Burnt Orange Report

SD 24 Democrats on the Move

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

If the Democratic Party in Texas plans to come back statewide sooner rather than later, it is going to be because Democratic County and Precinct chairs, in every part of the state have the resources to help drive turnout in their areas. Travis County has gotten on top of the game, but there are 253 other counties that need help.

I am proud to say that some of the County Parties are taking matters into their own hands and expanding on past success, originating from my home region of Gillespie County and company in Senate District 24 (where I was elected out of as the youngest Democratic National Convention Delegate last summer).

Headed by Gillespie County Chair, George Keller, the Chair of the Chairs of SD24, a united strategic planning process is underway, county by county, as the Hill County Coalition expands to more local parties. From the Burnet County Democrats newsletter....

Chairs from Bell, Blanco, Burnet, Kerr, Llano, and Llano counties met Thursday, January 6 along with other interested Democrats, to begin developing a strong and united grassroots voice to persuade the Texas Democratic Party to provide counties the resources they need in order to win elections in 2006 and beyond.

Dave Collins, a management consultant, leader of Vietnam Veterans for Kerry, and dedicated Democrat from Blanco, led a workshop on strategic planning to help develop that united voice.

He said “Democrats have been doing the same things over and over again and expecting different outcomes.” He said that to create different outcomes, we must change our assumptions, and then change what we are doing. For example, Democrats have long assumed (1) if out voter turn-out was increased, Democrats would win; and (2) if we raised more money, Democrats would win. As the last two general elections showed, increased spending and increased voter turnout does not guarantee Democratic victories.

Mr. Collins said that the way to change what we have been doing requires a plan and a plan requires the answers to the following: What are we trying to do? What is our situation? What are we going to do? What are our priorities? When are we going to do it? The answers to these questions will more than likely differ by county.

Once these questions have been answered, a plan must be written.

The group agreed that:
(1) each county will develop a written plan and submit it to George Keller, chair of Senate District 24 county Chairs, by March 15;

(2) counties will coordinate events and activities within Senate District 24. This avoids adjoining counties planning events on the same date. It also provides a forum to attract a wider range of speakers or entertainers when we can promise 300 to 400 at the event instead of 25. (This happened when three of the counties worked together to sponsor events last Fall.); and

(3) we will establish a speakers bureau to coordinate the resources and talents within our Senate District and make it available to other clubs on topics of particular interest to progressives and Democrats.

Mind you, these are some of the same rural Democrats and County Chairs that held an unofficial vote in favor of Howard Dean as DNC chair and urged our SDEC members to carry that message to Austin. I talked to many of these chair personally in my bid for National Delegate, and no, most of them were not rabid Deaniacs by any means. But they were committed Democrats who wanted to fulfill their duty to the Party and wanted to do their fare share in some of the reddest of red counties in Texas. Remember, if a Democrat is running for Governor, it doesn't matter where their votes from, be it 90% Democratic Austin Precincts that have been mined for all the votes they are capable of, or 23% Democratic precincts in the Hill Country which have been ignored for years.