Not really, but it was certainly an unusual group for a conservative jolly guy to be invited. Think of all the lefty bloggers in Houston that you can. Quick. Now let me guess, I bet two or more of these names entered your mind: Charles Kuffner at Off the Kuff, Martha Griffin at musings, Stace Medillin at DosCentavos, Perry Dorrell at Brains and Eggs, David Ortez at David Ortez, or Neil Aquino at Texas Liberal. Now, are you getting the picture? (word of caution: clicking on those links could be hazardous to your mental health)
See, I happened to meet this nice young lady over the course of last summer’s health care town halls named Maureen Haver. Maureen is the Director of the Texans Together Education Fund and when I first met her she was running a health care town hall in north Houston which was supposed to feature Rep. Gene Green, but he was a no-show. I was pretty impressed with the way she handled the rowdy crowd (think John Faulk rounding everyone up and trying to get them to leave) and made it a point to talk to her at a couple of other town halls. I guess that made her realize that not all conservatives have horns and such. Most do but not me. Apparently no other conservative type blogger dared to be nice to her, so she decided to invite me to this luncheon to hear about the plans that Texans Together have for voter registration. Or maybe no other conservative blogger was brave enough. Who knows?
Since the venue was way cooler than most Republican held meetings (think Luby’s), I jumped at the chance to go. After all, Last Concert Café is way cool. Oh, and Houston Chronicle was also there! Cool venue, good food, famous columnist…There you go, now you know why I was cowering in the corner at lunch.
I have to be upfront and tell you that I’m not a fan of voter registration drives in general, especially if they are taxpayer funded. I figure if a person isn’t motivated enough to register, he/she doesn’t need to be deciding how to spend my money. But that’s just me; lots of folks think these drives are good. Heck, Cory often says that while he supports Voter ID type programs, he thinks they should be combined with easier registration and access to the polls. Who am I to argue with an award winning blogger? Hmm?
Okay, time to get to the meeting. I know, I know, but if I didn’t write all that other stuff, you wouldn’t have the complete picture!
First off, what is Houston Votes? Well, it is a voter outreach program of the Texans Together Education Fund. Way easier for you to click here and read Morgan Smith’s write up on the Texas Tribune website because it has detail and recorded interviews with the founder of the fund, Fred Lewis. I’ll give you a bunch of links at the bottom so you understand everything because frankly, if you’ve read this far, you are probably the type that wants to see more detail and I have it!
The big thing here is that the goal of Houston Votes is to register 100,000 new “historically disengaged” voters in Harris County and then turn out 50,000 of them in November. A heady goal, to be sure, but Mr. Lewis and Ms. Haver have put together a formidable organization. They have already registered 12,000 voters and they haven’t even had a kickoff event! How’s that for progress?
Obviously, the big question is, why? And for whom, as in, Dems or Repubs? As you can read on the Trib link above, Mr. Lewis is adamant that the why is simply because he thinks that people need to vote and participate in the civic part of life. Now, me being a skeptic and all would go, hmm. Then I would look up both Mr. Lewis’ contribution pattern and the activities of the Texans Together PAC and try to understand his angle. In fact, I did do exactly that and you can look for yourself by clicking here. After that, I would, in my mind, conclude that the probability is that he is doing this to help Democratic Party candidates. But that’s just me, I’m pretty cynical. You can draw your own conclusions.
So how is this group going to register 100,000 people in “historically disengaged” communities? Well, they have a very good plan, I think, let’s see what you think. First off, they have targeted 285 precincts in the county that exhibited both low registration and low turnout in the 2008 election cycle, using 10{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} below average as a sort of cutoff. In other words, let’s say that the average turnout countywide in 2008 was 62.8{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. It was. Now, let’s look through all of the county’s precincts and find those that turned out 52.8{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} or fewer. See how it works?
Okay, so that is the where but how? They have hired Sean Caddle to lead the drive. Mr. Caddle stated that he has worked nationwide in voter registration drives and in fact, he has. A quick Google search will verify that. Mr. Caddle made it a point to let us know that he was completely non-partisan and doesn’t work with candidates, only the overall effort. Well, a quick Google search, um, doesn’t quite verify that. In fact, Mr. Caddle has only worked with Democrats, has worked with candidates, and even ran to be Treasurer of the Colorado Young Dems. You see how being a cynic affects me? But again, that’s just me. He seems to know what he is doing and has a paid field staff to do it, which is the most important thing here. Like Mr. Lewis said, no one really knows who someone votes for.
So who are they going to register? Both men stressed four basic groups:
- Asian-Americans
- Hispanics
- Young people
- Low-income people
Again, the cynic in me says….well, you know. But then the cynic stops because you know what? Asian-Americans and Hispanics are, generally, conservative in nature. And I don’t have any trends to link to but I think that Asian-Americans tend to vote Republican. And young folks, well, a lot of them aren’t all starry-eyed and liberal, you know. So maybe, just maybe, I need to take Mr. Lewis at his word. Once again, you need to reach your own conclusion.
And the best way for you to do that is to go meet the folks at Houston Votes. They are having their kick-off meeting this week. Click here for the info. I’m going to try and make it just to see if I survive the trip.
Now for the extra fun part. Hey, you Tea Party peeps, listen up! This is an opportunity for you to meet some very nice people from what the media says is the other side. You and I know that isn’t true but the stereotype is what it is. Why not take the time to head over to the kick-off, introduce yourself, and see what you can do to help them register people? Hey, you never know. Mr. Caddle is looking for PAID workers. Um, hmm, you could find yourself getting paid for what you like to do! And maybe, just maybe, like me, some of your cynicism will fade away. Not all, maybe not even much, but maybe a little. And maybe, just maybe, the “other side” will see that you aren’t exactly what the media says you are. You never know.
Some links:
Fred Lewis’ handout on the Houston Votes Program
Fred Lewis’ handout on the Houston Votes Strategy
Map of Precincts Targeted by Houston Votes
Texas Tribune article by Morgan Smith
Houston Votes Page on Texans Together Website
Awesome project of Texans Together called Apartments as Communities – I’ll be doing a follow-up on this.
Some pics from the luncheon:
UPDATE: I’m not the only cynical one.
Kevin Whited at blogHOUSTON.net points out that all of the board members of Texans Together have Democratic Party ties.
UPDATE:Other blogger reports from the luncheon.
Neil Aquino at Texas Liberal: Houston Votes Looks To Register 100,000 Harris County Voters—This Is A Worthy Effort
Perry Dorrell at Brains and Eggs: Houston Votes
Stacy Medillin at Dos Centavos: Houston Votes: Democracy at its Best