Project Description
Passage of LD 967: An Act To Ensure Access to Community Services for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities or Autism
Category
Public Affairs Campaign
Objectives
- Create urgency for legislative action addressing a critical situation
- Obtain support for and help to secure passage of subsequent legislation
Methods
- Implement earned media campaign to generate desired urgency
- Place follow up stories, editorials, and op-eds to maintain awareness and urgency
- Identify and engage grasstops advocates to influence key legislators through op-eds, news stories, and committee testimony
Results
- Total media coverage resulted in over 47 million impressions over a seven-month period.
- Secured feature stories, op-eds, and editorials in major outlets across Maine. Most important of these being a 3,000 word, above the fold, front page investigative report in the Maine Sunday Telegram resulting in elevation of the issue into a public policy crisis and filing of LD 967.
- Obtained steady coverage throughout the legislative process and initiated grasstops advocacy engaging influential stakeholders, such as the President of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.
- Legislative leaders drafted and passed an emergency bill allocating $15 million to achieve MACSP’s policy objectives.
