Organizing a political ride

I want to organize a large-scale bike ride through the city of Chicago as a message for the Bernie Sanders campaign. We would just ride around the city wearing shirts, waving flags, wearing stickers, whatever, chanting BERNIE, just to get word about their and to show the amount of support he has.

My question is, in organizing something like this where say there are potentially 500 people who are riding together, do I need to organize the city or anything special so we don't get shut down or something?

I've never done this before. Any tips?

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Permalink Reply by David Barish on August 27, 2015 at 5:02am

Apart from the bike issues and saying this with no political intent at all I think you want to make sure the Sanders campaign wants you to do this and is in agreement. Even if it is an independent thing you want to know they have no objection. You may also want to know whether they prefer to make it an official campaign ride and whether (as any candidate needs money) whether they want to have a fundraising aspect or whether they even want you to hold it at a time when he is in town. It is one thing to have a handful of cyclists make their statement. I take it you envision something bigger than that. You want to make sure a large scale thing has their blessing or at least does not have their objection. Candidates can be burdened when individuals take action in their name. For example, if there was an accident, an incident etc on the ride you wouldn't want to burden the candidate with your actions. You want to help him. Just a suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Plock on August 27, 2015 at 5:21am

Thanks. Yeah I've already hosted a few events in the city for the campaign and have been in touch with campaign officials about the stuff I'm planning.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on August 28, 2015 at 6:21am

Steve, this is brilliant. I'd like to help out, too. But please, let's not do this like any sort of Critical Mass thing. Imho, that group is counter productive. Civil disobedience has it's place, but not here and I think the Sander's organization would agree with that.