Claire Snyder-Hall Back at Common Cause and Ready to Kick Ass
One of DL’s favorite progressives, Claire Snyder-Hall is back in Delaware and back to heading up Common Cause. Recently, I had a chance to do a quick online interview with Claire to fill in some of my knowledge gaps about Common Cause.
Me: Claire, what are your plans and goals now that you are back at Common Cause ? For that matter, what’s the focus? How does it fit in with other advocacy groups in Delaware like Network DE, and Delaware United? What’s the skinny?
Claire: I am thrilled to have been invited back to serve as Director of Common Cause Delaware, after a 4 year hiatus. For those who don’t know, Common Cause is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization, with over a million members, that works to uphold and strengthen our democracy. Our mission is to “work for open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.” Common Cause has chapters in most states and those organizations focus on both state and national issues.
Right now Common Cause is focusing a lot of attention on the aftermath of the Jan 6th insurrection during which right-wing militants attacked our democracy. We want to hold Trump and his enablers accountable for inciting violence. To start, we want Trump impeached and removed.
The Common Cause Delaware agenda for the year is still being developed but I do know that no-excuse absentee voting, same-day voter registration, and redistricting reform will be priorities.
Common Cause has accomplished a lot, mostly at the state-level, all over the country. It was one of my proudest moments during my previous tenure as Director, when we got the Delaware General Assembly to rescind its call for an Article V constitutional convention that if convened would probably result in some very anti-democratic changes to the US Constitution, which his why the Koch Brothers are pushing for it.
I look forward to working with Delawareans all over the state and with allied organization, such as Network Delaware, the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, and others to make democracy stronger in Delaware and the US more broadly.
So much Delaware goodness all at once, it’s almost too much for me.
Welcome back, Claire!
I wonder if anyone remembers when a small group of fuckwits, which included Karen Hartley-Nagle IIRC, essentially destroyed Common Cause of Delaware some years back.
That’s the HONORABLE Fuckwit Karen Hartley-Nagle, and don’t you forget it.
(WhatEVER was John Flaherty thinking?)
It wasn’t Flaherty. IIRC a small group ousted him and installed her on the board.
But hasn’t he been her campaign guru? Pretty sure he has.
Didn’t realize that. What IS he thinking? He used to be a good guy.
I could be wrong. I’d better check on this before I besmirch his rep. He IS a good guy, and my memory ain’t what it used to be.
OK, here’s where I got it. Had to look at both KHN AND Vince D’Anna, but nobody said journalism was easy:
http://delawareway.blogspot.com/2016/09/where-are-certain-tens-of-thousand.html
Common Cause Delaware used to be a kick-ass organization when John Flaherty and Marianne McGonegal ran it. Then things went wrong, over ten years ago. (It was my perception that Flaherty was after the Family Court, which badly needed going after, but it brought down heat on the officers of Common Cause and they couldn’t take that heat. But this could be wrong.)
Common Cause gave an award to, of all people, John Taylor. I wrote about that. http://www.greendelaware.org/?p=9772 (“…Common Cause Delaware gives award to the least-deserving person in Delaware”)
Has CC Delaware come back to life? I don’t know. As of this morning, there is little on the Common Cause Delaware website.
Solidarity