Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Richie, has just sent out a statement regarding Gov. Rick Perry's decision to decline to apply for $700 million in federal Race to the Top education funds,
"What kind of Texan is not willing to compete for his children? It's widely acknowledged our schools don't have adequate funding, and hundreds of school districts were forced to raise local taxes, lay off teachers or eliminate programs due to the Governor's 2006 state education funding freeze.
"It's clear Rick Perry is more concerned with trying to be Governor for life than he is with the 4.8 million children who attend our Texas schools."
We will do our best to report on other statements as they are released.
What may have seen impossible in the immediate wake of her third-place finish in this spring's Austin Mayor race, may actually end up happening. The Statesman's Jason Embry has reported that Carole Strayhorn has had discussions with Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie about seeking the party's nomination for comptroller.
Strayhorn, who has run for office as a Democrat, Republican, and Independent, has served as Mayor of Austin, railroad commissioner, and, before incumbent Susan Combs took office in 2007, comptroller.
The Statesman's Gardner Selby had previously reported that Strayhorn had contacted Houston Mayor Bill White, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, about her possible candidacy for comptroller.
“We will rely on our voters to consider each candidate’s record and decide if they have the Democratic credentials they want in a nominee. Our role is to run a fair primary.”
While former Congressman Nick Lampson said he was considering running and State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) briefly thought about entering the race, no Democrat has decided to challenge Combs yet.
If Strayhorn decides to run, she will have a lot of explaining to do for her Republican past and, given the frequency of her attempts at electoral office, she will have to also prove that she truly wants to be comptroller. Despite her negatives, she has won at least four or five statewide elections, and certainly has higher name ID than probably any other potential rival to Combs, whose campaign has $4 million on hand.
We invite you to explore our new site, and watch our exciting new video that was recently unveiled to the Democratic National Committee members during their meeting in Austin. The video -- titled "By the Numbers" -- takes an in depth look at the gains we've made in Texas in recent election cycles.
The new website will make it much easier to organize online. Our clearly defined "Action Center" and flash-feature message center will simplify the search for any information you or Democrats in your community may need. In addition, content generated on our website will be cross-promoted on numerous platforms:
The revamped website is the latest in a series of efforts we at the Texas Democratic Party have made in recent months to turn Texas blue. We're proud of the way the Texas Democratic Party has grown in recent years, and others across the country are, too. That's why Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine brought the DNC to Texas to announce the following:
"Texas can do it, and Texas will do it. We are thrilled at the prospect of working side by side to turn Texas blue," Kaine told more than 300 Democrats from U.S. states and territories and abroad.
We're ready to turn Texas blue, and we know that the online community is going to play not just a supportive or secondary role, but a truly serious role in ridding the state of failed Republican leaders like Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Over the last three years, you've worked hand-in-hand with county parties and organizations to rebuild the Texas Democratic Party from the ground up -- and we can't thank you for your work enough.
A quick look at the work we have done together tells the story:
The number of Democratic small donors in Texas has more than quadrupled since 2005, thanks in large part to the advent of online fundraising.
Over 3,000 of you have direct access to the TDP's state of the art, interactive online voter file.
Thousands of you have come out to our local and regional trainings, to learn how we can all use new technology to run campaigns and organize in our communities.
Our work together has been remarkable, but we still have much to do. That's why the TDP has been working to strengthen and expand our online organization and strategies, to ensure that Texas Democrats can continue to work together to deliver our message for change across the state of Texas.
In addition to the new website, the TDP has launched its presence on the two popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter. In the two weeks since we launched our Facebook page, over 1,500 Texas Democrats have joined our Facebook page, and in the two days since we started our Twitter account, we already have over 100 followers. With a Flickr account coming shortly, the TDP will now have a stronger online presence across these platforms so we can engage directly with you -- the people who make our Party as strong as it is.
Our new website and online efforts are the latest in our continued work to compete and win in what used to be a solidly conservative state. Today, Texans are paying the price for the failure of one party Republican rule -- a failure that shows neither the character nor the leadership that made great Texans stand tall in the eyes of the world.
We hope you visit our website, follow us on Facebook, tweet along with us on Twitter, and redouble your tremendous efforts to deliver Democrats to victory in 2010 and beyond. Thank you for all of your hard work, and may God bless Texas.
During public testimony in the Election Committee, Republican Representative Betty Brown said something very interesting.
"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese - I understand it's a rather difficult language - do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
Now the background.
Rep. Brown, a Republican, made it clear that nothing is sacred that gets in the way of Texas Republicans' extreme partisan agenda, asking a witness testifying on the problems the Republican Voter ID bill would create for Chinese-American Texans. That's when she said the above mention line.
According to the Texas Democratic Party, Rep. Brown then went on to put the onus on those who would be prevented from voting by the Republican Voter ID bill to figure out their own solution, saying to the aforementioned witness, "I see a need here for young people like you, who are obviously very bright, to come up with something that would work for you and then let us see if we can't make it work for us." While Rep. Brown later tried to back out of her statements, the damage was done.
