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Tag: Democratic Party

  • Wendy Davis Seeks Campaign Funds Outside Texas

    Texas Democratic Senator Wendy Davis is seeking campaign funds outside the state to support her bid for governor, thus far raising over four times more out-of-state than her opponent, Republican Greg Abbott.

    “Texas is a huge state,” said national Democratic fundraiser Kristin Oblander. “The budgets for these races are immense, and the pressure for fundraising is huge.”

    Davis is smartly organizing campaign fundraisers in more liberal areas such as Hollywood and New York City where her platforms are far more likely to receive support and media attention. However, Davis has made a point to deflect questions about her out-of-state fundraising. “The vast majority of the donations have come from within our state. This is a race about Texas,” said Davis.

    Davis has received donations towards her campaign from every state (including Texas), out-of-state donations making up roughly 25 percent of her campaign funds. Abbott only sees 10 percent of aid coming from outside Texas, mostly receiving financial aid from traditionally conservative supporters in-state.

    “Republicans have such a strong base here in Texas,” said top Republican fundraiser Roy Bailey. “If you’re looking out of state, it just tells you there’s something fundamentally wrong with where you’re running.” That, or rich old white guys with deep pockets would like to continue being rich old white guys and thus donate to the other rich old white guy on the roster.

    Davis, who famously filibustered for over 12 hours last June to prevent the passing of a highly restrictive abortion bill, unsurprisingly has to seek donations elsewhere as her backers in Texas aren’t necessarily going to have deep pockets (think single moms, students, and minority voters). But that doesn’t mean she lacks support in-state. While she is currently polling behind Abbott, his seven percent lead is less than half of Rick Perry’s lead over his democratic opponent in the 2002 Texas gubernatorial election.

    Davis is known for her strong stance on education (which Texas could really, really use help with), a woman’s right to make decisions about her own bod, supporting the LGBT community, and strengthening the job market. Basically, decent human being stuff. Naturally, this doesn’t go over well with the conservative crowd.

    While some are taking the news that Davis abruptly changed campaign managers mid-campaign as a sign of doom, the fact that she has raised over $16 million (compared to Abbott’s $17 million) as a liberal (lady!) candidate in Texas is a hopeful sign. Who cares if she had to hit up Steven Spielberg to do it.

    Image via YouTube

  • John Edwards Returns To Court To Help 4-Year-Old

    Former vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, is back in court again, but this time he’ll be in the courtroom defending a 4-year old Virginia boy who suffered a slew of injuries while being treated at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in 2009.

    Along with three other attorneys, Edwards will be representing the boy’s parents as well as his legal guardians in a malpractice case, and this comes on the heels of the former senator opening up a new law firm in late 2013.

    According to the defendants’ lawyers, the hospital had no responsibility in causing the 4-year-old physical harm when he was moved from Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, N.C. to Pitt Memorial in Greenville, N.C.

    Among other injuries sustained while being at the hospital, the 4-year-old still suffers from brain damage.

    In a recent statement, Edwards said Robert Zaytoun, the head lawyer on the case, did a wonderful job of pulling together a legal team, and he and the rest of the attorneys will do all they can until justice is reached for the family.

    “This is a case about a little boy that was hurt very badly,” said Edwards. “Robert Zaytoun has assembled an outstanding legal team that I am excited to b a part of, and we are going to do everything possible to see that this family gets justice.”

    If you remember, before there was Barack Obama there was John Edwards, in terms of being the rising golden child of the Democratic Party. Between his legal background, his successful senate run, and his everyday-down-to-earth-charm, there was no doubt Edwards was on his way to being a major force within his party for many years to come.

    Of course that all changed when his affair with Rielle Hunter surfaced, and Edwards got into even deeper water when he was accused of using political funds to hide the affair in 2012.

    It’ll be interesting to see if helping this Virginia boy will put the once political hopeful back on good terms with the public.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Cory Booker Wins Race to Become Senator

    Cory Booker Wins Race to Become Senator

    He did it! Cory Booker has succeeded in defeating Republican, Steve Lonegan, in becoming the senator-elect of the state of New Jersey for the Democratic party. Booker, 44, reportedly won with over 55 percent of the vote. The Associated Press was the first to name Booker the victor with the overwhelming majority of votes.

    This day marks a historic feat for Booker, because as ABC news stated, “Booker is not only the first African-American U.S. senator from New Jersey, he is the first African-American to be nominated by a major party for a statewide office in New Jersey.”

