Burnt Orange Report

Blogging YDA by the Bay

By Byron LaMasters

BORers Katie Naranjo and I are currently in San Francisco as Texas delegates to the Young Democrats of America National Convention. I had hoped that more BORers (Karl-Thomas?) would have been able to join us, but it's just the two of us. Fortunately, however, the Texas Young Democrats have a strong forty member delegation representing chapters from Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio. This afternoon, I attended a technology workshop with a panel including blogger Davey D and the founder of Craig's List among others.

I'd urge all of you to read the San Francisco Chronicle article from Monday on the convention. This is my first YDA convention (and third YDA National meeting) to attend, so I'm quite excited about being at the convention (not to mention in San Francisco).

I would be interested to know if anyone is blogging the YDA convention. To my knowledge, this convention is the largest Democratic convention since the DNC convention in Boston last July. We also happen to have contested elections, which is a sign of strength for the organization. The incumbent YDA President, Chris Gallaway is running for reelection on the Gallaway slate that includes Texas YD Giovanni Garibay as a candidate for the YDA male representative to the Democratic National Committee. The opposing slate is UNITY led by presidential candidate Alex De Ocampo.

I have friends involved in both campaigns, and since I'm serving on the campaigns committee as the south-central region representative, I've had the opportunity to work with a number of people in the region. To that end, I've endorsed the three candidates from the south-central region - Giovanni Garibay of Texas for DNC (Gallaway slate), Dwayne Bensing of Arkansas for VP of Programs (UNITY) and Kathy North of Oklahoma for VP of Development (UNITY).

Best of luck to all of the candidates, and if any BOR readers are here at the convention, let me know!