Via Carl Whitmarsh: After personal notification from Texas Democratic Party Vice Chair Lenora Sorola Pohlman - a proud resident herself of Harris County's Fighting Fifteenth District, represented by the Dean of the Texas Senate, the Honorable John Whitmire, that the State Democratic Executive Committee has today awarded the 2012 Texas Democratic Party State Convention to Houston! The convention will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. Remember that the 2010 State Convention will be held in Corpus Christi in June 2010!
After the TDP Convention in June, when we looked at all the numbers, we saw that about 40% of the SDEC turned over. There were a bunch of new kids, and because we were in the crunch of the election season, the not-so-new kids requested that the TDP not schedule a meeting until after November 4. Given that we had no training and that the farther-flung folks would have to lose valuable campaigning time to travel to Austin for a meeting, the TDP agreed, and scheduled our first meeting for November 15.
An appeals court has declined to revive a Texas Democratic Party lawsuit that claimed thousands of state voters could be disenfranchised by electronic voting machines used in 100 counties and most major cities, including Austin.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin properly dismissed the lawsuit last year.
The eSlate machines are made by Hart InterCivic Inc. of Austin, but the party's lawsuit targeted the Texas Secretary of State's Office, which
administers state elections.
The key reason for this outcome, was the Supreme Court case Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. This case dealt with an Indiana Voter ID law.
(As we move into the general election season, and gain back the stolen ground the Republicans of Texas are squatting on, Texas Kaos is delighted to announce that John Robert Behrman has agreed to do a biweekly column for us.
John Robert Behrman is an economist and fifth-generation Texan. He is Executive Vice-Chair of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party and State Committeeman for Senate District 13 posting here with his personal views only. - promoted by boadicea)
The Democratic Party of Texas is old and, today, large -- not nearly as large as it could and should be.
At a minimum, it is a political "identity", polling today in Texas at less than a majority but more than the other party. I do not have the state polling on that in hand, but both the national and Harris County numbers I have seen recently were 43% of likely voters in both cases.
Let's imagine I'm a delegate at the State Convention, and I know nothing about you or who you are. We meet, dispense with small talk, and you have thirty seconds to tell me why you should be re-elected as State Chair. What do you say?
The Party has great plans for this fall election. We've got to come out of this convention united, and we can't lose focus. Our focus needs to be on down-ballot races and let the Presidential race take care of itself. We need to move forward with message and GOTV efforts for November, and I'm ready and eager to continue being the person to raise money and prepare an effective GOTV effort in the fall. If we do that, great things will happen this November, because I think we have the best opportunity in a long, long time to turn Texas blue again.
Two years ago, you pledged in your campaign for State Chair to increase fundraising efforts, rebuild and improve field staff and grassroots outreach, and expand Party communications efforts. I want to talk about each of those areas separately. We'll start with fundraising -- what has the TDP done better over the last two years to improve its fundraising?
What I'm most proud of is that we've improved our Majority Builders program, formerly known as our sustaining membership porgram. We've really ramped that up recently and done training with the Majority Builders committee, who have produced trainings and gone out across the state. Our sustaining membership numbers are up, which is an important positive because those regular contributions from more and more people are valuable to our party.
As we reported recently, we've had the best 1st quarter that we've had in many, many years. The good part about that is that the number of individual donors has increased and the average donation has increased. That's a curve that has been steadily climbing. The online fundraising has seen a tremendous improvement, as well, and you can see about both of those totals on my website.
I'm very pleased that the fundraising has gone the way that it has and that we've had success going back to our donors who are able to write larger checks to assist us with different projects. As you know, we had a very good turnout at our salute to the Legislature just before the last Session; we had tremendous success with our post-debate watch party; we've added additional fundraising staff to boost our efforts. Amy Boone, our finance director, has done a great job creating events.
I've been to Beaumont, Lubbock, and everywhere in between to continue doing fundraisiners and visiting across the state about the importance of giving to the Party. We've seen some real improvements in fundraising, and hopefully that continues into the fall so we can win in November.
What are some of your goals for this fall election?
We want a very solid GOTV program. I'd really like to see that program raise enough money to put into effect a solid message of voting a straight Democratic ticket. I especially want to see a strong GOTV program in the El Paso area and the South Texas area where we've seen voter dropoff between the primary and general election. If we can raise money to have effective messaging in those areas it will play great dividentds for all our candidates in the fall.
The truth is, Phillip, I just can't say enough about our slate for all offices, and our judicial candidates in particular. We have a tremendous group of folks that can go around the state and do a great job reaching out and building their campaigns, and I'm eager to continue working with them for November and to make sure this year builds into 2010. We also want to protect the gains we made this past cycle, including the freshmen Texas House members, and then we need to raise enough money to win at least five more seats and replace Craddick in January.
