Rants, Signs and M&M's: THE 49 Pays Attention to Politics

Rants, Signs and M&M's: THE 49 Pays Attention to Politics

In early 2005, enigmatic blue signs started popping up around Iowa City, in many cases taking the place of tattered John Kerry signs. The new signs simply read "THE 49." It turned out not to be a group of San Francisco football fans, but rather a new organization meant to activate and inform voters.

THE 49 is a small, local, progressive group that formed in response to the 2004 presidential election. Niki Neems, Trish Zebrowski and Iowa City Council Member Regenia Bailey were discussing the results. "We were commiserating together and decided to commiserate in an organized fashion," said Neems. "It started as an anger-coping thing, and now it's morphed into the idea of being personally responsible."

The name refers to "the 49" percent of voters who did not vote for Bush. The group meets monthly in members' homes for rants, action and food. Dark-chocolate M&M's are always included.

"Our primary mission is to take personal responsibility for educating ourselves and others on the issues so that we can be better informed as citizens and as voters," said member Kathy Gloer.

During the Aug. 1 meeting at the home of Melanie Friedman, a dozen 49ers decided to focus on the fall Iowa City council races, rather than host a mock caucus. The informal consensus was that, as several campaigns have already planned or hosted mock caucuses, the local focus would be a better use of energy.

The group's most visible activities to date have been two yard-sign campaigns. The first set of signs sprouted soon after the election. These signs said THE 49 in Democratic blue. The new signs, also blue, say "Paying Attention 2008."

"We envision the yard-sign campaign as a fun way to encourage people to pay attention to the political process," said Gloer. "We're hoping to get people interested in researching the candidates and to participate in the caucuses." Members are writing and posting candidate profiles on the group's website.

"We freely identify THE 49 as a progressive group, but we don’t market ourselves as being affiliated with the Democrats or any other party," said Gloer. The group does not endorse candidates. Members have rarely been unanimous in backing any candidate. An exception was when member Amy Correia successfully ran for a city council seat in 2005.

Gloer said the group has a list of issues to research in the coming months, including accountability in government, civil rights/unions, defense, education, election reform, environment, foreign policy, gun control, health care, immigration, minimum wage, poverty, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"While our educational mission is similar to, say, the League of Women Voters, our style is much more informal and we tend to be more 'activist' in the community," said Gloer. "We aren’t looking to be a large organization with committees and a formal structure, but feel that we are contributing greatly to the community as a smaller group. We feel that it's important to keep groups relatively small so that everyone has a chance to voice their opinion, and so that each group can develop a sense of camaraderie and a support system that works for them."

Members see other 49 groups evolving elsewhere in the state if interested community members want to learn more and support one another in the political process.