as their positions on life and marriage. This race is between incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly and Republican challenger Keith Fimian. These guides are jointly produced by The Prince William & Manassas Family Forum, The Fairfax Family Forum and The Family Foundation Action and are legal for distribution in churches and other houses of worship.

You can order a quantity of voter guides for yourself, your friends and family, and your church by contacting one of the following people:

» Denny Daugherty: dennydaugherty@erols.com (Prince William/Manassas)

» Bob Allen: 703-361-2278 (Prince William/Manassas)

» Terry Wear: tjwear@yahoo.com (Fairfax)

» The Fairfax Family Forum: fairfaxfamilyforum@gmail.com (Fairfax)

You can view (and print) the voter guide by clicking here.

Even if you don’t live in the district, you can share it on your social media networks and via e-mail with people you know who live in Fairfax and Prince William Counties and Manassas.

The voter guides also will be available at the Northern Virginia IS Pro Life Rally tomorrow from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Government Center Ellipse in Fairfax (more information is at the Fairfax Family Forum and at the organizer’s site, Pro-Life Unity). There are only two Sundays left between now and the election, so we hope voters in Northern Virginia will take advantage of these guides and distribute them as widely as possible.

The Family Foundation Action, our sister organization, yesterday released a voter guide on the positions of the candidates running for the House of Representatives in the 11th Congressional district: incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly and Republican challenger Keith Fimian. The guide was compiled in conjunction with two of our Northern Virginia affiliates, the Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance and Fairfax Family Forum.

The 11th Congressional District voter guide is available for download by clicking here.

It can be printed and distributed to interested groups or individuals, forwarded to e-mail lists, or you share it on social media sites. If you want bulk copies, contact Roger Pogge at 804-343-0010 or at roger@familyfoundation.org.

Speaking of guides, Congressman Connolly scored a whopping zero on the FRC Action Scorecard for the last two years in the House of Representatives and only 9 percent on ecomonic issues from The Club For Growth.

Our Winning Matters campaign — the voter identification, registration, education and mobilization projectof both The Family Foundation and The Family Foundation Action — is in full gear. It has been, actually, for some time, and a great deal already has been accomplished.

We have nearly a dozen full- and part-time staff hard at work across Virginia. With the help of pastors and other committed Christians, they are  identifying, informing and mobilizing pro-family, values voters to cast values-driven votes on Election Day.  

The first phase of Winning Matters is identifying eligible voters in Virginia according to their values and making sure they are registered to vote. Sadly, statistics tell us that nearly half of self-proclaimed evangelicals are not even registered. Thus, they ignore a critical responsibility and minimize the effectiveness of pro-family citizens in the political process.

While it may sound over-used and outdated, one of the best methods for identifying and registering like-minded individuals is through churches. Every day our field staff meets with pastors from some of the more than 5,000 churches we have identified across the Commonwealth, and encourages them to conduct voter registration drives prior to the October 5th registration deadline.

Many pastors still do not practice this basic civic process in their churches. Some pastors still do not understand that it is not a political activity — in fact in Virginia, voters cannot even register by political party.

Therefore, Winning Matters encourages all churches to host a voter registration drive either on Sunday, September 13, 20 or 27.

Beyond churches, the process of voter identification has become an incredibly precise science in recent years, especially with the Internet. Anytime you visit a Web site to shop, read political news or participate in other special interests, you leave a fingerprint. These consumer behaviors can be predictive of one’s potential vote. This type of “micro targeting” was extremely effective in the California marriage amendment campaign. Our Winning Matters campaign is capitalizing on all of these established practices to do our part to find conservatives who might not be registered to vote.

In a less high-tech way of demonstrating this, believe it or not, we have individuals who support us or who have signed an issue petition who are not registered to vote. As part of Winning Matters, we will cross check our entire list with registration rolls and will send a letter and a voter registration form to any who need them.

After all the identification and registration is completed, Winning Matters will move into phase two — education. We will provide an update on that portion of the campaign after the October 5 voter registration deadline. In the meantime, if your pastor is not familiar with Winning Matters, or you know of other people who maybe instrumental in activating your church into this civic action, or even know individuals who are not registered to vote, forward them this link so they can learn more about Winning Matters.