First off: To be prudent, I have decided (in consultation with others planning to attend) to POSTPONE the meet-up that we had scheduled for this coming Saturday. The weather forecasts have been consistently predicting dangerous cold for this weekend, and I don't want to be out in it, let alone encourage others to take such a risk.
Second: The Spring Convention for the Michigan Democratic Party is this Saturday at Cobo Center. I went two years ago for the first time, in order to help unseat the former MDP chair, Mark Brewer, and allow his challenger, Lon Johnson, to take control. I had little idea about what was going on, and I doubt that I went to many caucuses or other worthwhile events. This year, I'll be heading into the day with a much better sense of what's going on (though in truth I am still clueless about a lot), and I'll be attempting to make more of a contribution. We'll see how that goes.
If any Michigan Kossack is planning to attend and wants to say hi at any point during the day, please drop me a Kosmail. I'll work on trying to set up a rendezvous if there's interest.
Second-plus: This go-round, I have two personal endorsements to make relative to the MDP leaders. First, despite our disappointing showing in the 2014 election, I will be supporting Lon Johnson again for MDP Chair. Last Saturday, he spoke at the joint AA-Washtenaw County Dems meeting, and while he took a lot of heat from people with legitimate criticisms for our losses, he made a very effective case for his vision for the state party overall. Soon there will be videotape available of his presentation, and I'll post a link here when I can. If you have specific questions to raise, please let me know in the comments and I'll try to answer them based on my recollection of the discussion.
Second, I endorse Mike Henry for the Chair of the MDP Black Caucus. Mike has been the Chair of the AA Dems for several years now, and he's done good work in that position. I think of him as being one of the new Democrats: connected with multiple segments of our traditional base; committed to coalition work; dedicated to true grassroots involvement and empowerment within the party. Here's an interview that Eclectablog conducted with him recently that provides a lot more detail.
Third: One of the Dem members of the MI House made an interesting announcement the other day. Gretchen Driskell, former mayor of Saline and current MI House member from the 52nd district, declared her candidacy for the 7th MI Congressional District seat now occupied by Tim Walberg. What do you think about her candidacy? She's said she's declaring now to allow her time to campaign throughout the district, which has been gerrymandered to go through 7 counties. I'm sure that will be a race to watch.
That's all I wanted to raise in terms of immediate events. Soon it'll be time to talk about Prop 1 on the May 2015 ballot--the proposal to raise the state sales tax by 1% to fund several positive expenditures, particularly related to education and road repair. The discussion about that will be very intense, I'm sure, especially given the size of the current state budget deficit. Once again, we see what's at stake in the political arena.
Thanks for coming by tonight. Feel free to raise other issues; this is, after all, an Open Thread.
Shortly, the 4th installment of DoReMI's excellent discussion series on Thomas Sugrue's The Origins of the Urban Crisis will be published. I hope to see some of you there, too. Here's the link to tonight's discussion.
EDIT: Please take note of DoReMI's comment below, regarding local screenings in March of She's Beautiful When She's Angry. I'd be willing to take part in a group viewing at either location, and will continue to promote the possibility.