Burnt Orange Report

Show some spine, and tell us who you are. If you are going to attack someone, you should back it up. For that reason, I'm deleting all anonymous comments on this thread - BL

As someone whose state prides its self on going out of the way to support voter enfranchisement what I saw happen in Texas was disheartening, awfully stupid, and truth be told more than a little disrespectful of the (little d) democratic values we hold as (big D) Democrats. You're vote in deciding the leadership of YDA is your voice in deciding its direction and to abridge that right does no candidate any justice.

It was great to see your delegation begin to express its self in the votes for Dwayne and Rob, and I only hope that in the future every Texan gets to vote for who ever they want to.

Its the d/Democratic way.

Sean Broom
Minnesota National Committee Representative.

sean,
hey....i am so glad you read this and commented. i hope to see you at further yda events.

Sounds like we need a new committee woman at the TYD's. I vote for Erica!

Thank you Katie for writing about this!

One more interesting fact to note is that during the YDA convention many people from around the rest of the country recognized the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. As the Supreme Court declared more than a century ago, the equal right to vote is fundamental because it is "preservative of all rights."

Our goal should be to hold zero tolerance for discriminatory practices in any races or any arena we work or serve in.

House Judiciary Committee chair James
Sensenbrenner--"We cannot let discriminatory practices of the past resurface to threaten future gains"

It is very disheartening to have witnessed the abuse of power by Gio and his cronies. It is a sahme that the female who endorsed this fiasco did not support the voice of other females.

Was this a "DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION"? This seems like George W Bush behavior and reminds me of the George Orwell novel I read in Jr high school, Animal Farm,where Cornelius walks on his hindlegs like a human.

Disappointed Liberal Democrat

Sadly enough this wasn't the full story. I didn't want to get all the dirt out there because then Texas would really look like an embarrassment. The rest will unfold and I just hope democracy prevails.

As someone who has derived much information from delegates present at the yda convention I am ashamed of mike (the pres of tyd).I would like to thank a courageous young tyd member, katie Naranjo, who stood up for all the little d's whose voices went unheard in the voting as she stood up before the entire yda convention and gave the texas minority report.Katie you were fabulous and brought back some respect and honor to the TEXAS delegation. For the record Mike sucks:(

There seems to be so much that went on, as much as you can share Katie, I know I appreciate it. I'm a bit disgusted that such things even were allowed to happen and that's coming from someone who wishes they now had gone ahead and swallowed the costs and gone out there to attend since I don't have much ambition to climb the ranks of YDA and not rock the boat.

Anonymous (and ananymous) comments on this thread are deleted - BL

As an old/former TYDer my cell began ringing within hours of Mike's Stalinist grab for power and political paybacks.From the info I received and having read your report>>>>>Katie you are a class act.You stated the facts that were relevant and you did not get in the sewer with the leadership of the Texas delegation.I look foreward to reading your blogs and Byron was smart to bring you on board.Little D's do not be disheartened by Mike's actions.Be strong and know that you will run the ship in a much more democratic manner when you get your chance.

As a deledate from a neighboring state, my heart went out for the democratic wing of the texas delegation at the convention. You need a president like ours that listens to his delegates and represents us.Look up the word impeach in the dictionary and take action.

Man, sounds like I missed out not going to San Fran. I just wanted to say, since I didn't post on it, that the Texas delegation at CDA was awesome. Although it was only made up of three schools: Rice, Laredo Community, and UT, I thought we did a good job at voting for the candidates who would represent our national organization well and work with Texas in the future. We ended up splitting the vote on every election, even the ones where we had close friends in. Please don't be discouraged with all the young democrats in Texas. (good job katie!)

Lots of comments here, and I would like to continue the conversation. More at this MyDD thread and this PUBLIUS thread. As many of you know, I'm on the Texas YD executive committee, so I know pretty well what happened so for what it's worth, here's my $0.02.

First of all, I am proud of all of the delegates from Texas. We've gone from having a token presence in YDA to being one of the largest delegations at nearly every national meeting in a matter of just a few years. We can grow and learn from what happened to us on Saturday, or we can continue to fight amongst ourselves. Since we all must be able to live and work with one another, I hope that we take the latter course. Our actions should encourage changing the process of how we do business, as opposed to engaging in continuous personal attacks.

I expect us to address what happened on Saturday at our next executive committee meeting - none of us ever want to be embarrassed like that again, and we need implement very clear rules on how voting delegates are determined, and how that vote is allocated - actions that should have been taken in advance of this convention, but were not. It is inexcusable that we did not even debate these items before our state delegation caucused thirty minutes prior to the vote. I know that several people are discussing some sort of reprimand, or some sort of action, which we should talk about as an organization.

I am very excited that Texas will have another member on the DNC (Congrats, Gio), but I hope that next time no ticket will take Texas for granted simply because we have a candidate on that ticket. Both slates campaigned in our state, and both slates had a number of strong candidates.

In the end, I did vote for Gallaway, because in my conscience, I found him to be the best candidate who has done a lot for YDA in moving us forward to make YDA respected and relevent on a national level. Gallaway has also ensured that Texas has been included and represented on many levels throughout the organization - something that means a lot to many of us.

I voted for Gallaway's slate through Giovanni to ensure Giovanni's victory, but I then cast votes for Dwyane Bensing on Unity, who received two-thirds of the vote in our caucus although the vote didn't quite reflect that since nearly 50 of our votes were abstained - a question that should be addressed. Dwayne visited Texas twice during his campaign, and has become a good friend of mine - while on the other hand I never heard a word from his opponent. Dwayne conducted an honorable, 50-state (or pretty darn well close to it) campaign of which he can be extremely proud.

Also, finally, congrats to Rob Dolin for being the only candidate to win on Unity's ticket. The vote was probably the most fascinating vote that I have ever witnessed - the type of convention experience that I have only read about when all the votes are counted, Dolin led 1006-992 with 1030 needed for a majority (Texas's 56-52 split in the race helped significantly), and the games began - challenges, vote switches, locked doors, utter chaos, deafening chants... it was all there. Finally, Dolin's opponent withdrew (and we should all commend Flora Brooke Hesse for doing the honorable thing), and Dolin was elected - for the full story, read this MyDD entry. Dolin's message to all of us is one that I hope we can all take heart as we head back home - wherever that is. Unity, Gallaway, who cares, it does not matter... we are all young Democrats and the we are the future of this party and this country. It is time to move forward from elections and work together and make our organization better and stronger.

Geo was a good candidate, and will do a great job on the DNC. I am proud to have supported him and to have done what I could for him in the region. Texas has nothing to be ashamed of in her native son. I agree that the Texas delegation suffered some serious mistakes involving both process and leadership, and I think these mistakes need to be addressed. I cannot lay the blame on Geo, however. Geo was a candidate. His job was to win an election and he did. Our job as an Executive Committee is to put a process in place for the next convention that provides for fairness, clear leadership, and accountability for that leadership. I am committed to working WITH the rest of the Exec. Committee to see that this is accomplished.

David Wilkins
TYD Executive Vice President and
YDA South-Central Regional Director

Dave, I'm pleased to see you add your thoughts. I agree, and I am very pleased with Gio's victory. He will represent us well as another Texas voice on the DNC.

Who (Gio) would ever use the campaign slogan "if you don’t vote for the rest of my ticket I'm going to drop out?" But the bigger question is what kind of chumps would that work on? Hum how about the entire Texas delegation. I'm saddened that my cousin got married this weekend and I couldn't be in San Francisco. It is clear someone needed to cock slap some sense into ya'll.
Of course why would any one use sense when certain people (Veronica) will just disenfranchise you if they don’t agree with you. We saw this tactic used in the TYD election. I thought Veronica was above that, guess I was wrong. Vagueness in the TYD constitution is the product of an expectation of principle, not an opportunity to make up the rules that are most convenient. Just because fuzzy math is constitutional doesn’t give dictator Veronica free reign to use it. Call it doing what you had to do, or however you want to make your self feel better. But the reality is Veronica helped a pathetic friend and the rest of ya'll were just chumps. COCK SLAPS TO ALL!!!!

