"We're two-thirds of the way to our goal of 30,000. We've had a great response from working people!" said an exultant Perasso, who has been campaigning on the streets with dozens of supporters for the past two weeks. The goal is twice the number required to qualify for ballot status.

Coming out of the July 27–29 Active Workers Conference in Ohio that many socialist campaigners are attending, they will swing into action to get the remaining 10,000 signatures and process the necessary paperwork by August 21. Perasso urged supporters of the socialist campaign to join in the final effort to bring home a success.

The past week was a rewarding one for supporters of the socialist campaign. Elena Tate, a leader of the Young Socialists in New York, joined a campaign team at the giant Co-op City housing complex in the Bronx--one of a dozen petitioning teams that fanned out across the city on Sunday, July 23. In an afternoon's work, 89 people signed her petitions.

Tate reported that one man grabbed a petition board saying "Socialists! Great, I'll sign!" He told her he used to be a sailor and had worked with socialists in one of the maritime unions.

"A high school student was excited to hear from us about the August 26 March on Washington against police brutality," Tate said. "He wants to come to the demonstration with the Young Socialists. Another student already knew about the march and said he and a group of friends were planning to go."

Gabe, a Young Socialist who was on a campaign team in Jamaica, Queens, reports, "We got a really good response to the issues of fighting police brutality and the death penalty. We were really flying! One woman told me how her nephew had been beaten up by the cops. Then she called her son over and asked him to sign."

Campaign teams have also gone upstate to Buffalo and Albany, and to Yonkers and Spring Valley.

In addition, several teams are campaigning to put Paul Pederson on the ballot in the 12th Congressional District. The district includes a broad swath of Brooklyn and sections of the Lower East Side and Chinatown in Manhattan.

As this issue goes to press, socialist petitioners have 1,800 signatures for Pederson in hand. They plan to file 7,000 signatures, double the requirement.

Campaign organizer Don Mackle noted, "We have to make a concentrated effort to make our goal for Pederson as we keep up the momentum on the statewide campaign. That's a special challenge for us in the next three weeks.  
 
 
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