An update on the Maxey/Richie/Jones election

[johncoby2]

At a partial SD meeting last night, it was said that they are expecting a very CLOSE race for chair which will make the convention very exciting. (for once)

Also at the 3:00 SD caucuses on Friday, we will be asked to poll the delegates. For what I don't know, but if you are in my district, you have got to wonder what the pro-Richie crowd is doing. They claim they do not know what is going on, but then again all they have to do is pick up the phone and make a call.

Many of us will not participate in this straw poll if this is what is being done.

[redqueen]

1. What's bad about taking a straw poll? n/t

[johncoby2]

2. In my SD there is LOTS to be worried about.

I guess I am paranoid and for good reason.

It is a way to intimidate people. And in my SD it works real well, especially for the new people.

What gets me is that our leadership is saying "We dont know why or what is happening".

WELL?!?!?!?! You ARE the leadership. Why the HELL dont you know? Buy a damn cell phone and make a damn phone call. Stuff like this makes me wonder.

[redqueen]

3. Oh I think I see...

the people voting for the underdog might be intimidated into changing their votes, you mean?

[johncoby2]

4. Yes. The straw poll could be used for intimidation tactics

I can hear it now:

"We need to be united"
"We need a united front" (used that one last night)
"We have to unite for the one that can win"

Mark my words. They will take a straw vote then start the intimidation.

damn......I need to get another hobby.

[redqueen]

5. Yeah...

they did that at the senatorial district convention I attended in 04. And yes I did feel pretty intimidated (was voting for Kucinich).

[CoolOnion]

8. I got attitude for being a Kucinich delegate

"You're voting with the party, aren't you?" people asked. I--a newbie--had to 'splain it to the old timers that there AIN'T no party nominee until the national convention. Until then, it's up to us--not the media--to campaign for the candidates we like.

Remember when Kucinich spoke at the convention? Everyone around me was all like, "Wow! He's great!" And I said, "That's what I've been trying to tell you people!" :banghead:

[sonias]

6. Glen Maxey sent this out to his list

Policies and Procedures at the Convention
You may be wondering how the vote for TDP Chair will actually occur. It’s a good question; there has not been a contested election for Chair in two and a half decades. The rules are largely silent on good chunks of the process and procedures for voting, but here are some facts.

The election for Texas Democratic Party Chair will be on Saturday, June 10th in Fort Worth after the convention reconvenes at 11:00 am.

On Friday, each Senate District caucus will elect a member to the Nominations Committee. This committee will meet at 8:00 am, Saturday. The committee issues a report with recommendations of names for Party Officers. The committee can issue a majority report and as many minority reports as the committee members allow. The Nominations Committee can also choose to “not recommend” in a race and leave that decision to the delegates.

The convention comes back into session at 11:00 am. At some point following, the Nominations Committee report will be presented. Then, either minority reports will be entertained or nominations will be open from the floor, and all candidates will be placed into nomination.

The Rules of the Texas Democratic Party require that the vote for the office of Chair must be by one of two methods: a signed written ballot or by a roll call vote (roll call in this instance simply means a hard count of votes present, such as counting and recording of the vote).

Every delegate present casts their personal vote for the candidate of their choice.

After the "raw votes" are counted, whoever counts the ballots (which is not specified by the rules and still must be determined), then allocates the votes for each county and then for each Senate District to the full voting strength of the counties and districts.

Example: If a county has 100 votes and there are 20 people present, the vote might by 10 for Maxey, 5 for Richie, 4 for Jones, and 1 for Rogers. That is the reported vote.

Those counting would then allocate that vote for the roll call as 50 Maxey, 25 Richie, 20 Jones, and 5 Rogers.

If the SD has multiple counties, after all the counties PRESENT have done this process, then the percentages for each candidate in the entire SD is applied to any county votes where there are NO delegates present. This process is required by state law.

