Houston Stonewall Young Democrats

Candidate Profile – Alan Rosen for Constable, Precinct One

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:49:28 +0000

“I saw people who needed help, not punishment, which gave me a better understanding of how law enforcement can make a difference in the lives of those at a critical crossroads.” – Alan Rosen

The Houston Stonewall Young Democrats have endorsed Alan Rosen in the race for Harris County Constable, Precinct One.

Alan Rosen has worked in law enforcement for over 21 years, and in the Harris County Constable’s office for over 12 of those years. Alan’s training, education and depth of experience makes him uniquely qualified to provide the leadership and management skills needed for the Office of Constable in Precinct 1.

Alan is currently a Major and Commander of the Special Operation Bureau for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office managing criminal warrants, fugitive warrants. the child predator apprehension team, sex offender tracking team and tactical medical team.

Alan’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with Honors from the University of Houston and he has earned a master peace officer license, which is the highest license a peace officer can hold.

The Houston Stonewall Young Democrats are proud to be supporting Alan Rosen in his race for Constable, Precinct One. It is our belief that Alan is uniquely prepared to bring a new direction to the Precinct One Constable’s office. We are extremely excited to be working toward his election and urge you to support this terrific candidate.

For more information about Alan Rosen, visit his website at www.alanrosen.org.

Houston Stonewall Young Democrats Continue Endorsements and Speak Out Against Hate.

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:07:54 +0000

Statement from HSYD on Attempts to Disrupt Progressive Coalitions

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 01:20:04 +0000

Young Democrats of America Faith and Values Summit

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:28:23 +0000

Recently, HSYD member Jeffry Faircloth was selected to be 1 of 100 attendees to the Young Democrats of America’s Faith and Values Summit in Washington, DC. Jeffry brought an important perspective to the summit as a member of the LGBT community and a person of faith. We asked Jeffry to take some time to recap what happened at the Summit.
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Young Democrats of America Faith and Values Summit – Washington, D.C.

March 23 – 25, 2012
by Jeffry Faircloth

Day 1

As delegates and attendees to the first ever Faith and Values summit led by the Young Democrats of America, we began the weekend’s events with a mixer at the National Democratic Club near the United States Capitol building. Here we heard a very powerful message given by former Congressman Tom Perriello, which inspired each of us to not the Religious Right define what is and is not a religious and faith value. In particular he mentioned the new Paul Ryan budget which he characterized as “immoral”, for shifting most of the economic burden on the poor and giving the richest of our country a free ride. We also got to meet the national leadership of the Young Democrats of America, as well as many of the other delegates to the summit. It was quite an amazing experience to meet people of religious and moral conviction gathered together from all across the United States.

I was able to meet Baptists, United Methodists, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Unitarian Universalists, and even some Evangelical Christians and atheists and agnostics. Of particular significance to me personally, was getting a chance to meet some of the Muslim attendees. For quite a long time, I have been bothered by the bigotry, hatred, misunderstanding, and intolerance done to our Muslim-American brothers and sisters in the name of Christ and the Christian religion. I was able to communicate to them that as a Christian, I do not believe that what my fellow Christians have been doing to them is right, just, and Christian. I found this to be a quite powerful moment of building understanding and it gave me so much hope for creating a world and a government based on tolerance of others.

Day 2

The second day of the summit was the most event-filled. We heard speakers from 8:30am to 5:00pm. The first speaker of the day was Burns Strider, who is the former Director of Faith Outreach for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. He spoke about his Southern Baptist heritage and how he is no longer ashamed to call himself a liberal, since he feels the teachings of his religion bring him to the Democratic Party. The main point of his message was that as Democrats, we are great about quoting statistics when it comes to particular issues, but we must work on relating to people on individual levels, sharing our personal stories of why we believe in the Democratic Party. Other speakers included Mara Vanderslice, Director of Faith Outreach for Kerry for President, Rev. Derrick Harkins, Director of Faith Outreach to the Democratic National Committee, and John Kelly, former Democratic National Committee Catholic Outreach Director.

