Burnt Orange Report

SDEC Meeting

By Vince Leibowitz

I haven't seen anyone blogging on this weekend's SDEC meeting, so I thought I might share a few thoughts of my own with regard to Saturday's session--though what little I have to say could hardly be considered a comprehensive account. Further--though the journalist in me says otherwise--I firmly feel that most of what happens at the SDEC is private to those of us within the party and probably shouldn't be disseminated except among those in the party.

But, since no one has shared any thoughts, I'll just throw out a few.

First and foremost, you can't attend an SDEC meeting without realizing how full our party really is of vibrant county chairs, activists and party leaders. The full house of people from across the state that attend these meetings is testament to that.

I was priviliged to be at the meeting and sitting with the SDEC as proxy for Dr. Martha Williams, our very capable SDEC SD2 member from Terrell, who was unable to attend. As such, I felt more a part of the "action" as opposed to the "audience," which I was part of in other SDEC meetings.

There were a number of resolutions discussed and acted on, and I was very proud of our party and its leaders for the very classy way it was all handled. Major gatherings of bodies of this sort--whether political or not--can sometimes descend into chaos when it comes to dealing with tough issues. However, the SDEC was able to discuss the issues in a very dignified and appropriate manner.

Although there were a couple of moments that were somewhat tense relating to a committee report, the meeting seemed to go very well.

In the press earlier this year (and on this blog) there was some discussion of party finances, particularly with regard to the $250,000 set aside for purchase of a headquarters building which was instead used on elections. It resulted in some criticism of our party and especially our Chariman, Charles Soechting, for his "command decision." Shortly after the post on the Statesman article, fellow BOR contributor and TDP staffer Andrew put up this post talking about the Chairman and some of his impressions.

I will admit that I was an early critic of Chairman Soechting. And, as a county chair, I nearly flew off of, into and through the wall when he sent all county chairs a letter asking us to raise $5,000 and send it to the state party.

However, time, more experience and interaction with the party, and being a beneficiary of some of the program's Soechting funded as Chair while working on Dr. Bob Glaze's campaign in THD 5 last year have made me--I must confess--a Soechting supporter.

I do believe he is the leader we need right now. And, in saying that, I may be going against some of my east and northeast Texas colleagues who may think--as I did when Soechting took over--that we need a chair from a smaller rural county because, well, most of our counties aren't mega-counties like Harris and Dallas. I initially thought Soechting would be "out of touch," with the people in counties like mine, but I've quickly learned that he's not. He knows what's going on and knows what we're facing out here in the trenches. Whether it's because he researched it, because a staffer or adviser has told him, or because he's been to some of the "non urban" counties, I don't know. But I do know from my brief dealings with him personally, that he seems to have a handle on what's going on--even in little old Van Zandt County.

No one has asked me to write or post this and, I suspect, I'll probably receive some heat over my "conversion." But, that's just the way I feel. The manner in which the way the Chairman conducted himself at this weekend's meeting--sometimes in tense situations--to me speaks volumes about what kind of leader we really have at the TDP. If you do something, "take the heat or get out of the kitchen." Chairman Soechting may have made a decision or two that was unpopular with some folks. But, he's taken the heat, taken steps to make things even better, and he's still in the kitchen--hopefully cooking up a way to make the party even better.