We need to utilize every effort we have to replace John Cornyn. Talk about a tremendous candidate, Rick is just superb. With Cornyn's recent abandonment of our troops with his vote on the GI bill -- and just the stellar work Rick did over the last weekend driving his message home -- I think Rick has a tremendous chance to take back our Senate seat, and we're going to do everything in our power to help him do that.
This leads into a question I wanted to raise, which is really a concern I've read of you and your time as Chair. The critique is that the TDP doesn't run a broad enough statewide campaign for Democrats. Specifically, there is a worry that the TDP will only target a select number of Texas House seats this cycle, and write off the rest of the ticket. How would you address these concerns?
First thing I'd ask them to do would be to open up their wallets and their checkbooks, because while we're expanding our fundraising efforts compared to years past, we don't have a money fly that puts money in our pocekts. At the end of the day, what we're able to do based on statewide GOTV efforts is based on the money we can raise. If we don't have enough money to do statewide efforts, then we have to be smart and strategic about the money we do have. If we aren't, then donors have no reason to trust us and give again.
We do know -- from the last cycle that our mail and phones coupled with partnerships with other groups -- that getting out the mssage to vote a straight democratic ticket works. Nothing would tickle me more than to have sufficient funds on hands to run a sufficient GOTV effort across the state. That's what I'm working for, that's what I'm shooting for, and that's what we're going to do to the best of our ability.
I understand those critics and what they're saying, and I honestly share their frustration. I want to do a complete statewide effort, but that doesn't happen without being able to fund GOTV efforts. With whatever money we raise, we'll focus our efforts as best we're able to on a statewide, well-coordinated GOTV effort.
There's much, much more in the interview. Click "There's More" below to continue reading...
One of the resolutions that got killed Saturday was the one that would have put a referendum on Iraq on the primary ballot. This was the second round in the fight to get the Iraq referendum on the ballot. The Iraq referendum resolution had already passed the Resolutions Committee at the last SDEC meeting a few months ago and it was even brought up to the full SDEC meeting back then. It would have passed the full SDEC then, but it was unnecessarily tabled at that earlier meeting because party leaders were ignorant of the Texas statute that allowed the SDEC to put referendums on the ballot. They had to go look up the statute after the meeting and then found out that the grassroots activists were right and the SDEC could put referendums on the ballot just by a vote of the SDEC. It is unbelievable that the party tabled the proposal on such a lame motion. The parliamentarian or the person chairing the meeting should have been aware of the rules and allowed a vote on the resolution. Such ignorance of the rules is a joke. We need to elect party leaders at the next convention who have a basic understanding of state laws pertaining to party business.
Thanks to the undemocratic refusal of party insiders to allow a vote, the resolution failed to pass a second time last weekend. So now there will be no referendum on Iraq on the Texas Democratic Party ballot. I wanted to find out what happened, so tonight I called a few people on the phone. Madeleine Dewar, a member of the SDEC and one of the official sponsors of the Vote Us Out of Iraq resolution, called the meeting a "disaster" and said that she had the thirty two votes needed to pass the resolution in advance of the meeting. Scott Cobb, who initiated the campaign, last summer to get the referendum on the ballot said: "In California, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that had passed the California legislature on Aug 31 to put a referendum on Iraq on the ballot in California. The Texas Democratic Party should be ashamed of itself for acting like Schwarzenegger and preventing a referendum on Iraq from being on the ballot."
From: Allan R. Jamail
Senatorial District 6
(SDEC) Texas State Democratic Executive Committeeman
Chairman's Advisory Committee
(via email)
Today Saturday, August 25, 2007 the State Democratic Executive Committee (TDP) had their meeting in Austin, Texas.
Chairman Boyd Richie announced that even though the Texas Republican Officials prevented Texas voters from having an early Primary in 2008 Texans still will be able to cast a vote for the Presidential Candidate of their choice in a STRAW VOTE.
Beginning this coming Friday, August 31st. you can log on to the Texas Democratic Party web site and cast your unofficial vote..... The polling will last for one week, please pass this information on to all Democrats.
This poll will be your way of expressing who your choice for President is.
(This is another , elaborating report on the Open Thread this AM. Well worth a read....
Editted and reformatted for the front page. - promoted by lightseeker)
Below is a statement from Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie on an anti-voter bill that failed to win the necessary votes to be considered in the State Senate. HB 218, which is opposed by AARP, the League of Women Voters and other nonpartisan groups, is part of a national Republican agenda designed to suppress voting by selected groups of voters who typically vote Democratic.
