As many of you may know, former Congressman Chris Bell of Houston is currently exploring the race for governor of Texas. Bell was the congressman who filed the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay last summer, resulting in two formal admonishments and getting the ball rolling in the increasingly successful effort to shed light on DeLay’s abuses.
I’m posting today to let you all know that Chris has launched a new campaign website and blog at www.chrisbell.com. The launch of our new online campaign HQ is the centerpiece of our effort to run a smart, focused, internet-driven campaign that fully engages the progressive netroots community in Texas and across the country.
We recognize that in this day and age, netroots campaigning is no longer just a fad or a phenomenon, but an integral part to any serious campaign strategy. We plan to revolutionize how Democratic statewide campaigns are run in Texas.
Chris’s central role in the Tom DeLay saga has already earned him quite a bit of attention and respect among gressroots progressives across the country. Our goal is for this new site to be a tool for converting this interest into a broad, committed grassroots base. This site will provide visitors with the information and organizing tools needed to become active members of the campaign team.
We’re proud to have a assembled a web team that stands on the cutting edge of internet campaign strategy. The new site and blog were designed and built by EchoDitto, the internet strategy firm headed by former Dean webmaster Nicco Mele. Mele an his team of Dean veterans were on the front lines of the most revolutionary internet-based campaign of all time, and we’re excited to have that body of knowledge and experience directing our own internet program.
I encourage you to take a few minutes to explore the site and contribute a few thoughts to our blog. We’ll be posting on the blog several times a day from this point out, so I hope that you will become a regular visitor. Be sure to also check out Chris’s first podcast in which he talks about his thoughts on netroots campaigning, his experiences in battling Tom DeLay, and his vision for cleaning up Texas.
Chris demonstrated last year that he wasn’t afraid of standing up to the most powerful man in Congress, but it will take more than courage for us to take Texas back from the out-of-touch, ethically deficient partisans now running the show. It will take a genuine grassroots movement, a new mainstream united by an optimistic vision of freedom, accountability, and responsibility.
So please, take a minute to visit Chris’s site, sign up, and become part of this new mainstream.
Democratic gubernatorial wins in Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma are proof that this fight can be won, but we need your help to win it! Help us turn Texas blue!