The rules say a majority vote is required. The rules are silent as to whether, in the instance no candidate receives a majority of the first vote, there is a run-off between the two highest vote getters, or whether the lowest vote getter is dropped from the next round of balloting. (This will also be decided before the vote).

Please share your thoughts on how the voting should occur and be counted. All input is valued and appreciated.

You can see the Rules of the Party at http://www.txdemocrats.org/files/Rules2006.pdf

There is no rule or procedure for whether there will be nominating speeches or speeches by the candidates. This, too, should be determined before Saturday

Sonia

[muse]

7. And, for the second time, my email from him is addressed to

Dear James. I am not James. I thought Glen had a handle on email technologies. Glen, if you are reading this, you have a problem with your email list. It may not be just me.

[nick_DFT]

9. hey muse

i mentioned this to the maxey campaign and they said that they pull the list provided by the tdp...so whatever first name is with whatever email address is what it goes to, directly imported into the email from that list...on my emails, it is correct...but curious anyway.

if you want, send an email to [e-mail] to get your name switched. sorry for the inconvenience.

[johncoby2]

11. Muse is picky. Picky. Picky.

:-)

[muse]

31. You think you know me so well, John. :)

I have this all straightened out. A nice man, David Holmes from the Democratic National Committee, Texas, went to the trouble to search through those emails by hand to find an email that didn't match up with "James" and emailed me and asked if I was the one posting on DU with all of the trouble. So, he has that changed for me. He said it was entered into the database incorrectly from when I put my email on a sheet at my SD convention. He said I'm not the only one.

[PDittie]

10. PPC Survey of Convention Delegates

In the 2004 and 2006 surveys, the results are “directional” and are not statistically projectable with respect to the base of delegates as a whole on how they feel about issues. This data only represents the views of those choosing to respond because the respondents were not random and were entirely self-selecting; however, these results are useful in studying the potential impact of these 509 delegates, assuming they are able to attend the 2006 TDP State Convention.

* Total 2006 responses (509) represent 16% of those surveyed (3,121); a slightly smaller response level than 2004 likely due to a more stringent process to respond online.
* 2006 delegate responses show approximately twice the number of supporters for non-Kerry 2004 primary candidates with Dean, Edwards, Clark and Kucinich primary supporters most prevalent. The 2004 survey respondents favored Kerry by a factor of 70%.
* 90% of 2006 survey respondents self-identified as progressives or liberals, which is roughly comparable to 2004 survey respondents.
* 81% of 2006 respondents said the Party needs “dramatic reform”; this compares to 66% among 2004 respondents. 18% felt “minor adjustments” were needed to win, compared to 28% in 2004.
* Maxey was favored for Party Chair by 53% of respondents, followed by 32% undecided, 12% for Ritchie and 3% for Urbina Jones.

http://www.texaspopulists.com/node/1162

[crispini]

12. I think I will participate in the straw poll.

I don't care if people know who I'm voting for. I can take the shit, if they decide to give me any, and I think it's important for those who are undecided to see the support. However, I can totally appreciate those who choose not to participate.

[Morter Forker]

13. A real update...

will be coming shortly.

[PDittie]

15. Welcome, Morter

to DU :hi:

[Morter Forker]

14. Glen Maxey, Mark Littlefield, and Massive Voter Fraud...

Mark Littlefield is a political consultant based in Austin, Texas. He was the campaign manager for State Representative Patrick Rose but was recently “let go”. Mark Littlefield was mentored by Glen Maxey. He learned almost everything he knew from Glen Maxey. People consider Mark Littlefield to be Glen Maxey’s protégé. They are known to regularly collaborate together on campaigns.

What makes this important for the Texas Democratic Party race?

Mark Littlefield submitted, by one count, over 990 forged signatures to the Hays County Elections Office during a drive to get an Austin Community College campus built in San Marcos. The forged signatures and petition can be viewed at www.sanmarcosfirst.org . Mark Littlefield was paid more than $4,000 dollars to complete the petition legally. Unfortunately he is now under investigation by both the Attorney General’s office and the Hays County District Attorney’s office.

