County Committee Executive Board Meeting 3/7/2010

In case you didn’t know, MYD ran and elected a number of young people to the exceptionally opaque County Committee last year. Now we’re bringing their information to you. Every month we’re sending a correspondent to the County Committee E-Board meeting to help you understand what’s going on under the covers of NY politics.

What follows is an account of the last County Committee E-Board meeting complete with their Congressional Candidates Forum during which all the candidates running for Congress in Manhattan made their case to this select group of electeds (and us).

Special thanks to our Executive Board Representative this month Michelle Stockwell, who wrote this amazing update.

Want to get involved or learn more? Email ben [at] gomyd [dot] com

Executive Board Meeting
The EB meeting started on time, with hot pizza and an audience comprised of district leaders, community organizers and a few members of MYD. Keith Wright delivered a brief summary of what to expect – no voting, speeches from congressional candidates and no press. He remarked on Gov. Patterson, expressing the opinion that the Gov. should serve out the rest of his term, and that the investigations being conducted around him should take their course. Keith also brought up the Yankees tickets controversy, stating that the discrepancies were not “that big of deal”, since Giuliani and Bloomberg had attended many games too. There was also concerns voiced about the state budget, it’s schedule and the elimination of such programs as homeless prevention and summer jobs. The meeting concluded with a call to think about the voting process for congressional endorsements and a minor, but curious, suggestion of providing district leaders with ID cards.

Congressional Forum
Read more

MYD Meeting Tonight! New Location!

Quick reminder that tonight’s General Meeting is at a new location:

Speaker Quinn, Councilwoman Dickens To Be Honored At 3/24 MYD Event

As you can see from the banner above, we’re throwing an exciting event on Wednesday, March 24th from 7pm-10pm at ultra-luxurious nightclub NIKKI Beach Midtown. MYD will be honoring individuals and groups who have made significant contributions to closing the gender gap. We expect a strong showing of like-minded Democrats as well as a myriad of elected officials in attendance. Drink specials all night, and music by the legendary DJO.

We are happy to announce the addition of the Honorable Christine Quinn, New York City Council Speaker, and Councilwoman Inez E. Dickens to our list of honorees. It is going to be a great night, with more guests to be announced, so you should come out. We’re also happy to announce that the New York Women’s Foundation’s Committee For the Future will be an honoree.

Our other organizational honorees are the Service Women’s Action Network, the White House Project, and Planned Parenthood’s Political Action Group.

You can join our facebook event here.

To join the host committee, please contact MYD Finance Director Alex Leopold: finance [at] gomyd [dot] com

The ticket pricing will be:
$20 for MYD membership and free admission
$5 for MYD members
$15 for non-members

You can purchase tickets securely online via ActBlue.

Get Mad AND Get Even

Here at goMYD we’ve been a little heavy on the Monserrate coverage as of late. That’s because as of today there is only one week left in the campaign to replace him and the reasons to get involved are many:
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• Hiram Monserrate is symbolic of everything that is wrong with New York politics. He is literally a criminal, and participated in the farce that was the June Coup of last year.
• Marriage Equality: This is our very first chance to convert a NO (Monserrate) into a YES (Jose Peralta)
• Monserrate was convicted of domestic abuse. That should never be rewarded.
• Allies of Monserrate have been using anti-gay literature to generate support for him, one of his supporters is a reverend who has been quoted as saying: “I have seen a generation sunk down by the gay community” – It’s also possible a Monserrate ally slashed the tires of a City Councilwoman who came out in support of Jose Peralta.
• Monserrate blatantly stole the Obama logo for his website, and more or less stole the Yes We Can/Si Se Puede slogan as well.
• He has already been expelled from the Senate yet Monserrate is running again. This just reeks of a cynical ego trip. WTF.
• Jose Peralta has been and will be good for Queens and has near unanimous support across a wide array of organizations and individuals. Don’t take our word for it, click here.

GET MAD, AND GET EVEN.
Your help can make the difference.

Sign up to canvass in Queens today, or this weekend, or on election day, or every day. Tell your friends. Change your Facebook status.

VOLUNTEER INFO IS VIA THIS LINK:
(please share)

http://bit.ly/electjose

Here is the Anti-Gay flyer used against Peralta:

County Party Update And Meeting

Months after the first County Committee meeting Manhattan Young Democrats is still in peoples’ minds. This Sunday we’re organizing a trip to the County Committee Executive Board meeting to show them we’re still ready to be active and helpful in growing the Democratic Party and Political Director Alex Voetsch got this response when doing the old phonebank:

CC Member: Are you the insurgent group from the last meeting?
Alex Voetsch: I guess you could call us that.
CC Member: You guys are amazing, keep up the good work.

Just to be clear, advocating for good governance is not insurgency and we’re excited to have elected members to the County Committee so that we can take part in democratic institutions of New York City. That said, we’re keeping up the good work.

Want to help? Join us in letting the County Party know that people are interested in their city’s democracy – the meeting is open to the public:

Sunday March 7 at 2:30pm
Outside Teamsters Local 237
216 West 14th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

Furthermore: Their Congressional Candidate Forum will take place immediately following at 3:00 PM.