One piece of particular interest that we learned, was that Muslim-Americans are a sleeping giant in the American room of politics. They tend to live in swing states and can be very powerful as a voting bloc. However, they remain mostly untapped within the political process, and a lot of discussion was had on how to bring them into the Democratic fold. At the close of the day, each of us as attendees had to get up and share what brought us to be apart of this summit and initiative. I was very proud to say that I am a Christian and I am gay and I come to the table wanting to make sure that people know that GLBT people can be people of faith and moral conviction and that we should not be overlooked within the political arena. Afterward, we all went out for dinner and continued meeting each other and networking together to build this movement.

Day 3

This was the close of the summit. We only met for 2 hours and it was centered around how best we could all be ambassadors for this cause. I signed up to be apart of the Outreach wing of the initiative so that I can spread the message of why the Democratic Party is a party of faith and a party of values. One thing that I would like to work on is making the secular and non-religious wing of the Democratic Party comfortable with what we are trying to do with this initiative. Everyone has values and things that are important to them in their lives. Non-religious people have values too. It is quite important to me to show this segment of our party that we are not against them. Rather, we are people of religion and faith and we want to stand with them on moral issues. I am committed to what we set out to accomplish from this summit. There is a lot of work to do and a lot of relationships that need to be built. However, as a party, we must do this. In a country that is one of the most religious on earth, we ignore this discussion at our own political peril.

HSYD Release – Elections and Endorsements

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:09:28 +0000

YDA Winter Conference – Post 2

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:43:16 +0000

This is Brad again, continuing with my recap of the Young Democrats of America Winter Conference in Chicago.

One of the main reasons I really wanted to attend this conference was because of the training opportunities that were offered on the second day. I think we always have to be looking for new ways to think and new methods to accomplish our goals, so anytime I have the chance to listen to experts in their respective fields, I am totally there.

Since the conference was hosted in Chicago, just blocks away from the campaign headquarters of Obama for America, YDA was able to get staff members of President Obama’s reelection campaign to actually attend and, in some cases, lead workshops based on the operations that are taking place at the OFA HQ.

The first workshop I attended was an Advanced Social Media workshop, which was lead by Betsy Hoover, OFA’s Director of Digital Organizing. The purpose was this workshop was to talk about how to use existing social networking sites as effectively as we possibly can to spread our various messages (be it ‘Support the President’ or ‘Support Democrats’, etc). Betsy talked about the programs that Facebook uses which determines what information appears in your personal feed and, alternately, how Facebook determines what information of yours appears in your friends’ feeds. It was extremely fascinating hearing ways to maximum our online outreach just by doing a few simple things, like expanding our own networks of interests. For example, if all you ever post are pro-Obama statuses, links, photos, videos, then most of your friends who have that similar perspective will see those. That’s not a terrible thing, but it’s also preaching to the choir. Betsy suggested thinking about what other interests you have, what hobbies you practice, what school or sports team you support and to start posting items relating to those as well. Then when your nonpolitical friends see an article posted by you about the UH Cougars Football team, and they “LIKE” it, and you “LIKE” something of theirs in that same vein, it increases the chances that more of your posts (including your pro-Obama, pro-Democrat links) will make it into the feeds of those people.

The next workshop I attended was truly fascinating. It dealt with effective voter contact based on analytic experiments. The workshop was led by Regina Schwartz of the Analyst Institute. It was a fascinating look at the various studies that have been done in order to make GOTV efforts more effective. From influencing messaging on mail pieces, to the effectiveness of live phone calls, to the psychology behind motivating voters to turn out during elections, it was truly informative. What was really interesting was how really small, seemingly unimportant elements are able to increase turnout among voters.

And the final workshop I attended was all about how to mobilize voters, in this instance focusing on the youth vote. This workshop was lead by the Obama for America Field Team. They discussed the campaign’s ‘Greater Together’ brand, which is focused on turning out the young vote in 2012. Discussions revolved around we can turn out young voters, motivate them, using creative methods to energize them and make sure they vote in 2012. There were interesting suggestions from the crowd as well regarding methods they have used in different states to drive voter registrations and get out voters.

