Want to know what your favorite State Rep had for breakfast? Looking for pictures of that county judge doing the chicken dance? This weekend, be sure to follow tweets from everyone at the TDP State Convention to stay up to date on all convention happenings, from points of order to dolphin shows!
All tweets and photos from the convention will be aggregated live here, so even if you can't make the convention you can still stay up to date. If you're on Twitter can follow along by saving the #TDPSC hashtag in your smartphone's Twitter application!
If you're headed to the Convention, be sure to stop by the official TDP State Convention Tweet-Up on Friday from 12-1 PM at the American Bank Center in Room 104. Representative Aaron Peña, everyone's favorite twittering politician, will be emceeing the event -- in 140 characters or less!
Be sure to RSVP here and don't forget to use the #TDPSC hashtag in all your tweets and TwitPics. See you in Corpus!
A while ago, when Hank Gilbert switched to the race for Agriculture Commissioner, Phillip Martin tweeted, "Whatever, @Todd_Staples, you're an idiot and everyone knows it."
I retweeted Phillip, as did several others. We were all promptly blocked from following the Texas Agriculture Commissioner, and I thought that was it. Although we may or may not have been partially-joking in our name-calling, Staples validated us when he blocked several of his constituents. Just some normal idiocy, I guess.
But yesterday, as I was procrastinating from some school work, I noticed that one @GovernorPerry has blocked me, too. (I imagine it was prompted a while ago from this tweet.) I'll call Rick Perry a lot of names, but idiot is not one of them. (Maybe crazy? Misguided? Tea-bagger?)
There has to be something more. But it seems just that a couple of our statewide office holders have thin skins.
I understand the tweets I made fail to serve as good examples of constituent-office holder relations. In fact, they shouldn't serve as example of that. They were politically charged tweets meant to bash a couple Republicans. That blocking me (or other Democrats) was the immediate response, though, shows that our Republican office holders don't understand the truest beauty twitter holds for government. They clearly are using their twitter accounts much more for campaign or personal purposes, and they miss the point. As Rick Perry closes in on 20,000 followers, I hope he learns.
Twitter, while becoming an ultimate political tool, should also be utilized as a constituent service tool. As a constituent, I want to know what my representatives are thinking. I want to converse with them. If I held elected office, I would want to afford my constituents the opportunity to see what I think is important, to ask me questions, and to view my thoughts on government, etc. With a blog and a twitter account, Representative Aaron Peña might do this best.
By quickly blocking constituents, Todd Staples and Rick Perry show that they don't think constituent relations are a useful facet of twitter.
As I said, I understand them disliking my tweets and wanting to discourage tweets of such an attack nature. But blocking doesn't discourage, it encourages. Instead, they could kindly request more civility. They could engage in conversation. They could engage with their constituent. I may be a Democrat, but I live in Texas, too.
Governor Perry and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples are apparently politicians who care primarily about politics, though, not the people they serve. And their politics is of the non-Texan, thin-skinned variety, too.
We invite you to explore our new site, and watch our exciting new video that was recently unveiled to the Democratic National Committee members during their meeting in Austin. The video -- titled "By the Numbers" -- takes an in depth look at the gains we've made in Texas in recent election cycles.
The new website will make it much easier to organize online. Our clearly defined "Action Center" and flash-feature message center will simplify the search for any information you or Democrats in your community may need. In addition, content generated on our website will be cross-promoted on numerous platforms:
The revamped website is the latest in a series of efforts we at the Texas Democratic Party have made in recent months to turn Texas blue. We're proud of the way the Texas Democratic Party has grown in recent years, and others across the country are, too. That's why Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine brought the DNC to Texas to announce the following:
"Texas can do it, and Texas will do it. We are thrilled at the prospect of working side by side to turn Texas blue," Kaine told more than 300 Democrats from U.S. states and territories and abroad.
We're ready to turn Texas blue, and we know that the online community is going to play not just a supportive or secondary role, but a truly serious role in ridding the state of failed Republican leaders like Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Over the last three years, you've worked hand-in-hand with county parties and organizations to rebuild the Texas Democratic Party from the ground up -- and we can't thank you for your work enough.
A quick look at the work we have done together tells the story:
The number of Democratic small donors in Texas has more than quadrupled since 2005, thanks in large part to the advent of online fundraising.
Over 3,000 of you have direct access to the TDP's state of the art, interactive online voter file.
Thousands of you have come out to our local and regional trainings, to learn how we can all use new technology to run campaigns and organize in our communities.
Our work together has been remarkable, but we still have much to do. That's why the TDP has been working to strengthen and expand our online organization and strategies, to ensure that Texas Democrats can continue to work together to deliver our message for change across the state of Texas.
