80-20's modus operanti is to reward politicians who share APAs' rightful concerns and punish those who don't. Since its inception, it has shown its effectiveness in many ways, including non-political events such as asking Abercrombie and Finch to withdraw its offensive t-shirts, and expressing our displeasure at Seattle Time's headlines on Michelle Kwan. For a complete account, see
http://www.80-20initiative.net/unity1.html
Here is a report updating 80-20's effectiveness in political matters.
(a) At its inception, 80-20 sent in writing to both political parties, its aspiration to see an APA appointed to a cabinet office. That request has been honored by both President Clinton, a Democrat, and President Bush, a Republican.
(b) Since its inception, 80-20 has issued only one DIRECT political demand. It demanded that the Republican party withdraw an infamous "Daisy" TV ad. It was done the next day.
(c) Since its inception, 80-20 has endorsed only one candidate -- Gore. Although Gore didn't win, 80-20 delivered "more than 2 out of every 3 APA votes to Gore," according to a formal national poll, partially funded by the Nat'l Science Foundation. 80-20's success in delievering a bloc vote is now written up in not only articles but also a book "Click to Democracy: The Power of the Internet to Change Political Apathy into Action," which discusses how the CNN polls also show 80-20's success. This book is now available through:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813340055/qid%3D1025198992/ ref%3D=sr%5F11%5F0%5F1/103-1079944-2047015
(d) Since its inception, 80-20 has only censured two politicians. One was Congressman Christopher Cox , a Republican, who chaired the infamous "Cox Committee Report." The other was Ralph Appezzato, Mayor of Alameda, who made a racist attack on an APS candidate Alice Lai-Bitker in a party primary for supervisor in Alameda County.
Since our censure of Mr. Cox, he has(a) hired a person to handle public relations for him with the APA community, and (b) approached C-100, a well-known Ch. Am. organization, and asked for a meeting.
Mr. Ralph Appezzato, who was to be in a run-off with Bitker, unfortunately committed suicide on 9/16/02. While 80-20 censured Mr. Appezzato for his racist politics, and obviously meant to put pressure on him, it never intended to wish him ill in a personal sense. He was known to have prostate cancer. 80-20 shares the grief of his family.
What does all that prove? UNITY IS POWER.
