Our Austin Kossacks group has been excited about DemFest since we first heard about it. Looking for a way to contribute, we decided to host a Blogger’s Caucus in the Specific Interests Caucuses timeslot. Note that we’re the only caucus with a link – and it’s to our Kos at DemFest blog, natch.
Othniel has been working hard to line up speakers for the caucus and now Democracy for Texas has put up a special shout out and press release about our caucus.
Netroots organize panel for blogger’s caucus
Democracy Fest | DemocracyFest – Media | Immediate ReleaseState Rep. Mark Strama, Charlie of PinkDome and Dan Fletcher of lookinforward.com to address emerging role of blogs in political news and discourse
In true grassroots fashion, DemocracyFest attendees who regularly post on DailyKOS.com and other progressive political blogs have put together a panel to address the “Blogger’s Caucus” on the afternoon of June 17.
The caucus concept was planned by DemocracyFest organizers as a way for communities of interest to meet and confer during the first day of the conference, but a group of bloggers took that to the next level by bringing in their own panel of speakers notable in the blogosphere.
Pink Dome has a reputation as the snarkiest of the blogs that cover our egregious State Lege.
Mark Strama (D) won his seat to that same egregious Texas Lege by only 500 votes of 60,000 cast. As he says,
Without our tremendous grassroots and online organization, we could not have withstood the negative attacks launched against me in the last days of the election. These attacks were funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars that poured into my opponent’s campaign in the last few weeks, when it became clear that we were leading in the polls.
. . . if we could get 60,000 people to vote, instead of 55,000, then I felt we were certain to win. Sure enough, over 60,000 people voted, and I’m convinced the surge in turnout made a huge difference in my election. (emphasis mine)
Dan is an Austin Kossack who is exploring ways to use blogs and other software to mobilize the grass/netroots to replace R’s with D’s in ’06. We’re especially determined to defeat U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (Tom DeLay enabler and sycophant).
Great work, Othniel!
If you are going to be at DemFest, join us at the Blogger’s Caucus – we’d love to meet you!
Othniel is the Austin Kossack who alerted me to the hearing about the appalling constitutional amendment that would enshrine denial of full equality of marriage rights for all Texans in our state constitution and shepherded me through the process of testifying at the Senate. roses has done tremendous work keeping the Austin Kossacks group focused and productive.
If you’ll be at DemFest and would like to meet some Austin Kossacks (and BooTribbles!), send me an email, leave a message at our table, or come to the blogger’s caucus and introduce yourself.
J. — I have been meaning to get a hold of you re: the ticket you got for me for Sat. night. For some reason, it had not clicked with me that this weekend is also my husband’s annual family reunion and we will be out of town. I am so sorry that I will be missing it (more than you know), and I will pay you back for the ticket if you like — I hope someone will be able to use it.
The gesture on your part was wonderful, and I know I will be missing something fantastic — I hope you all will tell me all about it — will someone be video-taping Dean’s speech? I’d sure like to see it!
Hey, I could really use the ticket for my son, if you have not passed it on yet, and would pay or janet as appropriate. You can contact me at the email on my booman user id, or through janet.
Hope we meet you soon at an Austin Kossacks meeting!
Great Diary janet, Thanks.
Hi there, Othniel! (you have already met me!! think Shiner…)
J. has the ticket and she paid for it herself (wasn’t that sweet of her??) — go ahead an email/call her about it, I feel much better already knowing that your son can use it!
I’ll see you at the BBQ in July (and/or the next AK meeting)!
PS Thanks for the email this a.m.!
I know I won’t have any trouble finding a taker for it. But I am sorry that you’re going to miss it. Hope the family reunion is fun (and that your husband’s family doesn’t include a lot of Republicans).
Conservatives, maybe some, but Republicans (as in the current incarnation), only one or two that I can think of, and they are generally loathe to bring up their nonsense at these reunions.
One person I am really looking forward to talking with is my husband’s uncle who works at the CDC…I’ve got a few questions to ask him! 😉
I’m also taking my “get Kinky on the ballot” petition to see how many sigs I can get. My mother- and sister-in-law will be the first to sign!
Anywho, it should be fun. I guess I just wanted to do both so badly that I had a brain-fart about the dates.
Love you for thinking of me though!
to keep up with what Chris Bowers is doing over at MyDD.