In addition to the new website, the TDP has launched its presence on the two popular social networking platforms, Facebook and Twitter. In the two weeks since we launched our Facebook page, over 1,500 Texas Democrats have joined our Facebook page, and in the two days since we started our Twitter account, we already have over 100 followers. With a Flickr account coming shortly, the TDP will now have a stronger online presence across these platforms so we can engage directly with you -- the people who make our Party as strong as it is.
Our new website and online efforts are the latest in our continued work to compete and win in what used to be a solidly conservative state. Today, Texans are paying the price for the failure of one party Republican rule -- a failure that shows neither the character nor the leadership that made great Texans stand tall in the eyes of the world.
We hope you visit our website, follow us on Facebook, tweet along with us on Twitter, and redouble your tremendous efforts to deliver Democrats to victory in 2010 and beyond. Thank you for all of your hard work, and may God bless Texas.
There will come a day when I will not joke about what is posted below. In fact, that day might come sooner than we might think. But today is not that day.
In campaigns, the Internet and new technology is a compliment, not a replacement to the traditional operation. It should enhance your ability to communicate with voters but it alone cannot (yet) be the sole pillar of your campaign.
Ed. note: Ideas that are not original are appropriately cited throughout the piece. I never contacted Bill White's campaign about this story -- my observations about his campaign are just that, observations. They do not constitute any endorsement of his campaign -- by myself or BOR -- but they do reveal how, at least in my opinion, he and his campaign are prepared to win a statewide election.Also, you can follow me on Twitter here: @PhillipMartin
"Texas Democrats' First Truly Statewide Campaign of the 21st Century"
With a single press of a key, either a staffer or a volunteer for the Bill White for Texas campaign ushered Texas Democrats into the new era of internet organization. His campaign has walked across the bridge that so many people spent so many years building. I'm not sure who pressed that key, and I can't guarantee why they did it. But I can say two things for certain:
(1) I'm glad it finally happened, and (2) Not knowing who finally crossed the bridge is what makes it so wonderful.
I will get to the story of what specifically this person on the Bill White for Texas campaign did towards the end of this post. The short version of what they've done, however, may (if I'm right) be quite a story:
A Democrat running a statewide campaign in Texas has, for the first time, fully adapted to the tools and principles of online organization, therefore making it possible to run Texas Democrats' first truly statewide campaign of the 21st century.
I need to unpack that a lot more to back up such a claim, I know. That's why this post is as long (~4,400 words) as it is.
I started writing this as just a short couple of paragraphs on a simple change in the campaign's Twitter usage. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to think it was the sign of something bigger -- that it was the sign of Texas Democrats' finally catching up, after years and years of playing from behind. But to take you from here to there, it is going to take more than just a few paragraphs.
"There WILL be a special session," Gov Perry says. He says he's in the process of deciding when.
More law making, woo!! It should be noted that Governor Perry has not yet had a special session that has benefited him politically, so he is probably planning this one with extra scrutiny due to his upcoming primary challenge. For him, his personal goals are probably to minimize political damage while simply ensuring that we allow for the Texas Department of Insurance and the Texas Department of Transportation to stay alive.
Update:: While the speculation is that the special session is necessary because the necessary funds have not been appropriated to allow TDI and TxDOT to completely operate the next two years, @KXAN_News has specifically noted that the governor would not give the details on the session's agenda beyond "unfinished legislation."
Whether you are a Twitter user or not, you can probably enjoy this. Of course, it will make much more sense if you are, even as it's poking fun at those who use it.
(Read more from the guru at www.senateguru.com - promoted by Matt Glazer)
Watch NRSC Chair John Cornyn's wooden, uncomfortable, even pained delivery as he apparently reads off of cue cards and stumbles over his words, saying "Facebook" and "Twitter" for probably the first time in his life:
Now compare that with the introductory video from new DSCC Chair Bob Menendez as he speaks to us, not at us. As he invites us into his office and shares with us his uniquely American story, he actually appears conversational, not like Cornyn's "I forgot my lines and am reading off cue cards" delivery:
The Texas State Democratic Convention has now broken apart into Senate District caucuses. These are charged with electing not only National Delegates, but various members to committees (resolutions, credentials, 2 nominations committees, etc) as a well as presidential electors and members of the State Democratic Executive Committee.
The TDP has encouraged caucuses to leave their National Delegate elections until last as state committees need to begin work. If the other caucuses are like SD-14 (which I am in and serving as a voting delegate) all of them will reconvening at 9 pm after the general floor session (which begins at 6). It's going to be a long night. SD-14 hasn't even cast one vote for any office and it's 4:30 (we had issues with elevating alternate that ended up getting resolved easily).
To that end (and because laptop batteries are limited), if you want to follow further updates, you can subscribe to my (or Matt's) Twitter feeds below.
