Lone Star Democracy Builders Association

Last night I did an 8pm-12am voter registration shift at the Fiesta Mart on 38-1/2 and I-35. Considering that it was a rainy day in a non-presidential-election year, the turnout was good. While the noon-time and 4pm-8pm shifts seemed to be the busy ones, we got a good stream ourselves and beat our registration target. We registered our last voter at 11:52pm.

The other volunteer for the shift was Terry from DFT. I'm sorry I left the last meetup before the "Iraq for Sale" movie (it was my night to cook). Apparently the turnout was great and the movie got a lot of folks stirred up. Glen Maxey was there to move the anger into action at the end. After the continuous stream of bad news (Iraq, Katrina non-response, condoning torture, removing habeas corpus, NoKo nukes) I've been feeling burned out instead of motivated politically. I could have used the shot in the arm from the movie.

But I'm really glad I did the voter registration. The "midnight deadline" signs worked to pull folks in. It was great when people in a rush stopped what they were doing to register when they realized that last night was the deadline (or at least caught us on the way out). A few folks came up with voter registration forms already filled out, but which they hadn't mailed yet, and we were able to give them registration receipts. But the highlight for me was when folks actually identified themselves as available to work as election workers, just to see what being a poll worker would be like. One lady would have to reschedule her current two jobs just to do it. While democracy may be hurting, it's not dead yet.

Posted by GlennM at 8:31 AM in Action & Austin & Elections and Voting | Permalink | Comments (1)

Austin's Democracy for Texas group had their monthly meetup tonight, and their special guest was Judge Bob Gammage, Democratic candidate for Texas Governor.

Not having been around Texas politics much, I didn't know what to expect going into the meeting. What I found was a very inspiring candidate, one that shared my frustrations with the national and state government and one who seemed to have some great ideas for solving Texas' policy problems. I'm finally excited about the governor's race again.

Continue reading "Bob Gammage at DFT" »

Posted by Ben at 10:40 PM in Elections and Voting | Permalink | Comments (1)

Greg at The Talent Show posted a few days ago about how the words "extremely patriotic" for him had become code for self-righteous nationalism rather than sincere love of country. I got a little freaked out by the strength of my negative reaction just to the word "patriotic," let alone "extremely patriotic." I can't think of the last time I heard anyone I know and like use that word to describe themselves, and I felt...threatened. And slightly morally superior, believing that I must know more about what's really going on than someone who would use that word. Hello, have you checked the papers lately? Have you seen what this country's government is up to? How can you announce you're proud to be one of these people?

Am I just another one of those America-hating liberals?

I don't think so. Like Mike Doughty says, "I love my country so much, like an exasperating friend." We all have friends we love despite the fact that they spend a lot of time screwing up and making life hard for themselves and people around them. These friends have lots of great qualities, and they're full of potential, but every time you hear the phone ring you sigh because you know it's going to be another one of those calls. All you can do is support them and hope they keep growing because you know they have it in them.

We have come so far as a nation since this project began. We do a lot of bad things, but we have come so far. But I spend more time thinking about my exasperation with all the bad choices, self-destructive behaviors, and general stubbornness than I do about the progress. I'm so frustrated that my first reaction when I hear someone say they love America is to freak out, because I know we can do better and I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY WE DON'T GO AHEAD AND DO IT!

But there are some truly great things about the people in this country and how we've decided to organize things, and I'm going to try a little harder to remember that next time I hear someone use the word "patriotic."

For example:

• In America, people can throw a pre-election analysis party where guests present information for and against various candidates and propositions without fear of getting arrested.
• American activists in Michigan are getting together, continuing a proud tradition of making noise about injustice.
• Americans stop to help animals even when they're told not to.
• In America, people can go to church and women are allowed to drive. Even though I don't want to do either of those things, I think it would be pretty damn miserable to live somewhere that didn't allow people to make decisions for themselves.

As much as I need to recognize how much work there is left to do and get on with doing some of it, I need to remember how much work has already been done and not take it for granted. I do have something in common with folks who describe themselves as patriotic. I think this country is great for what it is and what it can and will be, and I want to do my part to take care of it.

So America, consider this a love letter. You're damn cool a lot of the time, and I'm lucky to be here. Thanks.

Posted by Skye at 5:58 PM in Elections and Voting | Permalink

Good Works-PAC is an interesting idea:

A Public Service Campaign engages candidates and their volunteers in public service projects that focus on key issues. Just as college fraternities and sororities take on public service projects to highlight the positive effects of their institutions – often competing to see who can log the most volunteer hours, raise the most money, or donate the most blood – candidates can engage in public service ("good works") projects as well. The more candidates, the more volunteers, the more public good, the more voters and attention drawn to Democratic issues.

GoodWorks-PAC.org identifies and supports Democratic candidates who will run for office using a public service style of campaign. These projects provide hands-on organizational training for the campaigns while highlighting for the public the positive effects of the Democratic Party's vision of governance as investment in civic growth.