Another note I wanted to point out was while in Chicago in my limited capacity in the small area I had the time to explore I noticed a lot of progressive stuff taking place. There was a Verizon store near my hotel and a protester was camped in front of the store all weekend protesting Verizon’s healthcare cuts for employees. And then I came upon a rally protesting Bank of America just blocks away.

Young Democrats of America Winter Conference – Post 1

admin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 23:13:58 +0000

Hey everyone, Brad here. This evening I’m writing this entry from the Palmer House Hilton Hotel located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. I decided to come to Chicago for the weekend to take part in the joint College Democrats of America & Young Democrats of America Winter Conference.

I thought I’d take a few minutes to highlight a few of the really interesting things that have happened this weekend. I’m planning to give a much more detailed recap once back in Houston at our April General Meeting.

The keynote speaker this morning was Jim Messina, the Campaign Manager for President Obama’s reelection campaign. Messina’s speech was extremely entertaining and I must emphasize that he did not use any curse words whatsoever throughout the entire speech…5 times. Mr. Messina shared personal stories about his time with the campaign, how he ultimately made the decision to work for the campaign because it was a true opportunity to “change the world”. He was also able to recap some of the most prominent challenges and accomplishments that have faced President Obama’s administration since his election. Messina recapped the fight over healthcare reform and how it seemed like the bill was going to die 17 times and whenever the staff would come to the President to tell him it was dead, he would respond with determination that it was too important to die and they would work through whatever problems they were experiencing. When Republican Senator Scott Brown took the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, the New York Times headline read, “Democrats loose Kennedy’s Seat, Healthcare Dead.”

One month to the day after that headline was published, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.

Messina then discussed how after the grueling fight for healthcare reform he was expecting a vacation or that he was, jokingly, hoping for a raise. And when the President called him into the Oval Office he was expecting a big pat on the back. Instead, the President said, “Now I need to start working on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.”

The high point of the speech for me was when Messina talked about how he had always wanted to be the Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House, because he imagined it was the greatest job in the world. He said, “It was the job John Podesta had, it was the job Carl Rove had, but more importantly it was the job that Josh Lyman had.” (if you don’t know who Josh Lyman is, see the television series ‘The West Wing’ and also SHAME ON YOU).

Messina’s speech really emphasized everything that President Obama has managed to accomplish over the last 3 years and how much more we can do to help our country by re-electing him in November.

Other speakers included Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. and Alice Germond the Secretary of the DNC.

I’ll post more on the workshops that were held today later.

Update on Texas Primary

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:43:05 +0000

So you know that the Texas Primary is coming up…the only question is when?

Well, we wish we could tell you to mark your calendars; however, we still just don’t know. The brief back-story is that in 2011 the Texas Legislature was working on redistricting…and rather than do what they were supposed to do in a legal and fair way, they decided to do everything they could to draw the new maps in ways that made it impossible for Democrats to win elections. In the process, they also diluted the power of minority voters in Texas. Since Texas Republicans have a long history of trying to make it hard for people to vote (at least people who aren’t old, white and heterosexual) the Federal government requires pre-clearance on redistricting maps.

Surprise, surprise, the Texas Republican Legislature maps didn’t make the cut. Which brings us to the ongoing battle over maps, district borders and election dates. Below is an update from Txredistricting.org.

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Q&A about the lay of the land

When will we get maps?

Elections administrators told the court last week that maps will need to be in place by March 3 in order to have a May 29 primary. While the court has not said anything definitive, the signs seem to be that the court is trying hard to work toward that date.

When exactly maps will be done, though, is unclear.

For one thing, the Supreme Court ruled back in January that if the San Antonio court makes any changes to the Texas Legislature’s plans, it needs to explain the changes carefully and in detail – which means writing fulsome opinions.

It’s not clear, though, from last week’s hearing that the three judges even agree on many of the key threshold issues, including the degree to which crossover districts are protected or the meaning of the ‘not insubstantial’ test. Similarly, from questioning last week, it’s not at all clear that Judge Smith completely accepts the argument for creation of a Hispanic leaning CD-33 in North Texas. Those issues could take awhile to hash out and, if they can’t be, we could be waiting for another majority opinion and dissent or perhaps a series of split opinions.