"I applaud Democratic State Senators for standing firm against a Republican voter suppression bill that would blatantly trample the voting rights of millions of elderly, disabled, poor and minority Texans, particularly Senators Mario Gallegos and Carlos Uresti, who remained dedicated to the rights of Texas voters even in the face of illness. Despite Lt. Governor Dewhurst's partisan trickery and despicable attempt to ram this bill through the Senate by taking advantage of a Democratic colleague's sickness, Senate Democrats remained united in their efforts to preserve democracy, protect Texas voters and defeat this legislation.
I am this AM at the Texas Young Democrat Convetion in Austin. I will try to blog about the event as the day proceeds. What is noteworthy so far is that there are high schoolers here at all. Three years ago, there were none. Last year there were 3 high schools represented. Today there are 6. The numbers are small, with only 1 representative from Houston Emery and Houston Audey, but this is a crucial and welcomed expansion of the TYD and potential party outreach. You build a party from teh ground up. You get the young invovled early and you let them grow in the organization.
Also at the convention is a small delegation from A and M Consolidated, College Station. Larger groups came from Strake Jesuit C.P. Houston (13)and Houston Bellaire (12). All told we are 34 strong with 4 chaperones.
I must single out the work of Cathy Meyer and her daughter Christina Meyer for special praise. I take kids on out of town trips as part of my work. I have rarely seen such excellent organization and follow up. The presence and participation of high schoolers in this event would not have been possible without their tireless efforts.
A little good news for Saturday. More as the day progresses!
Heads up! Tonight the Texas Democratic Party is holding a town hall meeting in Fort Worth. Tonight's meeting will take place at the Tarrant County College South Campus Student Center. The meeting is scheduled to run from 6:30 - 8:30PM. TCC is located at 5301 Campus Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76119. The Student Center (#22) can be found on this map. TexasKaos staff will be attending this meeting, and will post a report (with pictures) tomorrow. All metroplex Democrats are invited and encouraged to attend.
Also, the Dallas county town hall will take place this Saturday. It'll happen at the Frank Crowley building at 133 North Industral Blvd. VAN Training will be offered from 10:00 - 11:00AM, and the town hall will commence at 11:00. Once again, all metroplex Democrats are invited to the meeting, and attending the VAN training is highly encouraged. We hope to see you there!
The TDP has released a statement in support of moving our primary to February 5th:
"In order to give all Texans a greater voice in the presidential nominating process, the Texas Democratic Party fully supports legislation introduced in the State House to move the 2008 primary date. Texas Democrats have consistently backed election-related measures that would give the concerns of Texas voters more influence in our national affairs, and we support the efforts of legislators who have taken lead on this issue, including State Representatives Roberto Alonzo, Helen Giddings and Trey Martinez Fischer.
The rest of the release is beneath the fold. And take the poll, too!
Progress! Coming on the heels of news of their record-breaking fundraiser, the Texas Democratic Party has announced that they've hired a regional director for West Texas:
Today, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie announced the addition of Terrysa Guerra to the TDP staff as Regional Field Director for the West Texas region. Terrysa, who has spent over four years organizing for grass roots activists and Labor Unions, is part of the State Partnership Project that is sponsored by the Democratic National Committee.
The entire TexasKaos staff has long advocated a strategy of fighting in all 254 counties, especially rural communities that have been ignored for too long. I'm taking this as a sign that the TDP is beginning to take the 254 County Strategy seriously, and I look forward to hearing Ms. Guerra's ideas for expanding our base.
Click beneath the fold for the rest of the release. And if any of yall in West Texas are lurking today, pipe up and give us some background on Ms. Guerra, will ya?
(I say publicize all these meetings & get an active citizenship which holds it's officials accountable. I hear good things about TCEC - be respectful. Anywhere! - promoted by krazypuppy)
The CEC meets tomorrow, Wednesday February 28.
6:00pm in the Commissioners' Courtroom
in the Granger Building
11th and Guadalupe, Austin.
It is open to everyone.
TCDP welcomes David Holmes, our local Democratic National Committee (DNC) representative, and Boyd Richie, Chair, Texas Democratic Party (TDP) to this month's CEC meeting. They will speak about what each entity does and how they relate to each other. Additionally, they will give us an update of what is going on with the national and state parties.
Hmmmm, a nice small group where you can ask Mr. Richie questions. Should be interesting. Go tell him your favorite adjective for the state of the party.
(I'm promoting diary for the discussion. This is NOT an endorsement. Should the TDP be expected to publicize Presidential candidates campaigning in Texas? - promoted by krazypuppy)
The Texas Democratic Party (TDP) is again asleep at the wheel. Barack Obama is here in Austin today for a rally and the TDP has not one word of it on their web page. For those of you who are not from the hill country, the TDP headquarters and the Obama rally are about 5 miles apart at most. So, I really don't understand why there's no mention of it.
