OUR RESPONSIBLE CAMPAIGN PLEDGE
For too long, political campaigns have operated without acknowledging or responding to the negative impact they cause. When I decided to run, I pledged to change that. I’ve created (and signed) the Responsible Campaign Pledge, which outlines our commitments in five key areas: 1) Environmental Impacts, 2) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, 3) Accessibility, 4) Workers Rights and 5) Campaign Finance.
Those in the public eye should lead by example; that's why our campaign has created this Responsible Campaign Pledge. Drafted collaboratively by campaign staff and advisors, its goal is to ensure that we, as a campaign, work towards the following goals:
Reduce our carbon footprint and environmental impact as close to zero as possible.
Include diverse perspectives and voices in all that we do, create a welcoming space that values people with different identities and ensure that people with marginalized identities have the opportunity to grow, contribute and thrive.
Eradicating barriers to ensure that people with disabilities can participate, contribute to and engage in our campaign in a meaningful way.
Paying our workers a livable wage, ensuring a safe and healthy work environment, and implementing reasonable work standards and job protections.
Building a campaign of grassroots donors and doing our part to remove big money from politics to eliminate any obligations to anyone other than our voters.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION
Diversity, equity and inclusion is a top priority for our campaign and an integral part of our mission. Our campaign is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our campaign, including hiring, programming, etc.
Our Campaign Policies: We are building policies, procedures and services that uplift and protect everyone and do not lead to inequalities. Our Diverse Hiring Policy outlines the specific actions we are taking to meet this goal:
Writing job descriptions that are inclusive and
In all of our materials, use images and words that reflect the diversity of our team (or the diversity we aspire to)
Offer workplace flexibility, such as work-from-home and flexible work hours
Implement a blind hiring process where demographic information about the candidate, such as race, gender, prior companies, schooling and home location, are excluded from the initial evaluation.
Offer incentives for leaders and current team members to recruit qualified diverse candidates.
Having a formal review process with structures that decrease bias in employee evaluations.
Diverse Teams: We are creating teams and relationships among staff, volunteers, and supporters that are reflective of the populations we serve. The perspectives and experiences of those in our communities are vital to crafting successful policy that truly serves all residents. In our hiring and volunteer recruitment, we are conducting broad outreach and expanding our networks beyond those that we are most familiar with.
Engaging Diverse Perspectives: We are increasing engagement of communities of color, women, those with disabilities, and all people historically shut out of electoral and caucus processes. This includes prioritizing the inclusion of diverse communities in internal leadership, making space for the voices of marginalized communities in our policy conversations and ensuring that policies crafted meet the needs of all residents and not just some. In every conversation we have, we are making the effort to include voices from marginalized communities, instead of waiting for those communities to come to us.
Our Campaign Culture: We are fostering a culture of open-mindedness, compassion and inclusiveness. Collectively, our team has created a Culture Compact, which serves to outline what we want the culture of this campaign to be, and the steps we will take to get there. All members of our campaign, including our staff, volunteers and donors, are shown this Culture Compact, and our staff is asked to sign it before joining our team. To view the Culture Compact, click here (coming soon).
Promoting Opportunities: We are creating and maintaining opportunities for engagement, education, and discourse related to issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. This means creating an open channel of communication (see below for contact information) for all members of our campaign and the public to comment, critique and provide recommendations for improvements in our efforts.
CLEAN CAMPAIGN COMPACT
We MUST take bold action to combat the climate crisis now. Too many political campaigns espouse the importance of climate policies but fail to lead on these issues themselves. We hope that this compact provides an opportunity to not only be a better campaign, but to educate staff, volunteers, and community members on steps we can all take to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
Sustainable Food Choice & Composting: At all campaign events and fundraisers we will offer locally sourced, sustainable, meat-less, and vegan options. We will also use this as an opportunity to educate and engage people on what it means to be vegan, and its benefits to the environment and climate. When possible, food waste from campaign events will be composted locally.
