GREETINGS FELLOW DEMOCRATS!





Ray McMurrey

Candidate for U.S. Senate
Kickoff
TONIGHT!!!
Lincoln Center, College Station
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Be there or be square!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Maggie and Don on the Radio!

Wednesday, 6-7 p.m.
KEOS 89.1
Maggie Charleton and Don Mc Leroy on Science
Come sit in the audience





Thank you...

...to all the precinct chairs and visitors that came out to the Executive meeting. We had a newly naturalized citizen that was invited by Gerald Reiger, Prec. 30. This was the largest meeting we have had.





Block Walking

Watch on Thursday’s email for block walking info. Rather than do this multiple Saturdays we are going to do it on 2 and hope a lot of you show up. Get ready. !!!!





"Democrats need a tough candidate who won't hesitate to kick the Republicans in the balls"

Source: Huffington Post
By Karen Dalton-Beninato

Gulf Coast voters have an Edwards endorsement today from Levees Not War with the unambiguous headline, "Democrats need a tough candidate who won't hesitate to kick the Republicans in the balls." They say:

"It is not often we wish we lived in New Hampshire (nice place to visit), but we sorely wish we could be there on Tuesday to 'vote early and often' for John Edwards . . . It is not only that John Edwards had the good sense and correct priorities to launch his campaign for the presidency from New Orleans (take note, presidential debate site committee). And it's not just Edwards' plan to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq within 10 months--something his competitors haven't offered. We don't favor Edwards only because he alone has spoken consistently as a populist public defender against the 'iron grip' of corporate special interests on Washington. Nor is he our favorite merely because he has the best health care plan (Paul Krugman's praise sounds right to us).

We vote for John Edwards for all of these reasons, but especially because Democrats need a tough, combative lead candidate to whip the Republicans, who are vicious fighters in a presidential campaign--especially when they're desperate. Barack Obama is marvelous and would also be a good president, but we worry he doesn't have the aggressiveness to kick the Republican operatives in the balls, the way they always do to Democrats. In Nov. 2004 it was Edwards the courtroom attorney who wanted to challenge the Ohio vote counts before conceding, but John Kerry decided otherwise.

John Edwards has the optimism, the intelligence, and the gut-fire and bulldog tenacity to get the job done . . . He's also a realist. He knows the status quo won't give an inch without a struggle. About dealing with corporate interests such as the drug and oil and insurance companies, he says, "Some people argue that we're going to sit at a table with these people and they're going to voluntarily give their power away. I think it is a complete fantasy; it will never happen." We often say 'We Want Roosevelt Again.' We know we're not going to get Franklin Delano, but in John Edwards we see just about the closest thing to FDR we've seen in many years."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-daltonbeninato/nola...





From Dale Henry...

If you were at the banquet in September you got to meet and speak with Dale.

Dear Fellow Democrats,

With the Democratic Primary Campaign well underway, we wanted to take a moment to invite you to receive information and E-mail updates from the Dale Henry for Texas Railroad Commissioner Campaign <http://www.electdalehenry.com>.

To sign up to receive periodic e-mail updates from Dale's campaign, please click here <http://visitor.constantcontact.com/optin.jsp?v=001oo3wpvqi2l14sncsod93rwzwcpw43d5jo793rpe3fclmk5vlei_k5w%3d%3d>, or visit our website at ElectDaleHenry.com <http://www.electdalehenry.com> and use the handy sign-up form on the front page.

Dale Henry is the most qualified candidate in the race for Texas Railroad Commissioner. With more than four decades in the oilfield service industry, and experience as a city manager and County Commissioner, Dale is head and shoulders above the competition. Dale has already been endorsed by a number of progressive leaders including State Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston <http://electdalehenry.com/2008/01/02/state-representative-garnet-coleman-announces-endorsement-of-dale-henry-for-texas-railroad-commissioner/>.

