Sunday, June 21, 2015

Why We Formed the Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC

5 comments:

  1. This is a PERFECT video that explains our goals!Kudos to Faith for a fantastic production.We are tired of generic politics.It isn't working well for Democrats in Texas.Bernie's candidacy has proven one thing....Americans are sick of being fed convenient political jargon that people can't relate to,feel inferior to.People need to know that THEY are being heard and represented.They need to know THEIR voice is the one making a difference.

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  2. This is a PERFECT video that explains our goals!Kudos to Faith for a fantastic production.We are tired of generic politics.It isn't working well for Democrats in Texas.Bernie's candidacy has proven one thing....Americans are sick of being fed convenient political jargon that people can't relate to,feel inferior to.People need to know that THEY are being heard and represented.They need to know THEIR voice is the one making a difference.

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  4. Thank you Beth,. I wasn't attempting to create a slick video. I was attempting to communicate to potential members and potential steering committee members the reasons behind forming the pac. I am working on one that looks at the impact of incumbency and redistricting vs abandonment of support and failure to adequately reach potential voters. It is easy to blame the loss of Democratic seats on Redistricting and/or Citizens' United. Both have a big impact on the process and definitely create obstacles. However, neither are insurmountable in most districts.

    One of the biggest problems is that once there are one or two election cycles when one party has won, resources flee from future challengers, making it much harder for current challengers to form organizations which effectively reach potential voters. I think the failure to reach the potential voters is a big --- probably bigger than the gerrymandered districts.

    Once an incumbent has refined his organization twice, and faces weaker and weaker opponents, his war chest usually goes to support others in his party. The more of his party become incumbents in the district, the harder it becomes for challengers in the other party. People stop filing for office and even when they do, there is rarely a contested primary. Once there is no contested primary, folks start crossing over. The fewer candidates of your party on the ballot in your district, the harder it becomes to get the vote our in your race. It is much more complex than just redistricting. Much of it stems from a chain of events set-off from that first loss and the advantage the incumbent has in becoming stronger before he has to face the next challenger.

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  5. I'm not sure exactly what Beth means about her Bernie statement. I am glad to hear serious political discourse in our party's presidential election on issues and values. I think that both of the declared Democratic Candidates stands for solid American values.

    The speech Hillary Clinton made at the Mayor's Conference in San Francisco this week is probably going to be quoted many years after all of us are pushing up daisies. I urge everyone to go to FB or somewhere and watch the video of her speech at the Mayor's conference.

    I personally do not think the divide between the two Democratic nominees is authenticity or one speaking for American working class values and one not. I think it will come down to who American trusts most to lead us in all the important areas that a Chief of State must lead.

    This PAC is a forum where our members will have opportunity to advocate for and to disagree on which Federal Candidates in the primary is best for the nation. We will be civil about it and respectful of each other in the process.

    The policy of the Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC is that we will decide who to support for President in the Primary. It will be decided by those who pay to join and everyone will get one vote. Who ever is the Democratic Nominee will be supported in the General Election. Those of us who are firmly in various "camps" will probably remain as engaged supporting our candidate even if we are "outvoted" by the majority of the members of the pac.

    Unlike many pacs, if the membership selects a candidate different from your choice, no one from the pac will tell you that to be a member of the pac means you must abandon your candidate of choice. Part of your contributions will go to a candidate which is your second choice but the rest of it will go to support congressional challengers in 9 districts. We hope that all our members will remain engaged during the primary and the general election and there will be some of us who support and volunteer and probably donate to directly which may be different than the candidate chosen by the majority of the members of the pac.

    There will be an official voice stating who the PAC endorses. As private citizens our personal voice does not go away.

    Between September and January we must donate something to five federal candidates to be "qualified" by the FEC to give the max. of $5 K per candidate per election. Once we have been in existence 6 months (in Sept 2015) and have 51 members, the only thing left to be classified by the FEC as "Qualified will be to donate to 5 Federal Candidates. Before that money is distributed and before we distribute money in Fed and again in the General Election, our members will get an e-mail where they will each person will vote on which candidates to support. Each person's vote is equal no matter the size of the donation to the PAC.

    Unlike some groups which avoid donating during contested primaries, our mission statement is to give early to candidates so that they have resources to raise other money and to build stronger organizations. Therefore, we will let the members decided and the officers will faithfully act on the decision of the membership. However, each person, officer or otherwise, will probably remain committed to their candidate of choice even if it is different than the official choice of the PAC.

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