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Joint Municipal Election
Saturday, May 6 from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
You may vote at any vote center below.
VC 102 First Baptist Church - Fellowship Hall, 1200 4th Street, Blanco
VC 201 Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 285 281 Loop, Johnson City
VC 302 Blanco County Courthouse Annex - Hoppe Room, 101 E. Cypress Street, Johnson City
VC 401 Blanco County South Annex, 402 Blanco Ave, Blanco
Call Blanco County Elections Department for assistance at 830-868-7168.
CEC Meeting
Tuesday, May 9 at 5:00 PM
Community Resource Center, 206 US-281, Johnson City
And via Zoom
General Meeting
Tuesday, May 9 at 6:00 PM
Community Resource Center, 206 US-281, Johnson City
And via Zoom
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Breaking News!
Blanco County Dems are elated to announce our illustrious new chair! After a 40-year, award-studded career in television journalism, the legendary Gloria Campos will take the helm and guide us through our next chapter. She brings with her scores of leadership experience as board chair of Texas State University’s Development Foundation and board member of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. She is a sought-after speaker and moderator, having led discussions with such notables as former First Lady Laura Bush, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, now First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Gloria Steinem, and many more. Gloria is both motivated and motivational; and we are honored to have her as the new chairperson of the Blanco County Democratic Party.
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From the Chair:
The Road Ahead
Greetings fellow Blanco County Democrats! Although I’m still getting my feet wet, I wanted to give you an idea of our upcoming meeting agenda and how we might proceed going forward.
Our primary goal is to get Democrats to the polls and get independent voters to vote with us. You’ve heard pundits say, “When Democrats vote, Democrats WIN.” We face an uphill climb in our county, but we are in it for the long haul. I’m so fortunate that we already have a strong, dedicated team thanks to our outgoing chair, Terry Casparis. We may try a few different things in the future to increase our local visibility through more community participation. With Terry’s help Blanco County Dems applied for a $2,000 grant that could help us in that regard. We are awaiting notification.
We have some immediate needs that must be addressed. We need two precinct chairs (102 and 303), a volunteer database manager, and we definitely need a vice chair. I would also like to create a signature annual fundraising event around President’s Day. Hey, we are in LBJ territory after all! We’ve had some preliminary discussion about that. Last year’s wine and chocolate cheesecake campaign was a big hit, but it put a heavy burden on our event chair, Kevin Voelker, and the tireless Suzanne Perkins.
I recently attended a regional meeting of the Hill Country Democratic Coalition, comprised of thirteen party chairs, and came away with ideas that I am eager to share with you. Of course, we would love more volunteers in many areas. I’ve heard from several people about “silent Democrats” who don’t want to call attention to themselves because of possible backlash or worse from local GOP. I certainly understand that, but there are many ways to engage including becoming a sustaining member with a monthly donation to Blanco County Dems. It doesn’t have to be a large contribution—small gifts do add up. We’ve seen some drop off since the last election, so please help if you can so we can keep up the good fight.
Finally, I want to say many thanks to our faithful interim chair, Maggie Goodman. Her help and leadership have been invaluable and, hopefully, she will continue to be a vital ally to me and Blanco County Dems. We are so fortunate to have her on our team!
I’ve only called Blanco County home for about five years so I ask for your support, help, and, most of all, your patience as I navigate through uncharted waters for me as your new Blanco County Democratic Party Chair. As a product of the ‘60s, I still believe in Dr. King’s dream. I strongly believe the GOP is clearly on the wrong path and out of touch with most Texans. We must keep our eye on the prize because as Democrats we are more inclusive, compassionate, and ready to help ALL Texans.
– Gloria Campos
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Interim Chair Report: Let Your Passion Take Action
Let me say what a pleasure it has been to be the interim chair of the Blanco County Democrats and how excited I am that Gloria Campos has accepted the chair position. There is much work ahead to recover from Republicans’ hateful rhetoric, and we all need to help Gloria in this challenge. At the March meeting, we brainstormed about projects that show Democrats share our community’s concerns, bring us together, and get more blue voters. I know we can’t do all the great ideas discussed, but if several people organized the same project, we could make a start. Here are the ideas:
- Write chamber newsletter and newspaper articles including volunteer of the month
- Work on community water issues with groups like LCRA and Hill Country Alliance
- Help with the community garden at Blanco Middle School
- Educate children with environmental activities at Market Days or at an after-school program
- Have speakers at our meetings to discuss community topics, e.g., the Blanco mayor to talk about the 2024 solar eclipse plans
- Encourage teens to volunteer (or possibly get paid) to participate in these activities
If you have other ideas or want to take action on one of these projects, please email me at maggiegoodman13@gmail.com. Join me in letting your passion take action. Thank you.
