This past Sunday afternoon, Battleground Texas kicked off the campaign to turn Texas Blue with a fired up crowd assembled in one of San Antonio's most venerable locations.
The elegant passageway in the St. Anthony Hotel.
The St. Anthony Hotel is a grand old property in the heart of downtown, just blocks from The Alamo and within spitting distance of Sen. Cornyn's San Antonio office. It was a grand setting for this initial gathering of hard-core volunteers, activists and Democratic leaders. Invitations went out by email last week and by Sunday, overflow seating was required as excitement had been building for this, the kickoff of the new program that Democrats hope will finally break the stranglehold the GOP has had on this state since Karl Rove's GOP machine bullied its way to power. With two of the rising stars of the Democratic party on hand to show their support (and with the unabashed draw of their "Star Power") Battleground Texas is off to a solid, and enthusiastic, start.
Follow the armadillo over the big fat orange (and tasty looking) grub to read a bit more about this movement and the exciting San Antonio kick-off event. The GOP is sitting fat and sassy at the top of the heap (some might call it a dungheap, but I couldn't possibly comment ....) of Texas politics. Our job is to send the varmits packin'.....and here is how we will do it....together!
Battleground Texas is dedicated to the idea that the GOP, and the current and entrenched leaders here, are not representative of the overall population of Texas, and do not enact policies that work for the betterment of Texans. The crux of the problem, though, as Rep. Castro noted, is that they STILL manage to win elections in this state. Every statewide office is held by the GOP. Despite the demographics pointing to a majority of likely Democratic voters, the GOP still manages to win elections by large margins. Battleground Texas will be a focused, systematic statewide organizing effort that aims to loosen the stranglehold the GOP has on these statewide offices, and turn the state from red, to purple to blue. And if that sounds like really bad bruising, well, it is an apt metaphor. It is going to be a bruising struggle indeed. The GOP will not give up easily, is well dug-in, has deep, deep pockets and a dedicated base of voters who will turn out, in droves, to vote with conviction for their "conservative champions". Or, they will vote with conviction against anything that smells even slightly like a democrat/liberal/progressive/socialist/fascist/communist/not-a-conservative....the list of "not one of us" is long and often non-sensical but the GOP (and their crazy-uncle relative, the Tea Party) will turn out voters reliably, in every election, voting for every office while our side struggles to get our voters not only registered, but to the polls and voting!
Houston, we have a problem.
But, it is hoped, Jeremy Bird and Battleground Texas have the solution.
The roll-out of this initiative was held in San Antonio, chosen to honor the prominence of two of the Democratic Party's rapidly rising stars...Mayor Julian Castro, who made such a positive impression nationally at the Democratic convention last year (despite being upstaged by his adorable hair-flipping daughter...a turn of events that he acknowledged with his usual grace and good humor!) and his twin brother, freshman Congressman Joaquin Castro. Their star power helped pack the ballroom at the St Anthony hotel so that close to 300 activists were on hand, on relatively short notice, to hear what is planned, and sign on to join the effort.
Trina, on the left, is a super-organizer who was already signing up volunteers as we entered!
Jen Brown, a former field director for Obama in Ohio will be the executive director and Jeremy Bird, who has already appeared on The Colbert Report will be advising the organization. He took to the podium to introduce himself and lay out the initial goals of Battleground Texas:
1. ORGANIZATION : We'll have real, ongoing organization (with paid positions!), on the ground throughout Texas. (Think OFA, but focused on Texas.)
2. GOOD DATA : It will be critical to gather good data and hone the analytics so that we know who and where potential voters are, in order to get them registered, get our message to them, and GOTV. OFA really did a good job in the battleground states in 2012. Now the battle for voters is here in Texas.
3. MESSAGING : Jeremy lamented that the GOP in Austin can pass laws and do whatever they want without voters hearing about it until too late. As an example, he noted that many Texas women are increasingly upset with the ultra-conservative proposals Texas has implemented recently. We need to make the voters in TX aware of what is really going on...This diary Monday about Cornyn trying to take credit for a bill he opposed an excellent example. We need to craft coherent messages and make sure we have channels to get the message out.
4. GET PEOPLE INVOLVED! : Battleground Texas will ask a lot of volunteers, and will need a lot of volunteers...we must to work together and do whatever we can. He stressed it isn't about any one person, but it is about all of us. Even a couple of hours per week from a single person can help. "We are all stakeholders in this" he said. Like small donations from a wide base of donors, small donations of time and effort spread over many volunteers will add up to great impact overall.
