DNC Winter Meeting 20 FEB 2015

Last week I attended the ASDC and DNC meetings in Washington DC. It is good to be back home in the sunshine state.  Like I told both of my kids when they were challenging teenagers, I still love you but I don’t like you so much today. Well I still love Washington DC but last week I fell out of love for a few days and I definitely didn’t like the below zero wind chill. A lesson learned, winter weary folks from the Northeast are not sympathetic to Floridians whining about how cold we are and they definitely don’t appreciate the Facebook posts of 80 degrees and sunshine in Tampa! Democrats are coming to the City of Brotherly Love Last week the DNC announced Philadelphia will host the 2016 Democratic National Convention the week of July 25, 2016.  I think this was a great pic!  Philadelphia is a beautiful city, rich in American history and a modern thriving diverse community. A perfect place to nominate the next President of the United States and I am looking forward to seeing her accept the nomination! President Barack Obama delivers a knock out punch address to the DNC President Obama delivered remarks at the Democratic National Committee’s 2015 Winter Meeting.?He talked about job creation, increased wages, and deficit reduction.?He also accused Republicans of trying to re-brand their party as the party of the middle class, but pledged to work with them on issues of common ground. “I am encouraged that they’re speaking about middle class, and speaking about wages,” Obama said. “But there is this old saying that you can’t just talk the talk… you’ve gotta walk the walk.” -President Obama “If you’re really troubled with income inequality, you can’t put forward proposals that give tax breaks to the folks that are doing the best, the millionaires and billionaires,” -President Obama “I think the shift in rhetoric that they’re engaging in is good if it actually leads them to take different actions,”  “And if it doesn’t then it’s just spin.” -President Obama "I just want everybody to remember that at every step as we made policies, as we made this progress, we were told by our good friends, the Republicans, that our actions would crush jobs, and explode deficits, and destroy the country." - President Obama "I always find it curious that when a Democrat is President, deficits go down; a Republican is President and then deficits are going up, and yet they try to take on the mantle of fiscal probity." - President Obama "Our Republican Leader in the Senate, as he was coming in, after having tried to block every single thing that we have done to strengthen the economy, starts looking at the job numbers and says, you know, it’s getting better because we just got elected and people are feeling more optimistic.  Okay.  I didn’t know that’s how the economy worked.  But maybe?  We’ll call some economists. - President Obama “They’re trying to bamboozle folks,” - President Obama Watch a video of his speech here.  It is a REALLY good speech! ASDC Elections During our meeting last week the Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) held reorganizational elections of ASDC Officers and Executive Committee representatives. Each state has 2 votes (the Chair and the Vice Chair). Due to a family commitment, Florida Democratic Chair Allison Tant was not in attendance, which means I cast two votes for Florida. ASDC Officers Offices up for election were ASDC President, Secretary and Treasurer. Each regional group elected a Regional Vice President, a Regional Representatives to the DNC Executive and Regional Representatives to the ASDC Executive Committee (1 Chair and 1 Vice Chair per region). I am pleased to announce Raymond Buckley (NH) was re-elected ASDC President (as President, Ray serves as a DNC officer), Yvette Lewis (MD) was re-elected Secretary, and Alex Rooker (CA) was re-elected Treasurer Southern Region  Southern Regional elections results: Karen Carter Peterson (LA) Southern Vice President, Rickey Cole (MS) Southern Regional Chair Gaylene Kanoyton (VA) Southern Regional Vice Chair Jaime Harrison (SC) DNC Executive Committee Southern Representative DNC Victory Task Force Last November the DNC created the Victory Task Force to conduct a review and assessment of the devastating November election. On Saturday, Victory Task Force members: Naomi Aberly, Governor Steve Beshear, Donna Brazile, Maria Cardona, Marc Elias, Teddy Goff, Maneesh Goyal, Rick Palacio, Lee Saunders and Eric Schmidt released a preliminary report. The report has been met with very mixed reviews.   Judge for yourself; click here to read the  preliminary  report. Resolution to Guarantee Every Americans’ Right To Vote Under the leadership of Donna Brazile, Vice Chair of Voter Registration & Participation the DNC has been working to protect and expand voting rights. One year ago at our DNC Winter Meeting, Donna Brazile announced the Voter Expansion program to ensure that every eligible voter is registered, every registered voter is able to vote, and that every vote is counted. To further that goal, Donna introduced a resolution to amend the United States Constitution to guarantee every Americans’ right to vote. On Saturday the Democratic National Committee unanimously passed this resolution. The Democratic Party, our party is the party of inclusion. It was only 50 years ago brave men and women marched from Selma. 50 years later we have not fully fulfilled the marchers dream.  Click here to read the resolution. http://www.alanclendenin.com/2015/2/resolution-on-a-right-to-vote-amendment-to-the-u-s-constitution DNC Passed Resolutions and Commemorative Statements The DNC considered 21 new resolutions and commemorative statements.  Policy statements covering voter rights, Cuba, healthcare, education and job training for our service members and veterans, reaffirming the DNC commitment to state parties, United States partnership with Taiwan, expanding economic opportunities for women and families, immigration reform and the Charlie Hebdo tragedy. Click here to read the resolutions. Alan Clendenin First Vice Chair, Florida Democratic Party Committee alan@alanclendenin.com http://www.alanclendenin.com/