Last night over 160 euphoric Democrats congregated in downtown Fort Worth for the 2nd Biennial North Texas Salute to Speaker Jim Wright dinner hosted by the Mid-Cities Democrats and the Tarrant County Democratic Party. Former Agriculture Commissioner, Jim Hightower, lit up the audience with his energizing and hilarious commentary on the state of our political foes on the opposite side of the aisle:
I went to welcome you all to what is STILL the state of Texas. Governor Good-Hair puts the goober in gubernatorial, doesn't he? He isn't limited by stupidity, just insanity. He certainly wasn't the fastest bunny in the litter.
Hightower went on to provide a motivating call to get involved:
Even the smallest dog can pee on the tallest building. We are scrappy Democrats. They have the fat-cats and we have the alley-cats. It's time to strategize, organize, and mobilize because we are capable of coming together as a strong political force.
The evening ended with Hightower moderating a sit-down conversation with Tarrant County's own Speaker Jim Wright. When Hightower asked Speaker Wright about what it takes to step up and lead, be involved, and make a difference, he didn't hesitate to point out the Mid-Cities Democrats as an example of doing exactly that:
Look no farther than the people in this room. These Mid-Cities Democrats said 'no more!' That Mid-Cities area is the crown jewel of Tarrant County. As most counties continue to lose population that area continues to grow. And these people said we will be pushed no more. We will stand up, organize, and mobilize. We'll stand up for what is right. I see what they are doing. They energize youth. They let them lead. They are young in heart and young in spirit. I see what they are doing and it is working.
The Tarrant County Democratic Party and the Mid-Cities Democrats invite you to join us on Saturday, October 10th from 5:30PM till 9PM as we present the second biennial North Texas Salute to Speaker Jim Wright.
Saturday, October 10
5:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Trinity Terrace
1600 Texas Street
Fort Worth (Map)
Featuring Speaker Jim Wright and former Ag Commissioner Jim Hightower
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
Tickets: $50 Seated dinner, dessert, and cash bar available
The Mid-Cities Democrats created the biennial Jim Wright Dinner in 2007 to honor Speaker Wright's three decades of service to Tarrant County and to the country. Because of his investments in the future, from national defense, to our interstate highway system, to flood control measures, we reap the benefits of his service today. View this outstanding video presentation of Speaker Wright, which includes now CIA Director Leon Panetta, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
A small portion of the proceeds go to support the Jim Wright Scholarship, which allows a young man or woman to attend Tarrant County College - Northeast campus, for a full semester.
Well over 100 RSVP's so far, won't you join us in celebrating a true Texas legend and political hero?
The Mid-Cities Democrats held its 3rd annual 100 for $100 fundraising party last night with Chairman Boyd Richie and his wife Betty in attendance. The evening was a huge success!
The 100 for $100 program is our effort to encourage 100 individuals, or couples, to donate $100 or more toward a candidate fund. This fund helps to not only recruit well qualified and compelling individuals with powerful resumes to the ballot, but it supports those individuals as they run aggressive and competitive campaigns in Northeast Tarrant County and beyond. This fund also supports "winnable" races in Tarrant County. All monies raised stay in Tarrant County. Last year this fund supported Democratic candidates in Northeast Tarrant County---the first time in more than a decade that candidates were fielded in our territory.
Senator Wendy Davis was to be an additional keynote speaker at this event, however, considering the feverish pace of the final days of the 81st session, wrote a great letter that was read last night to our attendees:
You have donated generously to the 100 for $100 program, and supported candidates across Tarrant County. You've hosted events. You've stuffed letters, made countless phone calls, and knocked on many doors to spread the word about our wonderful Democratic candidates to your neighbors. And make no mistake about it--you've made a difference. I likely would not have won my race without the benefit of the tremendous work you all have done to trim the Republican advantage in Northeast Tarrant County.
We have had some great legislative victories this session, and we have had some defeats. But there is no question that the addition of Democratic legislators in Austin has shifted the agenda from one that ignores your voice to one that is more representative of your desires for your families.
Chairman Boyd Richie echoed Senator Davis' comments by saying:
It was a pleasure to be a guest of the Mid-Cities Democrats in 2007 when you kicked off this program, and it is a great pleasure for Betty and I to be here again this year. I support this program and I support you. This program is a perfect example of how to recruit and support Democratic candidates in Texas.
