David Sirota Keynote Speaker at PPC Annual Meeting
Now that the Senate District and County Conventions are over and delegates have been selected to go to the State Convention in June, it’s time for progressives to focus on making an impact at the State Convention in our ongoing effort to reform the TDP.
During our PPC Strategy Retreat last summer, the Steering Committee determined our priorities for 2005-2006 which include restructuring Party processes to allow for early grassroots input into Party platform and resolutions prior to State Conventions; and recruiting and electing progressive candidates to the SDEC and all other Party positions. As the State Convention nears, the PPC Steering Committee is actively working to make these strategies a reality.
To get energized and ready for the State Convention, PPC will host our Annual Meeting on Saturday, April 22nd with keynote speaker David Sirota, who will be releasing his first book, Hostile Takeover, during his visit to Austin. Sirota will give us a glimpse of what is included in his new book, regarding the corporate takeover of our Democracy, and will then further discuss his work with PLAN, the Progressive Legislative Action Network. PLAN’s mission is “to pass progressive legislation in all 50 of America’s state legislatures, to advance polices that protect individual freedoms and strengthen American working families.” PLAN believes that good policy begins at the grassroots level, very much in keeping with our PPC mission.
The PPC Annual Meeting will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 22nd, at the Texas AFL-CIO offices at 1106 Lavaca, in Austin. Hostile Takeover will be available for purchase and signing by Sirota at 4:30 p.m. Prior to David Sirota’s keynote presentation, PPC will have a brief business meeting. Participants will be asked to make donations at the door to help cover the costs of the Annual Meeting and the state convention costs. More information about PLAN: www.progressivestates.org
Resulting from a Resolution passed at the PPC Steering Committee meeting in January 2006, the TDP will begin offering hearings around the State in April and May allowing Democrats in each region to give public testimony as to what planks they would like to see in the Party Platform. This resolution was endorsed by the Party Chair Soechting, the Grassroots Committee of the SDEC, and Party Chair Candidate Boyd Ritchie and is meant to encourage more citizen participation and also increase the visibility of the platform writing process for the TDP.
Party officials are organizing the logistics. Testimony will be welcomed from any Democrat who has participated in the the most recent Primary election; others are welcome to attend and observe.
Check the TDP web site at www.tx.democrats.org in mid April as more local hearing details are provided. If you would like to volunteer to help, please contact Stan Merriman at escramble('emeritus','texaspopulists.com');
by Stan Merriman
Our Party is facing a crucial decision concerning the future of our statewide leadership, who it is very likely, will guide us through the 2008 election cycle. Anyone taking on this monumental task should be categorized as a patriot and hero. The Party Chair is tasked with bringing together members of a Party whose diversity represents more geographic, socioeconomic, ethnic and ideological principals than virtually any other state. Below is a commentary on what qualities are needed from the next Party Chair to make future efforts a success.
Lead·er·ship (noun) - largely a personality construct exemplified by the ability to lead, combined with organizational experience. We need the kind of personality capable of
Fundraising: Is an inescapable task which provides the fuel necessary to run the Party machine. Money enables the Party to drive the initiatives and tools necessary to propel the Party to a successful destination. In today’s world, we need the ability to harness contemporary opportunities with the internet in securing financial support from the grassroots, all of whom have shown the propensity to financially support initiatives which represent our values. It also means the ability to network and garner financial support from the more fortunate among us willing to share their wealth without the promise of personal payback, other than the satisfaction of securing a more humane and just Texas.
Proven Organizing Skills
A Public Face For Our Party: Our national Party is currently speaking with several voices including our DNC Chair, Senate and House Democrats; often in conflict and contradiction; utterly confusing grassroots Democrats across our State. The Texas Chair must unfortunately, shoulder the responsibility to cut through the mass of confusion that exists within the Texas media and, with the help of skillful media counsel, present a clear vision and message of what our Texas Democratic Party stands for.
Being An Opposition Leader: Another unfortunate reality for the new Party Chair is that we are the opposition Party and need to position ourselves accordingly. This means that the Chair and the organization he/she directs must not only convey a clear, differentiating vision of what we stand for (critical for us to re-build our Party and restore our majority status in public offices), but must also vocally oppose policies and proposals advanced by the Republican Party and their office-holders, by loudly articulating our contrasting points of view. Opposition leadership means holding errant Democratic officeholders and candidates responsible when they consort with and sell out to the “dark side”.