The Texas Democratic Party is now asking for Rep. Brown to apologize.
"It's already shameful enough that the Republican Elections Committee members are trying to suppress the votes of countless Texans with their partisan Voter ID bill, and now Rep. Brown is adding insult to injury with her disrespectful comments," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. "We are calling on Rep. Betty Brown to apologize for her offensive and out-of-touch remarks."
The Asian American community is one of the fastest growing populations in Texas. If a law is going to disenfranchise a group of people, the solution cannot and should not be for a person to sacrifice their culture in order to have the right to vote.
As the Asian American Action Fund pointed clarified, "Texas has a rather substantial APA voting population, including a fair number of Republicans. Not to mention, current and previous elected officials including ex-Rep. Martha Wong and sitting Rep. Angie Chen Button."
AJ Durrani, President of the Asian American Democrats of Texas added to Chairman Richie's appeal. Durrani e-mailed the members of AADT saying:
Members of AADT,
On Wednesday April 8, during the Texas House of Representatives testimony on the Voter ID Bill, State Representative Betty Brown, R-Terrell, made shockingly intolerant and insensitive remarks about Asian Americans. An article from the Houston Chronicle.Com is provided below for details, as is a statement from Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Ritchie.
State Representative Betty Brown's racially insensitive remarks have no place in America, and she should immediately and unconditionally apologize for her remarks. Please contact State Representative Betty Brown about her unacceptable remarks and ask her to apologize immediately in a public forum.
Her email address is: [mailto:betty.brown@house.state.tx.us betty.brown@house.state.tx.us]
Her postal mail and fax addresses, and phone numbers are as follows:
Capitol Address
Room E1.404, Capitol Extension
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 463-0458
(512) 463-2040 Fax
District Address
108 S. Pinkerton, Suite 105
Athens, TX 75751
(903) 675-9500
(903) 677-6773 Fax
This is the Republican solution to the many problems with Voter Suppression legislation. If you are negatively effected by this ill conceived and unnecessary law, you should make sacrifices. If you are unwilling to sacrifice your job, your culture, your marriage, or anything else that may prevent you from voting, then you didn't want to vote bad enough.
Maybe that is why former Texas Republican Party Political Director Royal Masset estimated that a photo ID requirement would reduce Democratic turnout in Texas by 3%.
Mexican American Legislative Caucus chairman, and recent blog newcomer, Trey Martinez-Fischer has found a way to bring some levity to the situation. Once you get done asking for Rep. Brown to apologize, you can at least find out what your new name can be here. Let me introduce you to Elise Hughes KVUE's new political reporter. She may look familiar. Sort of like Jennifer Kim.
Update: Thanks to a friend on facebook, we now have the entire question and answer period between Ramey Ko and Rep. Betty Brown. There a couple really great points and our friend Ramey does a great job testifying.
For the last few weeks we have been listening to wall-to-wall coverage 24/7 about the flamboyant governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, and pay-to-play politics. As we all know by now the Illinois governor is charged with criminal conspiracy for attempting to sell President Elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Rod Blagojevich is clearly another crooked and arrogant politician who thinks he is above the law. But at least this one found himself impeached by the Illinois House.
It is nice to know some states have lawmakers who have an ethical spine where such blatant corruption and beyond the pale pay-to-play politics are concerned. Too bad Texas is sorely lacking in this area. But one has to remember the Party that is running the state at this time, although not all Democratic politicians would receive A's in ethics and integrity departments either.
When the Blagojevich scandal broke, several of the cable TV talking heads and pundits appeared especially outraged by pay-to-play politics and so I promptly sent off an email to MSNBC and CNN and suggested that if they are so livid about pay-to-play, they ought to send their research staff down to Texas to see how it works in a state where purchasing elections and pay-to-play is business du jour. Apparently other folks from around the U.S. contacted the media with the same request. Chris Matthews of Hardball responded with a chart that listed the most offending states. Texas is among them.
According to the Texas Democratic Party , 2008 has been a record-breaking year for the Party.
2.9 million Democrats cast a ballot in our Primary Election
15,000 delegates attended our Texas State Democratic Convention
11 Texas House seats picked up by Democrats in the last two election cycles
100% of Dallas County county-wide elected seats held by Democrats
85% of Harris County county-wide races won by Democrats in 2008
Texans in every corner of our great state took the fight to Republican politicians and their special interest benefactors - not only with their ballots, but also with their pocketbooks.
14,000 individual contributors invested in the Texas Democratic Party in 2008
$78 was the average contribution to the Texas Democratic Party in 2008
4.5 million of those contributions was invested by the Texas Democratic Party to support Democratic candidates
To say 2008 was a good year for Texas Democrats is an understatement.
"In 2008, the Texas Democratic Party had its best fundraising year since more restrictive campaign finance rules took effect," Richie noted. "With an average individual contribution of just $78, our success was fueled by everyday Texans who believe we can do better."
