Like a lot of Americans abroad I grumble about our representation in the US Congress. Our issues like citizenship-based taxation and banking don’t seem to be on anyone’s agenda. Are they listening? If so, what exactly are their positions on the things that I and others care deeply about?
This summer I stopped grumbling and started working. I’m a member of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas and it seemed to me that this was a great place to try to do something positive, practical, and useful. Thus, the AARO Midterm Election Project was conceived as a way to answer the above questions for me and for my fellow Americans abroad BEFORE the election.
AARO selected 9 states for this pilot project and project team volunteers sent messages to all the candidates of all parties (this initiative is 100% non-partisan) for the US House and Senate inviting them to answer three questions about taxation, services and banking. Candidates were also given space to send a personal message to their overseas constituent voters.
You can learn more about the project and read the candidate responses (see the right-hand side bar and select a state) on the AARO website at the following link:
AARO 2018 Midterm Election Project
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the responses received so far. Some candidates are indeed listening and have written thoughtful responses. Some understand us very well because they are former Americans abroad or have family members who are. I am also surprised that the state with the most responses so far is Texas.
So head over and have a look. And then please share the responses with your fellow Americans abroad. This is a midterm election resource for ALL of us from Suresnes to Stockholm to Shanghai.
If you would like to be notified when new responses come in the project team is publishing updates on the AARO Facebook and Twitter feeds. If you have any questions about the project, just email the project team at AARO2018@aaro.org.
And if you happen to be a constituent/voter of one of the 9 states and you see that the candidates in your home state and/or district have NOT replied, here’s how you can nudge them into answering in three easy steps.
Because if they don’t answer then that says to me that they aren’t listening. And the last thing Americans abroad need are representatives that don’t listen and won’t take a stand on the issues that matter most to us. My .02.
The Franco-American Flophouse 
This is important work, thank you! Would you tell me what determined which states would participate? Also, because it’s argued that the expat vote could swing elections, would it be of benefit to send the questionnaire to the candidates in all of the nation’s districts that are tossups?
According to this poll, here’s where the races are tossups in the mid-terms. Of those AARO’s sent questionnaires to, they include California districts 10, 25, 35, 45, and 48; Florida district 27; Illinois districts 12, 6; New York districts 19 and 22, Ohio’s district 1; and Washington district 8*. As of this post, none of the candidates in these toss up districts have responded to AARO’s questionnaire.
*some might recall that Congressman Reichert (R) in Washington was at one point a fierce opponent of FATCA.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Suzanne, If you check the paragraph on methodology on the main page we talk about how we selected the states (https://aaro.org/election-2018-candidate-statements-for-expat-americans) and believe me it wasn’t easy. We finally decided to take the top 9 states that were listed as the states of origin of the Americans abroad who participated in Dr. Klekowski von Koppenfels study.
I find it fascinating that some of the toss up races turned out to be ones in the states we selected. Thank you for the info!
This year is a pilot. Honestly we had no idea if we would get any submissions at all. We just did the very best we could and hoped for the best. But if the ^pilot goes well then I think we should do it again in 2020 and do all 50 states. Want to be on the 2020 project team? We would love to have you. 🙂
LikeLike
Hear, hear!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like your summer was much more productive than mine, which was spent mostly in the hospital. Good luck!
LikeLike
Yikes! I’m sorry to hear that Nezumi-san. Are you home now?
LikeLike
Yup, back at home sweet home. Hope all is well with you.
LikeLike
Thanks, Victoria. I’d be happy to help in 2020 if I’m still a US citizen at that time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will take you up on that, Suzanne. If AARO does this again (and I think we will) we will broaden the project team and ask for volunteers from artound the world to help.
LikeLike
Great work Victoria, and thank you for getting involved in this.
The last state I voted in as a US resident was New York. I was very glad to see that Jerry Nadler responded. But as I looked at a number of responses from a number of states, it seemed like the majority just said “Yes”. End of response.
While it’s great to get a response, since the questions were closed yes/no, it doesn’t mean that “our representatives” (yes, in quotes) spent much time at all thinking about the issues raised, even if I think the questions were excellent.
Can you share the reason why the questions were simple yes/no, as opposed to open ended, or a combination of yes/no+open ended?
LikeLike
Thank you, Bruce. Yep, some condidates provided rather pithy responses. But others gave more thoughtful answers.
Good question about the questions! Oh that was a tough part of the project. On one hand were some Americans abroad who wanted very clear statement and positions about CBT. On the other side were the candidates and we couldn’t assume that they knew anything about the topics we were asking about. And the questions couldn’t be too long or too complex. A full education about the CBT or banking issues would fill a page, if not several pages.
So we wrote draft questions and the project team discussed them until we had something we thought could be presented for approval to the AARO board. And at the Board meeting there was another long discussion and we had to go back and do another rewrite. At last they were approved and we could move forward. Took a couple of weeks.
I’m already thinking about how we might formulate questions for 2020 and get input from Americans abroad. Any ideas?
LikeLike
Actually, I’ve got 2 ideas.
1.) Consensus decisions are generally and unfortunately a little bit of the lowest common denominator, let’s-see-how-much-we-can-water-this-down sort. So suggestion: very small group (3 maximum, 2 would be better) who decides on the final wording, but input welcome from everyone.
I’ll think about suggested wording, getting ready to give an on-line class right now. But basically, each question could be a 2 part, style “do you think yes/no, and 2 top reasons for your choice?”.
LikeLike