    Booker, who has become a sort of celebrity, served for 7 years as the mayor of Newark. In this position, he gained a lot of praise and speculation. Controversy took center stage when Mark Zuckerberg made a pledge to the Newark mayor to donate $100 million dollars (from Zuckerberg’s personal fortune) to the Newark School District. Booker has also been the target of ongoing questioning regarding his “single” status and possible homosexuality.

    Booker who is fairly outspoken and has been appreciated for his ability to be frank and honest, shared with the Washington Post, ““…People who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, ‘So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight.’ ”

    Booker could easily be dubbed a champion for the people due to the amount of support he’s received. Booker has rounded up over $11 million in campaign funds, makes regular visits to television networks and daytime talk shows and has the support of Hollywood heavyweights, such as Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.

    Socially and arguably more importantly, it’s no secret that Booker is extremely active on social media with over 1.4 million Twitter followers. Booker is also following more than 75,000 people on the social networking site. His popularity among the general public reaches well beyond the Garden State and may have contributed largely to his victory today. It was reported that many of the donations towards his campaign as senator came from several out-of-state patrons.

    One of Booker’s biggest supporters was President Obama who released a video message showing his support and urging voters to elect the Democratic candidate. His relationship with the president links back to when President Obama offered Booker a leadership position in the White House Office of Urban Affairs. Booker turned the position down citing his commitment to Newark, New Jersey.

    Image credit: Twitter.com.

  • Pelosi Chief of Staff Announced to be Nadeam Elshami

    Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi today named Nadeam Elshami as her new chief of staff. Her former chief of staff, John Lawrence, has stepped down after eight years in the position.

    “On behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank John Lawrence for his 38 years of service to the House of Representatives,” said Pelosi. “Few staff members have ever had the impact that John has had on so many laws that have been enacted in his years in my office as speaker and as democratic leader, and with Chairman George Miller. I wish John and Deborah well and will always value their friendship.”

    Elshami currently serves as communications director for Pelosi. In the past he has served as a deputy communications director for Senator Dick Durbin and deputy chief of staff and communications for congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. He was also once the deputy press secretary for Senator Barbara Boxer, after beginning his career in congress in the Senate mailroom.

    “For the past six years, Nadeam has been a key communications strategist, spokesperson and senior advisor,” said Leader Pelosi. “I know my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus will benefit from his leadership as he transitions to Chief of Staff.”

    Drew Hammill, currently deputy communications director and press secretary for Pelosi, will be taking over Elshami’s role as communications director. In addition, Pelosi announced that Diane Dewhirst, a senior advisor to the Democratic leader, has been promoted to the role of deputy chief of staff.

  • George McGovern Dies at 90, 1972 Presidential Nominee

    This past Sunday, we lost a great politician extraordinaire, who will be sadly missed because of his ardent political passions, his idealism, and his fervent love for his country. Additionally, he is remembered as a historian, university professor, scholar of political science, and as a consummate liberal politician.

    Senator McGovern was born in 1922 in South Dakota (the son of a Methodist minister) and was educated at Dakota Wesleyan University, B.A., 1945 (interrupting his college education to serve in the U.S. military after Pearl Harbor was bombed); Northwestern University, M.A., 1949; and Northwestern University, Ph.D., 1953. He served the US Army in World War II as a 1st Lieutenant, flying a B-24 in 35 combat missions over Europe and was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross. McGovern authored a number of articles and books, including The Third Freedom, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the World Food Prize, and the Air Medal.

    McGovern is best remembered as the special assistant to the President as director of the Food for Peace Program (1961), his election to the US Senate for three terms (1962 – 1978), and serving on Senate committees concerning agriculture, nutrition, forestry, foreign relations, and the Joint Economic Committee. In 1972, Senator McGovern was selected as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the US presidential campaign on the platform to end the unpopular war in Vietnam. Following his defeat in that election, McGovern subsequently served as the United Nations Global Ambassador to obliterating world hunger.

    Senator McGovern was hospitalized for various reasons since a fall last December, and he passed away peacefully on Sunday morning, October 20th, 2012, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at the age of 90. Tributes are flooding in for this beloved senior statesman via Twitter (shown below), and he is remembered by a number of current politicians and historians as the person who was ultimately responsible for their own passion for political service.