To be in politics you must have tough skin. I'd like you to know that it was a difficult decision for me and a difficult situation to be put in, yet, the important point is that it's been done. I know there's a lot of controversy regarding Saturday's decision. I know not everyone agrees with what happened, and the decision that was made, and I'm sorry for that.

One of the speakers said over the weekend "success is failing over and over again and learning from it." I learned a lot this weekend - from dealing with the platform to dealing with this issue, but overall we need to evaluate and find solutions that will prevent this from happening again. For those that know, I have taken over an organization that had very little money in our account, few if any records, and a communication structure that was in dire need of attention. This is part of our growing pains, for our organization and myself.

Steven Bollinger was a great president as he kept us afloat. I hope to take us to the next level, as I not only hope to keep us afloat but also sail. I am not going to give in to petty little YDA politics as it really doesn't matter, what matters is what we do in the field. I'm not going to give up on the job we have to do for Texas. I'm not going to let a bad crack in our foundation ruin the whole house. We'll hammer out these issues but we need to focus on what we really need to do: build more chapters, give Young Texans campaign experience, and give more Young Democrats the opportunity to run for office. Shit happens, and sometimes you are put in situations when you don't know how to clean it up. It happens, we deal with it, learn from it, and move on.

Most of you know how much work I put into Texas Young Democrats. From the many hours at night I spend to clean up our website, to the many phone calls I make to new people who fill our a membership form, to even traveling to parts of the state to welcome new chapters. I do this because I love this party and I want to see it filled with new minds so things like this won't happen. I like to thank Katie, Shondra, Emily, and Erica for "keeping it real" as Tara Martin from the YDA Minority Caucus would say and really question my role as President. My leadership didn't come out Saturday as you can see on C-Span because either way, Texas was going to lose in some shape or form. I hope that for the 20 months that I have left in this term I can and WE can do better…as we are TEXANS.

Anonymous comments on this thread are not acceptable and have been deleted - BL

Who is this Veronica?

The list of the TYD officers is here. I hope that those of us that are commenting here will not hide behind annonymous screen names and issue personal attacks. We should identify ourselves like adults - thanks to Katie, Erica, Julian, David, Mike and everyone else that is willing to put their name and creditability behind their comments and actions. I stand behind mine.

Byron LaMasters
VP of Finance, Texas Young Democrats

Anyone ask Gio how much $$ and support Texas can count on from the DNC? Last time I checked, they gave support in a non-partisan Mayor's race in San Antonio and lost. Terrific.

How about helping in Texas House races (which, in the whole Redistricting story, is how Democrats lost control in the first place). I could care less who wins what at for a Young Democrats organization, but I couldn't care more about electing Texas Democrats.

I'll be the first to praise someone who does more than take a title. Can anyone give me an update on how the TYD itself is going?

I was so irritated by the events that took place on Saturday that I seriously considered finding a bottle of white-out and changing the state under my name on my Convention Credentials, perhaps NY or WA. I will state that I am/was in no way impartial, as I put countless hours of work into helping the Unity ticket garner close to half of our organization’s vote. I am proud of my contribution, and my only real regret is that I left our state caucus meeting so upset that I had to collect myself and missed the sealing of the convention doors. For this reason, I was made to watch, powerless, as my delegation made absolute fools of themselves on national television. I am grateful to Katie Naranjo, Erica Contreras, Shondra Wygal, and others, as they were able to lend voice to my anger and indignation both in our final delegation meeting and as I stood at the entrance of the Convention Hall with tears running down my face. I am apologetic to those of you for whom this was a first YDA convention, as it was for me. I hope that you have had enough experience with Democratic politics to know that this sort of behavior is generally reserved for Republicans. It is also my hope that the events that played out at the National Convention will motivate all of you to work for greater transparency and inclusion in YDA rather than to discourage you from further participation. Texas has the potential to someday be a powerful Democratic state, but we have nothing without leadership that can resist the urge to either trample or sit idly by as others trample D/democratic principles. And make no mistake, those of you who lacked the courage to defend the disenfranchised members are no better than those of you who were an active part of the plan to suppress votes. I will not forget, and it will be a good long time before I will be able to forgive these transgressions.
As Young Democrats, I believe that we are called to hold a higher standard for ourselves. Why should anyone bother to listen to anything we have to say if we can’t even hold a fair election? But maybe the better question to pose might be how anyone could be proud of a victory won under these circumstances?
It is my hope that others will share their experiences here and in other forums, and that in doing so, they will help our leadership, and perhaps even those of other states, to understand the gravity of these wrongs and to make them more accountable for their actions. I thank you for the opportunity to have done just that.

Respectfully,
Emily Beer

Good report...
Sounds like the YDS convention and elections are run in the same fashion as the State Demo Party convention...

Katie,
Thanks for having the courage to shed light on the YDA Convention. I had the privilege of getting to know you and other TX delegates who stood up and demanded to have their voices heard. People are finally starting to speak out on the events that had transpired. I don't want to repeat the one-pager that I wrote in www.MyDD.com (http://mydd.com/story/2005/8/7/202958/4858#comment_top). As a former College Democrats E-board officer, I was appalled by the entire YDA elections process. I encourage all YDA activists to hold the current YDA establishment accountable for their actions and make sure that EVERY VOTE IS COUNTED. Even when one voice is surpressed, the foundations of the Democratic Party are weakened.

Emily I think that you have a good point. There were quite a few new Young Democrats who came to this convention as there first involvement with YDA. This convention left a bad taste in my mouth and I have been involved with YDA for 2 and half years, I can only imagine what they thought. During the election I was hurt to see a young Texas Democrat with tears in her eyes saying she never wanted anything to do with this Party. This is something we as an organization need to look at.

I was disillusioned by the fact that I was at a Democratic event being asked to not count every vote. When asked by a friend at the caucus meeting 30 mins. before we walked in, why I wasn't voting for the suppression of votes I answered I can't vote for, with a good conscious on limiting votes. There were a many people who were Gallaway and Unity supporters in our leadership who did the same thing. That is because it is not about which candidate you supported it is about doing the right thing.

As the youth wing of the party we are allowed to be idealistic and to make mistakes but we are not allowed to be corrupt, because we are the future the Party. I think we will all recover but we need to be smarter about our actions and to all the first timers that were at the convention, YDA is not all about deals we do care about issues and the future of the Party.

Who cares? The YDAs are about as useless as tits on a bull. A bunch of goofy go-getters who like to play dress up and have a line on their resume. Yeah, it is shitty what they did, but just remind yourself that it is completely meaningless and you'll sleep well tonight.

Only members of the TYD can change the way Texas conducts it's business. As a newly minted YD Alum it is not my place to tell anyone in your state how to run itself.

Good luck to ALL TYD's in getting rid of Republicans at every level in the coming election cycles. Whatever anger you are feeling right now regarding the events of this past week, transfer that energy into defeating the GOP.

I have read comments in several blogs about Rob Dolin and his people being "class acts", I almost lost my lunch. Rob and his "team" acted like drug crazed buffoons, although I will say he did win fair and square. But that doesn't excuse behavior that you would expect from people raised in a barn somewhere, not dedicated young politicos.

This was my first YDA convention, as it was for many people. It didn't take long to understand that the Unity people were quite rabid in their determination to beat Gallaway. I wasn't sure why there was such animosity, but it seemed to be a lot of bitching and moaning about how money was spent with the Youth Voter Alliance in 2004. Imagine, concentrating resources in swing states as "proof of concept" (this means you can't nationalize a new program until you can prove it works on a smaller scale). But you had people moaning that their non-purple state got no money, and Unity's chief promise seemed to be to correct that. Makes about about sense to me as spending millions of dollars protecting Idaho from attack while not spending money to protect our ports b/c the coastal states already "got their fair share". More money will come to the rest of us once the proof of concept of YVA is shown to succeed. That's why YDA is taking its model to the state election level in Virginia, so that if it works well this year, it can be spread to other states in 2006 elections. This means places like Georgia which will have a highly contested Governor's race, despite the fact our electorate collectively sucks the President's balls whenever possible.

