Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr

This Saturday at 10:30 am in Room 1347 on the ground floor of the UCLA Law School on the Westwood campus., the League of Cycling Voters will hold its first meeting, with basically a month to go before its first electoral test, to organize itself in the short and long-term.  The idea behind the League is that it would be a place for cyclists to evaluate and endorese candidates for political office based on their views of bicycling.  After years of advocacy being limited to personal or non-political advocacy; the League is one of two groups formed in the last year that will take positions on political candidates.

The meeting is open to the public.

I found the entry on Biking In L.A. announcing the meeting a little dense, so I called on of the founders of the League, Ted Rogers to discuss the meeting.

"The first order of business will be to decide if we’re going to have a group," Rogers joked when I asked him about the agenda.  He’s not far from the truth though, one of the first decisions the League has to make is whether to organize as a 501c(4), a non-profit with political goals, or something else.  Once that’s done, there are short term and long term goals left to discuss.

The League wants to play a role in next month’s primary elections, and has been working on a questionairre for candidates.  One of the groups founders has been talking to candidates for office in the South Bay, and Rogers hopes that someone coming to this week’s meeting has some connections to the candidates for Governor.  It’s going to take a lot of work in a short amount of time to get endorsements done in time for the primary, but Rogers promises that after Saturday’s meeting, "We’ll be in business next week."

But the "pre-business" era is off to a good start.  A handful of Assembly candidates have already reached out for an endorsement and one of the candidates for Maxine Waters’ Congressional seats is rumored to be stopping by on Saturday.

But the League doesn’t just want to play a periphery role in next month’s elections, but wants to be organized for future elections in a much larger way.  To that end, they’ll be looking for volunteers and leaders to help set-up the organization, do outreach to other groups, write questionnaires and get in touch with the candidates.  If you’re interested in helping out in any way, you should make time to visit with the League on Saturday or visit their website to find other ways to get involved.