As the 2010 elections rapidly approach, we all become aware of how important they are and how much is at stake. Hidalgo County plays a very significant part in how the story unfolds for both the State and the Nation. Our organization, the HCTDW, can be a very important part in determining what happens in Hidalgo County. Because of this, it is important to get clear on what role our club wants to play and to prepare for that in the best ways that we can as an organization and as individuals.

Rosalie Weisfeld and Leslie Gower have been working very closely with Dolly Elizondo (Chair of the Demo Party). Rosalie is also State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) woman for the 4 counties in South Texas and is Vice Chair of the Hidalgo County Demo Party (HCDP). Leslie is on the HCDP Executive Board and is chair of the HCDP Elections Committee. In these capacities, Rosalie, Dolly, and Leslie have been doing a great deal of training in preparation of the March Primaries.

Leslie Gower, Boyd Richie (Texas State Democratic Party Chair), Rosalie Weisfeld, Dolly Elizondo

Dolly Elizondo, Bob Schieffer - Democratic Candidate for Gov of Texas, Rosalie Weisfeld, Leslie Gower, Ms. Schieffer (Bob's wife)

Rosalie Weisfeld, Bill White – Candidate for US Senate, Leslie Gower, Gary Mauro – former Land Commissioner of Texas

We went to San Antonio last weekend for training on how to prepare for a Primary. This year, the Democratic Party is going to do more of the conduction and oversight of the Democratic Primary (instead of contracting it out to the Hidalgo County Elections Administration.) This is our party's primary and we want to make sure that its done right and done fair.

The next big project is finding precinct chairs for the precincts that do not have one - there are many which don't. The Precinct chair is the primary organizer for the precinct. Our goal is to both canvas and GOTV in an almost 'surgical' manner - much like what Obama and Hillary did and much like the highly technological methods of the very successful Annie's List and Emily's List. We have done a great deal of training on the VAN - the State Democratic Party Voter Data base. This is an amazing data base. The first goal between now and Jan, is to canvas voters in a precinct that are not identified as 'hard democrats' - those that are either unknown or 'soft'. The VAN identifies exactly who these people are in each precinct and can arrange it by walk lists - names of people by house next to house or by phone lists.

In December, it switches to just pulling out the strong Democrats in each precinct - what is called the 'Double D's' – targeting all persons who voted in the last three democratic primaries or in the last 4 General elections - whatever criteria you define. This is what the precinct chair does - with the help of the VAN. The plan of the Democratic party and the grassroots democratic organizations is to do it very differently this time. And the HCTDW play a big part in this.

In the near future, we will be sending out a list of all the precincts that do not have a precinct chair in an effort to find precinct chairs to fill those vacancies. It is recommended that the Precinct chairs NOT serve as Election Judge as they will need to be overseeing and leading the GOTV efforts in their precincts.

We will be doing a lot of training on this and will help each precinct chair find a team in their precinct to organize and implement their GOTV efforts and make sure these VERY solid democratic voters identified by the VAN make it to the polls.

The 2010 Elections are very important. The turnout of each Senatorial District determines how many delegates each District gets for candidates to the State Convention. Last year, though we had a very high turnout out for Hillary, we did not have the same delegate strength per vote because we did not turn out in very high numbers in the previous gubernatorial election.

This election also affects redistricting and where the lines are drawn - so its VERY important to get Democrats in the Legislature. In reference to that, we currently have one House District that is open and two Democrats have already announced their candidacy. This is District 36 - which is a big part of Pharr and then runs up the Southern edge of the County over to La Joya and then north past Monte Cristo Rd. The two candidates that have announced are Sandra Rodriguez – who ran two years ago against Kino Flores – a 20 year incumbent, and only lost by 900 votes and Sergio Munoz, Jr – an attorney from Palmview with who has many years of professional and community service in his district.

We also have our members Rose Reyna running for District Judge, Justice Linda Yanez is up again for Court of Appeals, Alma Garza and Rene Guerra are running for District Attorney, Juan Partida for District Judge, Laura Hinojosa for District Clerk, and Norma Garcia for County Treasurer - so our members are already out there. There is also a possible contested race for County Judge – JD Salinas and Ramon Garcia. We want to look more closely at the other Judicial races coming up and start looking for good women candidates to run - there are several new courts opening next year.

So as you can see, we have LOTS to do. The HCTDW budget that was approved earmarks $10,000 for GOTV efforts next year. Instead of giving to candidates, we are going to really focus on the above described GOTV plan - the surgical, highly technological grassroot method of turning out the solid Democratic voters. Its about time that Hidalgo County caught up with the rest of the state and the nation.

So come to the meetings, do as much of the training as you can, and help us get organized for the upcoming elections. We are trying to get an office to share with the other Grassroots Democratic Clubs so that we have a place to train and strategize and get out the vote with tables, chairs, white boards, projector for power point trainings, etc. We are also just unveiling an amazing web page redesign with the other Demo Clubs that is very 'cutting edge' and easy to use - to have as a tool to help communicate and activate all the members of these democratic organizations quickly as part of the technological approach to the upcoming elections. Many many exciting things already happening and yet to come.

We have been diligently working to increase our membership throughout this past year. As of today, we have 130 members. We want to build our membership base up now so that we can be trained and organized and 'in the groove' for the campaigns. Therefore, if you or someone you know are interested in joining, there is a link to an application on this website. We now are set up with ActBlue so you can join directly through the website application or you can download it and mail your membership dues to our PO Box: P.O. Box 2543 McAllen, Tx 78502

Join us and be a part of something really exciting. Get ready to TURN TEXAS BLUE in 2010!