  • DNC Livestream on YouTube Blocked, Marked Private [UPDATED]

    DNC Livestream on YouTube Blocked, Marked Private [UPDATED]

    UPDATE: Videos from the convention are appearing on the DNC’s official channel. YouTube says that there was no copyright violation and that it was simply an incorrect error message that users saw on Tuesday night. Here’s their statement:

    “After Tuesday’s live stream ended, YouTube briefly showed an incorrect error message on the page hosting the completed live stream instead of the standard “This event is complete” message. There was no copyright violation on the video and neither the live stream nor any of the channel’s videos were affected.”

    YouTube has made a big deal out of the fact that they are one of the best places to go this year for campaign coverage. Whether that be behind-the-scenes videos, news reports, short features, debate coverage, or live streaming of the conventions – YouTube’s new Elections Hub has the American voters covered.

    Well, except when things fail to go according to plan.

    Viewers who attempted to access YouTube’s livestream of the Democratic National Convention late last night were unable to do so. Shortly after First Lady Michelle Obama completed her speech, the archived recording of the event went black.

    Actually, here’s the message that users received:

    This video contains content from WMG, SME, Associated Press (AP), UMG, Dow Jones, New York Times Digital, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), Warner Chappell, UMPG Publishing and EMI Music Publishing, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

    Blocked for copyright purposes. Say what?

    YouTube told GigaOM that it wasn’t their fault.

    “After tonight’s live stream ended, YouTube briefly showed an incorrect error message. Neither the live stream nor any of the channel’s videos were affected,” they said.

    But many took to Twitter to lament the blocked video. Now, when you try to access the video it is marked as private. If this really isn’t a copyright problem and simply an error, it shouldn’t take those responsible very long to fix this and make the video public again.

  • Democratic Party Platform Touches on Internet Freedom

    Democratic Party Platform Touches on Internet Freedom

    On the eve of the kickoff of their 2012 National Convention, the Democrats released their official party platform. And just like the Republicans did in their official platform, they’ve included a small segment concerning “Internet Freedom.”

    It looks like the three main tenets of the Democrats’ internet strategy concern unfettered information flow, IP protection, and privacy. Here’s what they have to say about Internet Freedom, as a subsection in the “Advancing Universal Values” platform:

    The Obama administration has led the world to recognize and defend Internet freedom – the freedom of expression, assembly, and association online for people everywhere – through coalitions of countries and by empowering individuals with innovative technologies. The administration has built partnerships to support an Internet that is secure and reliable and that is respectful of U.S. intellectual property, free flow of information, and privacy. To preserve the Internet as a platform for commerce, debate, learning, and innovation in the 21st century, we successfully negotiated international Internet policymaking principles, support the current multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, and oppose the extension of intergovernmental controls over the Internet.

    Earlier in the platform, the party highlights what they feel are examples of the Obama administration’s efforts to protect user privacy – the launch of the Internet Privacy Bill of Rights and the encouragement of Do Not Track options. They also tout the President’s commitment to giving most of the country access to high-speed, secure, and reliable internet:

    “President Obama has committed to ensuring that 98 percent of the country has access to high-speed wireless broadband Internet access. We are finding innovative ways to free up wireless spectrum and are building a state-of-the-art nationwide, interoperable, public safety network. President Obama is strongly committed to protecting an open Internet that fosters investment, innovation, creativity, consumer choice, and free speech, unfettered by censorship or undue violations of privacy,” they say.

    Of course, the “protection of IP” part of the platform is likely to receive a mixed response from internet activists. The platform states that the administration is “vigorously protecting U.S. intellectual property,” but maintains that they are doing so in a way that also supports the free flow of information.

    This marks the first time in our nation’s history that both major parties have included language in support of internet freedom in their official platforms. Here’s what the Republicans had to say last week:

    The Internet has unleashed innovation, enabled growth, and inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological advance inhuman history. Its independence is its power. The Internet offers a communications system uniquely free from government intervention. We will remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new and disruptive technologies such as mobile delivery of voice video data [sic] as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem.

    We will resist any effort to shift control away from the successful multi-stakeholder approach of Internet governance and toward governance by international or other intergovernmental organizations. We will ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach and that individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties; the only way to safeguard or improve these systems is through the private sector.

    As you can see, the parties’ stances on internet freedom accurately reflect their core party philosophies. While the Democrats talk about government stepping in to protect user privacy, the Republicans emphasize the removal of regulations and protection from “governmental overreach.”