Build a Populist Party: Our path to victory and electoral success relies on new leadership who understands that in order to appeal to a broader majority in Texas, our Party must address the needs of everyday working people. We do that by standing for a set of progressive principles which translate into public policy to uplift that broad majority where it really counts - economically, in their pocketbooks and daily lives. “Progressive Principles” do not mean “liberal” or “conservative” principles, they mean principles which reform the current status quo which rewards the rich and corporations and punishes working people, urban and rural. It doesn’t mean passing out patronage to minority groups, women’s groups, GLBT, environmentalists, trial lawyers or labor. The new Chair’s biggest challenge is to create connective tissue between the disparate interest groups who currently only focus on their very narrow parochial interests. We must be bound together by values at the core of our belief system in a public policy we all benefit from equally. These include, but are not limited to:
Jettison the Consultants: The new Chair’s common sense regarding strategy and positioning, spoken from the heart and head, will beat triangulation and targeting any day of the week. Be authentic and true to our belief system. Voters see through manipulation and thirst for candor and Party leaders who speak truth to power. There is a huge talent pool of volunteer Democrats across this state who can serve the Chair as strategists, consultants, media buyers, communications experts, database and technology gurus and data analysts who can serve unpaid.
by John Behrman
The PPC has long championed the addition of a voter-verified paper audit-trail (VVPAT) to the deployment of direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines. This is not unique to us. It is not even a matter that distinguishes the GOP from the Democratic platform.
On the left, the issue has gone further and further: to insistence on paper-ballots and, ultimately, to the “Oregon System” of elections conducted entirely with mail ballots. This is by no means a universal or fool-proof system, but, it is demonstrably practical and probably better than what Texas now has. The Oregon System needs to be considered: I would oppose it, but the proposal is responsible and should not be dismissed as “Luddite”. Yes, it is technology re-action, but that is a reasonable position to take, tactically, especially when a party is as weak as ours certainly is.
In the middle, I would be happy with the addition of VVPAT or voter verifiable paper ballot (VVPB) to an array of digital technologies for enhanced political participation. I believe it would be popular and progressive, in every sense of the word, to attack the fundamental problems of a Jim Crow Election Code and of very low political participation very generally associated with a broad array of advanced technology, not just alternatives to “blackbox” voting. Advanced technology can manifest the original principles of republican democracy. Technology can be used to restore and strengthen those principles.
On the right, well, the “black helicopter” crowd have an issue here and, maybe, a champion in the GOP. It is still a free country, barely, and I do hope the Secretary of State now has an enemy on his right flank. But, that would not be me.
What I think we have to watch for is the fact that this is an insider/outsider matter, far more than a matter of right or left: Our problem, as Democrats, remains the “Vichy Democrats” who hold office but who use it to cultivate their own incumbency and nothing else. They are tearing this party down and retreating into majority-minority ghettos where they figure they can, in effect, retire comfortably leaving the rest of us “out there flapping” -- like our soldiers stranded, now, in Iraq and, effectively, held hostage by Iran. Too many Democratic office-squatters are ineffectual in opposition and offer voters no practical alternatives on any matter, even when it is within their power and actually their duty to do so.
My term as party representative to the Central Counting Station Authority of Harris County is almost up. I am proud that our County Executive Committee did not adopt the “Official Canvass” of a mockery of our own Democratic Primary Election conducted in an incompetent and oppressive manner by the GOP County Clerk. That unprecedented inaction was not much, but all that can be done in this GOP-dominated jurisdiction. I am more hopeful that information gained through intrusive and close inspection of election technology used in Harris and Travis Counties (Hart InterCivics) can be used to contest some results in other jurisdictions where there is a chance of getting a fair trial of forensic evidence.
But, “blackbox voting” is a 2002 issue, in fact, a hole the Democratic establishment in this state jumped into gullibly or corruptly and is far from digging itself out of. The GOP has a plan and we do not.
