Alan Brock Endorsed by the Tallahassee Builders Association

We wanted to offer late congratulations to Alan Brock. At the start of July, Alan Brock, candidate for the Wakulla County Commission, was endorsed by the Tallahassee Home Builders Association.

If you haven't yet check out Alan's website www.voteforalan.com . We are excited for our former leader, and wish him the best. He is a much needed change for Wakulla.

Why You Should Get Involved in Your Local and State Parties

This Blog post is written by Kevin Bondelli, Southwest Region Director for the Young Democrats of America. He is the SW counter part to the Florida Young Democrats President Alan Brock, who is the Southeast Regional Director for YDA. (Join the facebook group)

It is amazing how closely Kevin's argument for joining the party out in Arizona rings true here in Florida. You have until June to file to be a Precinct Committee Person, and in most places in Florida (at least around our area of the state)you will win unopposed.

And now for insight from Kevin:

We all know the stereotype of the composition of local and state Democratic Parties: a plethora of old activists that consider anyone under 50 a young Democrat. While this keeps many younger voters from becoming involved in those entities, it would be to your advantage to bite the bullet and take the plunge.

“But Kevin, there is nobody at these meetings that is even close to my age and I would rather just be involved with Young Democrats instead!”

I know that’s what your thinking, and trust me, as a former state party employee I feel you, but the rewards of involvement will vastly outweigh the costs if you and your organization commit. Here is why:

The local and state parties determine the allocation of a lot of resources, and if nobody is there to advocate for youth programs, they are going to be overlooked.

Elected Precinct Committee persons and state committee members (at least in Arizona) vote on who becomes delegates to Democratic National Conventions, so while advocating for youth representation goals in delegate selection plans is important, having a number of young democrats involved will make the biggest difference.

Some of those older activists are actually quite interesting, and talking to them and learning from their experiences can be an invaluable education for you and your members.

Fundraising lead generation. The members of your state and local parties are the high-efficacy donors, even if they are small-contribution donors, and knowing them personally will give you a much better opportunity of raising money.

You can sell your organization and young voters in general to party regulars, and getting your message out to them will increase your legitimacy and exposure.

You are officially changing your role from “future of the party” to the “present of the party.” As long as young democrats are absent from the regular party apparatus it will appear that Young Democrats is AAA and the local/state party is the major leagues, and when you get older you graduate and get called up.

The more your state party knows you the more you will be able to partner up with their big events. In Arizona the state party works with YDAZ to have after-party fundraisers following their big dinners.

Common apprehensions of Young Democrats about getting involved:

The older activists don’t want us there. This, actually, is far from the truth. During my time at the Arizona Democratic Party I can’t count all of the activists that openly expressed their wishes that more young people were involved. While there will always be a few that look at younger Democrats condescendingly, they tend to be the minority. They won’t bite, I swear (a lot of them don’t even have real teeth).

But there won’t be any people close to my age there. Not yet. That is why you have to bring them. The Arizona State University Young Democrats have done a great job of this in the state legislative district that encompasses Tempe, and with that involvement there are now two state representatives from that district under the age of 30. How cool is it when their are people representing you at your state capitol that are your age? The answer is: very cool.

It isn’t worth my time. Seriously, did you just forget to read the entire first part of this post? Yes, it is worth your time.

Alright Kevin, you’ve convinced me. Now how do I get involved?

Become a precinct committeperson. Get appointed now and when elections roll around become an elected PC. Your local/state party can help you with the process.

Start attending your local meetings. Find out when and where they meet, bring some friends, and talk to the people there. Let them know that you want to get more involved. Once you’ve been to a couple meetings tell other friends that they should come too. Once there are more young people attending, more young people will attend. If you build it, they will come.

Go to state committee meetings. The people here are the top Democratic activists in your state. See if a representative from your state chapter can give a report at these meetings.

Have you been successful in getting involved with your local and state parties? Is there something I missed? Leave a comment and share your stories and ideas.

Super Delegates Vs. Pledged Delegates

Today I was researching the rules for Pledged delegates switching during the floor fight. It is my understanding that a pledged delegate has to vote for the person that she or he is pledged for during the initial vote, but in a floor fight, as the rounds of voting move forward, delegates can switch to help secure a nominee.

The argument here is that delegates are elected for their commitment to a candidate and would never switch.

But apparently it is just a pledge, not even an oath, and nothing is sacred. Doing a Yahoo search earlier today it appears that this time last month Senator Clinton's campaign basically announced that depending how things go during Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, they plan to try to pull people off of Obama's pledged delegates, even before the first round of voting. Obama's campaign has denied a similar plan, but many people expect that Clinton campaign attacks, the Obama campaign may retaliate.

This would make regular delegates all equal to super delegates, who vote their conscience. There are some interesting articles out there, one, from what appears to be a conservative magazine, Investors Business Daily. The article by Roger Simon Even Delegates Now 'Pledged' Are Fair Game. The author has a good insight to what I think could happen. I am not sure what it will mean for the party, party loyalty, the 08 election, and for our country.

I understand that Florida Young Democrats President, Alan Brock, who was elected as a Congressional District Delegate for John Edwards. He has been contacted by the Clinton Campaign in an effort to start persuading him on where his next vote should go.

Young Democrat Candidate

Alan Brock, President of the Florida Young Democrats, is running for the Wakulla County Commission. Make sure to check out his website: www.voteforalan.com. We are really excited about this race, and we wish him well!

If you have the ability, please check out his website: www.voteforalan.com and considered making a donation.

Congressional District Delegates Elected ~ Including 2 LCYD members!

Link in the title bar, and a little late, but I wanted to make sure that we posted it here. Delegates were elected this past weekend, and Corinne Rubin and Alan Brock were both elected as district level delegates, for Obama and Edwards respectively. Our congratulations go out to both of them, and we wish them luck in our state's efforts to have the delegation's votes returned.

On a side note regarding our state's delegate process has become another example of Charlie Crist the Waffler, Charlie Crist the Flip Flopper, and Charlie Crist the opportunist. Governor Crist has decided that he would support a re-do of the Democratic Primary in Florida. Howard Dean has said that this is "very helpful"... but from what his answer, is anything but...

As we all recall, it wasn't that long ago that, this past September, when the Governor vowed to veto any changes to the primary. This seems to be in his normal style of blowing with the political wind.

Congrats, and here is to a new year!!!

Congratulations to our newly elected Leon County Young Democrat officers:

President: Chris Petley
Vice President: Barbara Henderson
Political Affairs Vice President: Christian Ulvert
Community Affairs Vice President: Corinne Rubin
Administrative Vice President: Sarah Smith
Treasurer: Alan Brock

Good luck over the next year!

These officers will serve through June 2008!