Florida Young Democrat News

The Florida Young Democrats had a conference call last night where our upcoming convention in December was discussed. I would encourage everyone to be thinking about who we can nominate for these awards, I would like to see us nominate at least one person for each award:

Awards Committee Volunteers: contact Dave Cutler. Nominations for awards should be emailed immediately to Dave at PrdFLDem@tampabay.rr.com. Here is the list of FYD awards:

County Chapter of the Year: to recognize a chapter that has shown either a dramatic increase in membership or whose members represent a large portion of elected or appointed city/county offices.

College Chapter of the Year: to recognize a chapter that has shown either a dramatic increase in membership or whose members represent a large portion of elected or appointed school/city/county offices.

High School Chapter of the Year: to recognize a chapter that has shown either a dramatic increase in membership or whose members have assisted in public awareness campaigns..

FYD Event of Distinction: to recognize one or more chapters that created state-wide attention for positively promoting the Democratic ideals.

Jeffrey Mattison Wershow Service Award: this award was named after an Alachua County Young Democrat and Army National Guardsman who was killed in the line of duty while serving in Iraq in 2003; the award is to recognize an outstanding FYD member who serves in the armed forces, in any of the CitizenCorps programs, with their local police department, or with their local fire department.

Young Democrat of the Year: to recognize an outstanding Democrat not older than forty-one (41) years of age.

Democrat of the Year: to recognize an outstanding Democrat elected official who has supported the FYD and its goals.
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At the end of last night's call our state Chair, Matthew Cole, let us know his intention to resign from his role as chair. Here is his official statement from the minutes he sent out following the call:

"Lastly, I would like to make a personal announcement. As a small business owner, my work schedule has increased to the point that I can not dedicate the full time necessary to serve as FYD Chair. I am therefore calling for the election of a new FYD Chair to be held during our December 10th caucus at the FDP convention. The new Chair would commence service at the conclusion of the Central Committee meeting and continue to serve through 2007, the remainder of the current term.

In the mean time, stay focused on building your local chapters as we gear up for our December meeting and prepare the groundwork for victories in 2006!"

I know that the Leon County Young Democrats appreciate all of the hard work that Matt has put into our organization statewide and we have noticed the improvement of our organization over the last 2.5 years and we are sorry to see him move on.

He is leaving big shoes to fill.

Help the Smith for Governor Campaign!!

The Smith Campaign needs vounteers to pass out literature at the FAMU Homecoming Parade this Saturday. The parade starts at 9 am and we'll meet up around 8:30. Please contact Sarah at sarah@rodsmith2006.com if you are interested. Hope to see you there!

Welcome Back!

It's a committee week up at the capital.

Focus: Education

Post comments if you have any news of developments of which we should be aware.

Ammunition~ President Bush Poll Numbers Fall to Unheard of Levels

These poll results were publicized last Wednesday, but today I found the perfect visual to compliment them (click the title bar).

Here are highlights from this article:

"Support for the majority Republican party in the United States is sagging as President George W. Bush's popularity continues to slide, according to a poll (commissioned by United States television channel NBC and the Wall Street Journal) released on Wednesday.
A plurality of Americans, 48%, said they would prefer the Democrats to control Congress compared to 39% who want the Republicans in power....

The gap between the two parties was the largest recorded since the NBC/Journal poll started asking the question 11 years ago."

The most shocking part of the polls results:

"The poll also revealed overwhelming opposition to Bush among African-Americans. Only two percent said they approved of his performance as president, the lowest level ever recorded in that category, NBC television reported. "

You can also find more on this story here: Link This website reports how on October 4th President Bush argued that he was the right person to bridge the racial divides in the United States. I guess he was wrong.

WFSU Pledge Drive

The Leon County Young Democrats will be ON THE AIR for the WFSU (NPR) Fall Pledge Drive this Friday, October 14, 2005 from 4-6:30 pm. This is the LCYD's second time supporting WFSU during the pledge drive, and we hope to raise even more money for the best public radio station in Florida. If you're planning on pledging a donation to WFSU so that they can continue to provide our area with the valuable asset of excellent public radio, please try to make your pledge during our set.

If you're unable to donate money during these tight times, but you would be willing to help out answering phones this Friday during our set, please contact me at cwfetrow@yahoo.com. Click on the link above for a map to the radio station.