They actually encourage multiple Democratic candidates in the primaries in heavily Republican districts. Rather than have those candidates compete with each other, they work together to raise awareness of the Democratic Party. Their website is a little scattered, but to find out more about how it works in practice, check out "Our Candidate Calls For More Competitors" about Joe Otterbein's campaign to defeat Rick Santorum in November 2006.

There's also this funny story from an event they organized in Sunbury, PA for Chris Carney, who is running for Congress against Don Sherwood in PA-10, and Deb Saxton, who is running for City Treasurer of Sunbury:

At the nursing home, one of the staff members said that she was a Republican and hated Democrats. When Andrew informed her that in fact he was there (and he was cleaning a door while they spoke) with his boss, the Democratic Congressional candidate, Chris Carney, she was very impressed. She thought she might be able to vote for somebody who would come and do real work... She then went on to tell Andrew that she had thought we were all there doing community service because we'd been busted for drunk driving or something. Lesson learned! While the basic concept is sound (doing real service work can turn the heads of voters who would otherwise pay no attention), we have to advertise what we're doing for it to be effective! Some traditional political work is necessary for the GoodWorks-PAC method to succeed.

Posted by Skye at 6:20 AM in Elections and Voting | Permalink

Today's the start of early voting here in Texas. If you're in Travis County, here is a list of early voting sites. This vote isn't for any candidates, it's just about amendments to the Texas constitution. The Austin Chronicle has an editorial online that explains all of them. They endorse voting "no" to all the amendments, a position on which I agree. The most egregious amendment on this year's ballot is number two, the one which would prohibit Texas governments and business from recognizing committed same-sex relationships. This is being fought by the No Nonsense in November campaign, a group that deserves your support. Even if you don't care about the other issues, it's important for you to go and vote against hate

Posted by Ben at 12:58 PM in Austin & Elections and Voting | Permalink

At the Democracy for Texas meetup this evening it was interesting to see the difference between novice and seasoned candidates. The first few folks that spoke were new candidates. One of them started off by going through the usual Republican bashing. I'm sure she'd do better than the incumbent, but I kept thinking "I don't want to be part of the whiner party."

Then Kirk Watson spoke (with a nice intro by Will Wynn). He started off by talking about things Texans shouldn't be proud of. Our ranking of uninsured children. Our ranking in SAT scores. Yeah, there might have been some bashing mixed in. But the focus was on the issues he wanted to tackle, and why they mattered -- whey they affected us. He also asked for our support, which was something most of the other candidates failed to do in a room of hard-core activists. There's a reason why the TV cameras came on for Watson.

Posted by GlennM at 8:55 PM in Elections and Voting | Permalink

Next book down in the pile: "How to Run for Local Office" by Robert J. Thomas

• Good for background on how campaigns work, it walks you through every step of the campaign process. Every step.
• Quick read since a lot of the material is repetitious. And he repeats himself.
• He's arrogant! And he will tell you what to do! Down to details that don't matter! But think for yourself!
• Since it's only 113 pages, it was fairly easy to just ignore the arrogance and repetition and get some nuggets out of the whole thing. It gave more context to what I'd been through when helping a little with campaigns last fall.
• It paid to read the book closely. In between the drivel were some really funny lines. Going to be a candidate or a campaign manager? Breed & Co is ready to sell you that 2 × 4.

Continue reading "Review: How to Run for Local Office" »

Posted by GlennM at 12:24 PM in Book Reviews & Elections and Voting | Permalink

Finally got over the $ I'd sunk into the Sadun campaign and had a chat with Patti Edelman (Sadun's campaign manager). The question I had was "Sadun talked with a lot of folks in CD 10 between Austin and Houston. What do they care about?"

The answer was:

• Water rights
• Increasing costs of living

Dems need to get out front on issues like:

• Minimum wage
• Health care costs
• Property taxes

Oh yeah, and water rights.

Posted by GlennM at 7:05 PM in Elections and Voting | Permalink

You're interested in getting out the vote, but bored by all the cliches?

Merlin's got you covered.

Posted by Skye at 9:02 PM in Elections and Voting | Permalink

The Regular has a very interesting post summarizing some research into the 2004 presidental election:

Ruy runs the numbers on the crucial swing constituency of white working-class voters, and defends his definitions against criticsm from Chris Bowers of MyDD. At issue is whether the primary factor in defining the white working class, for purposes of demographic analysis, should be lack of a college degree (Teixeira's contention) or a certain income level (Bowers' preference). Ruy cites his earlier work in a book on this question, and sticks to his guns: "And among non-college-educated whites with $50,000-$75,000 in household income, Bush beat Kerry by a shocking 41 points (70-29), while leading by only 5 points (52-47) among college-educated whites at the same income level."

Links to the original articles on The Regular site.

In a related article, Slate talks about why the working class has been turning conservative. The writer dismisses a number of theories, including the one that says that conservatism is a pathology.

Posted by Ben at 10:48 AM in Elections and Voting | Permalink