Anyway, lots of cult-like activity became the order of the day with Unity folks. As a state, supporting Gallaway's reelection made sense for Georgia even before Flora Brooke was added to the slate. Whenever GA is part of a slate, we always block vote that slate up and down. We keep our word, which is why we've been added to three consecutive slates. It's also why you haven't seen Texas on a slate in so long, and why Gio will probably be the last one from Texas to run in a long time unless Texas can learn to support the ENTIRE slate when they have a candidate. The rest of the Gallaway slate did this, b/c we understand what parternship is all about. Granted, Gallaway people should have spent more time with Texas to make sure the votes were sewn up, but you didn't see TN or GA or IL requiring any of the other candidates from the Gallaway slate to kiss ass in their states in order to receive all of our states votes. It was a failure of Texas YD leadership that this was not settled BEFORE convention. Lord knows that we made sure anyone going on Georgia's delegation knew beforehand that part of the deal for going was voting as a block, and we explained why. We did have people who would have voted differently in a couple of races had we been able, but everyone acquiesced for the good of the state and for keeping our word as part of a slate. If people think that's horrible, so be it, but I think Georgia will be better off for it. All Texas did, unfortunately, was prove that as a state, it's an unreliable partner. Again, all of that drama could have been avoided with pre-convention planning on the part of the leadership. Running roughshod over people is never the way to go.

More on the kool-aid drinking by Unity people...at the LGBT party on Thursday night, I was personally berated for daring to be a gay man who would vote against my state's interests in supporting the gay men on the Unity ticket. I was even given a lecture about how I should support a closet case b/c of cultural values and the fact he's close to his mama. I tried to explain why I was supporting GA's decision to block vote, but my head was bitten off in the process, so I dropped it. I was part of a group that tried like hell to get Dwayne on the Gallaway slate, but his personal decency would not allow him to leave a slate he had committed to months earlier. I respect him so much for that, and I look forward to supporting Dwayne Bensing in whatever endeavor he has in the future. Slate politics overtook personal feelings, which sucked, but that's life. I also happen to really like and support Chris Anderson, so I felt there was no way for YDA to lose at that position.

I have nothing to add to the descriptions of the voting procedure or who challenged who and why. I do know that initially all of NM's votes went to Flora Brooke as payment for a favor that Gio called in. And when Rob saw he was going to lose, he immediately ran over and cashed in two favors to get them to amend so the election would swing to him. That's actually legitimate, although the amending of votes that haven't been "challenged" at the time seems a bit sleazy, even if it's within the rules.

But what appaled me was the behavior of the Unity people in expressing their absolute RAGE at having lost every race until Secretary. The chant as voting started for Secretary was "Give us one!" which was asinine. As the challenges went up, we had people screaming at one other on both sides, and I expected a riot to break out, especially when Rob didn't get enough votes for election, even though he won the majority of votes cast. Flora Brooke had already decided to end it by withdrawing instead of letting this chaos continue, but Rob's people jumped the gun by moving acclaimation. I'm only glad we had the people to force Flora to the microphone to withdraw with dignity and class that was otherwise absent within the room.

At this point, most well mannered people would have cheered FLORA BROOKE for her graceful and dignified exit from the race. But the WA state people cheered and jeered as if they had smacked Flora down. Someone even screamed something about "That's right BITCH!" Of course, a WA delegate was also the class act that shouted "Tennessee is full of nothing but white trash!" earlier in the convention, so I'm not surprised.

There is one thing missing from the dramatic retelling of the voting for Secretary. During challenges, Rob went up to states that haven't voted and literally begged, offered favors, and God knows what else to vote for him. It was embarrassing for a national candidate to act like a common street whore begging for change, and he did it right in front of the GA delegation. I know this, b/c I personally heard and saw him doing this. He also "monitored" the CA vote b/c he knew that Flora had a couple of votes that were going her way until he watched to see how everyone voted. While I'm sure Gallaway folks did some intimidation of their own, I relate this to show that Unity wasn't exactly pristine.

We can move on to the banquet that night where all the newly elected officers were to be sworn in. The WA delegates decided to disrupt the whole ceremony with some kind of conga line and chant for Rob, for which he encouraged him by beating his breast with one fist and pointing to his "peeps". Gallaway couldn't continue until those fools settled down.

It's also an open "secret" that most of Oregon's delegates were in fact Washington State residents who falsified their registration so that Rob and Unity could get more votes. Goody for them. At least all of Georgia's delegates actually live in Georgia.

There was also the matter of WA state's "voter guide" that was distributed which portrayed Flora Brooke as some air headed bimbo who "picked up some internet skills" while working at a internet company. For the record, Flora Brooke Hesse is a highly intelligent, beautiful, and sophisticated woman whose knowledge and passion for archeology are unmatched by 99% of the population. She is thoughtful, bright, an extremely hard worker, and a REAL class act as people who attended the 2005 YDA convention now know without a doubt. We are lucky to have her in Georgia, and we couldn't be prouder of her or the conduct of her campaign.

There was also a whisper campaign against Flora Brooke that could only have come from Rob's people, especially one based in North Carolina. The whispers were that Flora was a stuck up bitch who didn't mingle as Rob did b/c she was stuck up. The fact was that Flora Brooke was bedridden with the flu until the moment she left for San Francisco. She got on that plane with a fever of over 100 and feeling like crap. We had to force bed rest on her so she wouldn't end up hospitalized, although she still did a fair amount of visiting people she was told she needed to visit. Her lack of partying and pandering was not due to snootiness. She was ill, even though she hid it well. She also didn't want to spread her illness if she could avoid it. Those are not the actions of a snooty bitch.

It is my understanding that several Unity folks who didn't quite drink the Kool-Aid as deeply as some will be appointed to high level positions in YDA, and that's as it should be. I hope we can all work together in the future and put this election behind us. One would hope that with passions cooled that apologies would be offered for the boorish behavior exhibited by both sides, but I'm not holding my breath on that. We in GA have considered Rob Dolin a friend for a long time, but there is some fence mending that needs to be done.

Jason A. Cecil
Treasurer, Young Democrats of Georgia

Forgot to add one more thing...I agree completely with the complaints about chatering. The system is wracked with nit-picky detail and requires someone with intimate knowledge of how to do it correctly in order to not get penalized. Georgia is lucky to have such people, but we need to encourage, not discourage, states from chartering. The process needs to be simplified and made transparent. I will be glad to work with anyone who would like to work on such changes to take effect before 2007.

As I recall, votes are cast by *delegations* and not by *members*, so it's all really pretty pointless to fuss over whether you need, like, an actual vote to determine how to split your votes up (provided there is not a proportionality rule, and I don't know of one). As I recall, such happens at the TYD convention.

That said, it sounds like Erica did the right thing as usual, Gio won his election, which was the bottom line, and all was well in the world. Will everyone simmer down?

Jason,

I feel compelled to correct you on a number of points. I really don't know if these are cases of mistaken identity that you've been misinformed about or are using revisionist history to make Rob and my state look bad, but I do want to clear the air.

A couple things that didn't happen:

**The chant "Give us one!" coming from WA...I didn't hear it at all, but if it happened it was stupid, in poor taste and not something I'd support.

**The move to support Rob by acclimation was made by Gallaway supporting state Arizona. Check the mydd.com article about this for more info on that. It's true that some Unity people were considering a motion to suspend the rules to allow for simple majority, but Rob canned that idea to me personally and said "Let's vote again."

**WA cheered Flora as loud as any state after she withdrew her nomination. Is it possible there was one stupid or overly emotional person who said something along those lines - of course, and if you know who please tell me and I'll take care of them. But as a whole, we were chanting "Flora" along with everyone else, and we truly meant it. I've said before and will say again, her withdrawing was the classiest and most dignified act any candidate made all weekend.

**It seems hypocritcal to say it's okay for Gio to call in a favor to swing NM's votes, but not for Rob to pull favors to swing other votes. If I'm misunderstanding you I apologize.

**There were two OR delegates whose parents live in WA but are in school in OR. Considering that both are very likely candidates to continue living in OR after graduation, their situation was morally ambigious at best..you can make a reasonable argument either way but it was not a blantant violation in any way.

