Local Democrats Elect New
Leaders
Harold Holmes to Chair
At the November 20 meeting, District 6 Democrats elected a new
slate of officers. Harold Holmes (picture above) was elected to
serve as Chair. Harold has been involved in District 6 politics
since 2004 and currently serves as a Vice Chair of the State
Democratic Party as well as the Chair of the African American
Caucus.
Other offcers elected were:
Bill Engler: Ist Vice Chair
Kathleen O'Brien: 2nd Vice Chair
Richard Maze: Treasurer
Andrew Baker: Secretary
Eleven precinct committee persons were elected to represent our
District at the State Committee. They are:
Harold Holmes
Bill Engler
Kathleen O'Brien
Richard Maze
Andrew Baker
Jim Larson
Genevieve Vega
Jason Barraza
Michele Holden
Jack Yardley
Kathleen Yardley
- Jack Yardley
|
| Democrats Meet Statewide
Terry Goddard Addresses
Group
On November 22, the State Committee of the Arizona Democratic
Party met in Tucson. Attorney General Terry Goddard addressed the
group of several hundred Democrats and assessed the election
results. Although Arizona added one Democrat to our Congressional
delegation (Ann Kirkpatrick) we lost seats in the Arizona House
and Senate which already had Republican majorities.
With the loss of Governor Napolitano to the Obama
administration we are left with the Republican Secretary of
State assuming the office of Governor. That means the Republicans
will have the same degree of control over Arizona that the Democrats
will have over the nation.
All this should focus our attention on the 2010 elections when
we will have a chance to vote again for Governor as well as the
House and Senate seats. Mr. Goddard didn't mention if he
would be running for Arizona's top job but many in the hall
clearly were anticipating Goddard running for Governor.
-Jack Yardley |
Obama to Have
Meetings to Plan for Future Changes
Attend or Host a Meeting
Dec. 13 or Dec.14
On December 13th and 14th, supporters are coming together to
reflect on what we've accomplished and help plan the future of this
movement. To attend or host one of these meetings go to the Obama website.
If you live near Thunderbird Road, you might consider
contacting Michael Powell who is hosting a meeting on the 14th.
Michael can be contacted at powell14@cox.net or you can register to
attend his event on this web page.
- Jack Yardley
| |
Americans Fail Civic
Literacy Test
Take the Test
According to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 49% of
Americans failed a basic test of civic literacy with an average
score of 49%. College Educators did a little better at 55%.
Alarmingly, the more TV people watch the worse they do on the test.
40% think the president has the power to declare war.
I just took the test and got 87.88% missing 4 out of 33
questions. If you think you know more than I, you can take the
test yourself and read some of the other results at this website.
- Jack Yardley |
| PC
Profile
Meet Toni
D'Avello
Toni D'Avello became a Precinct
Committee Person during the George W. Bush -vs. - John Kerry battle
for the presidency. Since then she has been involved in many
local races helping to support the Democrats by getting out the
vote, participating in fund raisers and donating time to the
Democratic Headquarters as a computer input specialist. In
addition, she has been involved with the Maricopa County vote
auditing process, taking pride in overseeing Fair Elections.
She has been a realtor for the past 13 years and is a member of
the Phoenix Association of Realtors. She is an active
volunteer for Hospice of the Valley, Pet Connection Therapy and
Habitat for Humanity. Toni is devoted to her family and community.
What drives her to continue to work for the Party is that
the Democrats believe as she believes -- separate is never
equal. The Constitution of the United States of America starts out
with "We the People". Toni stands for EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL
PEOPLE.
-Collected by Sue
Enright-
|
District 6 Democrats Lag
Behind Republicans in PC Recruitment
More Help Needed
In our community, which we call Legislative District 6, not
only are we outnumbered by Republicans but the Republicans seem
to be better organized. The last election saw three very good local
Democratic candidates lose to Republicans some of whom were
very unqualified. To be fair, two of the Republicans were
incumbents which makes re-election easy.
Political parties depend on the workers
at the precinct level to get their candidates elected. These people
are called Precinct Committee (PC) Persons. PC's help candidates by
gathering signatures for pe-titions, collecting $5 Clean
Elections donations and educating voters. Each of the 67 precincts
in our District is allowed to have a certain number of PCs. To
become a PC for a party a candidate need only submit a petition with
about a dozen signatures. This puts that potential PC on the primary
ballot. Often this means an automatic election if there are not more
PC candidates than the number allotted to that
precinct.
So here's what happened in the last election-
PC wise in District 6. The 45,428 Republicans elected 156 PC"s while
the 28,556 Democrats elected only 34 PC's. These ratios mean that
for each 839 Democratic voters, there is one PC. For the Republicans
there is one PC for 291 Republican voters. Of the 67 precincts in
our District, we have PC's in only 21 precincts. You can see which
of our precincts are represented on the District 6 website
.
It seems clear that for us to do better in electing
Democrats we must do better in recruiting and electing PC's. If you
would like to help your local Democratic Party or would like more
information about becoming a PC contact us. If you
would like to become a PC before the next election you can be
appointed now.
-Jack Yardley | |
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know.