We invite you to visit the campaign website and learn more about Dale--and sign up for our e-mail updates. You may also contribute to Dale's campaign securely using Act Blue <http://electdalehenry.com/contribute/>.

In Unity,

The Dale Henry for Texas Railroad Commissioner Campaign

Please Note: If you don't opt-in to to our email updates through the campaign website, this will be the only email you receive from the campaign! We want to make sure that everyone who is receiving our emails wants to receive them! Thanks.

Pd. Pol. Adv. By Dale Henry For Railroad Commissioner, Hank Gilbert, Treasurer, P.O. Box 200255-PMB 282, Austin, Texas 78720





COMMENTARY

Dreaming of Perry saying he's running for governor again
And ruminating on faith in politics at the start of the presidential election year.

By W. Gardner Selby
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, January 03, 2008

Swear to Dolph Briscoe, I had a dream.

I dreamed that at the Texas Capitol, I saw bright light edging from beneath a big door, and on the other side stood Gov. Rick Perry. He didn't high-tail it. Instead, he led me to a room with a table, and we visited. By and by, I asked if he was intending to finish as governor in 2010 and then maybe test life as a lobbyist.

"I'm running again," Perry said.

Do your dreams have pauses? This one did.

Four more years of Perry, my dream-thought went. Through 2014.

He'd smash his own pending record for gubernatorial longevity in Texas.

He really does love this job.

"Won't Dewhurst be disappointed?" I finally replied, a reference to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who's among possible gubernatorial aspirants.

"You mean DewChoke?" Perry asked.

The dream petered out without me learning why Perry was name- calling the Dew — or why he wanted to run a third time.

Speaking of visions: In the wake of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's December speech in College Station on religious faith and public service, I asked some statewide elected leaders (all of them are Republican) for their takes on religion and politics. I tossed in a call to Lance Armstrong, who seems a possible Democratic aspirant for governor. Armstrong has been quoted saying he has not taken to any organized religion.

The surprise: Nobody I reached told me to mind my own business, though I got no reply from Armstrong, who has said he believes it is possible to be a good person while not believing. "I think we all have obligations to be good, honest, hard-working, caring and compassionate," Armstrong told Alastair Campbell in 2004 for an article in UK Times Online. "I do not believe that because you are not prepared to submit yourself to a god or a higher being, that when you get to the end of the road, you will be sent down. I'm not prepared to believe that."

Responding to my inquiry, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said: "Just as our founding fathers' faith led them to form a free and independent nation, so should faith guide those who make decisions in positions of government today."

Attorney General Greg Abbott chimed: "Faith provides the moral compass that guides me each and every day. At the end of a long day, I seek refuge in my family and my faith. Merely knowing that I can turn to both for support and guidance gives me great comfort and, I hope, makes me a better attorney general."

Michael Williams, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, said that when leaders quote the Bible, it's "a way for us to share with others our faith, others we believe have the same sensibilities that we do, probably no different than at a Lincoln Day meeting quoting Lincoln or Ronald Reagan. All of us believe that our faith is essential to who we are, and essential to who we are as elected officials."

Republican voters could be sifting questions of faith as they consider Romney and candidates including Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor pitching himself as a Christian leader. U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, supports Romney, though Carter also told reporters he wants a "good Christian man" in the White House.

I asked Carter if he believes Mormons are Christians — a tender topic in some quarters. Carter said Romney's values and love of God are the same as his own. "We should work through the rest of it," he said.

Carter's wife, Erika, said: "I'm ashamed of Christians who don't want to shake (Romney's) hand. Then again, I have to respect what they believe."

That sounded even-keeled (downright Christian?) for the start of a presidential election year likely to test everyone's faith in the candidates.

wgselby@statesman.com, 445-3644





Brazos County Democratic Party
P.O. Box 4568
Bryan Texas 77805
979-779-5600 Fax 979-779-5601

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
Harry S. Truman, Democrat, President of the United States of America