**There's no point where anyone from WA described Flora as anything along the lines of airheaded or a bimbo....we all felt she was a class act. She does not seem to have the technical skills Rob's developed at Microsoft, which are more important in the role of Secretary then they might be in some other races, but I'd agree with your characterization of her as a "highly intelligent, beautiful, and sophisticated woman", and so would everyone else from WA that had the opportunity to meet her this weekend.

**This "whisper campaign" did not come from Rob's people. I actually heard from Flora personally that she was sick, and sympathized with that as I was horribly sick during our state convention when I was campaigning. If anyone felt she was a stuck up bitch, then it's too bad they didn't get the chance to talk with her...but that was not a plant from Rob or his supporters.

**I disagreed with our decision to interrupt the banquet as well...I hope you and everyone else understand that it was out of genuine enthusiasm for Rob and the great time we all had meeting other YD's from across the country. It was without a doubt a mistake, but it was not intended to show up anyone or piss anyone off.

The issue of only five states getting money -- one of which doesn't even have a YD chapter after the fact -- is a strategic choice that Gallaway made that many of us disagree with. I don't believe YDA is just another 527 that fights for specific races in swing states, I think we should be spreading the wealth. That was the fundamental argument against supporting Gallaway's re-election bid. The fervor with which we campaigned was due equally to our belief in Alex's leadership and to the fact we knew it was an uphill battle. That being said, I don't agree with a lot of the Unity actions, and I said so privately.

You and I can agree to disagree about the value of bloc voting. WA left our delegates free to vote as they chose, and we were unanimous in all votes except for Lauren's race. Some of the other states didn't feel that way and their boards will be held accountable for that -- either in the positive or negative -- from their membership down the line.

Sean Baratt
YDWA NW Director

What we have here is an age-old problem in political-party activism. A bunch of idealistic, political novices took a trip to a convention with a bunch of realistic, political veterans.

The first group has never been involved in YDA and the second group has been involved long enough that they feel they have something invested in the organization for the state of Texas.

The veterans did not want to supress democracy; they wanted to make good on the relationships they built for Texas with YDA by spending thousands of their own $'s traveling around the country for the last several years.

The novices did not want to hurt the organization, but they wanted to feel like they were contributing to the future of YDA with their own voice.

It appears that the veterans may have taken for granted the votes of the novices and very well should have made a better attempt at persuasion.

But overall, the folks who have posted above on how horrible all of this stuff is or how useless it is - are missing something very important.

Political conventions - complete with delegation-sized votes, deal-making/deal-breaking, arm-twisting, and general mayhem - are a part of the political process as it has developed in the United States and it probably always will be.

At least one person above opined that new leadership is the answer or perhaps a renewed focus on "what is important."

I have never seen, in all my years in politics, the absence within political organizations of someone who feels they are being oppressed and someone being in charge who once felt oppressed.

A far worse scenario that could have occurred at the YDA convention would have been if only the veterans were in attendance or if there were no fights at all.

In politics, contention creates progress; harmony creates stagnation.

For all of those who participated in this exercise, congratulations to you. Whether you left happy or sad about the weekend's events, you should feel priviledged to have taken part in such a process and take lessons from the event in your own future leadership.

I would like to speak as one of the delgates from Oregon who was called out in a previous posting. Currently, I am a 3rd year law student living in Salem, Oregon. I have maintained the same address in Salem for 3 years and have an Oregon drivers license. It is true that I am also active in Washington YDs, but only because no group existed in Oregon until recently. Speaking for the Oregon delegation, we all had legitimate reasoning to represent Oregon. Marni is a student in Washington who still votes in Oregon. Jenson has lived in Portland for years. Troy works full-time in Portland, and lives there most of the year. This is continually the story from our delegation.

I was also the victim of some of the most vicious attacks during the convention from the Arizona and Georgia delegations. On Friday night, I moved to recess the general session until Saturday because I and many members of both teams felt it was useless to let candidate speeches continue without anyone in the room. With so many people missing, I thought it would only be fair to let both sides speak the next morning when all delegates were present and could make up their minds on which candidate they wanted to support. The Georgia and Arizona delegates yelled at me to "Shut up!," and "Sit Down you fat pig!," with many "asshole" and "bitch" references in there as well. SO GEORGIA, if you want to talk about classless, look in the mirror first. Washington delegates were a little spicy, but our energy is why Democrats actually win elections in their state unlike yours.

And, to correct Sean Baratt from Washington, I was also a member of the Rob parade at the swearing in. The people we brought into the room to cheer for Rob outnumbered the people left to watch the ceremony. So are the people who left full of class because they don't care to see their leadership sworn in? At least Washington cared enough to stay. Washington and Oregon were excited about Rob's election, and our cheering was not only for Rob, but to try and show our support for ALL of the new leadership.

Oh where does one start? I mean; really do you have anything to say? Your post is filled with personal attacks, invective, attacks that cannot be substantiated and basically a simmering patronizing disregard for anyone who wasn’t on your slate. To top that off you seem to have a real hard time with populism, which if it’s indicative of most Georgian Democrats explains a lot. But, I’ll get back to that in a minute.

“Rob and his "team" acted like drug crazed buffoons… But that doesn't excuse behavior that you would expect from people raised in a barn somewhere, not dedicated young politicos.”

Drug crazed buffoons? Care to expand? Is it simply that their excitement and desire offended your sensibilities? Is it simply that they believed in Rob (as opposed to a machine… like you glee-fully admit to.) and the rest of their candidates and became personally invested in them? And for some reason you can’t understand that? Now, you top it off with this hum-dinger of a patronizing little line “But that doesn't excuse behavior that you would expect from people raised in a barn somewhere, not dedicated young politicos.” In it, its pretty obvious that you feel that these people are below you, because by god you’re a ‘dedicated young politico’ and they aren’t. Now, I guess the first question that begs to be asked… is why the hell would anyone want to be a ‘dedicated young politico’? I mean when I see that phraseology I think of some pampered kid wearing his daddies suit, his head sticking obscenely out the neck of which is obvious too large for him; sitting around a table trying to act like an adult politico. Do you really want to be that? Is the smoky back room something that you have dreams about at night? Or is changing the world something you dream about? I can’t speak for everyone, but I think I know your answer and it simply perpetuates the myth that YDA is nothing more than a bunch of kids playing like grown-ups around a table.

Good luck with that.

“But you had people moaning that their non-purple state got no money, and Unity's chief promise seemed to be to correct that.”

Really? That’s what UNITY promised? And this whole time I was duped! Because as far as I can recollect the only people who even intimated that they would offer Minnesota anything for our support was the Gallaway ticket! I thought this whole time that the key difference between UNITY and Gallaway was that UNITY were talking about building for the future instead of building for the next election! But you being the ‘dedicated young politico’ you are and me being the naive barn-raised hooligan that I am, you’re probably right.

“This means places like Georgia which will have a highly contested Governor's race, despite the fact our electorate collectively sucks the President's balls whenever possible.”

I’m gonna get back to this.

“Anyway, lots of cult-like activity became the order of the day with Unity folks.”

So this is the way rolls homie. If belittling, patronizing bullshit is what ‘dedicated young politicos’ offer up, then I will gratefully roll around in the stank of the mud of the barn. If sneering down your upturned nose at what you patronizingly call ‘cult-like activity’ is accepted behavior, then ‘scuse me while I go root like a pig.

“Whenever GA is part of a slate, we always block vote that slate up and down. We keep our word, which is why we've been added to three consecutive slates. It's also why you haven't seen Texas on a slate in so long, and why Gio will probably be the last one from Texas to run in a long time unless Texas can learn to support the ENTIRE slate when they have a candidate. The rest of the Gallaway slate did this, b/c we understand what partnership is all about.”

