[PAA-Discuss] Dem. SD/Co. convention summary; state convention; Greens

[Bill Crosier]

Senate District/County Convention summary
---------------------------------------------
Thanks to the efforts of many of you, we made substantial progress in 
our journey towards a new Democratic party in Texas on Saturday.

I've received reports from many of you about how progressive 
resolutions swept the Senate District and county conventions, with 
many such resolutions passing unanimously.  The resolutions covered 
such diverse topics as impeach Bush & Cheney, withdraw from Iraq now, 
verifiable voting, GLBT rights, Dept. of Peace, environmental issues, 
labor and globalization issues, and many more.

Even better news was that so many of you were selected as delegates 
to the state convention in Ft. Worth, June 9-10 (with some activities 
also on June 8, although most of these will not be of as much 
importance).  That's where the most important work comes in.  We have 
a good group of progressives going to the state convention this year, 
and we hope to be able to make some significant progress towards 
making the Democratic party more responsive to the grassroots.  We 
hope to be able to elect some more progressives to leadership 
positions who will embrace the idea of Democrats standing for values 
and issues of concern to us, instead of following the DLC approach of 
moving to the middle and sounding like Republican-lites.

As you know if you've been attending the conventions, the Democratic 
party grassroots is filled with people who want dramatic change in 
how this country and this state are going, and many of those people 
are not happy with current members of Congress or the legislature. 
They are not all progressives, but many are.  We need to help those 
folks focus on party changes that will enable us to get our issues 
dealt with.


State Convention
------------------
Charles Soechting, the current state party chair, is stepping down, 
so that position is wide open.  Delegates to the state convention 
will also elect members to the State Democratic Executive Committee 
(SDEC), along with all positions on the Platform and Resolutions 
committees.  I feel strongly that the way we can get the Democratic 
party turned around so it will represent all of us better, and start 
winning elections again, is to get more progressive leadership 
elected at the state convention who will encourage and help 
progressive candidates, and who aren't afraid of talking about values 
and issues we care about.  This all depends on you and others who can 
go to Ft. Worth to vote on these leadership positions, on 
resolutions, and more.

If you have questions, please let me know.  If you were selected as a 
delegate or alternate but don't know for sure whether you'll be able 
to attend the state convention, that's OK, too, as you have over 2 
months to decide.  There is almost a 100% chance that alternates will 
get to be delegates, because there are always some delegates who 
decide not to go to the convention, and the alternates will move up 
to fill their places.


Hotel Reservations for state convention
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If there is at least a moderate chance you'll be going to the 
convention on June 9-10, please make hotel reservations soon while 
there are numerous options available.  I strongly suggest you arrive 
on June 8 (the evening is probably OK), as the most important parts 
of the convention are all day on Friday, June 9, starting the first 
thing that morning, and continue until mid or late afternoon the next 
day, June 10.  I made my reservation at the Best Western hotel on 
Beach St. that is on the reservation link below -- they had a special 
rate for the convention of $59/night for a room that can hold up to 4 
people with no extra charge and with free breakfast.  Rooms are 
filling up fast, though, so make your reservation while you have 
plenty of choices.

For more information see the links below.

Texas Dem. Party State convention: 
http://www.txdemocrats.org/elec2006/stateconv/index.php

Ft. Worth hotel reservations: 
https://resweb1.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_gi_new&groupID=59000 
(you may be able to find other inexpensive ones if you check other 
reservation sites, though)

Texas Democratic Party web site: http://txdemocrats.org/


Green Party Ballot Access Petition Drive
-----------------------------------------
I still plan to continue helping the Green Party with their ballot 
access drive this spring, and I encourage all other progressive Dems 
to do so, too.  Even if you aren't planning to vote for any other 
Greens, there are at least two statewide offices where no Democrat is 
running, but where there will be Greens for whom you can vote if they 
get enough petition signatures to get on the ballot.  If you'd like 
more information on that, or want to volunteer, see 
http://www.harriscountygreenparty.org/

Bill
-- 
Bill Crosier
Progressive Action Alliance   http://paa-tx.org/ 
http://progressiveactionalliance.org/
paa at crosierbiomed.com     713-641-4941
Lying, Spying, Torture... IMPEACH!    http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/