Daily Archives: May 26, 2007

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DNC WRC: “Connect in the West”

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From left we have John Jamison of Winning Connections, Jill Derby, the former Congressional candidate from NV-2 and current Nevada State Dem Chair, Darrel Thompson, who works for Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Steve Ybarra (DNC Hispanic Caucus), and Bill Martin of the DNC (and formerly Montana E.D.).

Over the flip…

Also, check out more at the DNC Western Regional Caucus Blog.

Steve Ybarra talked about voting by mail. In California this is critically important.  With almost 50% of the California vote coming from mail. Once you know that people have voted, it is important to take them off the list. You don’t need to spend $$ on people who have already voted.

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DNC WRC: Media Panel

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The next panel is a media panel.  On this panel are jack Brady of the Newspaper Association of America, Aleita Huguenin of the California DNC Delegation, Cyrus Krohn of Yahoo!, George Ray of Univision, and Sam Rodriguez of National Cable Communications.

More over the flip… 

Jack Brady talked about the importance of newspapers. Check out the NAA’s website here.  It is true that newspapers are credible in ways that TV isn’t, and there is good targeting with newspapers.

Cyrus Krohn talked about the Yahoo behemoth’s various properties. Between Flickr, Yahoo Answers, Jumpcut, they are all over the place on the web.  He admits to uploading video to YouTube, a Google property.  Oooh, busted!

George Ray previously discussed the newly situated Univision. Ethnic media is of growing importance to campaigns. In California, there are almost 2.7 Registered Latino voters, about 1/7 of the electorate. Additionally, there are another 1+million Latinos eligible for naturalization.

Sam Rodriguez talked about micro-targeting.  THis is something that Chris Bowers has talked about extensively. Cable has some great potential with Video on Demand and the wealth of different offerings.  In 1992, Bob Mulholland worked micro-targeting exceptionally well, and well ahead of his time, to help elect Barbara Boxer.  Good work, Bob!!

Los Angeles Area, Orange County

Why Doesn’t Gary Miller Want to End This War?

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(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary)

How many of you get the “Capitol Connection”? It’s Gary Miller’s weekly newsletter. You can sign up to have it delivered in your email inbox every Friday at Gary Miller’s official Congressional web site.

But anyways, in his latest newsletter Miller tries to explain his latest vote to continue George W. Bush’s failed war in Iraq through the summer:

After more than a hundred days of delay, the House on Thursday finally passed a responsible troop funding bill to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform. The measure funds ongoing combat operations in the War on Terror and protects members of our military from harm by providing added funds for body armor and mine resistant vehicles. Congressman Miller was proud to support this bill because, unlike previous legislation, it does not tie the hands of our commanders on the ground or set a date for surrender. Following passage by the Senate, the bill now heads to the President’s desk where it is expected to be signed into law shortly.

Follow me after the flip to see why Gary Miller is wrong…

Meet the needs of our men and women in uniform? Added funds for body armor and mine resistant vehicles? Tie the hands of commanders on the ground? Bush didn’t provide for ANY of that until the Democrats in Congress offered legislation that fully supported the troops. But of course, Bush could not sign that legislation because that legislation also included provisions that would redeploy our troops out of Bush’s failed war in Iraq and refocus our resources on actually combating terrorism.

Bush’s stubbornness, which was enabled by members of Congress like Gary Miller who sustained Bush’s veto of this important legislation, has resulted in this final legislation. And while it does provide for better equipment for our troops than Bush initially wanted, it still keeps them stuck in the midst of a civil war that our troops shouldn’t be involved in. Thanks to Miller and all his colleagues who sustained Bush’s veto, more of our brave soldiers will be dying for a failed state that George Bush created.

So why doesn’t Gary Miller want to end this war? Why does he want to waste more of our tax dollars on George Bush’s misguided attempt to promote “democracy” on the Middle East by gunpoint? Why does he want any more of our brave troops to die for a cause that we can’t even determine any more? Why doesn’t Gary Miller want to end this war?

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DNC WRC: Quest for the West


This panel, which was very well attended, was kicked off by the pledge of allegiance, led by the veterans in attendance.  Of course, supporting the troops means more than mere tokenism, and Democrats have begun to address the deep stress that the Bush Administration has place our troops under.

Full information here.

Ben Tulchin of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research discussed how we did in 2006 and how we are working for 2008.

Judith Golub (Immigrant Legal Resource Center) discussed the current immigration plan.  They oppose the current plan as it is.

Rosalind “Ros” Gold of the NALEO Educational fund discussed immigration and the Latino vote.  Immigration is not the only issue for Latinos, but it is a very important issue.  Over half of poll recipients said that immigration was the the most important issue, 51%. 63% of Latinos think that immigration is a good thing for the country. 

Here are Ms. Gold’s slides:

  You can these powerpoint slides at the DNC WRC blog soon.

California

DNC WRC: Grassroots

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
From left: Debbi Evans, Treasurer of SoCal Grassroots, Mayme Hubert and four waters of Take Back Red California, Thom O’Shaugnessey of the Irish-American Caucus of the CDP and SoCal Grassroots, Martha Gamez, now of the Jerry McNerney for Congress campaign,  Leah Schiebe/Chair, Project Bluebridge
Tom Mullins/Chair, SoCal Grassroots.

One thing that was not mentioned was [ActBlue.com http//actblue.com] which enables us to raise funds with far fewer hassles.  ActBlue takes care of much of the FEC requirements and lets grassroots leaders just work to raise the money.

The Grassroots leaders talked about how we work in Red vs. blue counties. More in the comments…

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DNC Western Regional Caucus

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DNC member Christine has ensured that Brian will have a T-1 connection tomorrow, which is very forward thinking and will ensure that everyone should hit refresh often for the latest on all the great energy out west. This is not a one sentence diary.

Orange County

Come to the Strawberry Festival This Weekend!

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Hey, now! Guess what’s happening this weekend? Yes, it’s that time again. It’s the Strawberry Festival! Starting today, and continuing through Memorial Day Monday, Downtown Garden Grove will be berry, berry fun!

And guess what? It gets better! The Democratic Party will be at the festival, too! Look for the pretty booth with the big Democratic banner. Oh yes, and if you’re free this weekend and you want to help, the schedule’s still open!

Follow me after the flip for all the details…

Here’s the email I got from the Democratic Party of Orange County:

The Democratic Party of Orange County needs your help! We need volunteers to help staff our Voter Registration and Information booth at the 49th Annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival.

Admission is free. This festival is the second largest city festival in the Western United States. It’s held at the Village Green between Main Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Garden Grove. Festival opens Friday evening, May 25th with the ceremonial cutting of the world’s largest strawberry shortcake which is served free to over 2,000 people attending.

To volunteer to staff the booth for the Democratic Party, please contact the event volunteer coordinator, Marko Markovich at (714) 964-5514 or [email protected]

Come on, now! You know you want to come to the Strawberry Festival. Where else can you have such a berry good time? ; )