Capital Area Progressive Democrats

Members,

Writing today to update you about today’s digital meeting. We’ve had to postpone our conversation with Genevieve Van Cleve from All On The Line. But no worries, because instead, today we will hear from newly elected Travis County Democratic Party Chair, Katie Naranjo! Pedro will also provide us with an update about this year’s Kick Ass Awards.  Click here to RSVP or share tonight’s meeting on Facebook.

Democratically Yours,

André Treiber
CAPD Communications Chair

Members,

Our next CAPD Digital event will be held on Tuesday, July 7th, from 5:15 – 6:15. We will have a Facebook Live stream with County Attorney David A. Escamilla to discuss frequently asked questions about the County Attorney’s Office.

Click here for share and RSVP for the event on Facebook.

David A. Escamilla currently serves as the elected County Attorney for Travis County. He is the first Hispanic person to hold this position, and was also our 2019 recipient of the Emma S. Barrientos Lifetime Achievement award. As County Attorney, he is responsible for all misdemeanor prosecutions and for the delivery of legal services to all Travis County elected officials and department heads. David will speak to our group about the civil and criminal aspects of the County Attorney’s Office, including criminal diversion programs and the different facets of civil law that his office handles on a daily basis.

We would also like to remind you that Early Voting has already begun for the Democratic Primary Runoffs and the SD 14 Special Election! Here are our endorsed candidates:

Mike Siegel – U.S. Congress, District 10
Eddie Rodriguez – State Senate, District 14
Margaret Moore – Travis County District Attorney
Laurie Eiserloh – Travis County Attorney
Valinda Bolton – Travis County Commissioner, Precinct 3

Please vote for them if you are eligible to, or support them in other ways if you live outside of their districts.

Democratically Yours,
Capital Area Progressive Democrats

Members,

The results are in from our SD 14 Special Election endorsement vote, and CAPD has voted to endorse Representative Eddie Rodriguez. To earn CAPD’s endorsement, a candidate must receive at least 55% of the vote, without any runoffs. CAPD does not release further specifics of the vote, such as percent. This brings our list of endorsed candidates between the Primary Runoffs and the Special Election to:

Mike Siegel – U.S. Congress, District 10
Eddie Rodriguez – State Senate, District 14
Margaret Moore – Travis County District Attorney
Laurie Eiserloh – Travis County Attorney
Valinda Bolton – Travis County Commissioner, Precinct 3

Please vote for them if you are eligible to, or support them in other ways if you live outside of their districts.

We are also announcing our next CAPD Digital event on Tuesday, July 7th, from 5:15 – 6:15, a Facebook Live stream with County Attorney David A. Escamilla, to discuss frequently asked questions about the County Attorney’s Office.

David A. Escamilla currently serves as the elected County Attorney for Travis County. He is the first Hispanic person to hold this position, and was also our 2019 recipient of the Emma S. Barrientos Lifetime Achievement award. As County Attorney, he is responsible for all misdemeanor prosecutions and for the delivery of legal services to all Travis County elected officials and department heads. David will speak to our group about the civil and criminal aspects of the County Attorney’s Office, including criminal diversion programs and the different facets of civil law that his office handles on a daily basis.

Democratically Yours,
Capital Area Progressive Democrats

Members,

In lieu of our traditional June CAPD meeting, please join us for a special Facebook Live SD 14 Candidate Forum with County Judge Sarah Eckhardt and Representative Eddie Rodriguez, a Q&A on the issues most important to SD 14, moderated by CAPD Chair Pedro Villalobos.

You can tune in to the live stream on June 8th at 5:15 p.m at https://www.facebook.com/CAPDTexas/. You can RSVP and share the event on Facebook to help spread the word here: https://www.facebook.com/events/270726463994827/

If you have questions you would like to see answered, please send them to capd@capdaustintx.org.

We will vote to endorse after the meeting through electronic voting. We will send out emails to those members that are eligible, so please be on the lookout. Electronic voting will open after the meeting and will conclude after 48 hours.

As always, we want to make sure we include some local and national COVID-19 resources:

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
City of Austin: http://www.austintexas.gov/COVID19
Travis County: https://traviscountytx.gov/news/2020/1945-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-information

Democratically Yours,

André Treiber
Communications Chair

Members,

Not that this would be a surprise to you, but we are not following Greg Abbott’s advice to open up Texas, and are cancelling our May meeting. Instead, I would like to take a moment to give you an update about the upcoming Texas Democratic State Convention.

As Vice Chair of the State Democratic Executive Committee’s Rules Committee, and as a member of the Convention Working Group appointed by Chairman Hinojosa, I can assure you that the Party is hard at work making the transition to a fully digital convention. The SDEC has approved a series of emergency rules to enable us to take action on official party business remotely (I wrote about this earlier in April if you want to read my meeting report). I want to take a quick minute to highlight some of the challenges and opportunities we’re facing.

On one hand, this is obviously a massive undertaking happening under a pretty short time crunch. We have the advantage of getting to see how some other states operate before our convention, but we were also on track to have the largest Democratic State Convention in the nation. Organizing caucuses and committees on that scale is already difficult, and when we’re trying to do it digitally for the first time, there are definitely some logistical obstacles that staff have had to figure out. A couple of dates and deadlines have also changed (most importantly, May 15th is your deadline for if you are going to file and run for anything at the convention), and changes like that mean a need for clear and consistent communication from the Party to keep everyone up-to-date.