Weekend Events!

We’re not ones to let a little snow get us down! MYD is bringing you two great events tomorrow:

First, MYD is teaming up with NYSYD and the NYSYD Caucus of Color for the first installment of our weekend brunch and politics series. Join us for brunch as we celebrate Black History Month with New York State Senate President Pro Tempore Malcolm A. Smith. This event is free of charge, doors open at 11am, Senator Smith will be speaking at 1pm. 461 Park Avenue South, 10th Floor, You can RSVP here.

Next, I’m sure you’re wondering what’s going to happen between 11am and 1pm? We’re going to be phone banking for NYS Senate Candidate Jose Peralta. The Queens County Young Democrats asked for our help and we’re here to deliver!

Please save the weekend of March 13th for a trip out to Queens for their GOTV effort, more details to follow.

MYD Happy Hour With The Caucus of Color Last Evening

Last night the Manhattan Young Democrats and the New York State Young Democrats Caucus of Color held a happy hour at Legends Bar & Grill in midtown. Turnout was better than the recent Illinois primaries, as old and new friends convened for a night of camaraderie and political discussion. Check out the pictures from this event:

Senator Quits In Face of Congressional Paralysis

U.S. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a centrist Dem, announced he will not seek a third term yesterday. On the heels of the loss of the Kennedy seat in Massachusetts, the news sent Dems “reeling” — but the real story is why he’s quitting when he could pretty easily win re-election. His announcement offers a depressing insider’s perspective on just how dysfunctional Congress has become:

“For some time, I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should,” Mr. Bayh said. “There is too much partisanship and not enough progress — too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous challenge, the people’s business is not being done.”

“This is colored by having observed the Senate in my father’s day,” Mr. Bayh said. “It wasn’t perfect; they had politics back then, too. But there was much more friendship across the aisles, and there was a greater willingness to put politics aside for the welfare of the country. I just don’t see that now.”

“In my father’s day, you legislated for four years and campaigned for two; now it’s full time. The politics never stops,” he said. “My bottom line is that there are a lot of really good people trapped in a dysfunctional system desperately in need of reform.”

But to New Yorkers, legislative paralysis is nothing new. Come to our General Meeting tonight to hear our President Taylor Stirek speak about the dysfunction in Albany — and what we as MYDers are going to do about it in 2010.

See you at 461 Park Ave S, New York, New York, NY 10016 @ 7PM! map

Times – Democrats Reel as Senator Says No to 3rd Term

Jonathan Bing to Speak at Tuesday’s Meeting

I would like to remind everyone that one of MYD’s most loyal supporters, Assemblyman Jonathan Bing will be speaking at our General Meeting next Tuesday, February 16th (General Meetings are every 3rd Tuesday of every Month!). Assemblyman Bing will be addressing MYD about the current issues facing Albany and will be answering any questions you may have.

In addition to attending our MYD General Meeting, Assemblyman Bing would be more than happy to have MYD members attend his 40th Birthday Party Fundraiser. The party is Thursday March 4th at Butter with Guest Speaker LT. Governor Richard Ravitch and Special Guest Dominic Chianese from The Sopranos.

For further details on Assemblyman Bing’s 40th Birthday Bash contact MYD’s Finance Director Alex Leopold at finance [at] gomyd [dot] com.

MYD Survey: The Results are in!

Last week, we conducted a brief survey asking our members for guidance on issue priorities, MYD programming, and more. A huge Thank You to everyone who completed the survey, we really value your input! The newly elected executive board and appointed directors have gone over these results in detail, and we plan to use them to guide what we do this coming year. I thought I would share some of the results with you.

The top issue priorities for our members were:

1. Corruption, abuse of power and ethics in Albany and NYC
2. Healthcare
3. Economic growth
4. Marriage equality, LGBT equality
5. Housing, poverty, social equity

The political action that are members were willing to take were:

• 85% of respondents are very willing or somewhat willing to take online action.
• 68% of respondents are very willing or somewhat willing to phone bank.
• 63% of respondents are very willing or somewhat willing to write for the blog.
• 61% of respondents are very willing or somewhat willing to donate money.
• 55% of respondents are very willing or somewhat willing to canvass.
• 52% of respondents are very willing or somewhat willing to throw fundraisers.

We will be making sure that we have events throughout the year in all of these popular categories. If there’s an issue that you are particularly passionate about we encourage you to join one of our Issue Oriented Committees by clicking HERE or attending an upcoming meeting.

A frugal bunch overall (the Eboard is being especially stingy, which we believe is a good thing!), MYD members said we should spend most of our money on campaigning (e.g. pizzas at phone banks, buses to canvass) and political events (discussion panels, forums). So look for some added incentives at our many political events this year and expanded issue panels and debates.

If you are interested in writing for this very blog, you should email Zac Townsend at newmedia [at] gomyd [dot] com to find out how to apply today. We’re always looking for new voices and great ideas!

MYD is a volunteer-run organization and every member can play an active role, if you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to reach out you can email me (president [at] gomyd [dot] com). Hope to see you soon!

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