August 11 SDEC Meeting

August 11 SDEC Meeting Update

Fellow Democrats,

Please see below some of the highlights from our recent meeting in Fort Worth.  It was good to see many of our SD-16 friends in attendance.

Committee Meetings – Janice attended the Finance, Grassroots and Campaign Committee meetings and David attended the Legislative, Fundraising and Communication Committee meetings. 
Finance Committee – Susan Bankston, Democrats with Disabilities, was elected as the second Vice-Chair and Janice Schwarz was elected as Secretary.  Our bills are paid and Expenses and Revenues are even.  The Voter Empowerment Project is separate from the TDP budget and is raising money separately.  The party has been in the black for the past six months.  The Party has four fundraising events on the books, with a Jefferson-Jackson Dinner planned in Dallas on October 1 and possibly an October 15 Asian American Fundraiser in Dallas.
Grassroots Committee – The mission of the Grassroots Committee is to grow Texas Democratic activists, including helping state and local Democratic organizations position themselves.  Shonda McRae will be handling youth outreach, including College clubs and field interns.  The focus will be on where we can pick up seats.  Susan Shelton is taking the role of being the editor for the Grassroots manual. Huey Rey Fisher will be handling the TDP website and putting together a statewide Democratic Club directory.  Debra Angel Smith and Glen Maxey have volunteered to create a new club set up package. 
Campaign Committee had met in Austin the week before.  The Committee produced a six page report of recommendations.  Needless to say – they are taking charge in being ready to win in 2014 and 2016.
Legislative Committee—David chairs this committee and invited Fort Worth State Rep. Lon Burnam to address the group at its first meeting.  Lon challenged the committee to develop a sustained grassroots resistance to the GOP agenda, as well as to provide the more traditional support for the Democratic Caucus legislative priorities.  The Committee discussed becoming more involved in advocacy and lobbying with the House Elections Committee, especially on election and voting rights matters, since our members have grassroots expertise in this area.  The Committee also committed to help “market” our core party values as adopted in the TDP Platform to our legislators and our candidates.
Fundraising Committee—The mission of this committee is the same as the former “sustaining member” committee – to raise money for the general operations of the TDP through long-term sustained giving.  The committee discussed several ways to increase participation in the TDP Sustaining Member program from individuals and groups.  One new proposal is to create categories for Democratic clubs and organizations to participate. 
Communications Committee– This is a new committee created by the Chairman this year and chaired by SD 8 Committeewoman Linda Magid.  The group discussed numerous new ways (including electronic, social media, media campaigns) to improve our messaging to better communicate with the activist base of the party, as well as with the public.  One major goal is to share our core values and reconnect with average Texans, who have been an important part of our traditional base.

We were fortunate enough to have a two hour presentation for the Latino Voter Engagement Symposium.  The speakers were Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, State Representative Armando Walle, TDP Director of Communications Rebecca Acuna, Democratic Strategist Chuck Rocha, and our next HD 75 State Representative/leader of the TDP Latino Voter Engagement Project, Mary Gonzalez.  Rebecca presented an attainable targeted plan for empowering and engaging young Latino voters.  You can watch it at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mgonzalez-hd75.   The TDP, through the Promesa Project, will have 10 Hispanic interns on college campuses to reach out to young Latinos and get them engaged.

After a break for lunch, we started the actual SDEC meeting.  Candidates and elected officials introduced themselves.  The biggest round of applause went to DNC member Sheriff Lupe Valdez. Fort Worth State Representative Lon Burnam spoke on behalf HDCC. He said that we can regain numerous seats in Dallas County.  He introduced Senator Wendy Davis and noted that no race is more important in this cycle.  In fact, the reason we met in Fort Worth was to focus on her race.  
Senator Davis gave a stirring speech.  Her story, a single Mom at age 19 going to community college and then graduating first in her class at TCU, would not have been possible today.  Rick Perry’s Texas is not the same Texas of 20 years ago. 
The Chairman once again spoke to the meeting about the hard work it is going to take to turn Texas blue.
We moved into the Committee reports.  Steve Tillery, Chair of the Nominations Committee, announced the canvass was completed and read off the names of all of the winners of the Primary Runoff. 
The Resolutions Committee brought the forth numerous resolutions that were left over from the convention.  Resolutions passed included (paraphrasing here) 1) defeat any proposal to replace Defined Benefit with Defined Contribution Plans in the Public sector; 2) continue funding social security, Medicare and Medicaid even removing the salary cap to continue; 3) Texas to switch to public financing of campaigns, starting with any state wide judicial races; 4) Repeal the Texas sonogram bill; 5) Support of the Student Loan forgiveness act of 2012; 6) creation of a warning sign for water over a road hazard; 7) Support of the Affordable Care Act.  A resolution concerning the presumption of equal parenting failed. 
The Texas Democratic Party needs your support.  Please consider becoming a sustaining member and help our party grow.  You may easily sign up at the link below:
https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/contribution.aspx?X=NWEE5azL9qxxcvcGy%2fP1SF0VEpcldrYIor5QtwTadSg%3d

Democratically yours,

Janice Schwarz and David Griggs