Attending: MoveOn members Claire Cafaro, Ralph Cafaro, Sheldon Carnes, Sergia Coffey, John Kaufmann, Joe Seeman, Frank Stoppenbach, Congressional district candidate Scott Murphy, and his staff person, Mitch Wallace.

We introduced ourselves, & gave Murphy a brief overview of MoveOn.org, its’ membership, history, its’ role in recent elections. Murphy understood MoveOn’s role in progressive politics, and thanked us (& the other 5,000,000 or so MoveOn members) for our work.

We primarily discussed MoveOn’s priority issues (as voted on by MoveOn members):
Clean Energy, Health Care for All, Out of Iraq, & related issues.

On Healthcare: Murphy stated that he believed Healthcare is a Right, is committed to Healthcare reform, that we need to at least create an option for everyone to join an expanded Medicare (as in the Obama plan), that Healthcare policies should not be dictated by Insurance Co profits, & everyone should be able to have the same Health Insurance that members of Congress have. Murphy also was open to our suggestions to support Single Payer Healthcare/HR 676. Murphy was joining Rep. Tonko 2 days after our meeting, in a Healthcare for America Now press conference; we encouraged him to follow Tonko's lead (Tonko is a supporter of Single Payer), and he was receptive.

On Iraq & Afghanistan: Murphy supports Obama’s plan to exit Iraq. He also expressed concern about plans to put more troops in Afghanistan, and the possibility of permanent bases in Iraq. Murphy agreed with many of our points, including the need to cut the Military budget. He supports President Obama's policies in Iraq & Afghanistan. He understands that we need an exit strategy from Afghanistan, that there is ultimately no military solution, only a negotiated military solution to be found there. Murphy mentioned his anti-war activism dating back to his college days 18 years ago, when he protested against the 1st Gulf war, which the Repubs are now trying to use against him.

On Clean Energy and Transitioning to a Green Economy, particularly the plan for a Clean Energy Corps (this appears to be MoveOn’s upcoming main focus):.We presented Murphy with a summary & in-depth report on the Clean Energy Corps (www.greenforall.org/what-we-do/working-with-washington/cec_report/) . Murphy talked about his commitment to developing a Green Economy, and he understood the connections this issue has with other issues - the Green Jobs to be created, the need to stop Climate Change, the need to be independent of foreign oil so as to prevent Wars. Murphy spoke about his background helping businesses developing Energy Efficiency technology, including a more energy efficient car filter being developed by a company in the Hudson Valley that his Venture Capital firm is presently working with. While he had yet not read the proposal for the Clean Energy Corps, he agreed with the general idea, & agree to look further into this, and to support this type of commitment to Clean Energy if he were elected. One of us referred Murphy to look up the Rocky Mountain Institute and the work of Amory Lovins (www.rmi.org) for more in depth ideas about developing Clean Energy.

There was discussion of our Economic crisis. Murphy is supporting President Obama’s plans. We expressed concern about the bailout, lack of transparency, lack of results, lack of potential public return / ownership given the huge public support given the banks. We discussed the derivatives and credit default swaps, & nationalizing the banks. Murphy seemed to have a clear understanding of the immediate economic crisis and the long-term problems with our economy.

We presented Murphy with a collage of "Real Voices for Change" photo petitions (thanks to Jacquie Gemme for putting this together!) which had photos of area citizens (including a few that Murphy recognized) hold signs “I Stand with Obama for <Clean Energy, Health Care for All, Out of Iraq>” (pol.moveon.org/changeweneed/voicesforchange.html).

It was a back & forth conversation, with many ideas discussed. While he didn't commit to our calls for Single Payer Healthcare & getting the troops out of Iraq & Afghanistan immediately, he seemed to understand our points on these issues, be open minded, and welcomed our ongoing input.

Note: MoveOn members contacted Jim Tedsico's campaign, asking for a meeting with Assemblyman Tedisco; Tedsico's campaign did not respond.