Their plan now includes radical centralization and privatization of election logistics (2004) and, now, a system of police-state surveillance – the TEAM/TIA project – that, again, the Democratic establishment in this state is complicit in or oblivious to. In 2008, the Jim Crow Texas Election Code that we preserved after 1974 will be replaced, very likely, by an East German code that could be much worse. There is a hint of what is yet to come in the Texas Secretary of State’s 51 page manual on “voter (dis)qualification”.
I believe that “fighting back” should entail a cunning plan/strategy not just complaints, contests, lawsuits, and so on, after the fact. I know my pacifistic colleagues in this caucus cringe, but we need to “think like warriors”, “to get inside the other party’s loop”, and “to gain the initiative”. Yes, we need a rigorous critique of the other side and a large passion over seemingly small but actually critical matters – something the verified-voting movement has certainly given us.
We need to be forward-looking, to have a plan, not just another case or deal. This is why I am looking forward to our session with David SIROTA. His outfit PLAN is thinking way outside the “lawyer-box” of those Democrats who can imagine nothing but a case or a deal. Myopic “process liberals” and “single-issue” Democrats are necessary. But, they are not sufficient. Soon I will be out of the legally-constrained post I have held since August and back to what I love: Technology Action. If you can stand a cocktail of archaic language from our constitutions and parliamentary law, along with some “geek-speak”, “shaken and stirred”, well, I will have some more to say, later.
by Sonia Santana
March 7, 2006 Tarrant county primary election night: Hart Intercivic eSlate equipment recorded 100,000 over votes in the election totals. Election officials noticed the vote totals seemed much higher than the 2004 primary elections. After investigation, the over vote was reported as an undetected computer programming glitch. Later that week Hart Intercivic admits the eSlate machines were programmed incorrectly.
John Covell, a vice president with Hart, was quoted in a story in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on 3/10/06, as saying "The system did what we told it to do, We told it incorrectly."
March 21, 2006: Tom Green County. The Texas Secretary of State calls for a halt of a vote recount for a county court seat race. County Republican Party Chairman Dennis McKerley, called Roger Williams (Texas Secretary of State), when vote tallies in County Court-at-Law No. 2 race recount, were not matching the totals reported on election night. Hart Intercivic sent a company representative to fix the problems.
Secretary of State Roger Williams, spent about $3 million dollars of our taxpayer money on an advertising campaign touting electronic voting as "easier, faster and more reliable". Yet the Tarrant county and Tom Green county primary election problems aren't isolated incidents. In Texas at least 12 different counties reported problems with e-voting systems during the March 2006 primary. The media stories continue popping up. Things are moving so fast on this front, it’s hard to keep up. The latest news today, will be old news when this newsletter goes to print.
Jefferson County, which had massive problems on election night, is currently withholding payment to its vendor ES&S and may revert to using paper ballots for the April 11th runoff. Texas Supreme Court Justice Candidate Steve Smith (Republican) filed a lawsuit in Travis County on 3/31/2006. He’s challenging the outcome of his primary race and the use of electronic voting. Incumbent Webb County Judge, Louis Bruni, has filed a lawsuit to postpone the run-off in his race because of the problems with the electronic voting machines. Several more lawsuits are in the works, including one by David Van Os, our candidate for Attorney General. David is in the process of preparing a case to challenge the use of e-voting equipment as unconstitutional under the Texas Constitution.
On March 23rd the office of the Secretary of State held its first public meeting in Austin, to collect comments on Diebold’s Voting System GEMS 1-18-24, which is up for certification in April 2006. All of the citizens who attended asked the SOS not to certify the equipment for use in Texas. A very informative study, done by Berkley University and commissioned by the California Secretary of State found serious programming vulnerabilities with Diebold software. This study was published after our examiners recommended the Diebold equipment be certified.
This issue has certainly proven to be as serious as we predicted – pretty close to chaos. I don’t see the SOS, the Attorney General or the Governor’s office doing what needs to be done to assure the voters in Texas, that our votes are being counted accurately. In fact the AG and Governor have been pretty silent on this issue entirely. We need new leadership that understands the importance of an accurate and transparent voting system for Texas. I would encourage all PPC members to become more educated on this issue and get more involved at your local county level. We need to demand that we have verified voter paper ballots now. Start lobbying your county officials and take it on up to the state level. We have a great opportunity with an election to make sure our candidates in our statewide races including the candidates for State Party Chair support VVPAT.