So come on holmes, lay it out… did someone put you up to this? Is this some sort of GaYD hazing? I just want to know, because a barn raised-drug crazed-practitioner of cult like activity is about to take you to task.
How? How can you act as though this is the ‘best’ thing for Georgia and YDA? It just boggles the mind (maybe because I’m drug crazed, barn raised and a practitioner of cult like activity) that electing someone who isn’t the best candidate is the right thing to do, or the best thing for our organization.
Now, where am I coming up with this? Simply enough as pointed out in the TYD blog and in many other places Gio wouldn’t have received the support of the Gallaway slate if he couldn’t deliver Texas. Why would he care? If he was the best candidate shouldn’t the members of the Gallaway slate have voted for him anyway? Shouldn’t he have gained the support of the uncommitted states if he was the better candidate? See, what’s implicit in that, is that Gio wasn’t the best candidate. That he wasn’t as good as Joe, that he hadn’t campaigned as hard as Joe had, and that he didn’t deserve it more than Joe did.

How can you rationalize that? How can you rationalize that you voted for someone less than the best candidate? Because of ‘partnership’? Sorry buddy, when partnership takes a back seat to getting the right person elected I prefer to call it “electing the wrong person, for the wrong reasons.” But I mean, really, what do I know? I am naive drug crazed farm raised cult member.
And, just as a kicker. Georgia hasn’t been on three consecutive slates. Why is that? Because last election if I remember correctly, there were no contested races. It’s hard to have a slate when no one wants the job.

“Lord knows that we made sure anyone going on Georgia's delegation knew beforehand that part of the deal for going was voting as a block, and we explained why.”

That’s gotta be handy, what was your pitch? “You can come to San Francisco, party like a rock star, promiscuously make out with other hot “dedicated young politicos,” we’ll help pay the way, but you have to give up your right to express yourself about who you think is the right leader for YDA.”

“All Texas did, unfortunately, was prove that as a state, it's an unreliable partner.”

Now, if simply because I don’t like the voyeuristic blood sport that are YDA elections, and if I don’t get the slate system dismantled, if I should ever happen to be on a slate, I would welcome the presence of a representative from the state of Texas. Why? Because I would cherish and embrace the challenge of convincing a group of intelligent, committed young Democrats to vote for me. That I was the best candidate. Why? Because I believe fundamentally that it is more important that people express their democratic values than that I should get elected because of the sham partnership that is a slate.
Your guise of partnership further begs the question. So if you are a partner with the other states on the slate, are you not a partner with the states in YDA that aren’t on that slate? Given your obvious disdain for the actions that happened in Texas I think I know your answer, if you could just lie to me so I wouldn’t loose my faith in this organization of OURS I would feel a lot better.

“More on the kool-aid drinking by Unity people…”

Do you really need this? Can you not prove your point without name calling?!?!

“I was part of a group that tried like hell to get Dwayne on the Gallaway slate, but his personal decency would not allow him to leave a slate he had committed to months earlier. “

So, you have just admitted that Dwayne Bensing was your first choice for his position, how exactly does settling for someone who IN YOUR OWN OPINION isn’t as good, right for the organization?!?! Now again, maybe because I am a naive barn raised drug crazed cult member I think that we should vote for the best people for any position. Why? Well… I think the answer is obvious enough. I don’t want mediocrity when I can get passion, commitment, and innovation.
I see all of those take a distant second in your book to ‘partnership.’ And lord knows what value partnership has in your book because in some lord of the flies-like turn around you’ve already basically voted Texas off the island and are about ready to beat them with sticks and rocks.
So holmes, you’ve settled it. If anyone ever calls me a ‘dedicated young politico’ I’m gonna jump off a cliff before all my better sense is given up to ‘partnership’.

“I do know that initially all of NM's votes went to Flora Brooke as payment for a favor that Gio called in. And when Rob saw he was going to lose, he immediately ran over and cashed in two favors to get them to amend so the election would swing to him. That's actually legitimate, although the amending of votes that haven't been "challenged" at the time seems a bit sleazy, even if it's within the rules.”

WTF!!?!?!?!? The fact that something was amended without a challenge seems a bit sleezy… but the use of cashing in of favors to get votes isn’t?!?!

WHAT KIND OF PRE-1972 WORLD DO YOU LIVE IN?

Alright, so it’s come to this… if I should ever leave the world of naive barn raised, drug crazed, cult members and be called a ‘dedicated young politico’ I am gonna splatter my gray matter all over my bedroom wall.

“I'm only glad we had the people to force Flora to the microphone to withdraw with dignity and class that was otherwise absent within the room.”

Wait a second. How is FORCING someone to the mic allowing them to withdraw with dignity and class???

This is just one of several examples of your mouth running ahead of your brain, and yet another reason why the people of GaYD should think long and hard before ever allowing you to speak for them.

Flora did show enormous class, grace and style for her withdrawal. She, and the people who advised her should be shown real acclaim for what they did. Between Mark from NC and others who supported her and herself she was a great candidate who deserved the respect of all those delegates. I know that the transition of the chant between DOLIN! And FLORA! Was an easy one because she showed the character she had.

Character you haven’t done much to advance.

“At this point, most well mannered people would have cheered FLORA BROOKE for her graceful and dignified exit from the race.”

Yet more hyperbole, bullshit, and name calling. You about done now? I see not.

“But the WA state people cheered and jeered as if they had smacked Flora down. Someone even screamed something about "That's right BITCH!" Of course, a WA delegate was also the class act that shouted "Tennessee is full of nothing but white trash!" earlier in the convention, so I'm not surprised.”

I beg you. I demand of you. I hope that you prove this. Come on, give me a description. A rough one. Break it down, was it a man, a woman? White? Black? Looked like they were old enough to drink? Or not? Come on give it to me, and I will travel to Washington of my own pocketbook and smack some ignorant bitches up.

“During challenges, Rob went up to states that haven't voted and literally begged, offered favors, and God knows what else to vote for him. It was embarrassing for a national candidate to act like a common street whore begging for change, and he did it right in front of the GA delegation.”

So, this is where it happens paisan. This is where the rubber meets the road.

You’re a classless asshole.

My name is Sean Broom, I live in Minneapolis Minnesota, my email address is sdbroom1982 (@) yahoo (.) com and I stand behind what I just said. If you want my home address and phone number I will gladly provide those to you.

You’re going to call people who you don’t agree with drug crazed, barn raised, cult members, and your going to compare someone who worked for every vote he got to a whore? You’re going to call names like some child, implying some level of superiority, but you have the balls to call someone whose character you have no place to comment on a whore?! With the sole exception of basking in my drug crazed, barn raised, cult memberish character I’ve gone out of my way to not take everything you say personally. Well screw you buddy. You’ve just crossed the line and you can kiss my fat naïve drug crazed, barn raised, cult member ass.

To expand on this further, you can call it whatever you want, but what this comes down to is you don’t like populism. You don’t like candidates interacting with people, working for their votes. You don’t like people personally identifying with candidates. Now, while I cross my fingers and toes and close my eyes and pray really hard that this shallow, ignorant patrician distaste of populism is confined to yourself, I fear it may be indicative of Georgia Democratic politics. It may be the reason why you’ve brought Bob “I look a little like Hitler in appearance, and deep down in my soul” Barr and Newt “Okay, So I divorced my cancer stricken wife, and disowned my lesbian sister” Gingrich to the national scene. You’ve also added Zell “So Why Is It I Have That D Behind My Name? Oh… That’s Right! Because I Catered To The Politicos!” Miller. Maybe you should think about the value of populism.

So, to recap.
1. You should probably knock off this whole patrician distaste of populism.
2. You just compared someone who I view as a friend, a compatriot, a leader, and a fair responsible voice for unity and togetherness a whore. Don’t ever do that again.

“The WA delegates decided to disrupt the whole ceremony with some kind of conga line and chant for Rob, for which he encouraged him by beating his breast with one fist and pointing to his "peeps". Gallaway couldn't continue until those fools settled down.”

Again, I was there. I’m not a Washingtonian, although that night basking in the victory of the first person who I committed to, I felt like I was one. And I can tell you man, I never felt better all week.

First of all, we were chanting “Louie, Louie.”
Which to the ‘patrician dedicated young politicos’ who don’t know is one of Washington’s state songs. Better than Minnesota if you ask me… all we’ve got is a muffin.