The best moment of the night was when our Colleyville hosts agreed to match dollar for dollar every dollar that was raised last night at the fundraiser, which means the Mid-Cities Democrats is more than 3/4ths of the way toward reaching our final fundraising goal. Not a bad accomplishment at all for an organization in the reddest corner of one of the reddest counties in Texas.
Update:KDFW Fox 4 News did a report on the local Teabag protests, but they did an extra report just for the Southlake one because it included the CGS Democrats counter-demonstration.
You would think that good ole' Texas manners would have been enough for some of the "Teabaggers" in Southlake not to yell, scream, and muscle their way through a crowd of people who support President Barack Obama and our country, but these "teabaggers" are far more militant than what is truly being reported.
From Mark Bauer, President of the Colleyville-Grapevine-Southlake Democrats:
The CGS (Colleyville-Grapevine-Southlake) Democrats, a chapter of the Mid-Cities Democrats, will host the "Support America Rally" as a show of unity and overall approval of President Barack Obama and his plan to help Main Street Americans weather our current economic storm.
"The "Tea Party" rallies on April 15th are nothing more than an endorsement of obstructionism and overall lack of ideas that we've come to expect from Republican leadership," said Mark Bauer, President of the CGS Democrats.
"We support our President and we support our country. It took a long time to get us in this fiscal mess and it will take time to get America out of it. Our country will succeed because of leadership that President Obama is providing right now," commented Bauer.
The "teabaggers" who gathered in Southlake ranged from secessionists, racists, bigots and plain militants who most certainly were thirsty for confrontation, but already drunk on anger. A report from Kathleen Thompson, President of the Mid-Cities Democrats, who attended the Southlake demonstration:
We had dozens of people taunt us, call us communists and socialists (at the same time), and a handful of men that walked into our group got into people's faces and tried to pick fights.
Our signs read "Obama Supporter", "God Bless President Obama" "The Party of 'No' Has No Answers." Their signs and their causes were varied from plain anti-tax messages to "Texas Secede," "Obama Won't Help My Special Needs Child," and the unoriginal "Obama Bin Lyin'." Other signs: "King Hussein, Princess Pelosi, Prince Reid, Ct. Jester Fife - O More Taxes," "Keep Your Change We Don't Need," and "The Audacity of Socialism". A man waiving a huge Texas flag passed out secession bumper stickers and screamed at us to "Go back to America!"
This is what Fox News has created by engaging and motivating the more extreme of our society to hate their president and wish for America to fail. They have created batches of militant people all over the United States who hate this country. There may in fact be people amongst these crowds who are indeed protesting policy, and that is a debate that has merits. However, the vast majority of the protestors associated with these events are laced with anger and they want to destroy something. They want to hurt something---or even somebody. These are the same people we saw three weeks out from the 2008 election hollering racial epithets and on the verge of violent behavior at McCain/Palin rallies. These are the type of people that Rick Perry and other Republicans are appealing to and hoping vote for them. These are people that Republicans call their "base."
I'm proud of any Texan and any American who stood in protest to this ratings game by Fox News today. I just hope that at some point these extremists don't act on the anger being stoked by talking heads like Limbaugh and Fox News.
The Star-Telegram this week rolled out the names of all the ambitious Republicans clamoring to make a run at the likely-to-vacate senate seat of Kay Bailey Hutchison. It would appear that the next election has already begun.
Nonetheless, because of what the Star-Telegram wrote about the likes of Republicans Joe Barton, Jeb Hensarling, and Kay Granger making a run for the senate, and the one Democratic name of John Sharp mentioned, coupled with the lively and hopeful discussion around the recent L.A. Times article about Texas being a battleground state in 2012, I think it is important to take a deep breath and really analyze some things here.
Dallas County Assistant District Attorney, and former two-time candidate for Tarrant County DA, Terri Moore, will emcee the forum.
For a suggested donation of $20 for non-MCD members, and $15 for MCD members, attendee's will enjoy a spaghetti dinner while each candidate rotates between each table every 8-10 minutes to allow for up close and personal time with voters. This forum is an innovative approach to retail politicking that we haven't seen in years.
