I'm really excited to announce that we're about to make Andrew Cuomo's life as difficult as possible. That's right, The Albany Project 2.0 is coming and this time we're bringing a whole new bag of tricks to the fight. We're coming back smarter and meaner and we're not going to leave any tools in the box this time around. And we're not just re-launching a "blog." We're going to do some serious organizing this time around and we're working to put some seriously cutting edge tools in the hands of activists from Watertown to Montauk. We want to empower people across the Empire State to take on hyper-local fights against things like fracking to larger fights for publicly financed campaigns, inequality and against the endemic corruption that has plagued our state for far too long.
And these are fights that, together, We Can WIN.
Much more about where we are, what's next and how you can help below.
You probably have some questions. Let's see if we can answer some of them.
1. Why Now?
Last month a political neophyte with a funny name and no money won half the counties in New York State against a demonstrably corrupt, though fairly popular incumbent with $45 million in the bank. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that Andrew Cuomo sucks as a Democrat for anyone paying attention. His foot dragging on a permanent fracking ban are another. Look at the primary results map. It's got fracking written all over it.
Basically, that issue has mobilized a good number of people all over the state who are new to activism. As they get engaged on fracking, they're learning more than they ever cared to know about just how corrupt their state government really is. We want to put real organizing tools (and the know how on how to use them) in their hands. There's a real progressive awakening going on right now in New York. Now is the time help build and grow that movement.
Besides, Cuomo is going to win a walk. There has to be a counterweight to the Cuomo wing of the NYS Democratic Party.
2. What's this "more than a blog" business about?
What we're building this time around looks much more like an org than a blog. Imagine an org that runs issue and advocacy campaigns that also has a great community blog. In short, imagine a New York State focused Daily Kos, which, when you think about it, is what we tried to build back when we launched the original TAP back in 2006. Just as DKos has evolved, so will this next iteration of The Albany Project.
There were so many tools that we never really used, or simply didn't yet exist back in the day. We never built a list back then and social was just beginning to emerge. Organizing tools have evolved greatly since then. And I've spent the last decade or so learning to use them. Now, I want to put those tools to use to build a badass org that fights smart and fights hard, while also putting those tools in the hands of members/users statewide so that they can take on fights closer to home.
We're building a potent distributed organizing machine that will allow us to work together on the big fights and empowers people to take on battles in their own backyard.
A simple blog this is not.
3. What happened to the original TAP?
As many of you may know, I, personally, went to work for a couple of years in the belly of the beast as New Media Director for the NY state Senate. That effectively shut me up and I had less and less time for TAP. And I got depressed about the prospects of significant change in NYS. The last straw for me was when Cuomo signed off the very ridiculously gerrymandered legislative maps he had insisted for years that we would never approve. I walked away from thinking we could ever change anything here.
After that, I spent a few years running online campaigns, doing a bunch of online organizing, doing some work in online publishing and a ton of social media consulting. My bag of tricks is much deeper now and I want to bring all of it to the table this time. That said, I also want to help people use these tools for their own organizing.
The old TAP was a great community blog, but it wasn't sustainable. We're looking to build something a lot more resilient this time.
4. What are these tools you keep talking about?
We're going to be using the Action Network's* really awesome toolset and teaching people how to also use it themselves. We're going to put tools for listbuilding, fundraising, events, petitions etc in the hands of activists all over the Empire State and teach them to use them smartly and effectively. TAP 2.0 will run campaigns but we're also going to teach people how to run their own campaigns on issues that matter to them where they live, campaigns that we can win.
We want to build an army of progressives that are empowered, networked and armed with the tools to win fights big and small, hyper-local and statewide. The time is right and the tools now exist. The time is now.
5. Nice! What's next?
We're hoping to have the beta of the new site up this week. Much like the old TAP, it will be a community site and we want to encourage people to adopt their hometowns and tell us what's happening where they live. We've written a plan for the enterprise as a whole and it involves hitting the ground running on issues like fracking, publicly financed campaigns and working for a an IDC-proof NY state Senate.
The new TAP is going to rock and we invite everyone to come kick some ass.
6. How can I help?
We're totally getting the band back together, but first we need to build the stage.
You can help us raise the TAP 2.0 barn here! Your donation will help us get this beast up and running. It will help us integrate these awesome tools in a new site, a collaborative hub for New York State that will blow the old TAP away. It will help us begin to train existing activists and those newly minted how to fight the good fights smartly and ruthlessly. Your financial support is an investment in building a real, tangible and sustainable progressive infrastructure in New York. Dig deep!
And you can join our email list here. You can follow our revived Twitter feed and our newly minted Facebook page. (We never had one before. That's how old school old TAP was.)
And you can get ready to rock, New York State progressives. You can get ready to finally win on fracking. You can get ready to finally kick our lame NYS Democratic Party in the ass. You can get ready take on the machines. You can get ready to take on and expose the corrupt lawmakers in both parties. You can get ready to become a potent force for cleaning up Albany and Buffalo and Brooklyn and Brentwood and your own backyard.
In short, you can get ready to make it extremely painful to be a corrupt piece of crap standing in the way of making New York State the progressive beacon to the rest of the country that we all deserve.
And you can get ready to really, really piss off Andrew Cuomo.
You in?