Secondly, while Rob may have given a little chest pound to show that Washingtonians and their hard work was close to his heart, he also gave us the “knock it off” or “quiet down” sign. I bet you didn’t see that though, since you were probably clear at the back at the end of the room. Look at what ‘partnership’ got you.

Thirdly, you compared someone who I admire, I respect, I believe was the best candidate for the job and who is now YOUR YDA secretary to a whore. Flora wouldn’t want that being the classy tasteful intelligent woman she is. And you shouldn’t do that. Ever. Again.

“It's also an open "secret" that most of Oregon's delegates were in fact Washington State residents who falsified their registration so that Rob and Unity could get more votes. Goody for them. At least all of Georgia's delegates actually live in Georgia.”

Yet more unfounded hyperbole, bullshit and rhetoric. Prove it. I dare you. If you can’t, then go back to where ever you came from and keep your opinions to your self.

“For the record, Flora Brooke Hesse is a highly intelligent, beautiful, and sophisticated woman whose knowledge and passion for archeology are unmatched by 99% of the population. She is thoughtful, bright, an extremely hard worker, and a REAL class act as people who attended the 2005 YDA convention now know without a doubt.”

Holy cow! And this entire time I thought we were voting on Secretary! So what does her acumen in archeology have to do with anything? Yet another example of your fingers running faster than your mind. Flora showed in a time of personal stress and sickness that she is a woman to be admired, and I do… and I know that everyone who I spoke to from Washington feels the same. She was a great candidate, and while I am happy that Rob won, I am sad that a WOMAN as strong, as committed and as capable as Flora lost. She was inspiring, and I hope to see, and experience more of her leadership. I know her character is beyond reproach, without a doubt.

Your belligerent ass on the other hand….

“There was also a whisper campaign against Flora Brooke that could only have come from Rob's people, especially one based in North Carolina.”

Yet further unproven accusations! Name names. Come on lay it out. If these people said it then you obviously know who it is! None of this pussyfooting around the issue, who did it? Or can’t you prove it?

“One would hope that with passions cooled that apologies would be offered for the boorish behavior exhibited by both sides, but I'm not holding my breath on that. We in GA have considered Rob Dolin a friend for a long time, but there is some fence mending that needs to be done.”

I’m not speaking for Rob Dolin, I’m not speaking for Washington, I’m not speaking for Minnesota… I’m just speaking for myself; listen asshole if you want to act with this holier than thou attitude feel free, but first and foremost I think you owe Rob Dolin an apology for comparing him to whore! And then after that simple bit of fence mending we can get back to business.

And to those who would patronize my ‘naïve’-ness, to those who would say that the reason why I would think something is because of the fact that I am ‘new’ to YDA. I say that your arguments are the shallowest, weakest forms of ad hominem attacks. Simply because I am young, or new to YDA doesn’t mean I am wrong, and if you can’t say why the slate system is a failure of our little d and big D principles, if all you can resort to is “oh, well… you’re new, you don’t know what’s going on.” Then you can keep your logic-less, your baseless, your senseless attacks to yourself until you can muster up some argument that actually proves or even casts doubt on why the slate system is a failure. If the best you can bring is “I’m older than you, and I’ve been around, and you guys are young and naïve, and I’m right, because I’m not.” Then you can keep your opinion to yourself.

Sean Broom | Minnesota National Committee Representative, sdbroom1982 (@) yahoo.com

Two quotes to end the post...

Brothers and Sisters, Enemies and Friends,

Why are we all so alone here? All we need is a little more hope, a little more joy.
All we need is a little more light, a little less weight, a little more freedom.
If we were an army, and if we believed that we were an army,
And we believed that everyone was scared like little lost children in their grown up clothes and poses;
So we ended up alone here floating through long wasted days, or great tribulations...
While everything felt wrong.
Good words, strong words, words that could've moved mountains.
Words that no one ever said.
We were all waiting to hear those words and no one ever said them.
All the tactics never hatched.
All the plans were never mapped.
And we all learned not to believe.
And strange lonesome monsters loafed through the hills wondering why…
And it is best to never ever ever ever...wonder why.
Brothers and Sisters, hope still waits in the wings like a bitter spinster;
Impatient, lonely and shivering,
Waiting to build her glorious fires.
It's because of our plans man; our beautiful ridiculous plans.
Let's launch them like careening jet planes...

And

"... And it hit me, Minnesota is dope
If only simply for not what we have but what we don't
It's all fair, it ain't out there, it's in there
It's in the mirror, behind the breast under the hair
Follow the dream doesn't mean leave the love
Roam if you must, but come home when you've seen enough...
So if the people laugh and giggle when you tell em where you live
Say shhh, say shhh..."

Now, Dan, if you're going to tell a story about Friday night, you need to tell the FULL story. The truth was that Alex had not read the agenda for the night, and did not expect candidate speeches. At least that was the understanding I had. Most of the Unity slate thought that the speeches were the next day, although I'm not sure why. The room was not empty, but we had been there a while, and all of us were tired. But the attempt to shut down the speeches when they couldn't be given the next day was a blatant attempt to cover up Alex's incompetence at not being ready. As far as the fat pig comment, I sure hope that didn't come from a GA delegate. We were sitting in the middle right of the room, the first two rows by the 2nd set of doors. AZ was in the front. I am fairly certain, as I was sitting by the center aisle, that no one from GA yelled such things, but there was so much yelling, it's possible. If it's true, I offer apologies on behalf of my state.

As for my charges on the OR delegation, I honestly did not think about the college angle. I was reminded that one of our state officers (not at the convention) is an AL resident who attends Morehouse. So I apologize for any maligning. I did hear from a trusted friend that people from WA were bragging about filling the OR delegation, which is why I brought it up. I apologize for the negative implications.

It should also be noted that my comments are all my own, and even though I've noted my office here in GA, I am not speaking for the entire Exec Board or National team.

Anyway, I'm all for moving past the bile of the elections and working on a successful 2006.

"But the attempt to shut down the speeches when they couldn't be given the next day was a blatant attempt to cover up Alex's incompetence at not being ready. As far as the fat pig comment, I sure hope that didn't come from a GA delegate. We were sitting in the middle right of the room, the first two rows by the 2nd set of doors. AZ was in the front. I am fairly certain, as I was sitting by the center aisle, that no one from GA yelled such things, but there was so much yelling, it's possible. If it's true, I offer apologies on behalf of my state."

First of all, on your side of the aisle, I am almost positive the delegation order went something like this... Kansas, Arizona Virginia.

Secondly your partisan rhetoric about Alex not being prepared was just that... I witnessed Alex deliver his speach (and Stephanie actually) in practice/preperation that day well before lunch.

So, why weren't you interested in Georgia hearing from the candidates at a reasonable hour of the day? Afraid that you slate-worthy house of cards would come falling down if your delegates heard the candidates during hours when the sun was up?

Sean Broom

I was Alex's credentials whip (aka "legal enforcer") at the convention. Alex is an old friend, so I was glad to help a friend because loyalty counts. I've also been active in YDA in one form or another since 1991.

The muscling you heard about has been standard for years and in some cases, there is nothing wrong with it. The comment about idealism vs. grizzled veterans is right.

As long as the state club has taken a position consistent with its bylaws (such as Massachusetts and Georgia), there is nothing wrong with insisting on adhering to disciplline and voting the line. After all, we get judged in this business by our ability to deliver. If no such vote is taken and a commitment was made before getting proper sign-off, that is another matter.

Winning elections is about being prepared. The Gallaway folks knew how the process worked and used it to their advantage.

I personally fought to restore at least 155 votes to state clubs who did not have the guidance to know what those rules were (clearly a more informative chartering packet is needed).

However, even with those votes and and with the 60 or so votes affected by Texas (10 votes due to overappointment of delegates), Nevada (20 votes lost due to failure to pay for them) and Arkansas (33 votes due to failure to file final delegate list), Alex could not have won.

That being said, some changes to credentialing is needed to bring YDA into the 21st Century (we can talk about that another time) and all parties seem to agree on this.

Winning elections in a convention format is always an uphill battle for outsiders and I knew that going in. If you want to win in a convention format, know the rules, know your votes and organize obsessively.