This should matter to you because the Texas State University College Democrats were given $400 to the organization to collect legitimate signatures, collecting over 800 signatures of students on the Texas State campus. They are not under investigation for the forgeries according to the District Attorney’s office. However Glen Maxey spins the petition controversy to blame these hard working and unpaid students in this Austin American Statesman Article: http://statesman.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=ACC+wants+to+pull+San+Marcos+annexation+from+May+13+ballot&expire=&urlID=17915804&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.statesman.com%2Fnews%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2Fstories%2Flocal%2F04%2F15accelection.html&partnerID=525

His exact quote for those who don’t want to read the article:

Glen Maxey, a former state representative and the political consultant who ran the petition-gathering effort that got two citizen-initiated charter amendments on the May 13 city ballot, said verifying signatures is very difficult.

While original signatures are required, they cannot be matched up with the voter registration database in the same way as name, address and birth date information.

"If someone is out there and decides they are going to do this, it's really hard for anybody supervising to find out," Maxey said. "One of the biggest things that I've ever told a client: You're always going to have some sloppiness in this. You try to fix it as much as possible, but you've got to make sure you have such a large surplus of signatures because anything could go wrong."

This quote is an attack and betrayal of the very Grassroots activist base that Glen Maxey claims he supports and backs. Why would Glen Maxey make an out of the blue comment to the Austin American Statesman, about an issue he is not connected with? That is a question the investigators apparently want answered now. I think I may have a guess at the answer though, it is the fact that Glen Maxey helped mentor Mark Littlefield and taught him how to run campaigns.

Maxey’s quote, the fact that Mark Littlefield contacted the former Texas State University College Democrats president to take part in the No Nonsense in November campaign last year… also run by Glen Maxey, and the fact that Littlefield gave the largest single donation to the No Nonsense in November campaign in this post November election financial report, in the amount of $2000 on page 12, all paint a disturbing picture of Glen Maxey’s links to Mark Littlefield. Potentially links which show what we may get if Glen Maxey is chair of the Party, a party run by possibly corrupt individuals who like to blame others when they themselves make massive, and potentially criminal, mistakes.

We can not let a culture of corruption infect the Texas Democratic Party like it has our Republican counterparts. Electing people like Glen Maxey to the state party chair position would make this a potential reality.

Included below are links to all the relevant sources about the fraudulent petition, and Glen Maxey’s links to Mark Littlefield. One of these links goes to pictures of a DFA grassroots training and rally event in 2004, at which Littlefield is shown and the next picture shows Glen Maxey’s voter database on the same projector screen Mark Littlefield is standing in front of. Also included are links to the Texas Ethics Commission filing for the No Nonsense in November Pac, which Glen Maxey was the treasurer of, as well as the ACC YES! Pac, which paid Mark Littlefield for the petition.

If you still do not believe how close Littlefield and Maxey are you just have to listen to Glen Maxey’s own mouth as he has referenced his work on the Patrick Rose campaign as proof he can win a race outside of Travis County. The same campaign Mark Littlefield was most recently the Campaign Manager for. It is also my belief that Patrick Rose had no knowledge of this petition fraud and acted correctly and promptly in his handling of his former campaign manager after this information came out.

http://txprod.ethics.state.tx.us/public/297233.pdf
http://txprod.ethics.state.tx.us/public/298389.pdf
http://www.redpeg.com/blogimages/dfagrassrootstrainingandrally/default.html
http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/articles/2006/05/01/news/news1.txt
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/15accelection.html
http://star.txstate.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1484
http://www.sanmarcosfirst.org/pages/news.htm

[PDittie]

16. I just got through reading this over at BOR

Karl-T sure doesn't like it very much ...