What: MCD Speed Campaigning Candidate Forum
When: Sat. April 5th @ 6:00PM
Where: Colleyville First United Methodist Church
5601 Pleasant Run Road in Colleyville
(Click here for a map)
Last night the Mid-Cities Democrats hosted an Iowa caucus watch party where over 60 people came to show their support for our Democratic candidates. At one point it was standing room only. The ABC affiliate, WFAA Channel 8 here in DFW, came and did a story along with a live shot for their 10pm newscast. The story is not available on their website at this time.
We held a mock vote of the attendees during the evening which yielded the following results: (not everyone participated in the vote and it is far from scientific)
Hillary Clinton- 18 votes or 36 percent
Barack Obama- 15 votes or 30 percent
John Edwards- 13 votes or 26 percent
Al Gore- 1 vote or 2 percent
Dennis Kucinich- 1 vote or 2 percent
Joe Biden- 1 vote or 2 percent
"Undecided" 1 vote or 2 percent
Our Hillary supporters were out in force last night, which reflects in the overall vote total above, but there was a great deal of enthusiastic support for both Obama and Edwards.
From my own observations, the Hillary Clinton supporters reflected most of our more seasoned and veteran Democrats with some exceptions of course. The Barack Obama supporters represented less seasoned and more new Democrats to the process. John Edwards was a pretty good mix of all of the above.
Since Dan Barrett's victory in mid-December, there has been a flurry of activity to get additional Democrats on the ballot, particularly pertaining to judicial races that have, in the past, gone uncontested by our Party locally. Clearly the Barrett surprise victory was the gentle nudge many qualified individuals needed to feel confident in stepping forward and challenging a fractured Tarrant County Republican Party in 2008.
This past Saturday over 40 volunteers showed up at the Tarrant County Democratic Party Headquarters to gather petition signatures from registered voters to grant ballot access to a number of last minute candidates for local judicial races. How incredible it was to see so many volunteers down at Party headquarters the weekend prior to New Years Eve.
Democrat Chris Utchell, a member of the Mid-Cities Democrats, will challenge Republican Kelly Hancock for Texas House of Representatives District 91.
This is an interesting district. In 2006 former North Richland Hills city councilman Byron Sibbett ran a strong grassroots campaign and improved a district with a Democratic Performance Index of about 33% to 38%. That represents a very strong showing, but certainly an uphill climb. That said, Utchell hopes to continue moving that DPI up toward 50 + 1% so that by 2010 HD 91 is a very competitive district. This from his release:
The Chris Utchell for Texas House Campaign will focus on improving Texas public education, reining in out of control utility rates, and restoring S-CHIP access to Texas children. Chris is opposed to assessing tolls on existing freeways and government seizure of property to benefit the well connected. Chris believes that the power in Austin needs to be taken away from the high-dollar special interests and returned to the people of Texas.
"Our grassroots campaign will take our message to the people of House District 91 so we can change the way business is conducted down in Austin. We must restore people oriented politics and remove special interest politics from the state house," said Mr. Utchell.
Utchell actually ran Sibbett's campaign in 2006 so certainly knows the district and knows Hancock. This Friday Hancock is having a town hall and Utchell, along with many supporters, will be there to ask very pointed questions of him. Let the campaign season begin.
The Star-Telegram decided to finally report on what many of us Democrats in Tarrant County have been saying for quite some time: Democrats are growing stronger here and so now is the time to run aggressive and competitive races against our political opponents.
Local Democrats are feeling a new sense of urgency to put up a fight in every race, even the long shots. The main motivator: last year's surprise Democratic sweep in Dallas County.
"Right now, we're all thinking, 'Look what happened over there,'" said Stephen Maxwell, a Fort Worth lawyer who is running to lead the Tarrant County Democratic Party after the current chairman, Art Brender, steps down in May.
"The time has come to show that we have a Democrat on every race on the ballot. It's a different world."
Political times are changing and our county along with it. You can feel it, and see it, much like a growing spring thunderstorm on the Texas horizon. We've been in a strong rebuilding mode here for several cycles now and the old theory of discouraging good Democrats from running because you can't win is being tossed to the side for a more optimistic theory of, you can't start winning unless you actually field candidates.
"I've had friends who say, 'I'll start running when Democrats start winning.' Well, they're not going to start winning until we start running," said Randy Turner, a Fort Worth lawyer making his first run for judge of the 17th District Court. "It's a catch-22."
