Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
As we’ve noisily building momentum on Facebook over the last year, SaveNewport now has over 3,000 subscribers and a weekly reach of more than 35,000 people in [mostly] Newport Beach. Some weeks, our reach peaks over 6 figures! As a project that I started simply to help raise awareness of our city council and management, this has grown further than I had ever imagined– and taken a few pivots along the way.
In addition to my opinion pieces and highlighting of the terrible policies instituted by the current Council, we collectively did something I never would have thought possible: We ousted them all. Every single one of them seeking re-election or vying for open seats was defeated. All three council members seeking re-election lost– badly. The closest race was still lost by about 20 points. All four seats up for election (including the sitting mayor) were taken over. How awesome is that? Our group has also been particularly active in the Ben Carlson memorial, with SaveNewport raising into the five-figures towards the total funds collected for our lost lifeguard.
Moving forward, I will continue to use the platform to provide community news and involvement and will serve as a watchdog as the new council takes office on December 9th. I will be promoting some national-level items (Net Neutrality), and in March we will be filing our paperwork to return election power to districts in Newport– rather than having other districts decide who represents YOU.
Thank you all for your support. Literally none of this would be possible without our amazing community involvement and support.