[Morter Forker]

17. Glad to be here...

ill be posting the truth from here on out on here as well as BOR.

[johncoby2]

18. But what is the truth?

[Morter Forker]

19. Well as it applies to this race...

Glen Maxey touched a steaming pile of horse shit down here in San Marcos, that no other consultant in a 100 mile radius would touch. Why he would all of the sudden give a quote in the Austin American Statesman, on the front page even, confuses the hell out of me. The fact that in that quote he fails to talk about how when running a petition drive it is standard practice to check for forgery before turning it in, but does talk about a lack of control over the people below him is very sad. Why someone who try to spin something onto the grassroots people is beyond me.

[johncoby2]

20. Hum.........tell us about yourself.

You only have 10 posts and then come on the DU-Texas board of self righteous righteousnish and blast a candidate who is running in just 3 days.

What is your motive?

[Morter Forker]

21. Ill be totally honest...

partly spite, partly righteousness. This information has not previously been brought to light. I think it needed to be seen by delegates going to the convention. Transparency should be a rule in how our party is ran. Information about candidates, good or bad, should be part of that. Also the fact that Maxey made a quote indicting the myself and others who have worked our ass off for dems in hays county and HD45.

[johncoby2]

22. OK. Tell us about yourself.

[Morter Forker]

23. What do you want to know?

I am a college student. Im politically active in Hays County. I am the President of the College Democrats at Texas State University. Im 5'11" and 3/4. Want to know my shoe size?

[WestHoustonDem]

24. Will we get to meet you at the convention? n/t

[Morter Forker]

25. Yes...

I will be there thursday night. I will be there with 5 other college dems from here at Texas State. I am in SD 25. I will also tell anyone this same story in person, and to Glen if he wants. He wanted me to call him last night in an email, but then threatened legal action at the end of it. I do not know why. He claimed I was slandering him when all of the things I posted are in the public domain.

[johncoby2]

26. Then you should call him. Especially if you are slandering him.

There is absolutely no excuse for not calling and discussing this. Absolutely no excuse, especially if he has asked you to call and discuss it.

If for whatever reason you are wrong, I would also sue the crap out of your butt if I was Glen, or anyone.

If there is a misunderstanding, then it will be resolved and you can either go on bashing him, or shut the hell up. But it wont happen unless you call.

Give him a call. I have his direct number if you would like it.

[Morter Forker]

27. ohh I have his number...

but you dont get this situation. I dont say he did commit voter fraud. All I posted was his links to someone who is under investigation for voter fraud. I didnt even say Littlefield committed it, just that he is under investigation with close links to Maxey. So why should I worry? Also everything I reference has proof from the public domain.

[johncoby2]

28. Oh. It all depends what you think "is" is.

What ever. Grow up.

[crispini]

29. Jesus Christ on a cracker.

So we're supposed to all get a big ol' case of the vapors because Glen Maxey ALLLEGEDLY KNOWS ('cause I don't take the word of anonymous people on the internet at face value) somebody who ALLEGEDLY committed voter fraud.

Oh, PUH LEESE.

In a possibly related subject, the amount of low-down political manuvering coming out of the Ritchie camp is positively making me sick to my stomach.

[merci_me]

30. I completely agree, crispini

In fact, I had planned to get to know Urbina-Jones and most likely vote for him on a first ballot and then switch to Maxey, IF he needed the votes on a second, to beat Richie. Boyd has since convinced me not to take chances. I'll be voting Maxey all the way.

[Melissa G]

32. I'm interested to see you in FW,I hope someone gives you a nice

long lecture before then about what is a good idea to post about someone who is generally well respected...Nasty insinuation is a Bad idea. I hope the DU mods are keeping an eye on you. Be sure and read the DU message board rules as Glen is a member here and if you keep this up you may not be.

I'm likely going Urbina-Jones. Maxey is my second choice..I see no slander about him in the public domain.. just under your screen name....