Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
Deval Patrick’s 2006 campaign broke new ground in showing how online tools could be used to effectively harness the power of grassroots citizen engagement. While the campaign served as a blueprint for future campaigns, including the 2008 Obama campaign, Governor Patrick faced the challenge of promoting citizen involvement in the governing process. Charged with the task of creating a platform to engage citizens in the 2009 budget process, SocialSphere and senior members of Governor Patrick’s staff developed an Idea Mine that focused citizen engagement and energy around the big challenges facing the sate as it confronted a series of difficult budget cut decisions. Hundreds of citizens from across the state participated, and a task force of a dozen members took the ideas of citizens from across the state and organized them into a report to present to the Governor and his staff.
At the end of the process, the Governor and members of his Cabinet met in person with the task force to discuss the ideas of citizens from across the state as they navigated their way through the budget process and sought ways to incorporate the ideas into the 2009 budget.
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