Hot Topic At DNC Hispanic Caucus Meeting
Posted by on December 2, 2005 at 07:04 PM
(Jerome Wiley Segovia gives us a bit of the "behind-the-scenes" from a meeting attended by members of the Hispanic Caucus earlier today.)
As we worked through the various agenda items of the Hispanic Caucus meeting, one particular motion stood out. An initiative in Colorado aims to require recipients of taxpayer funded services to prove residency or US citizenship. DNC member Maria Echaveste (DC) spoke eloquently about why Democrats should mobilize to defeat this initiative in November of 2006, and why it poses an unrivaled opportunity for the DNC to engage organizers and build our numbers at the same time.
Deb Marquez (CO), Steve Ybarra (CA) and Manny Rodriguez (CO) all offered suggestions to move the motion forward and begin to organize an effective response, as the beginnings of a campaign to soundly defeat this initiative. The true, intangible value of these DNC caucus meetings lies in political synergy and the ability to gain national attention and response to local issues, especially when many of these issues occur in similar instances all around the country. The Colorado initiative is very similar in nature to Proposition 200, which unfortunately passed in Arizona in November of 2004, and to Proposition 187 in California. Throughout the Hispanic Caucus meeting, informal hallway meetings and dinnertime conversations/debates, DNC members familiar with the Arizona law provided input, ideas and information that was valuable in the formulation of today's action by the Hispanic Caucus.
As we strive to continually increase the number of active Democrats, the long fight ahead of us to defeat this initiative in Colorado may well prove to result in that great by-product of political campaigns: identifying new leaders, increasing the number of Democrats, increasing the field of donors, and energizing our party's base. And this is where the rubber meets the road, and where leaders within the party stand up and make sure that we begin to take action now, when it counts.
Comments (6) «
Tim, I second the comments of some upstream - These posts of yours are great. I'm only sorry that I don't have time to read them all.
There's more on Propositions 200 and 187 and the "Hispanic vote" here. Obviously, not all people of the same race think the same, as much as some would like that to be true.
Hi, Jerome.
Energize the base is right. This information you provide does exactly that. Your comments about discovering the new leadership are inspiring, too. Nice link, as well.
We need people with time and oppertunity to teach our Hispanic's what to do, how to obtain the papers necessary to vote, in every State! Let us be sure to work within the law to obtain our goals.
the initiative in Colorado to require recipients of taxpayer funded services to prove residency or US citizenship and is very similar in nature to Proposition 200, which unfortunately passed in Arizona in November of 2004 and to Proposition 187 in California. the democrats should stay together to realize public activities, cold calling, tv promotions and ads, etc, hopefully new party donors can help us to defeat this initiative, i would like to point out the need for affordable medicines for all the hispanic people in the usa, my husband is a hispanic and we have hard time to pay for the prescription drug bills, can you imagine is this new initiatives can pass into law, it would be very dificult for the minorities to access affordable services, in http://www.medicaredrugmart.com i found great savings.
I don't understand why most Democrats don't understand the difference between legal and Illegal. I as a taxpayer am tired of the Illegals coming to my country all ready disregading our laws and then expect no demand I an citizen pay for their welfare, speak their language, teach their children. I am for any law that will gather up all ILLEGALS send them packing back to their country and tell them to stand in line and come to my country via legally able to support themselves and their family. The Democrats are way off base on this one, come to think of it so are most of the Republicans. Hmmmm may be the American people should ask first what is the difference between the two parties? They both are for taxation, big business, expressing that laws are to be followed by everyone but them, like to waste taxpayers monies and give away the bank to those that insist on breaking the laws of this country.
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