[...]
"Texas Democrats continued to make electoral strides in 2008, despite running race after race in districts designed by Republicans to elect Republicans," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. "Once again, we expanded the playing field into so-called 'Republican territory' to win key victories in our two largest counties, gain seats in our Texas House and Texas Senate, and improve our performance in growing suburban counties as Texas Democrats move forward toward statewide success in 2010."
All this said, there are still a lot of areas Democrats must focus on. We still don't have a single statewide office. There are at least three competitive state house seats in Houston we must play for in 2010 and beyond. More newly elected officials means we must compete for resources to re-elect more Democrats down ballot. We must start making inroads in suburban and exurban areas. Not to mention we need to compete in the State Senate.
All this said, we have more and better Democrats than 4 years ago.
The Texas Democratic Party has done what it said it would do, and while there is room for improvement among the entire party infrastructure, its important to remember that in 2002, pundits called Texas Democrats and dying bread.
Sadly the biggest hurdle is still money. Money gets us staff, voter files, etc. etc. Simply put, money gets us the infrastructure we need to be competitive and expand our numbers. Now it is time for us to start looking at how we will not only take back the House in 2010 but also how we start working now in order to win our first statewide office in over a decade.
We can claim victory in 2008, but the hard work must continue for us to claim victory in 2010.
Something's happening here. The House Democratic Campaign Committee has enthusiastically announced they have spent over $1 million dollars on electing and re-electing House Democrats.
Now the Texas Democratic Party proudly announces they have raised over $3.5 million in the last 35 days. Simply put, the TDP is on its way to having its best fundraising year in the last five years.
The party now has over 14,000 individual donors and a fundraising base continues to expand and the horizon is looking awfully sunny. The average contribution for the year is only $86 and the large donor pull continues to expand.
"Our continued fundraising progress, combined with last cycle's electoral success, is yet another sign the Texas Democratic Party is earning the confidence of more Texans and moving forward toward the goal of ending an era of failed and corrupt Republican rule," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. "With Election Day approaching, more Texans from all walks of life are investing their time and money to elect Democrats to replace Republican politicians who have abandoned their constituents and their communities to serve the special interests and an extreme ideological agenda."
2008 can be summed up as the campaign to take back the Texas House, but 2010 will be there year we must win back at least one statewide office in order to curb Republican redistricting.
The TDP e-mail today highlights a scary possibility; from today's Houston Chronicle:
Friends and detractors alike describe the San Antonio lawyer as a man of great ambition who might one day run for president or become a nominee for the Supreme Court.
"The sky's the limit," says Cornyn adviser David Beckwith, a GOP operative who once served as press secretary to Vice President Dan Quayle.
Craptastic. I'll let TDP Chair Boyd Richie sum up my thoughts:
“While Senator Cornyn’s presidential ambitions are merely a pipe dream, the reality would be a living nightmare for hard-working Texans,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. “While he is sitting in Washington wishing he were President, here in Texas, one in five children are wishing they had health insurance.
When Elise Hu highlighted RPT-TV last Friday, none of us realized Todd Hunter would be so brazen as to lie directly to voters.
The Texas Democratic Party took a quick look at Hunter's claim that he is "very, very anti-tax" and found his voting record reveals his claim to be blatantly untrue.
In 1990, while Todd Hunter was a member of the Texas House, he voted twice to increase the sales tax [HB 150, 4/19/90, RV 34, Journal 35; HB 6, 6/5/90, RV 8, Journal 25]. When Texas hit tough economic times and our family and state budgets were in crisis, Hunter wanted to burden his constituents with a regressive sales tax increase. The following year, the Oklahoma native supported increases in the gasoline tax and diesel fuel tax - hardly the actions of a "fiscally responsible" lawmaker [HB 11, 8/5/91, RV 129 Journal 712; RV 132, Journal 721].
Todd Hunter has proven that he not only wants to raise taxes, but he wants to do it in a way that disproportionately hurts the middle and lower class.
"Todd Hunter's anti-tax claim is an example of a politician at his worst, hoping voters will share his selective amnesia as he misrepresents his record of voting for tax increases," explained Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie. "At a time when many families are struggling to make ends meet, voters are looking for new, honest leadership, but all Todd Hunter has to offer is a weak attempt to hide a record of voting to raise taxes on working families and Texas businesses."
It looks like the new margins tax is bringing in less money than original estimates projected. Small businesses are struggling and families are doing everything they can just to get buy during this very real recession. Why should the people of House District 32 (or anywhere else in Texas), vote for a Republican who is going to make it harder on their pocketbooks?
He mentioned that the Texas Democratic Party already has booked Corpus Christi for 2010.
Congratulations to Corpus Christi on being selected. It seems like the conventions usually go to the larger cities (Houston, Ft Worth, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, etc) but I think this is a smart move.
I would love to see a state convention in the Rio Grande Valley but that would be a daunting trip for many Democrats across the state. I think a convention in Corpus Christi will be great.