Questions from the floor were solicited...here are some of the Q & A:
Q: about the messaging...will it be bottom-down messaging from DC/DNC or will it be for and from the people of TX?
A: Jeremy Bird: "We will craft the message from input of the people of Texas so the message will be Texas focused".
Q: from Manuel Medina, chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party - need office space? We've got it...and btw, we had victories in 43 out of 50 races so we are already turning our part of Texas Blue. (ahh, politics and braggin' rights :-D )
A: Jeremy: Yup...y'all rock...looking forward to the collaboration with Texas groups like this. Get with Jen about the office.
Q: People in Bexar county don't seem to know about elections (local, off-year) How will we spread the word?
A: Jeremy: It is always a challenge to get word out to voters. It is a multi-pronged task, there is not one single method of getting information to voters. We will use online, offline, canvassers, events, paid media, earned media, phone calls - a truly comprehensive approach. (That takes volunteers, and lots of them!) It must be ONGOING. Need to remind voters that "elections matter in their personal lives"...and not just when an election is imminent...but ongoing engagement.
Q: Naturalized citizens...not in voter database, not registered...how do we find them and get them informed and voting. A related question...how do we get voters to pay attention in off years and then to vote statewide when all their local elections are uncontested...many voters, don't bother going to the polls in that case.
A: Jeremy: redistricting (gerrymandering) is part of the problem, but a bigger one is getting our likely voters located, registered, informed and then we must GOTV. Rep. Castro added that he will always have an active field organization and said we need to ask more of our candidates, and said they should think about keeping their field organizations more active between campaigns as part of the ongoing voter engagement process. It helps ALL democratic candidates. Gerrymandering was singled out as not just a Democrat/Republican issue but as a "small-d democracy" issue that depresses voter turnout because it discourages voters, and is a big problem for democracy as a whole.
Q: We can't just "beat the bushes" in GOP districts to find Democratic/Independent voters, we must talk to Republicans and convince them that we have the better ideas.
A: Jeremy addressed this as a 4-pronged effort also...we need to register new voters (expand the electorate), turn out our voters, work hard at persuasion and not be afraid to speak our values. The final part is to recruit people to do all of these things.
The challenge is before us...it will take a huge effort to build this movement.
Jeremy Bird said what I thought were the most memorable words of the day:
Together, we're going to build something incredible
Kossacks....you can help with this incredible effort. The power of the Netroots is a marvel and Texas can use your help. How? I think you know by now...
TexMex and I are going to work to get Battleground Texas and San Antonio in particular, lots of online visibility in a good way by writing about the efforts down here, about the candidates and volunteers, and by engaging as many folks as we can locally to share their information and enthusiasm with the netroots, and DailyKos in particular. Help us by reading and sharing.
Donations are always welcome and Jeremy Bird said Battleground Texas will NOT be funded by corporations, SuperPACs or other types of big money...it will be funded by contributions from individuals. Yeah, it's politics and lots of money is involved, but lots of small contributions add up. Obama '08 showed the way. Consider helping by sending a few bucks to this effort if you are able.
Texas volunteers spent countless hours out of state in the past two election cycles, working to keep the GOP from the White House. It was frustrating for us to send our effort and money out of our own state. But now we are bringing the fight to the GOP's turf. Now, Texas is the battleground and it sure would be nice to welcome our out of state allies to support our efforts this time around! If the call comes to help out our phonebanking efforts, please step up! You have no idea how much we'd appreciate the assist! If y'all come to Texas to help out, I'm sure you'd get a hearty welcome.
The online presence of right wing trolls is legend. Take a look at the comments on the Battlground Texas facebook page. We need an online presence too. We don't need to engage the trolls, but we do need to have supportive comments, and facts, posted as often as possible. I know fighting this is tedious and seemingly endless (and lordy do those FOX-promulgated talking points get old fast!), but if we all pitch in whenever we can to stand up for our values and put them out there at every opportunity, well, every little bit helps. We'll never have commercial propaganda like the Right Wing Wurlitzer of Crazy...but we do have bloggers and the ability to comment too...so please help spread our message.
Keep an eye on Texas, because we are aiming to turn this place blue...
In the meantime...enjoy a few pics from the kickoff....I understand Austin's Monday night event was packed too! We are fired up and ready to go here in Texas...and this time we get to work in our own state! YeeHaw!!
TexMex meets U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro
...and his brother, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro!
This next picture is for you Papa Monzano....I am proudly wearing my Texas Kossack T-shirt to this inaugural Battleground Texas event! (and I could not resist trying out the fancy chair!) You were with us in spirit and art!
Yup....we are fired up and READY TO GO here in San Antonio!