Encourage Green Commuting & Work From Home: We encourage all campaign staff and volunteers to lower emissions when coming to campaign events by walking, biking, carpooling, or taking public transit. This isn’t always possible, so we commit to providing the digital infrastructure and workplace policies for staff and volunteers to be able to Work From Home (WFH) whenever not necessary for them to come to an event or the office.
Paper-Use Reduction Policy: Campaigns use a lot of paper, especially in the form of mail. We pledge to use paperless options first, whenever possible. This means using an online form, instead of a physical sign-in sheet, or using paperless post to invite people to a fundraiser, instead of mailed paper invitations. We also pledge to use 100% recycled paper products in all our printing, when available. Although it will be impossible to completely eliminate paper use with the campaign, we strive for a reduction of 50% compared to a similar sized campaign.
Single Use Plastic Ban: We pledge to ban the use of single use plastic bottles at all campaign related events, instead providing or encouraging staff/volunteers to bring refillable ones. We also commit to eliminating the use of all single-use plastic packaging, polystyrene foam products, and plastic utensils in favor of items that can be washed and reused. Reusable, washable cloth bags will be provided in lieu of plastic bags.
Carpool-first Rule: When organizing canvassing or other field work, we will focus on optimizing volunteers so as to take the fewest cars possible to a location. Those who have cars with the lowest MPG, including hybrid and electric cars, should be favored in selecting a carpool group.
Community Clean Up: At least once per quarter, all campaign staff and volunteers will be given the opportunity to participate in a community clean-up in one of the towns within the district. The goal should be to identify and clean areas in the district that have a high level of plastic and other physical pollution.
Low-Emissions Campaign Office: When searching for and leasing a campaign office, a key criteria will be the presence of modern, sustainable heating and lighting technology options. After signing a lease, the campaign manager will post this compact in a visible spot in the office, providing another opportunity to educate staff/volunteers. Electric use reduction, heating efficiency, and paper waste reduction will be a top priority in the office’s day-to-day operations.
ACCESSIBILITY
We recognize the barriers that most political campaigns impose on people with disabilities. We believe that all people have a right to participate in the democratic process, and this includes contributing to political campaigns - whether as paid staff, contractor, volunteer or attendee.
Accessible Events: We recognize that without proper planning, in-person events present a significant number of barriers for people with disabilities. As such, we commit to the following:
All of our public events will occur in ADA-compliant venues, with accessible access either at the street level or via a ramp and an elevator if held on an upper level.
All of our public event facilities will have accessible bathrooms for all genders.
To the extent there is a stage area, we will offer a designated ADA-accessible seating area to ensure the proper space and visibility for those in wheelchairs.
If possible, we will create quiet rooms/sensory retreats at all of our in-person events.
Adopting a scent-free policy for all in-person campaign events and work sessions. This includes discouraging the use of perfumes or strongly scented personal products.
We will designate a point of contact to handle accessibility concerns for all events. In most cases this will be the Campaign Manager.
All of our event registration forms will include the ability to request accommodations.
Communications: To support members of our community with cognitive disabilities, who are deaf/hard of hearing, are on the autism spectrum and others, we will ensure our communications, whether in print, electronically (on our website or on social media) or in-person adhere to the following guidelines:
We will use plain language that is well organized and easy to understand. This includes limiting the use of slang words or jargon.
All of our materials will be organized, streamlined, clutter free and have decent contrast.
We will include closed captioning for all videos.
Upon receiving proper notification of the need, we will make assistive listening devices, ASL Interpreters and CART captioning (Communication Access Realtime Translation) available if possible.
We will provide all materials, including agendas, in advance of meetings and will avoid, as much as possible, diversions from those materials and agendas.
Upon request, we will provide large print materials or materials in electronic formats.
