Candidate Questionnaire - NY Elections 2024
DRUM Beats is a community-based organization that builds political power grounded in the experiences and demands of working-class South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers, with chapters in:
 Western Queens (Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Astoria, Woodside)
 Eastern Queens (Jamaica, Hillside, Hollis)
 South Queens (Richmond Hill, Ozone Park-City Line)
 Bronx (Parkchester)  
 Brooklyn (Kensington)

Our members are cab drivers, street vendors, domestic workers, retail shop workers, day laborers, fast food workers, public school students, college students, the unemployed or underemployed, office workers, and small family businesses. Our members have origins in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Suriname, Tibet, and Trinidad & Tobago. We organize for racial, immigrant, worker, educational, gender, and global justice, in alliance with working class and People of Color movements here, and movements across the world. DRUM Beats is the sibling organization of DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving, which has over 5,000 members and 20,000 supporters locally, and led the fights to keep out Amazon HQ2 from Queens, won $2.1 billion in a fund for excluded workers, and ended the anti-Muslim NSEERS (Muslim Registry) program amongst many others.

DRUM Beats believes that mass movements are the leading agents of social change and transformation, and elected officials should follow their leadership. Subsequently, we seek to not only hold candidates and elected officials accountable, but also to implement models and structures of shared decision-making and co-governance.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this candidate questionnaire. Please note that information in a completed questionnaire may be used on the DRUM Beats website to share candidate positions with our members and interested parties. IF THERE ARE ANY RESPONSES YOU'D LIKE TO REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL, PLEASE INDICATE SO IN THAT RESPONSE.

After submitting the questionnaire, you will be contacted about whether we have any outstanding questions.

If you have questions about the content of this questionnaire please submit to DRUM Beats - JagpreetDRUM@gmail.com

We will be taking Questionnaires until Friday 10/27
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What is your full name? (of the candidate) *
What district and house are you running in? *
What's the best email address to reach you? *
What is your cell phone number (not of a staffer)? *
Your campaign manager's name? *
Your campaign manager's cell phone number? *
1) Tell us who you are and why you want to serve in the New York Legislature? *
2) Do you accept corporate, PAC, LLC, real estate, law enforcement, or fossil fuel money? If so, which? *
3) What are your top three priorities for this district and the constituent communities? *
4) Tell us about your background, especially your and your family's class background. Please keep response within 250 words. *
5) What is your first memory or realization of class being an important issue? How do your identities and experiences shape your view of the world? And your understandings of what is needed from elected officials? Please keep response within 250 words. *
6) Please share a list of your places of employment, and how long you were at each. Please keep response within 250 words. *
7) What NY community organizations, labor unions, and nonprofits are you and have you been a member of or leader in and for how long? Please keep response within 250 words. *
8) What is an accomplishments as a result of your employment that you are proud of? What accomplishment as a result of the affiliations (#7) are you proud of? Please keep response within 250 words. *
Policy, Platform, Past Record, and Political Practice
We will not ask questions about your policy platform here, since we can review your platform from your website, and your questionnaires submitted to other organizations. 



But we ask some deeper questions below to which we expect self-reflective and thoughtful answers.
9) Are there any particular policies that you uphold that you think are specifically relevant for the communities that DRUM Beats organizes with? Please keep response within 250 words. *
10) Are there any policies in your platform that you in the past did not uphold, or held a contradictory position to, or remained silent on? Please explain your reasonings, evolution, and details. Please keep response within 250 words. *
11) Asides from the relationships that arise out of your employment, what are previous or recent political relationships you have chosen to cultivate and invest in? And why? (community organizations, political organizations, elected officials, businesses, corporations, etc) Please keep response within 250 words. *
12) Have you in the past taken positions, or participated in activities at your place of employment or in political work that you regret or wish you had done differently? Please explain. Please keep response within 250 words. *
13) What is a significant example of you having taken risk (when it was not convenient to do so) for the sake of principles? (in your place of employment, political work, and social or personal settings). Please explain. Please keep response within 250 words. *
14) What is an example of you NOT taking risks, and choosing what was more convenient, in contradiction to your principles? (in your place of employment, political work, and social or personal settings). How do you reflect and draw lessons from them? Please keep response within 250 words. *
15) SCENARIO: The Speaker of your House and the Governor have a taken a hard position on an issue that is harmful for your constituents. But if you take a stand against them, they will cut funding to your district, and cut you out of committees. How would you manage and navigate this situation? Please keep response within 250 words. *
16) What is a significant example of you taking responsibility for a mistake or shortcoming? (in your place of employment, political work, and social or personal settings). Please detail, especially if they would be relevant to to the character of an elected official, and your reflection on your own growth as a result. Please keep response within 250 words. *
17) How effective of an organizer are you in being able to successfully move people from their current positions towards where you need them to be? Please share any examples. Please keep response within 250 words. *
18) What strategies and efforts are you making for your campaign to be viable, and to have broad support from within your district? Please keep response within 250 words. *
19) Who are the grassroots formations or community leaders in your district supporting your campaign that may not have endorsing abilities? Please share 3 names and contacts. Please keep response within 250 words. *
20) What are your thoughts on co-governance? Are you open to agreements for co-governance and shared decision-making? Please share any processes, structures, and partners you would propose or consider. Please keep response within 250 words. *
21) Once elected, how frequently would you commit to meeting with members of DRUM Beats and our sibling organization DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving? Please keep response within 250 words. *
22) Are there any rumors, allegations, or critiques about you that are circulating or may emerge that you would like to pro-actively address? Please keep response within 250 words. *
23) If you have run before and did not win, can you briefly describe what lessons you have learned and what steps you are taking to implement those lessons?  Please keep response within 250 words.
24) Any other things you would want to share with us for consideration? Please keep response within 250 words.
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