It is my hope that the recently elected YDA leadership will be smart and incorporate enough UNITY folks to try to unite YDA. Gallaway and company I am sure will make that effort.

Andrew Lachman, Esq.

Hey,

I got this string from a friend, and I just wanted to give my congratulations to the Texas delegation and Gio on their victory.

As the Committeewoman of the opposing state and former YDA Minority Caucus Chair, I gotta give credit where credit is do. I'm sure Gio will attend every DNC meeting and report back to TX and YDA all of the things we need to know. He will do fine, as he as done in previous posts. He will take on this position with the determination and focus that he has displayed as my vice-chair of the Caucus and as our National Communications Director. He earned this win, and we in NY congratulate him on his efforts.

In all this email chatter, no one remembered to congratulate Erica Contreras and Shondra Wygal in their respective Caucus leadership victories within the Minority and Women's Caucuses. Kudos to you ladies, and I look forward to seeing great things coming from you!

TX is doing BIG THINGS, and I think that's something to be proud of...

I know stuff went down this weekend that just wasnt cool, but to some extent, each side got a little something to motivate them to stay involved beyond rhetoric that really doesnt soothe the spirit...

For the Gallaway folks -- HEY!! You won! You got elected, now do the job... and, for the UNITY folks -- lick your wounds, and stay focused. Two years can be very short. Prepare yourselves and remember to remain the voice of opposition in YDA. Hold leadership accountable, disagree without being disagreeable, keep the doors of opportunity open for new people to become empowered, and dont let this lose break your spirit.

Again, congrats to the TX folks for their hard work and victory... and, just know... we'll be watching...

Yours In The Struggle,

Tara L. Martin, National Committeewoman
New York State Young Democrats

Ok Texas folks, WHY IN THE WORLD would any of you try to go against the Gallaway ticket? You had someone from your State on the ticket. Most of the Unity States forced their members to vote Unity and you should have all voted Gallaway. It is in the best interest of your State. THIS IS THE WAY POLITICS WORKS. Have any of you ever been to a Democratic National Convention as a Delegate? I for one voted for a candidate other than Kerry, HOWEVER, to be a delegate at the DNC, my State forced me to Sign in as a vote FOR KERRY...that is the way it works! Can you petty "let every vote counts" people get that through your heads? If you ever want Texas to be a force in Democratic politics, you will get that through your heads! Now all you have done is shown that your State CAN NOT be relied on to be unified for anything. I hope all of you have learned a lesson. For those of you who saw what was important and stuck to the cause for your State, whether you like it or not...GOOD FOR YOU. For all of you from Texas that decided to be idiots and compalain, that "LET every vote count" shit, WAKE UP!!! You just fucked your State over! Think about that! If you don't like the way politics works....get out of it, this is a volunteer organization, get used to it or leave it!

"If you don't like the way politics works....get out of it..."

Thats a banner fucking idea. I mean really, I could go through life thinking like that, and not get a damn thing done. I could just say "Well... I don't like the way something works, but thats the way it is, so I should either accept it or leave."

I mean really, can you imagine what a better place the world would be if people said back in the 1960's "You know what, I don't like Jim Crow laws, and I think that black people should have the right to vote unemcumbered. But since thats not how it is, I should just give up since I want something different."

Some people.

Sean Broom

Paul-

I think Texas might matter. Since George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson, and Dwight Eisenhower were either born in or moved to our state (that 4 of the last 10 Presidents), we're pretty confident we know how politics work.

We also have a vocabulary that's big enough to address each other as friends, and I'll thank you not to use those words about my state.

We also realize that Texas, just like the YDA, needs support from everywhere it is available. We are not so much a "get used to it or leave" state as we are a "come and take it" kind of bunch.

We may behave differently, think differently, and act differently, but I would hope that you treat OUR state and OUR delegates with the respect they deserve. Democrats here realize we are made stronger by our diverse views, and if you don't agree with that attitude, "come and take it."

The fact is, Texas (or more accurately, its Executive Committee) did not vote to endorse Mr. Gallaway (or Mr. De Ocampo, for that matter). This race was not the same as placing a delegation vote for a nominee for the Presidential race, but rather more similar to electing a Party Chair, and there was obviously no primary to instruct us to vote for any specific individual. That said, it is my understanding (and I’m sure one or more of you will correct me if I am mistaken) that the McGovern rules adopted in 1972 bar the use of the unit rule in Party Operations at all levels. This is the same set of rules that promotes gender parity and greater inclusion and transparency in Party delegation procedures. If we are attempting to mirror the Senior Party, it makes sense that YDA would adhere to the same rules that they do. For this reason, the delegates who traveled all the way to San Francisco and wished to vote for UNITY had a right to vote their conscience, and in my mind, were correct in attempting to do so. Perhaps if the Gallaway team had wanted to garner all of Texas's support, they would have done well to have campaigned more actively in Texas rather than to arrogantly assume that they had our votes simply because Gio (who did receive an endorsement from our state and our full support) was running out of our state.
Say what you want, I supported and would have voted for the candidate who I felt was most qualified and would have done the best job of promoting the same Democratic ideals that were forgotten by overly ambitious young people in San Francisco. I wanted to vote for Alex De Ocampo BECAUSE I felt he would be better for Texas. I felt that his vision was just what Texas and YDA needed to succeed in the coming years. I am proud of my independence. I am proud to be one of the women in Texas who couldn’t be controlled. I am proud of the fact that I cannot be bought and sold. I am proud that I don’t owe anyone a goddamn thing. Truth be told, I’m not obligated to do anything but stay my respective ethnicity and die, and I don’t even have to respond to some of the statements made in this thread that the ballsy women of the Texas EC Board and friends fucked over our great state, but I will: Texas is lucky to have us.
The Young Voter Alliance was a program that YDA started in order to reach young people and get them to the polls. I think the first time I heard their slogan, I was at my first National Committee meeting in Salt Lake City, and I was very moved by its words: “I’m young, and I will swing the vote. I’m a Democrat, and my vote will be counted. I’m voting, and my voice will be heard.” I have taken the liberty to write my own version: I’m young, and unfortunately I was unable to swing the vote. I’m a Democrat, and my vote was not counted. I couldn’t vote, but now my voice will be heard.

Democratically Yours,
Emily Beer

Wow!! this is my first visit to Burnt Orange.

For what its worth beating a state like New York to end Texas' 20 + year drought wasn't easy. I'm proud of our Texas delegation for coming to a concensus and putting Texas first.

Our TYD President Mike Apodaca (who happens to be the first Latino and El Pasonan to be elected to this position) should be commended for pushing for a minority report and for spending the countless hours in the platform & credentials committee, making sure Texas was fully represented. Mike and I do not always agree but his leadership is unquestionable.

I would also like to thank David Hardt (Dallas) - Texas Young Democrats National Committeeman for putting together our delegation which went from one of the smallest two years ago, to the third largest. This was no easy task and David showed he is a true Texas leader.

Finally, i would like to thank Veronica DeLaFuente (Harlingen) - our delegation chair (behind every man is a better woman). Without her guidance over the years I would never have been in the position to win. When i first entered YDA four years, Texas was a blimp on the map and i was determined to change that.

In my opinion, the only way for Texas to have a say in YDA and in our national party is to have a seat at the decision-making table. Thanks to many good Texans, we now have that seat, and i do not take it litely.

In addition, i would like to thank our State Chairman Charles Soechting and DNC Representative Sue Lovell for getting the entire state behind me and also Candidate for Governor Chris Bell and State Representative Mark Strama who spoke on my behalf in San Francisco.

Finally, i would like to thank the Harris County Tejano Democrats and City of Houston Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who have always supported me.

mil gracias y viva Tejas!!!

C. Giovanni Garibay
Young Democrats of America National Committeeman

I am glad to see so many people debating what happened. A full and frank discussion is the only way to prevent similar confusion and resentment from being repeated. But, it strikes me as ironic that some of the people spending a great deal of time and energy reviewing and posting to this and other blogs put no such time and effort into the convention trainings or committee meetings. Some, it appeared, (and I stress "some") were only there to party and to vote for a slate. Your lack of involvement in the substance of the convention leads me to question whether you care as much about the issues that unite Democrats as you do your own interests and perceived injustices. If you didn’t like what happened, work to fix it, but lose the hyperbole and unnecessary grandstanding.