Even if the judges agree, an additional complication could occur if the court accepts part of one compromise proposal and not other parts, since then it would have to spend time fitting pieces of different maps together – or perhaps even drawing its own map for some parts of the state.

Still, the signs point toward maps by the end of next week.

That said, it is entirely possible the maps could be done sooner than March 3, and there seems to be the thought from a number of the parties (on both sides) that the maps may come down as early as this Friday or the first of next week.

In the last round of mapdrawing the court released maps and asked for the parties for comments before issuing the final versions. If it intends to do so again and finish the maps by March 3, that would argue for a map release in the next few days.

Could the primary be delayed past May 29?

The court has told the Democratic and Republican parties to prepare – tentatively – for a May 29 primary, but the answer to the question is ‘yes.’

There are at least four ways that conceivably could happen.

First, Congressman Joe Barton and most of the redistricting plaintiffs, in a bit of an unlikely alliance, have urged the court to consider waiting for the D.C. court’s preclearance ruling. Although the court so far seems inclined to draw interim maps to allow the election process to move forward, it is possible that they could change their minds if disputes prove too intractable.

The process also could be slowed down if the D.C. court does, in fact, issue a preclearance ruling ahead of schedule – as some of the parties suggested to the D.C. court on Wednesday would be helpful – thus requiring that the San Antonio court to stop to absorb the ruling and possibly adapt its maps.

Regardless of when the preclearance ruling comes down, when it does, one or more of the parties also could try to reopen the map process to fix any inconsistencies (e.g., over the treatment of CD-25). It’s not clear that the court would take up the invitation but, if there are any significant differences between the two courts on section 5 issues, the request seems not unlikely. If the court does make changes, that could mean a delay in the primary or at least a special primary for affected districts.

Last but not least, it is at least theoretically possible that one or more parties could appeal the court’s interim map order to the Supreme Court and seek a stay. Most observers think the Supreme Court would be unlikely to issue a second stay, but it remains a possibility.

In any event, if the maps are not done by March 3 for whatever reason, or if there is an appeal or further litigation after the preclearance ruling, Texans likely would be looking at a June 26 primary, with a runoff in September.

Once the maps are done, will the filing period reopen?

The political parties will be submitting a proposed schedule addressing the filing period and other election schedule issues, but the talk to date has been of at least a 2-3 day filing period.

The parties may want it slightly longer, however, to make sure they have the ability to fill vacancies if candidates or officeholders switch races.

As of yet, none of the proposed election schedule changes have been made public.

Will the new maps need to be precleared under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act?

The Justice Department told the San Antonio court that any map would need to be precleared under the Supreme Court’s decision in McDaniel v. Sanchez to the extent it involves a map drawn by the state or reflects policy choices by the state.

However, lawyers for DOJ told the court last week that expedited review would be available and stressed that DOJ would work to make sure the process was moved along as quickly as possible.

Since DOJ is already familiar with the Texas issues and disputes, most observers feel that DOJ preclearance review would not likely interfere with a May 29 primary.

Of course, this assumes that the state chooses to submit the maps to DOJ for review rather than seek signoff from the D.C. court.

What about changes to the delegate selection and party convention process?

The Republican Party of Texas is set to finalize its proposed party rule changes on February 29, and the Democratic Party of Texas is working with the Democratic National Committee on changes to its party convention and delegate process.

It’s not clear whether these changes will be submitted to the court along with election schedule changes or separately, but, in any event, that should occur by the end of next week.

Any rule changes also would need to be submitted to DOJ for preclearance under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act; however, DOJ has said that it is prepared to review the changes under expedited review.