But there are some opportunities here. All party business is going to be streamed live, both on TDP’s convention website and their social media. This is going to be far and away the most transparent convention we’ve ever had in Texas. There are also no travel costs. With people being able to tune in from home and vote from their email inbox, it is going to be the easiest ever convention for participation. And, though dates changing does complicate things, it has also allowed for an expanded schedule. This means more speakers, presentations, and trainings. It also means that caucuses will not overlap, so you can attend every single one of your choice. And it also means that convention committees will not be as rushed for time, and will have a more forgiving schedule for handling their business. Lastly, we’re looking at ways to enable every delegate the ability to vote up or down on resolutions and rules proposals, as opposed to the big mess that it is every year that inevitably ends with a quorum call.

There is definitely a lot of work to do to pull this convention together successfully. But I do strongly feel that there is a lot to be optimistic about as well.

Lastly, just want to make sure we include some local and national COVID-19 resources:

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
City of Austin: http://www.austintexas.gov/COVID19
Travis County: https://traviscountytx.gov/news/2020/1945-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-information

Democratically Yours,

André Treiber
Communications Chair
SDEC Committeeman, SD 14

Members,

Given all the recent updates on COVID-19, our April meeting will be cancelled.

We are aware that our membership includes people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19. If you need assistance with anything, such as buying groceries, picking up items from a store, etc., please reach out to me and we will do what we can to assist you. You can email me by responding to this email or emailing me directly at pedro.villalobos09@gmail.com

Make sure you are taking care of yourself and the people around you that are vulnerable to COVID-19.

For more information please the see the following websites:

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

City of Austin: http://www.austintexas.gov/COVID19

Travis County: https://traviscountytx.gov/news/2020/1945-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-information

Stay safe and healthy,

Pedro A. Villalobos, Chair

Hello, CAPD!

Our next meeting will not be held on Tuesday due to Election Day, it will be postponed until Thursday, March 5th. But we will still be meeting at the same time and place! We will hear from campaign veteran David Butts to break down the results of the election and to look forward to any potential runoffs.

In the mean time, make sure you volunteer for and support our endorsed candidates!

Texas Supreme Court, Chief Justice: Amy Clark Meachum
Texas Supreme Court, Place 6: Kathy Cheng
Texas Supreme Court, Place 7: Brandy Voss
Texas Supreme Court, Place 8: Gisela Triana
Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9: Brandon Birmingham
Congressional District 10: Micheal Siegel
Congressional District 17: David Jaramillo
Congressional District 21: Wendy Davis
Congressional District 25: Julie Oliver
Congressional District 35: Lloyd Doggett
Texas House District 51: Eddie Rodriguez
3rd Court of Appeals, Chief Justice: Darlene Byrne
167th District Court: David Wahlberg
353rd District Court: Tim Sulak
390th District Court: Julie Kocurek
460th District Court: Amy Meredith
District Attorney: Margaret Moore
County Attorney: Laurie Eiserloh
Sheriff: Sally Hernandez
County Commissioner, Precinct 3: Valinda Bolton
Constable, Precinct 1: Tonya Nixon
Constable, Precinct 2: Adan Ballesteros

There is no February today!

Volunteer for and support our endorsed candidates!

Texas Supreme Court, Chief Justice: Amy Clark Meachum
Texas Supreme Court, Place 6: Kathy Cheng
Texas Supreme Court, Place 7: Brandy Voss
Texas Supreme Court, Place 8: Gisela Triana
Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9: Brandon Birmingham
Congressional District 10: Micheal Siegel
Congressional District 17: David Jaramillo
Congressional District 21: Wendy Davis
Congressional District 25: Julie Oliver
Congressional District 35: Lloyd Doggett
Texas House District 51: Eddie Rodriguez
3rd Court of Appeals, Chief Justice: Darlene Byrne
167th District Court: David Wahlberg
353rd District Court: Tim Sulak
390th District Court: Julie Kocurek
460th District Court: Amy Meredith
District Attorney: Margaret Moore
County Attorney: Laurie Eiserloh
Sheriff: Sally Hernandez
County Commissioner, Precinct 3: Valinda Bolton
Constable, Precinct 1: Tonya Nixon
Constable, Precinct 2: Adan Ballesteros

Hi Capital Area Progressive Democrats,

Our Democratic Primary endorsement meeting will be January 7, 2020 at the AFL-CIO at 5:30pm.

This meeting will run long. As such, CAPD will be providing food and drinks.

We will be endorsing in all contested primaries for local office (including Chief Justice for the Third Court of Appeals), congressional candidates, and statewide candidates.

Only local and congressional candidates were required to submit a questionnaire. Statewide candidates will be listed on the CAPD ballot. All questionnaire are now public. Only candidates who submitted a questionnaire will be listed on the CAPD endorsement ballot.

For endorsement rules and voting eligibility click here to read the bylaws.

Check out our endorsement website by clicking here.

Bianca Garcia
Vice-Chair for Endorsements

*****

Races We Are Endorsing:

All statewide races that are contested

Congressional District 10

Congressional District 17

Congressional District 21

Congressional District 25

Congressional District 35

Texas House District 51

3rd Court of Criminal Appeals, Chief Justice

53rd District Court Judge

167th District Court Judge

200th District Court Judge

353rd District Court Judge

390th District Court Judge

460th District Court Judge

County Court at Law No. 4  Judge

Travis County District Attorney

Travis County Attorney

Travis County Sheriff

Travis County Commissioner, Precinct 3

Travis County Constable, Precinct 1

Travis County Constable, Precinct 2