No on Question 2: Stop Forced Deposits
The Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) submitted nearly 100,000 signatures to the Massachusetts Legislature in support of an expanded bottle bill. When the legislature failed to pass the measure, MASSPIRG began collecting additional signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. The initiative, Question 2, would have broadened the Commonwealth’s existing $0.05 beverage container deposit law to include nonalcoholic beverages like sports drinks, bottled water, and juice.
New Yorkers For Beverage Choice
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a cap on the size of sugar-sweetened beverages. Once enacted, New Yorkers would no longer be allowed to purchase fountain and bottled beverages in containers that held more than 16 ounces.
The soda industry wasn’t the only one that was threatened — food and beverage vendors and business owners across the five boroughs would be impacted by the proposal.
Broadband For America
The internet service providers at the core of Broadband for America (BFA) have a unique challenge: Despite a responsible and fair-minded decision by the FCC to adjust internet policy to return to the path of booming (and bi-partisan) success for the country from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, a faction in Congress was committed to using an obscure legislative tactic to overturn the FCC’s recommendation — and to keep BFA’s members from having clear guidance for investment ahead. BFA engaged Gunster Strategies to simplify a narratively complicated “process” issue for key constituencies and to position BFA for success with both a critical short-term problem and its longterm strategy.
Nuclear Threat Initiative
The Nuclear Threat Initiative is an organization founded by former Senator Sam Nunn and Ted Turner to involve the private sector in the control of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and of tons of weapons-usable nuclear material stored in over forty countries around the world. The organization is an NGO dedicated to helping achieve the goals of the Nunn Lugar legislation that committed the U.S. to helping secure weapons and material in the former Soviet Union.
Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws
The state of Maryland currently operates under prohibition-era laws that make Maryland one of only three U.S. states to prohibit selling alcohol in retail chain stores. Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws teamed up with Gunster Strategies Worldwide to advocate for chain store sales of alcohol in Maryland, which would lower alcohol prices, increase choice and convenience for consumers, and have a potential $100 million economic impact on the state.
Careful What You Cut
At the end of President Obama's second term, the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility was threatening $60 billion in Medicare cuts over the next 10 years — these are the very funds that were supporting medical schools and residency programs nationwide at a time when millions of new patients were about to flood the health care market.
Coca Cola Mexico
Mexican officials passed the SSB tax which chose to ignore the voice
of the people. Fortunately, the President of Mexico had recently
overhauled a decades-old ban on second terms, which gave elected
officials new incentives to do their jobs. This context provided a
perfect window for the Gunster Team to help re-launch an alliance and
place pressure on those seeking re-election.
Colorado Marijuana Legalization Amendment
Given Colorado’s thriving marijuana industry today, it seems unfathomable that there was a time when marijuana legalization wasn’t on the books in the state. And yet that was the context ahead of the November 2012 election, six years after a legalization measure in Colorado was defeated.
Ahead of this critical 2012 Election Day, Gunster Strategies (then Goddard Gunster) was retained in early 2011 to help map out a strategy to get a sensible ballot initiative passed. Our team directed and conducted foundational quantitative and qualitative opinion research to understand a winning framework; the key insight from that research was the critical consideration of generating support from the statewide law enforcement communities.