  • Democrats More Likely to Use Facebook for Political Purposes

    There are plenty of issues that separate the Democratic and Republican parties – abortion rights, taxes, and marriage equality, just to name a few. But there’s apparently another arena where the two parties differ – social media. According to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Democrats are much more likely to use social networking sites like Facebook for political purposes.

    This includes things like debating political issues with other people. 32% of Democrats said that social networks are at least somewhat important for that activity, compared with only 24% of Republicans and 23% of Independents. Democrats also think that social networking sites are important for keeping up with political news by a margin of 48% to 34% over Republicans.

    Democrats, over Republicans, also think social media is a good tool for recruiting people to get involved with issues, and finding people that are likeminded politically.

    For Democrats, social media also spurs involvement:

    “Democrats and liberals who use social networking sites are more likely than others to say their activities on the sites have led them to become more active: 33% of SNS-using Democrats say this, compared with 24% of both SNS-using Republicans and SNS-using independents. Some 39% of SNS-using liberals say their use of the sites has gotten them more involved in an issue, compared with 24% of SNS-using conservatives and 21% of SNS-using moderates.” says Pew.

    Liberals, in general, are just more likely to use social media like Facebook and Twitter. 74% of internet-using liberals use social networking sites. Only 60% of internet-using conservatives do. Pew says that no statistical difference existed when you compare “Democrats” and “Republicans,” as opposed to “Liberals” and “Conservatives.”

    When you look at the entirety of social media users, only 16% say that they have changed some aspect of their political views due to social media activity. 25% say that it has made them more involved in politics, and only 9% say it has made them less involved.

    No matter who you are and what your party affiliation is, it might be a good idea to at least filter your political comments just a little bit. 18% of respondents admitted to blocking, hiding, or unfriending someone based on a political post. But on the other hand, 16% said they have followed or friended someone specifically because of a political post.

  • Democratic National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube

    Democratic National Convention Streaming Live on YouTube

    Last week, the Republicans had their chance to showcase what they have to offer the American voters. Some of the highlights included Ann Romney’s well-received speech, Paul Ryan’s controversial speech, Clint Eastwood’s much-discussed speech, and finally Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech. Those interested in the 2012 election were able to watch all of those speeches live, streaming on YouTube.

    And YouTube isn’t playing partisan favorites. Starting today, they will be streaming the DNC speeches to millions of people on their dedicated DemConvention2012 channel (in English and Spanish).

    “Starting September 4, we’ll give you an all-access pass to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Once again, every night during prime-time, you’ll be able to turn to YouTube to see all of the speeches like President Obama’s live address from Bank of America Stadium on September 6,” said YouTube in a blog post.

    Before either of the conventions kicked off, YouTube unveiled a new Elections Hub that features reporting and videos from the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Al Jazeera, Univision, and BuzzFeed. The convention live streams are just an arm of this expanded political coverage, and you can check out the main Elections Hub for tons of campaign 2012-related videos while you wait for the DNC to kick off.

    The conventions aren’t the only things that YouTube will be streaming this election season. They’ve also committed to bringing users the Presidential debates, starting in October.

  • Obama’s ‘Life Of Julia’ Keeps Democrats At Social Media Forefront

    Last week the Republican party launched a Social Victory app to try to get a foothold onto what has been a one sided battle: The fight for social media dominance. This fight was utterly dominated by Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election, and some strategists pointed to this as a huge reason why he won so handily.

    The 2012 campaign has seen basically the same thing. Mostly due to the fantastic job the Democratic party did last time to build up their good social media karma, they are still riding high. As you can see from the infographic below, even with all of the Republican Presidential hopefuls put together, they don’t even make a dent into what is an enormous social media advantage for Obama.


    Thanks to Overdrive Interactive for this great Infographic!

    This kind of forward thinking has allowed the Obama reelection people to focus on promoting their ideals and beliefs, and not spending time to build a social media presence. This is where the ‘Life of Julia‘ slideshow comes in. In something that resembles a Google product release video, ‘Life of Julia’ follows a fictional woman who, throughout different stages of her life, is benefitting from the entitlements given to her by President Barack Obama.

    “Julia starts her own web business. She qualifies for a Small Business Administration loan, giving her the money she needs to invest in her business. President Obama’s tax cuts for small businesses like Julia’s help her to get started. She’s able to hire employees, creating new jobs in her town and helping to grow the local economy.” This kind of political showcase is how and where the Democrats have a chance at getting Obama reelected. The Republicans will have a huge unknown factor unless they can do something to show that they know how to run a social media campaign that is effective.