Case study: #ByeAnita campaign
In the spring of 2016, local activists united to campaign against the re-election of Anita Alvarez – State’s Attorney for Cook County, Illinois. Alvarez had been involved in mishandling several cases in which white Chicago police officers had shot and killed young, black Chicago residents.
In 2012, Officer Dante Servin fatally shot 22 year-old, unarmed Rekia Boyd – and he was found “not guilty” of manslaughter in a case that Alvarez was involved in.
But the #ByeAnita wave of activity more closely followed a case in which Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October of 2014. Van Dyke was eventually charged – but 13 months after McDonald’s death, and many argue Alvarez brought the charges to avoid public outrage after release of dashcam footage of the shooting.
The information below is about the Chicago organizers whose campaign led to Anita Alvarez's sound defeat in her campaign for re-election – despite leading polls and fundraising even a month before the race.
- Top numbers
- Quotes from organizers
- How did Anita lose? A timeline
- Social media usage examples
- Why is this important in the long term?
Top numbers
In sum, these numbers show that even a month before the election, it looked like Anita Alvarez was in a strong position to win re-election – yet she lost at almost 30 points behind her challenger. The numbers also show strong engagement, with heightened early voting numbers and voter turnout overall, and less "roll-off" (when voters leave down-ballot votes blank).
Month-before, polls of support for Anita Alvarez and her challengers:
Anita Alvarez led polls with 34% support
Kim Foxx at 27%
Donna More at 12%
26% undecided
Voting results:
Kim Foxx - 58%
Alvarez - 29%
More - 13%
Funding of candidates:
- As of end of December 2015, Alvarez had raise > $700,000 to Foxx’s $367,000 & More’s $217,000.
Early voting #s showing strong engagement:
- 102,409 early ballots in Cook County. 51,116 early votes cast in Cook County for 2008 primary.
High voter turnout showing strong engagement:
- 53% of registered voters in Chicago voted on March 15 in the city’s fifth highest turnout since 1944 (Jim Allen, spokesperson for Chicago Election Board).
Lower roll-off, showing strong engagement in down ballot races like Anita Alvarez's:
- Number of people who didn’t cast votes down ballot dropped by about half compared with 2008, the last time there was a contested primary for state’s attorney.
Infographic from Chicago Mag:
Quotes from organizers
Mariame Kaba, organizer & educator involved in #ByeAnita campaign:
“The #ByeAnita campaign was one arm of a larger electoral organizing effort to defeat Alvarez. But it energized particular populations that do not usually focus on local races and especially prosecutor elections. Our use of social media is something that should be a case study for others who want to similarly oust local officials. Turnout was higher than usual for primaries in Cook County and this was attributed in part to the State’s Attorney race.”
Chicago organizing group Assata's Daughters, in a statement to Colorlines:
“Chicago Black youth have kicked Anita Alvarez out of office. Just a month ago, Anita Alvarez was winning in the polls. Communities who refuse to be killed, jailed, and abused without any chance at justice refused to allow her to be re-elected as State’s Attorney. We did this for Rekia… We did this for Laquan... We won’t stop until we’re free and Kim Foxx should know that as well.”
Statement by collective of Chicago organizing groups, including BYP100, Assata’s Daughters, F.L.Y., and BLM: Chicago:
“The #ByeAnita campaign celebrated last night. Not because Kim Foxx won, but because Anita Alvarez lost. Due to her essential role in the cover-up of Laquan McDonald's murder, young black organizers relentlessly targeted Alvarez’s campaign for reelection in the final weeks. Not because we support Kim Foxx, but because Anita Alvarez is a prosecutor who has demonstrated that she does not believe Black Lives Matter. When we began to target Alvarez's campaign she was ahead of her opponents in the polls. Last night, we saw the fruits of our labor manifest as Anita Alvarez conceded the Cook County state's attorney race.”
How did Anita lose? A timeline
Key events in fall 2015:
October 20, 2014: Laquan McDonald shot 16 times & killed by Officer Jason Van Dyke in Chicago
November 24, 2015: Officer Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder & dashcam footage of shooting is released
Weeks of street protests, blocking traffic, disrupting Black Friday & a decision to run Alvarez out of office. Protesters blocked the Congress entrance to the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Dan Ryan Expressway [DNAinfo/Devlin Brown]:
December 15, 2015: Rahm Emanuel discharges Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy after major protests over the tapes showing Laquan McDonald’s death
January 2016: Local Democratic party pulls support from Alvarez and endorses Foxx
Key events in spring 2016:
Mariame Kaba, organizer & educator involved in #ByeAnita campaign:
“The #ByeAnita #AlvarezMustGo campaign of the past few weeks is unique. The lead groups and individuals involved did not work in coordination with any particular candidate or officially endorse one (much to some people’s consternation). Instead groups and individuals organized an outside political education campaign that relied on direct action, teach ins, traditional canvassing and social media. Actions were both autonomous and also strategically planned/coordinated. Four local youth-driven groups, Assata’s Daughters, Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) and Black Lives Matter Chicago (BLM Chi), planned and executed over a dozen direct actions in less than a month.”
The more than a dozen direct actions staged by coalition in last month came together with a budget of less than $1000. There were many interruptions of Alvarez fundraising events, including disruption of 3 events within 24 hours.
Other outreach included by People’s Lobby, which made 200,000 phone calls & door-knocks to likely voters in Chicago and the city’s southern suburbs. And BYP100 spoke to 2,500 voters, by phone and through canvassing, who were likely to vote for Foxx.
Example of an action:
The day before the primary, Assata’s Daughters & allies unfurled 16 banners across Chicago:
“Blood on the ballot,” reads one banner hanging over the Kennedy Expressway at Irving Park. “Justice for Rekia, no votes for Anita, reads another hung over the Nicholas Bridge of the Art Institute of Chicago. “#AdiosAnita 16 shots and a cover up,” reads another on Western Avenue near 18th Street.” (Chicagoist & Prison Culture)
Photo collage by Monica Trinidad:
Social media usage
Writer Kelly Hayes described how social media was part of the strategy of the #ByeAnita campaign. She wrote that the #ByeAnita banner allowed for multi-pronged, decentralized action, and "events where activists successfully caught up with Alvarez and disrupted her events were chronicled on Twitter under the hashtag #ByeAnita.” The campaign used public help to locate Alvarez’ campaign events with memes and #WheresAnita hashtag, and artists from For the People Artists Collective participated in collecting and interpreting stories from actions, arrests, etc. & photographing people with signs with the hashtag on it.
Why is this important in the long term?
Key points:
Prosecutors have often shielded police from accountability
Legal standards for prosecuting an officer are very high
Prosecutors hesitate to charge, because they have to work with police and because police unions can sway elections with money and votes
Most importantly, organizing an alternative political force – such as a base of young black voters and allies who align with Black Lives Matter – to provide a counter-influence to police unions in elections is important to motivating prosecutors to holding police officers accountable for crimes.
In the words of Adam Serwer, National News Editor at Buzzfeed:
“Because so many of these shootings happen in urban areas, the elected prosecutors are often Democrats — which means that, thanks to a more liberal primary electorate, black voters can exert more pressure on candidates than they might be able to in a general election. The Black Lives Matter movement has made voters more conscious of these incidents than ever before. Forcing out prosecutors who refuse to charge police with crimes for fatal shootings of unarmed black men may be the best sustainable strategy of changing that national culture of impunity, where police need only say they were afraid to justify ending someone’s life. If prosecutors know they will pay a price for letting cops slide, they will be less likely to do so.”