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INDIANAPOLIS (LifeSiteNews) — A volunteer member of the LifeSite League showed the power of quick, committed activism when she mobilized hundreds of people to speak out against a dangerous amendment to an Indiana bill.
An amendment to HB 1265, an elections bill, would have allowed a Democrat-stacked commission in the deep-red state to kick attorney general candidates off the ballot for being disbarred or suspended. Republican state senator Mike Gaskill allowed the amendment to be introduced, but it is unknown who authored it. Facing backlash, he killed the amendment.
READ: Indiana GOP senator retracts bill that would empower Democrats to kick AG candidates off ballot
Attorney General Todd Rokita, who faced sanctions for making critical comments about an abortionist in the state, criticized the amendment.
Conservatives, including Joy Pullman at The Federalist, saw the legislation as a way to target Republicans. In fact, a Republican challenger to the conservative attorney general has suggested he is running because Rokita “may not be eligible,” as reported by the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Vicki Yamasaki runs Corpus Christi for Unity and Peace, which works with LifeSite League to defend traditional values. She spoke to LifeSiteNews recently about how she was able to mobilize the faithful to oppose the amendment.
She put together a call to action to her extensive email list, Yamasaki told LifeSiteNews in a phone interview. She gave her team a call to action button and a script and asked them to contact that day.
“The amendment being proposed is clearly a violation of the Indiana Constitution and a threat to the rule of law in Indiana,” the message stated in part. “HB 1265 passed out of the Senate Elections committee where the amendment has already been added. It is now up for the full vote of the Senate. After that it will return to the House for another vote.”
“I sent that out and I asked people to immediately begin calling and emailing the Pro Tem Roderick Bray… the Senate majority leader… and also send it on to the House leader,” Yamasaki said of her email blast.
She also had people contact federal Indiana representatives.
“They began to do that, and my phone was blowing up, my email was blowing up,” the Carmel, Indiana, Catholic told LifeSiteNews. “It was a very successful campaign.”
“I can only presume that that had a significant influence on their decision to pull this,” she said.
Within a day of the email going out, the amendment died.
Citizens must fight back, Yamasaki said.
Yamasaki provided insights for other activists on how they can make a difference in stopping politicians.
The activists used a “polite” but also a “clear email” that criticized the “unconstitutional” amendment for affecting the “rule of law.”
Receiving “hundreds of calls and emails” from people in one day likely sank it, she said.
Her email distribution list also includes “leaders in the legislature.” After sending out the email, an Indiana House member “thanked me for taking the initiative for doing this because no one else was doing it,” she said.
The representative was “appalled” at what was happening.
Whether Rokita or someone else was the target of the legislation, conservative commentators warned it was a way for liberals to weaponize government.
“Multiple Democrat pressure groups such as The 65 Project and Lawyers Defending Democracy now exist specifically to harass, intimidate, and force potentially tens of thousands of dollars of representation costs on their political opponents for constitutionally protected free speech,” Joy Pullman wrote for The Federalist.
“This means any Republican attorney general is at high risk of an ethics complaint unless he represents no challenge to Democrat priorities,” the political commentator and Indiana resident wrote.
LifeSite League’s activism is a model for how to respond to left-wing attacks.
Yamasaki told LifeSiteNews why the activism worked.
“Any time that you’re trying to influence a legislator, they’re going to keep going if they don’t see citizens that have an adverse reaction to these measures.”
Join LifeSite League, the new network for readers and citizen journalists. Help us build the alternatives we need – together.