Website: One of the best places to learn more about our campaign is on our website; therefore, we strive to make it accessible for all visitors by doing the following:
Adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
Adding a “Skip Navigation” link for users to go directly to the content of the page
Adding in clear and descriptive alternative text in the HTML code for all images so that screen readers can convey the description of the image
Use descriptive words for our links so that screen reader users can easily know what links are directing to
Provide the ability to increase or decrease the font size
Use plain language that is well organized and easy to understand
Organize information logically and highlight the important details first
Use an active voice in all of our text
Use headings to organize pages
Have sufficient color contrast between the text and the background of the page
Use label form fields so screen readers know what goes in each field
Volunteer & Work Opportunities: Our volunteers are the backbone of our campaign, and we want to create as many opportunities as possible for our volunteers to engage in meaningful work. This includes:
Working with staff and volunteers to accommodate their needs; this could include working in smaller groups and/or being assigned to tasks that don’t involve person-to-person interaction.
Maintain the information on our website so that staff, volunteers and attendees have the most up-to-date information on events and other logistics.
Creating opportunities for at-home volunteering, volunteering that can be done outside normal business hours or specific hours and other flexible solutions.
Policy: We are committed to crafting and advocating for policies that address issues people with disabilities in our community face. The first step is to better understand these issues and the needs of our community members with disabilities; we will do this through one-on-one conversations, advisory groups and roundtables and trainings and educational resources through local and nationwide organizations. Our goal is to identify issues that affect members of our campaign and that we have the power to influence, and then craft policies with the contributions and support of a range of members of the disability community.
WORKERS RIGHTS
Protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our campaign staff and volunteers is of utmost importance. This campaign supports the rights of workers to earn livable wages, not be subject to unhealthy work conditions and to unionize.
We support our workers by adhering to the following:
Our campaign staff deserves reasonable work hours.
Work hours are limited to 40 hours per week during non-peak periods (November – May) and 60 hours during peak periods (June – October).
Any work done exceeding these thresholds will be subject to overtime pay and only allowed if agreed to by both the Campaign and the worker.
All workers are entitled to one day off per week, even during GOTV.
Our campaign staff deserves fair wages.
All campaign staff are paid at a rate equal to or greater than $15 per hour.
All campaign staff, whether part- or full-time, will receive one month of severance pay if their employment is terminated before the election.
All interns will be paid at a rate equal to or greater than our minimum hourly rate. In general, we do not hire unpaid interns; in rare circumstances, we will allow unpaid internships for educational credit, but only if the intern chooses this over a paid hourly wage.
Our campaign staff will be reimbursed for all legitimate business expenses. This includes the cost of WI-FI and telephone service when working from home, if there is an increased cost for these items due to campaign work. Workers are asked to disclose foreseeable business expenses beforehand and will be reimbursed within 14 business days of submitting for reimbursement.
Our campaign staff deserve healthcare. All workers working at least 20+ hours per week and who do not otherwise have access to quality and affordable health care will be provided with medical and dental insurance.
Our campaign staff should not face retaliation and discrimination. We have put into place grievance and harassment policies to protect our workers from abuses, which can be viewed here: https://www.megwheeler.com/anti-harassment.
Our campaign staff have the right to unionize. No attempts to deter or dissuade campaign workers from unionizing will be allowed. Campaign leadership will take all reasonable efforts to support campaign staff in this endeavor.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Our campaign is made up of grassroots donors and we can not be bought. As a result of Citizens United, outside groups, corporations and big donors have been able to funnel even more money into politics and buy more votes. Our campaign finance policies have been crafted to ensure that the only allegiance we owe is the voters of our district.
No Fossil Fuel Money
Our campaign has proudly signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge which means that we will not take contributions over $200 from oil, gas, and coal industry executives, lobbyists, and PACs and instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits. Learn more about this pledge here: http://nofossilfuelmoney.org/.
No Corporate PAC Money
Our democracy is at risk because of big money in politics. Our campaign will not take donations from corporate PACs or state-registered lobbyists.
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The Campaign Manager will be charged with implementing this pledge and educating staff/volunteers on it. All members of the campaign and the public are encouraged to reach out to Campaign Manager Sam Kelley (sam@megwheeler.com) with thoughts, suggestions, or revisions. This compact should be considered a living document, and should be shared and amended collectively.