Wish you were going to be here. janet and Sandia Blanca are even getting Green Balloons (as well as orange ones)for our Bloggers’ Table at DemFest – and roses is supplying a green table cloth!
At least with the green we won’t be confused with the UT Dems – not that any of us are young enough for that anyway.
in spirit. And maybe next time 🙂
My heart is fluttering. We’ll be reporting on this weekend in copious detail, no doubt.
The following campaigns (for updates or links see http://kosatdemfest.blogspot.com/) are going to have representatives at the Bloggers Caucus:
Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston attorney who is an announced candidate for the United States Senate seat now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), is flying her campaign’s off-site Blogger, Seth, in for the Caucus. Seth has been faithfully chronicling Barbara Ann’s quest for the Senate seat at Barbara Ann – Texas Senator 2006. Texas Democrats are really excited about Barbara Ann’s campaign, as shown by recent posts on Burnt Orange Report and offthekuff. Barbara Ann will personally be at DemFest Saturday and Sunday, and is especially looking forward to the Bloggers’ Breakfast with Markos and Jerome on Sunday morning, for which she purchased a ticket as soon as they went on sale.
Chris Bell, who has an exploratory committee regarding the 2006 Texas Governor’s race, will be represented at the Caucus by his blogger, Tim McCann. Chris is definitely interested in motivating the grassroots where the true energy of Texas politics now lies. The campaign’s website has an excellent blog, and Chris has participated in conference calls with bloggers across Texas, most recently on Tuesday night. A report of Tuesday night’s conference call has been posted by the Panhandle Truth Squad. Chris will be a major presence at DemFest Saturday, participating on a panel called “The DeLay Factor.”
David Van Os, Candidate for Texas Attorney General, will be at the Caucus in person, accompanied by Dave Collins, the Chair of his Steering Committee. David has asked me to extend to everyone present at the Caucus an invitation to join him for a campaign reception immediately following the Bloggers’ Caucus Friday evening from 6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. at Nuevo Leon Restaurant preceding the DemFest social event at Threadgills. Reality Based Contributions may be substituted for ordinary donations, although Rachel Van Os tells us everyone is welcome. I am sure David personally will extend the invitation when he joins us as well. A good Democrat like David could be a powerful consumer advocate for ordinary Texans if elected Attorney General.
LGRL of Texas will be well represented at the Caucus in connection with the upcoming election on the proposed Marriage Amendment to the Texas Constitution. This is the first election we will face, and the guys and gals at LGRL are spearheading the effort to defeat the Amendment. Perhaps Randall or Colin will bring along some of the “Gov. Perry, I’m NOT Moving” stickers which were all over last Saturday’s Pride Festival in Austin. LGRL is very interested in working with Bloggers to get the word out about the discrimination proposed by the Amendment and its perhaps unintended consequences if enacted, as reported on offthekuff and on LGRL’s Blog.
John Courage, who is hoping to replace Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio) as Sixth Street’s Representative in Congress (CD 21), will also be personally present. John is a good Democrat and Karl-Thomas has a strong post about him at BOR. Surely John will have the Courage to not surrender the Alamo to James Dobson and his extremist allies who seem to control all too many votes in Texas’ current Congressional Delegation.
Mark Strama, one of our speakers, is the incumbent in a close district, HD 50. One of the most critical aspects of our caucus will be discussing how we can help secure re-election for strong progressives like Mark who have stayed true to their base while representing close districts, and representing them well. We will all benefit from Mark’s discussion of the use of modern technology in campaigns and in governing.
Andy Brown, an Austin attorney who has announced for HD 48 against Todd Baxter, has committed to be personally present at the Caucus as well. Andy is very interested in discussing his ideas with Bloggers and learning how we can help a strong Democrat unseat a Craddick and Talton ally in a close district. As HD 48 includes a good chunk of true blue Austin, I am sure we can all come up with some good thoughts Andy can use. HD 48 will be a critical race in the effort to Take Back Texas.
Judge Charlie Baird, formerly on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and one of the last Democratic judges elected to statewide office, a candidate for the 299th Judicial District Court in Travis County, will be represented at the Caucus, by Glen Maxey, former member of the Texas House, who is serving as Judge Baird’s Campaign Manager. Judge Baird is very interested in working with Bloggers to help the public understand judicial campaigns, and to generate public discussion of the possibility of reform of Judicial elections in Texas.