Join Stonewall Democrats in telling Log Cabin Republicans No Anti-LGBT Candidates

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:11:01 +0000

I wanted to share with everyone a message that came in from the National Stonewall Democrats. As anyone that has been following the Presidential nomination process on the Republican side knows there are 4 candidates left vying for the nomination. 3 of those 4 (Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum) all signed NOM’s anti-LGBT pledge. National Stonewall Democrats is calling on the Log Cabin Republicans to not support any candidate that harbors anti-LGBT sentiments. Equality is a human issue, not a partisan issue and it is our hope that Log Cabin will stand firm and do the right thing by not supporting any of the GOP anti-LGBT candidates.

Read the message from National Stonewall Democrats Jerame Davis below and then sign the petition!

-Brad
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No candidate should get the support of any gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender organization if they have pledged to deny equality to our community.Some gay conservatives seem to think otherwise and they need to hear from us loud and clear: no anti-LGBT candidates allowed!

Three of the four leading Republican candidates have staked out decidedly anti-LGBT positions. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum have each signed a pledge authored by a certified hate group promising to:

Support an amendment to the US Constitution banning marriage equality for same-sex couples.
Nominate federal judges who oppose equality for LGBT Americans.
Return to defending the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act in court.
Establish a presidential commission to initiate McCarthy-style investigations into the LGBT community with the pretext of protecting “religious liberty”.
Meddle with the home rule of District of Columbia residents to attempt to overturn marriage equality in our nation’s capitol.

In 2004, Log Cabin Republicans took a principled stand and refused to endorse George W. Bush for his support of a federal marriage amendment alone. These candidates have pledged to go farther than President Bush ever considered.

Will Log Cabin Republicans follow its own precedent and refuse to endorse anti-equality politicians?

Recent stories in the media suggest they may actually be willing to overlook the anti-LGBT pledges GOP candidates have taken against our community.

Sign the petition and tell Log Cabin Republicans they should never endorse anti-LGBT candidates who pledge to deny us equality.

Don’t forget – once you’ve signed the pledge to share it on Facebook and encourage your friends and family to sign as well – we have to send a message that anti-LGBT rhetoric is not acceptable on either side of the aisle.

In solidarity,

Jerame Davis

HSYD Endorses Rosen, Lee and Lewis

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:46:14 +0000

For Immediate Release
February 14, 2012

Media Contact:
Brad Pritchett
Vice President of Political Affairs, HSYD
vp.political@houstonstonewallyd.org

Houston Stonewall Young Democrats Endorse David Rosen, Erica Lee
and Lane Lewis

HOUSTON, TX – This evening the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats (HSYD) issued the first in a series of endorsements heading into the Democratic Primary.

The membership of HSYD voted unanimously to endorse David Rosen in his race for the Harris County Department of Education, At-Large Position 3, Erica Lee in her race for the Harris County Department of Education, Position 6, Precinct 1, and Lane Lewis in his race for Harris County Democratic Party Chair.

Vice President of Political Affairs, Brad Pritchett said, “In the HCDE races we faced some tough decisions. Each of the candidates we sat down with in both races was well-qualified and good on LGBT issues, so our decisions in both races came down to nuances. Our membership voted to endorse David Rosen because his passion for making change, combined with his compelling personal story and commitment to engaging young people really made him a stand-out candidate.” He added, “Erica Lee’s commitment to education and her experience dealing with large education-related budgets made her the clear choice for our members.”

On the race for Harris County Democratic Party Chair Pritchett said, “There was no doubt that Lane Lewis is the best choice to lead the Harris County Democratic Party. His vision for Party politics, his innovative approaches to engaging voters and his long-standing and proven commitment to the Democratic Party made Lane Lewis the obvious choice to receive the endorsement of the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats.”

The Houston Stonewall Young Democrats will continue its 2012 endorsement cycle throughout February and a second endorsement meeting is planned for March 19, 2012. All races unaffected by the ongoing redistricting process will be decided at the March membership meeting.

The Houston Stonewall Young Democrats is a group of Houston-area young progressives, aged 14 to 40, whose focus is to educate the GLBT community about the issues affecting them, to mobilize the community to get out to vote on Election Day for fair-minded Democrats, and to fight for GLBT civil rights while leading the Democratic party to continue improving its record on issues important to the GLBT community.