Burnt Orange Report

Additions to our Burnt Orange Family

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

Long awaited and greatly anticipated, I'd like to introduce to you the five newest members of our Burnt Orange Reporting Team. They will soon have logins and will each be posting a welcome message and biography in the coming days.

Immediate Past President of the University of Texas Democrats, Marcus is well known in the University community and Travis County Democratic Politics. With vast connections to elected Austin officials and first hand experience leading our organization to Most Outstanding of the Year, Marcus will help to fill the void of the other President Emeritus on this blog, Byron.

He hails from El Paso, where he was Editor-in-Chief of his high school paper which had a 7 year run as the number one high school paper in the state. Marcus brings a huge asset to BOR and Texas Blogs in his ability to report first hand on El Paso politics. Originally added as a writer earlier this year though he never posted, he was the first Burnt Oranger of Color, breaking into what has been a white male dominated field. We are thrilled to welcome him back.

Originally from Rowlett outside of Dallas, Drew now is a third year Anthropology and Plan II major here at UT. He was raised on the notion of loyalty to the Democratic Party and “will die a Democrat”. He is continuing an internship with State Representative Richard Raymond from Laredo, giving him insight into border issues that are often ignored in the Texas Blogosphere, as well as South Texas connections and good relations with various editors of Texas publications. In past summers, Drew has interned with the Dallas County Democratic Party and the Jim Nickerson campaign, giving him experience with our Party in some of the most Urban portions of Central Dallas to the very rural fringe of Webb County.

Drew has a great interest in Mexican and European politics and international trade in particular. He believes the expansion of neoliberal trade policy through CAFTA deserves a greater share of our discussion as Democrats. This summer he is working on University Of Texas Professor Dr. Robert Woodberry's project, Spiritual Capital, which seeks to examine the impact of Christian missions on nonwestern societies - particularly on health, education, economic development, women's rights, ethnic conflict, colonial and foreign policy, and post-colonial political democracy.

Phillip, a Plan II / English Senior here at UT, has been living in Austin his entire life. Also of Hispanic heritage, we are glad to bring him on board with his experience working at Message, Audience, and Presentation, a political communications company. In those years, he helped edit direct mail for Abel Herrero, Veronica Gonzales, Yvonne Gonzalez-Toureilles, and Marc Veasey's primary and general election campaigns as well as doing research and fact-checking mail for Congressman Lampson and Stenholm’s campaigns.

With a parent that consults for the Party and his current work in the Texas Legislature, we are happy to add Phillip to our team. We can always use help keeping up with the latest Democratic Politics under the dome and the goings ons of our rural Democratic issues and politicians.

Having grown up in Mt. Pleasant, Damon is now 27, and physics major at UT. Damon is an outspoken Democrat and eight year veteran of the United States Navy, a powerful combination that we are lucky to have here at BOR. He started the Burnt Orange Digest in honor of this blog. He may be one of our older writers, but that hasn’t kept him from staying involved in Austin politics after his first year at The University. He is currently interning in Congressman Lloyd Doggett’s district office and worked tirelessly on the Jennifer Kim campaign for Austin City Council. He is now in conversations with the Chris Bell for Governor Committee.

Damon headed up the UDems GLBT Issues Committee’s fight against hate in the Texas Legislature this session, a tall order for anyone. He was key in gauging where our Democratic Senators stood on HJR 6 as well as lobbying them at the Capitol. He also organized the "Hate is Not a Texas Value" protest in the House Gallery which got front page coverage in the Daily Texan.

Originally from Houston, John recently graduated from UT as a History major at the age of 23. As self described 'left of center progressive who consistently votes Democratic' John has interned for some of the more liberal members of the Texas House including Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth and Rep. Anchia of Dallas, and may become one of the more progressive voices here on BOR. John has some journalism background, having written articles for Znet and the independent UT student publication ISSUE, as well as having been a former columnist for the Daily Texan.

John was a member of UT Watch for 3 years where he worked on two major issue campaigns, one against UT’s bid for Las Alamos National Laboratory as well as the campaign against tuition deregulation. He has also conducted research into the UT System budget, university research projects, histories of UT student activism, UTIMCO investments, and UT System lobbying. He served with me in this past Spring’s Student Government election debate panel for KVR-TV and is also active in Student Government issues, bringing an additional UT oriented political voice to this blog.

Congratulations to each of you and welcome to the Burnt Orange Family. You will be receiving your log in information within 24 hours.