– Maggie Goodman
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Database Manager Needed!
We need a volunteer to manage the Blanco County Democrats’ VAN (Voter Activation Network) database by providing reports to precinct chairs and updating records with provided information. Work with BCD chair, CEC, precinct chairs, and budget committee. The Texas Democratic Party provides year-round training by Zoom, online recorded lessons, and personal instruction from the TDP IT department. The BCD database manager job can be done any time of day.
The Texas Democratic Party maintains this robust online voter VAN database for Democrats which organizes voter and volunteer information to ensure we target the right voters to get them to the polls. Campaigns run more efficiently and effectively when we track projects and successes. We use the VAN to create targeted contact lists for specific areas, issues, ages, and voting records to be used for phone banking, block walking, and mailings.
During a campaign year, several reports are necessary for canvassing voters. Timely updates in the VAN are imperative so we can engage with those who wish to get involved with BCD, reach voters using correct contact information, and note those who vote with a different party or do not want to be contacted.
If interested in serving in this important role, please contact Suzanne Perkins at 830-385-1645.
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The Great Rollback
Conservatism historically has been seen as defending the status quo and resisting change. An offshoot from the main core of conservatism has been the tendency to try and rollback changes that have occurred. There is even a word that describes such activities: revanchism which Webster’s defines as: revenge. especially: a usually political policy designed to recover lost territory or status.
The U.S. is presently experiencing a revanchism eruption with particular efforts to rollback progress in law, medicine, public education, statutory legislation, civil and human rights, and government regulations. Just how far into the past does this latest outbreak of revanchism want to take us?
There are literally dozens of examples we could cite but let’s limit ourselves to three.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v Wade, ruled that women had a constitutional right to access the full range of reproductive healthcare, including abortion services. States, including Texas from which Roe arose, were barred from banning or significantly limiting access to abortion. But in June 2022, SCOTUS reversed Roe in a 6-3 decision. This was the first time in U.S. history a constitutional right was removed or nullified. In an instant half of our population was stripped of a constitutional protection and there was a rollback of 49 years of settled law.
In 2023 a federal district court judge in Amarillo ruled, contrary to the truth, that mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions and miscarriages, had not been properly approved by the FDA. Thus, he attempted to roll us back to 2000. In an effort to prevent the use of the drug anywhere in the U.S., the judge referred to the widely discredited and dismissed Comstock Act of 1873, which barred the mailing of certain items.
Today many Republican controlled states are experiencing repression, restrictions, and revanchism across areas such as voting rights, reproductive healthcare, public libraries books, public school curriculum, child labor laws, LGBTQ rights, and local control (Home Rule.) The Republican-dominated Texas legislature, goaded by Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick, is attempting to pass legislation that would effectively gut Home Rule for Texas cities. That would roll us back more than 111 years. Texas adopted Home Rule for cities with more than 5,000 population in 1912. By putting decision making for cities in the hands of the State, Republicans are now abandoning their long–time position that local control best serves Texans because big cities have moved in a more moderate to liberal direction.
It seems clear to me that the Republican Party and its constituent elements such as white nationalism; fundamental religions; and anti-government, anti-science, anti-public education factions have realized: They need to aggressively try to rollback what they view as the progressive advances before losing all power to do so. They understand the U.S. is rapidly becoming more demographically diverse, that manipulating the flaws in our laws and Constitution (think Electoral College and partisan gerrymandering) to gain control despite their minority status cannot last forever, that younger voters are leaning away from them, and that polling reveals just how unpopular most of their major policy positions actually are.
If we want America to continue as a beacon to the world, if we want to halt being dragged back to the days in which women and medical practitioners could be arrested for abortions, when young children could be made to labor in coal mines, when minorities were routinely denied the right to vote, we must resist everywhere this revanchism is being aggressively pushed.
– John Watson
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