For an extensive list of problems all over the country, I suggest that voters do their own research. An excellent way to start this research is to visit www.votersunite.org.
The technological problem with computerized voting is simple. You don’t need a Ph.D. in computer science to understand it. We can have a trustworthy voting system if, instead of a futile effort to ensure that voting equipment is error free by design, we empower each voter to verify that his vote has been accurately recorded. In other words, we need voter-verified paper ballots.
Dr. David Dill, Professor, Stanford University
Testifying before the James Baker, Jimmy Carter Commission On Federal Election Reform, April 18, 2005
by Brian Dungan
I batted 3 for 3 at my precinct convention, but I fell to 1 for 3 at the State Senate District (SD) 8 Democrat Convention in northwest Dallas County as nitpickers torpedoed my resolutions.
Seven voters attended my precinct convention. I offered resolutions to (1) immediately withdraw from Iraq, (2) implement auditable, voter verifiable voting, and (3) enact the universal health insurance proposed by US Rep. John Conyers in H.R. 676. Cutting and pasting from several different Internet sites, I used the standard resolution format with multiple “whereas” and “therefore” paragraphs and brought extra copies of each resolution. A fellow voter used blank space on one of the copies to draft a resolution to impeach George W. Bush. My precinct unanimously passed all four resolutions. Several other precincts meeting simultaneously in the same school cafeteria used my copies to pass those resolutions in their precincts.
The SD Resolutions Committee recommended 16 resolutions including the three I submitted. The voting and health insurance proposals survived intact, but the Committee objected to some “unsubstantiated” Bush war crimes cited in the Iraq withdrawal resolution and deleted several paragraphs.
The SD convention took place in a 140 seat auditorium. Not quite 100 delegates attended. Resolutions were shown on a small overhead projector. All resolutons were at least one page long and many were longer. Committee members sometimes read the entire resolution and sometimes only parts. The convention considered resolutions for 2 ½ hours beginning at 12 noon. The process was briefly interrupted two times for candidates making the rounds to the different SD conventions and mostly running for judgeships. By the time the resolutions started, the audience had dropped by about one half. At the end, there were about 20 delegates still seated.
Most resolutions evoked quibbling about grammar, “facts” in the “whereas” sections, and details of the action proposed. The health insurance resolution had a short one sentence “therefore” to pass H.R. 676. Anticipating that people might want more information on H.R. 676, I brought along a separate summary to the precinct convention. The summary was included with the resolution and triggered the eventual demise of the proposal. It was tabled after delegates questioned working details such as coverage for illegal aliens and no copays. Discussion of Iraq bogged down when people asked whether “occupation” was more appropriate than “war”, whether the President or Congress could order the withdrawal, and whether repeal of the Congressional authorization for force is required. One delegate claimed that it was obvious that the war in Iraq should be ended and no resolution is needed. At one point, the convention restored the original wording, but later tabled the proposition without considering any alternative to support ending US involvement in the war in Iraq.
Both the process and the content of resolutions fall short. Resolutions should focus on big ideas, e.g., Democrats should support single-payor, universal health insurance or US withdrawal from Iraq with the Bush administration held accountable for war crimes and deceit. Delegates shouldn't be arguing about details, squinting at illegible projections, or struggling to hear tedious readings of resolutions. The larger unexamined issue is whether the party platform serves any genuine purpose.
I'm a glutton for punishment! My precinct was allocated one State Convention Delegate and one Alternate, but all four SD delegates from my precinct wanted to be state delegates. I withdrew from the precinct contests, but I just couldn't refrain from completing an application to be an at-large delegate. The Nominating Committee punched my ticket to Ft. Worth in June. I'm amazed and pleased that I batted 1.000 at my precinct convention and authored 3 of 16 resolutions considered at my SD convention.
by Sarah Gonzales
With the advent of the internet and automated technologies, the Democratic Party has fallen behind the curve in its utilization of technology to aid in the process of organizing and communicating with the Democratic constituency. As a collective, we must work to revolutionize and transform our process by providing our supporters with the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently and without reinventing the wheel. Training our communities to utilize these tools is vital to maximize our effectiveness in the political process. While this topic could be addressed on many levels and issues, this article focuses specifically on internet based technologies that exist for consideration and implementation.