This behavior of the TDP continually ignoring democratic candidates on the state and national level makes me wonder why the hell Texas even has a Democratic Party headquarters. This goes right back to my previous post of "Why Is Texas Red???"
I will give the TDP credit for going after Cornyn and Hutchinson on their failure of Texas troops. Maybe they're planning on focusing hard on Cornyn in the 2008 election, since they blew it with Hutchinson by not supporting a very viable democratic candidate in 2006. I can only hope. This still doesn't excuse them from ignoring Obama. They have plenty of field reporters on staff. Doing what I don't know.
So, here we sit, again watching the new chair of the TDP behave in the same lazy fashion as his predecessor. Picking and choosing what events are more important for photo ops. It would be interesting to see how the TDP acts if Hillary comes to town.
At this rate the second tier democratic candidates must really feel left out by the TDP. I am convinced that it will take all of us helping in whatever way we can, all of the democrats running. Candidates can not depend on the TDP since they are only consistent on failure.
Wise County, like a lot of other rural Texas counties, has a lot of challenges. There's the threat of the National Animal Identification System, the Trans Texas Corridor land grab, injection wells endangering the quality of ground water, and the unregulated thirst of the gas and oil industry sucking the water table dry. This means a unique opportunity and a desperate necessity for Wise County Democrats to reach out to their neighbors and unite to make government responsive to them.
Sadly, that is an opportunity that is being ignored in the place of the kind of political hardball that Texas Democrats have been playing intramurally instead of against the Republicans.
When contacted for this article, Wise County Democratic Chair Brenda Rankin made a special point of hoping that I as a blogger would be polite, and that she believes that it is important above all things for Democrats to do no harm to each other.
We hinted about this during our SDEC coverage, and now it's come to fruition. The TDP has taken legal action against the Texas SoS over electronic voting. The entire press release is beneath the fold.
Posted at the request of SDEC member Lloyd Criss. Mr. Criss is reading along with this discussion, but is not a member of TK or The Texas Blue. He says this is his last statement on the subject, but he does want to share his observations.
(This sounds like it was written by a candidate. The TDP needs to hear this. - promoted by dksbook)
David Van Os' recent 4-part email rant was pretty interesting. He's not a warm and fuzzy kinda guy in my personal opinion, but he makes some valid points, I think.
From a personal perspective -- as someone who volunteered for several campaigns in the past year -- it didn't go quite far enough. Here are some things *I'd* like to see the State Organization doing (can't really see that they did much in 2006):
The state party organization (ironic that I call it that, huh?) has to get up off its big fat white upper middle class butt and start supporting Dem candidates.
There have been some very good discussions in the Texas blogosphere in the last week or so. I've featured some wise words from Hank Gilbert and some good comments from The Texas Blue in the extended entry.
But let's cut to the chase.
The moral of the story:
If you're going to attempt to run statewide, raise money. Raise real money.
If the grassroots wants great populist candidates like David Van Os to be taken seriously -- start fundraising online. NOW.
I'm putting in $100. How about David Van Os matches that? How about Jeff Crosby? Phillip Martin? Annatopia? Krazypuppy? Tejana? Put your money where your mouth is. We'll all good Democrats, let's put our energies to something constructive.
Want to help but don't want me to get any credit for it? Great, go start your own page and show me what a real Texas Democrat can do.
There has been much debate in the past couple of weeks as to the sneaky "insider" nature of the TDP and its' "ugly little secret" euphemistically termed targeting. In many instances, the strategic decision by the TDP to target certain races has been criticized, in favor of a more comprehensive approach, sometimes termed the 254 county strategy; an obvious allusion to Howard Dean and the DNC's 50 state strategy. The implication seems to be that with the limited resources of the TDP, they should attempt the same sort of grand leave no candidate behind approach that the DNC pledged with the 50 state strategy.
I'd like to propose that this is not in fact an unreasonable idea. In fact, I'd further like to propose that the TDP in fact realizes this, and (stay with me now), they did and continue to do a fair imitation of the DNC in this regard. That's right, for all the talk of the Beauty of the 50 state strategy and the tyranny of the TDP, I couldn't imagine that there wasn't a little targeting going on at the DNC, so I went in search of information on this matter.
How much of ComeOns post is responding to my bitching and moaning and how much is aimed at David Van Os and company?
But I'd like to make it clear, once again, that I have no problem with targeting certain races to recieve the most resources. That's strategy 101 -- concentrate your forces.
I also have very few complaints about the TDP. The TDP has two functions -- put on the primaries and hold the annual convention. They manage to pull off both of those most every time they have a chance.
My complaint has been with the large donors and power brokers who reacted to the debacle of 2002 by being too cautious in 2006 and wasting some major opportunities.
