They Should Answer To Us

Welcome to the first blog of 2012. It’s been an eventful first few days, and not really in a good way, but one thing that’s been on my mind has been these Iowa caucuses. All of these will lead back around to why you should come to the advocacy roundtable on 1/23. So, of the 3 million residents of Iowa, 640,000 are registered republicans and can vote in the Iowa caucuses (actually, anyone can vote, they simply have to register as a republican wherever the caucus is being held). Of those registered republicans (and others, presumably) only 123,000 voted. Of those 123,000 only 60,000 voted for the top two candidates, that’s about the same number of people who are on the email list for our Hot Tix emails. Not too many. And, in fact, those caucuses do not even elect the delegates to the national convention, that comes later, it’s very complicated the way this thing works, you can look it up.

I think more people should vote. Each of those votes in Iowa counted for nearly 6 other republican votes. Even with the world watching less than 20% of republicans showed up to choose a republican candidate for president. No wonder politicians think they don’t answer to us. I think we, and I include myself, should be more involved politically, that we should communicate regularly with our elected officials. They should answer to us.

So, a couple of things, come to the advocacy roundtable on January 23. Did you know that the City of Chicago is working on a new cultural plan for the city? Well, they are…you can find out more here. There is a place there for suggestions and comments and we will be organizing a meeting between City officials and the theatre community soon. And…if you haven’t introduced yourself and your company to your Alderman yet, do it. They can actually help you in a lot of ways.

Deb