To Pass Proposition 30, Young Adults Visit South L.A. Homes
Comments (0)
Lia Evans, a recent USC graduate (Neon Tommy/Zihao Yang)
If California's Prop. 30 is passed, it would temporarily raise taxes on individuals earning over $250,000 a year --and couples over $500,000 -- for seven years to pay for public schools, colleges and universities. Sales taxes would increase by a fourth of a cent.
The leader of the effort, Jesus Andrade, said, “We know it is effective to go to door and door, and actually talk to those voters, because they have the conversation with you, we want people get out and vote.”
Alberto Retana, the executive vice president of the Community Coalition, supports this idea because “knocking on doors is a part of community organizing, it is better than a flyer, better than a commercial, and better than a letter, because of the one-on-one contact that occurs.”
A Field Poll released this week showed support for Prop 30 holding at 48 percent among likely voters, with 14 percent of voters still undecided. Andrade’s goal is to turn at 3-4 percent of undecided voters into supporters of the measure.
About 800 houses were directly contacted on Saturday under the efforts of Community Coalition volunteers. Within the statewide campaign, about a million voters have been informed about the proposition.
According to Andrade, most of the volunteers in the South L.A. campaign were “interns, high school students, members, staff and friends.”
Jordan McRae, a Loyola Marymount University student studying political science said, “I want to do something besides food banks; something that will actually help the community as a whole.”
Another student, Lia Evans, a recent USC graduate, said that “being a part of a team that is able to engage voters, make sure where the focuses of issue is and get their voices on Tuesday is really important.”
Reach Staff Reporter Zihao Yang here.
Jiawei Wang contributed to this story.