Too often I see in my everyday existence, that elaborate advances are made that utilize technology, but are basically unusable by humans largely because of complexity or because they don’t necessarily exist to fill a need, instead they inspire flash. It is critical that the process drives the technology and NOT the other way around and it is imperative that these tools be simple enough that the average individual with limited computer skills can use them effectively. That, in my opinion, is the ultimate litmus test as to the quality of the technology.
I would urge those of you in charge of technology efforts to at least consider the value of Open Source solutions which are freely (Democrats like free!) available and have the capability to be customized. Specifically look for tools that conform to open standards to aid with:
Have fun!
by Ella Tyler
The State Democratic Convention will convene on Friday, June 9 - 10 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The preliminary resolutions committee, made up of one SDEC member from each district, will meet Wednesday and the SDEC will meet Thursday. Other preliminary committees meet on Wednesday.
Most of the important action of the convention will occur at the Senate District (SD) Caucuses on Friday at the Convention Center.
If you are a delegate to the convention, but will not be able to attend, you may select an alternate to take your place. If you do not choose a representative, the delegation will choose the alternate. The alternate must be from the same county and SD.
On Thursday, be sure to attend the Kick-off reception. It will be at the Hilton Hotel at 6pm. Tickets begin at $50, unless you are a sustaining member of the Texas Democratic Party, and then they are $35. The Hilton is the Headquarters Hotel, and there will be more parties to go to and hospitality suites to visit after.
On Friday, get to the convention early so there is plenty of time to pick up your credentials before the SD Caucus, attend any special interest caucuses you are interested in and visit the vendors booths. Credentials pick up begins at 10a.m. You pick up your credentials according to your SD. Find out where your caucus will meet when you pick up your credentials. Special interest caucuses run from 9am to 3pm. As soon as I know a schedule, I will post it to the SD 17 website. Downtown Fort Worth has free trolleys that run constantly, so if you want to go someplace else for lunch or go back to the hotel, it is easy.
Be at your SD caucus at 3pm. The first thing to do will be to fill open delegate spots with alternates. A county votes its full delegate strength even if it does not have all its delegates spots filled, but if there are no delegates from the county, those votes are not cast. For example, if, even after using alternates, Harris County SD 17 had only 45 delegates at the meeting, it would still vote 89 votes.
Next, we will elect our district’s member of the permanent convention committees. The committees include credentials, nominations (for party offices), platform, resolutions and rules. We then elect our state democratic executive committeeman and committeewoman. According to Party rules, no secret ballots are allowed for these elections. There is no requirement that any person elected to any of these posts come from a certain county and any agreements made ahead of time are not binding.
When the caucus is over, we will go to the main convention hall and the convention will officially begin at 6pm on Friday after a keynote speech and a speech by Chris Bell. The convention will probably recess about 9pm. Again, there will be parties and hospitality suites.
On Saturday, the committees meet at 8am and these meetings are open to all participants.
At 8:30am there is the Blue Star Breakfast which also couples as a fundraiser. Tickets are $25. There will also be workshops from 9:30 - 11:00am. The convention is called back to order at 11:00am. This is when the state party officers are elected and we will hear a variety of speakers. We have some interesting and passionate candidates for Congressional and Texas House seats, and you will enjoy hearing from them.
The rules and credentials committee reports will come out first and the reports from the platform and resolutions committee will probably be last. After that, the convention adjourns.
Hotels are not assigned by Senate Districts. If you want to stay with your district, there is no way to guarantee that, but the best thing to do is have everyone request the same first and second choice hotels and register early.
To volunteer, contact your SDEC members. They will need help handing out credentials. You can also volunteer by e-mailing escramble('convention','txdemocrats.org.'); Use that e-mail to find out about renting a booth, placing a convention ad or donating an item to the silent auction at the Thursday night party.
See you in Fort Worth!