Hey Guys, This is Brian Cross, and I've beeen watching the fray from afar and I have a few things to say...

To the Victors, I congratulate you, Let's do good work!!

To those who were not Successful, I also Congratulate you, As someone who lost an election in the Spring (Local School Board) I know how this feels, but you have a lot to be proud of, it's better to be the man to stick his hat in the ring, and not be successful, then to not have to courage to attempt this venutre at all

My Hat is off to you :)

The past is behind us, Let's let it go

Let's work together as a team to Unify the Young Democrats of America,

A lot of things were said In San Fran that were uttered in Anger, and also things have been said here

Let's try to put that behind us and work towards the one thing I know we can agree on

Let's Kick Republican Ass :)

To Quote Christiana Dominguez from California on her blog

"Today is the first day of the rest of our campaign. Let's get to it"

Gio-

Thanks for the words, but I dont think I'm really the one who started the minority report, that was Katie, Erica, and Shondra. I wanted the report and to see it on there, and glad it was. I'm thankful for our women of Texas. The put me in prospective where we need to go, what we need to change, and I'm lucky to have the ballsy women (as Emily Stated) who put me into check, and sometimes into confusion as well. All in all, they are the ones who make our progress in TYD and the Party.

But I think I forget to mention in my post before that Texas did some great stuff over the week as in having some leadership in the committee process and as well electing three Texans in to the Leadership of YDA Caucuses, two of them being our women (Erica as Sec/Tres of Minorty and Shondra as West Vice Chair of Women's Caucus).

BTW I'm not the first Latino President. There were some before me. But it is correct that I am the first El Pasoan at the helm.

So here it is, honestly, I'm proud to be from Washington State because while some may consider our enthusiasm to be abrasive, our passion for politics and overwhelming support and work for our canidate overcame us. We were excited, are excited, to have formed the relationships we have within our own delegation and all around the country. We were elated to earn representation on YDA execs through our highly qualified canidate and the efforts of our dedicated members and friends. We earned our celebration, so it would serve you well (JASON from GA) to simple congratualte us for our honesty, integrity, excitement, and victory. Thanks Sean From Minn for your kindness. And work on it Texas, we can all do better. But there is no reason to discredit Texas, they've got a lot of things going for them.
Stephanie Ervin
WA Delegation

On a separate note, I had a blast at convention! I want to thank the YDA officers and YDA by the Bay for putting on such an event. I sat on platform with some very intelligent and good-hearted people. We had some fights, we had some battles, but I think we all came out liking each other. (Ok, Conn and NC had a little bit of a scuffle).

I also loved the floor politics. I actively campaigned for Rob and did a bit for the Unity ticket and just loved the whole process. The tricks. The schemes. The maneuvers. The procedure. The cajoling. This IS politics! This happened on both sides and I found it so fascinating. I would like to apologize to anyone I might have offended in the process. Sometimes, one may get carried away...

So to everyone who attended and especially those who sat on platform, thanks. This was an event I will always remember!!

Corey Sanders
VP of Political and Legislative Affairs
Young Democrats of WA
corey.sanders@ydwa.org

On a platform note: I do want to take the time and thank those in the platform committee. We finished in record time. I don't know why everyone hates the platform committee, I think its the funiest one of all. My friend told me why I love to waste my weekend (which yeah, you do if you want to party and have fun)doing platform, and I told him cause out of all the committees, you learn the most. Second time I've done it at YDA, Chaired and been a member of it in TYD almost every time, and done it here at my local county level. Although it was not the "hot" committee to be on this year cause credentials stole our light, but I always appreciate and respect a person who loves to do platform. I had a great time being the Vice Co Chair of it.

seriously, this comments thread is way too long.

I must agree that Platform was a blast. I was very impressed at the dedication and seriousness in which the delegates (well, almost all the delegates) took the process. It was my first chance to work with Mike & we laughed a lot. He even let me wear his cowboy hat a few times. I am proud of the document we created and this year's platform WILL be available to all YD's.

Concerning the elections...it's not worth hashing out all over again. What's done is done and we learn from it and go on. No one ever likes everyone in YDA but that doesn't mean we can't work together. If we keep up this gritching for too much longer the Young Repugs are going to hold this over us forever. Let's move along...

--rachel, oklahoma city

Hey guys, it's me Chris Gallaway! I just got back from San Francisco earlier today. Wasn't it a fun convention. I must admit I had little luck with the ladies this weekend. This one bitch from Washington was all over my junk but she wasn't down because I wasn't unity. Fuck that shit, they can't even run a governor's election. Any ladies want to hook with an "elected official?" Call me 1(800) SEX-AWAY!

Chris... You could have swung down to my suite this weekend. Remember in Buffalo when we got that tub of butter and covered ourselves in it. I haven't told anyone until tonight. I hope the next convention is in Salt Lake City... my hometown...Mormons doin it doggy style....Call me Chris I will be in VA in Sept.

Karl Rove here. I just wanted to applaud the Young Democraps of America for supressing voters GOP-style. Personally, I couldn't have done it better myself. Chris, word up dog we should definitely meet up next time you are in the District. Those tools at the College Repubs have nothing on your tactics. If we didn't already have those morons in middle America wrapped around "value" issues, I'd be afraid.

My Turn:
Re: Georgia Treasurer

What is this? "Flora Brooke Hesse is a highly intelligent, beautiful, and sophisticated woman whose knowledge and passion for archeology are unmatched by 99% of the population. She is thoughtful, bright, an extremely hard worker, and a REAL class act as people who attended the 2005 YDA convention now know without a doubt."

These are not qualifications for Secretary of YDA. I am sure Julia Roberts, or Mariah Carey even Paris Hilton are most of these things. Does that mean they are qualified for the position no.

It is without a doubt that Rob was the better candidate. Rob worked harder for it, he campaigned more, and was more active then she even though of being.

Now in regard to "Washington not chanting for her" that is a complete lie. I was the whip for our team and when she withdrew we all cheered her name. I even took time out of my schedule to go up to her and tell her how much I respected her decision, and informed her that she is not only classy, but a true winner in my book.

You can ask her about this situation and she would gladly recap you on this.

I think that your personal attack on Washington is not only surreptitious, it is arbitrary and capricious. You are being ridiculous.

I would hope that you would work hard enough and raise enough money to emulated Washington’s hard work and dedication. We brought 50 YD's to the convention, paid for their rooms, and assisted in cost for registration.

This was not achieved by someone's mommy or daddy opening a check book. It was only through hard work dedication and a strong committed group did we achieve such and outcome.

Again I would hope Georgia could emulate our dedication or even our passion in future years.

Multiple states criticized Washington for holding signs and standing up for what they believed in. It is too bad that you can not live in a state that is able to appreciate the true things about being an American, right to vote, right to free speech, and right to do what the fuck we want too.

Now you may think that cussing is unnecessary or vulgar, but I think that your states unwilling to stand one by one and vote on a race, is just as vulgar, and unnecessary. As much as I don't like consensuses we let every person in our state have a vote every race, and did not block vote, unless we have 100% approval. That's right 100% approval, look that up, go learn what it is and come back to me and when you are in a free state some day maybe we can talk about this.

It is normally not my thing to engage people in these sort of sites, being that i am busy and have more important things to do. But I wanted to stand up for what I believe in and what I support.

Rob and the rest of Washington, i am glad to have worked along side of you, and would hope that one day other states could understand or participate in our sort of freedom.

Oh and in regard to the "White Trash comment" that so quickly spread through convention. The whole state was not called white trash, it was one red headed, frumpy individual, who for the love of god would not shut up.

So don't call a whole state, classless, it only took one person to say it, and a whole state should not be criticized for such actions.

Just like we are not blaming you for being a disenfranchised, ignorant, premature, asshole who surreptitious carries on in a manner which is only demonstrated by other assholes.

You are who you hang with.

Sincerely,
Pretty in Pink