State Dem chairman angry with his party

National view that Texas is a lost cause has him disgusted
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - State Democratic Chairman Charles Soechting said Monday that he is disgusted that his national party has written Texas off as Republican and is urging financial donors from here to cut off the Democratic National Committee.

"Is a line drawn in the sand between myself and the DNC? Yes it is," Soechting said. "If you want good government in Texas, you start (by giving) at home."

Soechting said national party officials have taken the attitude that Texas is President Bush's home state and cannot be won.

"That is a loser, defeatist mentality," Soechting said. "I'm not willing to concede that Texas is not winnable. I'm just hearing too many good things around the state."

more: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2727557

with an appearance by Edwards. Rest assured not one red cent will stay in Texas.

I have been furious with the national party since 1996 about this. People like Gary Mauro are the chief culprits.

I lived in Texas for a few months in '98 when Mauro was running for Governor. He got creamed. A lot of hispanics supported him because they didn't know that his last name was Italian. When they found about his heritage, some of them went over to Bush.

he had a fundraiser for Barak Obama at his home in Austin last week. Mauro's active but behind the scenes.

We've got races we can win here in Travis County, and if I give to the DNC, that money will be used elsewhere.

there's a loose knit organization raising money for winnable House races this year. The state party has information on how to donate.

So, they are targeting resources to races that they perceive as winnable. That appears to be the same strategy that the national party is using.

but with a finite amount of money to go around, you put the money where it does the most good and might make a difference in a winnable race.

Is Mr. Soechting making sure that the state party is giving an equal amount to every single legislative candidate? Or is the money going to races where the Democrat has a reasonable chance of winning? It is doubtful that Mr. Soechting is practicing what he is preaching. If he is, he probably won't be chairman for very long.

and its widely known which races are winnable and which aren't. The groups raising the money are the ones distributing it.

If it didn't why would they have this link?

http://www.txdemocrats.org/contribute/

The Sustaining Membership Program is the lifeblood of the Democratic Party - supporting our rapid-response communications team, our grassroots trainings in your hometowns and our state-of-the-art voter database.

i.e. running the TDP. There are different types of money in politics according to the law. They are the well known hard and soft money. Hard money is money contributed directly to a candidate by a person or by a person through a PAC. Soft money, generally, (and I'm talking strictly about the state of Texas and Texas elective offices. Not federal elections) is money that is raised for deferring expenses of an organization like the TDP. There are a lot of ways to get in trouble with soft money, including passing it on to a campaign.

TDP soft money, such as sustaining membership money, does not go to candidates. In fact, it would be illegal for this money to go to candidates. The money in the sustaining member program and other money contributed for expenses to the TDP goes only to running the party. In fact, its perfectly legal for corporate money as well as union treasury money to go to the TDP for running the party, but it must be designated as such. It is very illegal for corporate money or union treasury money to go directly to a candidate.

Now, the TDP can take money from like a PAC that's raising money or contributing money to elect Democratic House members but it must be accounted for completely separately so that the money trail can be determmined when the candidate does his/her financial reporting. This is where Tom Delay is in hot water. In effect the money Delay spread around 2 years ago was "laundered" through the RNC, and other organizations before it made its way to the candidates.

Soechting knows exactly who the people are that are organizing these fund raisers and siphoning the money out of Texas. He needs to take them to task. However, knowing several of the individuals involved, I doubt they would give a shit what Soechting has to say as they're primarily concerned with access to Kerry when he wins. Hint: Look at who the big money raisers for Clinton were in '92 and '96 and you'll see the same bunch, including Mauro. In fact they're all tied to Mauro in one way or another but Mauro is definitely not the sole driver.

Keep your money in Texas. I'm giving to state House candidates, and Congressional races, and to the county and state party but not to DNC.

Kerry and Edwards are better off if we start to turn this state back to blue. I have no problem with people hosting fund raiders for Kerry/Edwards if that's where they think they want to contribute. I do think however, a lot of these people would be happier living in Texas if we could get rid of Tom DeLay. If you only have a small budget for donations your money is going to have more impact in Richard Morrision's campaign against Tom DeLay than in the DNC.

Think local politics and give give locally to Texas candidates first!

Sonia

Delay can be beat by Morrison, no doubt! Next look should be taken at Kenny Marchant vs. Gary R. Page for the newly drawn (personally by Kenny, for his benefit, because he is DeLay's right hand man), 24th Congressional District. These are two winnable places and there are several more, we just need help. Financial is good, people is better. And yes, it appears we here in Texas are getting practically no help in a national way. Texas does appear to have been written off. WHY? We can do better and just a few short years ago this state was very Democratic and as crazy as Perot was, we "Texans" played a large role when he ran. We can TAKE IT BACK!

Our primary goal this year is defeating Bush. To say that Texans should not contribute to this goal is irresponsible.

I have been liking him very much since he came on as chairman, and I agree wholeheartedly with what he says.

You gotta feed the base to water the top. Too many good long-time Dems really want to see us go back to being a Dem state and are working our butts off to get there. Democracy begins at home.

Don't forget Van Os!!! He will be the only Dem on the TX State Supreme Court and we DESPERATELY need him.