SDEC MEETING OF JUNE 6, 2009 

DoubleTree Hotel, I35 North, Austin 

Before I get into the meeting I would like to take a minute of your time to congratulate and thank our Tarrant County state officials for their work in the very difficult 81^st Session of the Texas Congress.  Senator Wendy Davis was named Rookie of The Year by Texas Monthly.  WooHoo!!  Great work Wendy!  Serving us proudly on the House side were Representatives Lon Burnam, Mark Veasey, Paula Pierson, and Chris Turner.   These folks spent about 140 miserable days trying to deal with obstructionists with a narrow-minded agenda of blocking any meaningful legislation for the citizens of Texas while trying to push through their Voter Suppression Act to try to stop Democrats from voting. 

Please join us at a TCDP event on Saturday June 20  from  1:00pm to 4:00pm at Veterans Park -  3600 W. Arkansas Lane,   Arlington

to personally thank these great folks for their hard work on our behalf.

NOW TO THE SDEC MEETING

On Friday evening there was a barbeque at the AFL/CIO state office across the street from the Governor’s mansion. SDEC members, County Chairs and local elected officials are invited. (donations expected as usual)  There is a lot of flak among the locals in Austin about the taxpayers paying $12,000/month for Governor Perry’s temporary residence while the mansion undergoes major renovations resulting from a fire. 

Saturday morning when we registered in for the meeting there was a list of Texas Majority Builders (sustaining membership) attached to our agendas. There were only 37 names on the District 12 list.  I would encourage everyone to first become a sustaining member at the county level, then if at all possible join the Majority Builders.  Each membership is only $10/month or $120 for a year.  The least noticeable way to accomplish this is to have the money automatically withdrawn from one’s bank account each month.  These monies are what keeps the doors open at our party offices, and that is very important, especially in off-election years.  To become a sustaining member of TCDP go to tcdp.net and click on donate, for the state go to txdemocrats.org and follow the signs.

As always the committee meetings began at 9am and went until 11:45am.  I sat in on Grassroots, Advisory, Majority Builder and took part in the two committees I am a member of which are Resolutions and Convention.  

Lunch was provided by the Bill White campaign and  post- meeting snacks and refreshments were provided by the John Sharp campaign.  Bill and John are both planning to run for the US Senate seat that we expect Kay Bailey Hutchison to vacate when she announces her run for governor against Gov. Perry.  

THE GENERAL SESSION

Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call – There were several elected members absent who had not arranged for a proxy. This can be a problem when there are close votes!

Senator Royce West addressed the SDEC with an update from the sub-committee on the Town Hall type hearings  regarding Precinct Conventions/Caucuses and the Two Step process. Our own Tarrant County District 10 SDEC committeeman DeeJay Johannason serves on that sub-committee.  Eleven hearings held all across Texas and over 3000 folks addressed the committee by oral or written testimony, emails, letters and questionnaires. This mound of data is being sorted and compiled and the recommendations should be submitted to the Rules Committee by September 2009.  It should be mentioned that each person who was on this committee paid their own expenses so this statewide study cost the party $0.  Thank you.

The Treasurer reported that in the past quarter our out-go was about $30,000 above the income. These expenses are for salaries of staff, building rent, meetings, office expenses for equipment and supplies.  Donations are always down in off-election years, hence the need for Sustaining Memberships.

Boyd Richie, State Chair reports that some political pundits say that 2014 will be the year of the Democrats.  He states emphatically that we MUST win in 2010.  “2010 is for ALL the marbles, ALL the money and ALL the chalk”.  We must contact more voters and raise more awareness and more money than ever before. We have to be in power in 2010 in order to be in power for the redistricting of 2011 where we can undo some of Tom DeLay’s skullduggery.  The Democratic National Committee has finally realized there is opportunity in Texas.  The DNC is holding their fall meeting in Austin  September 10 – 12 and have already put one permanent staff member in Austin.   Boyd announced that he will seek another term as our State chair. He said “We will not have a state government that works in the best interests of all Texans until there is a Democratic majority”.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE:  Met, had a quorum, no business to discuss. Adjourned.

RULES COMMITTEE:  A point of order was raised regarding a state party rule that ‘one month’ notification of any proposals for rules changes. The decision was that ‘one month’ means a full 30 days and the proposals did not meet that.

CONVENTION COMMITTEE

There is continued discussion of details of the 2010 State Convention in Corpus Christi June 10-12. It will be family friendly.  Activities are being planned for all ages.  There will be a Silent Auction on the first night, SDEC members are asked to provide at least two items.  The committee will meet in Corpus on August 22 for an on-site visit. Members will pay their own expenses.  Dallas and Houston are being considered for the 2012 convention.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  There was a committee wide thank you and round of applause for Tarrant County’s own Betty Fisher and JoAnn Zimmerman who kindly sent the committee a much appreciated list of things to look for and think about arising from Betty and JoAnn’s experience in 2006 when the convention was in Ft. Worth.  Thank you Ladies!!  That was very thoughtful.

FINANCE COMMITTEE

The current bank balance is a little over $100,000.

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE

The committee reviewed the status of our legislative priorities from the March meeting. Most did not make it out of committee in the 81^st legislature. By organizing and making phone calls, writing letters and attending committee meetings we were able to block the Voter ID bills which would have lost over half a million Democrat voters!!  The committee will meet via conference call if needed during the expected Called Session.

RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE

Several congratulatory resolutions were passed:

Congratulations to Becky Moeller newly elected president of Southern Region AFL/CIO

Declaring June 6 Judge Sotomyer Day at TDP for her commitment to justice

Commending Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watson for the Innocence Project

Congratulate David Hardt, President of National Young Democrats

Congratulate State Representative Norma Chaves on completion of Bachelors Degree from University of Texas

There are many resolutions from the 2008 State Convention that have not yet been through committee. There were several thousand resolutions. Many are now moot points. Those left have been catalogued and combined when possible and are being processed as time permits.  Three such resolutions were passed out of committee and passed by the SDEC body.

In Support of the Employee Free Choice Act

In support of the State wide Safe school (non-bullying) act

In support of establishing a state-wide network for identifying candidates for the State Board of Education

MAJORITY BUILDERS

There are currently 2,223 members who have contributed $83,000.  An additional $2,700 has been committed.  We need 10 new members from each Senate District before the end of the year.  If you wish to join please go through the state office via the web site at 

Txdemocrats.org       or via mail at   Texas Democratic Party, 505 W. 12^th       Street, Ste. 200,  Austin, TX  78701      or FAX  512-480-2500

GRASSROOTS COMMITTEE

The TDP  Grassroots Manual is available on line at  txdemocrats.org    Please check it out if you are interested in being involved with your local party .  There is some really good information there.

The Texas Democratic Party Goal is to have every precinct organized by 2012.  With a team – Precinct Chair, Election judge and Organizers.  To that end there is the Campaign Academy that offers training in Fundraising, Precinct Chair Training, Precinct Organization,  Campaign Organization and others. The training is free and is offered at different venues across the state.  Some is available via Webinar.  These first sessions are to identify trainers all across the state to “train trainers” in their precinct, county , district etc.  If you know anyone who might be interested please guide them to Brian Pendleton at the State Office.  The phone number there is 512-478-9800.  Brian’s email address is BPendleton@txdemocrats.org

AdHoc RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE MEETING

A request from the floor resulted in the Resolutions Committee holding a brief meeting in the hallway to consider a new resolution commending Jim Dunham and Letitia Van de Putte for their part in defeating the voter suppression bill.  The resolution passed both the committee and the floor.

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Respectfully submitted:   

Jo Pierce,  SDEC Committeewoman SD 12