Josh McConaha's Blog
About the Author
Woo!
We rolled out this morning for stops in Columbus, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Cincinnati was a good event with a group of excited people, and after an obligatory side-stop for some of us at a Skyline Chili, we made our way to Columbus last night.
We met Glen, the world's best bus driver, at our hotel this morning, and then rode to the rally with Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota and Ohio House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty. Turnout was surprisingly high given that we were kicking things off at 8:45am -- it was also surprisingly enthusiastic.
Photos from the Columbus event here, but my favorite is below. This couple met while volunteering for Governor Dean's campaign in 2004, and then they had a baby. It's not a common thing, but I know of at least one baby at the DNC that came about the same way (and after Governor Dean helped pull off a surprise proposal in his office).
We met Glen, the world's best bus driver, at our hotel this morning, and then rode to the rally with Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota and Ohio House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty. Turnout was surprisingly high given that we were kicking things off at 8:45am -- it was also surprisingly enthusiastic.
Photos from the Columbus event here, but my favorite is below. This couple met while volunteering for Governor Dean's campaign in 2004, and then they had a baby. It's not a common thing, but I know of at least one baby at the DNC that came about the same way (and after Governor Dean helped pull off a surprise proposal in his office).
Governor Dean's Register for Change bus tour kicked off again this morning in Indianapolis, IN. Right now we're on our way to a union hall in Cincinnati, OH for another rally, then we head to Columbus tonight for an (early) rally tomorrow morning.
Indianapolis was great -- the rally was in a great location. As we were getting ready to roll out, a couple who had just been married came up to the bus and asked for a picture. Governor Dean and Actor Kal Penn, who's also traveling with us, were happy to help out.
More from the road as I have time, but photos from Indianapolis are here. After Columbus, we're of to Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, then back to DC before a couple of Virginia events on Saturday -- the full schedule is right here.
Indianapolis was great -- the rally was in a great location. As we were getting ready to roll out, a couple who had just been married came up to the bus and asked for a picture. Governor Dean and Actor Kal Penn, who's also traveling with us, were happy to help out.
More from the road as I have time, but photos from Indianapolis are here. After Columbus, we're of to Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, then back to DC before a couple of Virginia events on Saturday -- the full schedule is right here.
Here's some video from our first event in Crawford, TX last Thursday...
Governor Dean sent this update from the Register for Change bus over the weekend, but I'm just getting a chance to post it...
As I write this post, we are in Jackson, MS on our Register for Change tour. From the time I became DNC chairman, I have believed Democrats can win everywhere if we show up and ask for people's votes - including Mississippi. And this year we won a critical special election, and we are competitive in Mississippi in the presidential election. There is so much energy here in the South for change. I really do think we will win in some unexpected places this year. We started out yesterday greeted by nearly 100 people in Crawford, TX. People in Crawford want change too - not four more years of Bush-MCain policies. It was a great sight to see people gathered there ready to work for change. We may not win in Texas, but I believe we will come very close and a re-energized Texas Democratic Party will win back the Texas House and undo Tom DeLay's redistricting scheme and elect Rick Noriega to the US Senate. From Crawford we went to Austin to talk to the Netroots community at "Netroots Nation". Over the last few years and throughout this election in particular, the netroots community has been working hard to support democracy and engage in this election.
One of the great things about Barack Obama's campaign is that he totally gets how important it is to help the down ballot races and therefore the future of the Democratic party. Speaking of the campaign, the Obama folks are on the ground in Texas and Louisiana and are working hard with the DNC staff that has been there for the last three years. They are young, energetic, and smart, and so far the tour has gone very well because they have been great partners. Anyway, So far it's been great to be back in the South, and great to be asking for votes for a national Democratic candidate in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Next week on to North Carolina and Georgia! Democratically yours, Howard Dean
After Crawford we headed toward Austin. Hundreds of people met us in Brush Park, and Austin locals and visitors to the Netroots Nation conference (where Governor Dean is speaking tonight) came out in force.
A local preformer started things off as people clustered underneat trees in an attempt to avoid the Texas sun. As we rounded the corner, the cheering started, and Governor Dean was mobbed as he got off the bus. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, a local College Democrats official, and Houston City Council official Melissa Noriega kicked things off before Governor Dean started on his remarks, reminding people that voting is the least you can do ("It only gets you a 'D'," as he likes to say).
You can see photos from the event right here.
A local preformer started things off as people clustered underneat trees in an attempt to avoid the Texas sun. As we rounded the corner, the cheering started, and Governor Dean was mobbed as he got off the bus. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, a local College Democrats official, and Houston City Council official Melissa Noriega kicked things off before Governor Dean started on his remarks, reminding people that voting is the least you can do ("It only gets you a 'D'," as he likes to say).
You can see photos from the event right here.
This is a guest post written by Katie Naranjo, who was one of the College Dems riding a long to Crawford and Austin this morning…
Greetings from the Register for Change bus heading down Hwy 317 from Austin to Crawford. Currently manning the bus: Gov. Dean, Josh McConaha, Robert Garcia, Courtney Strange and me (Katie Naranjo), your fearless team of democrats registering Texans for the election of a lifetime.
Why is registering to vote such an important focus for the DNC and Obama?
In Texas, we have roughly over 5 million unregistered voters according to the Secretary of State’s 2008 primary results. As Texas politicians proved in previous elections, registering voters can change the outcome of an election locally and state wide.
We are now in Crawford. Rep. Jim Dunnam and the County Chair John Cullar join us at the yellow blinking light (not to be confused with the other light in town) as we make our way to the rally.
As we pull up to the community center, a crowd of activists and media outlets greet the bus with Obama signs and cheers. Gov. Dean received a t-shirt from the Baylor College Dems as he worked the crowd mixed with older and college democrats.
Gov. Dean delivered an optimistic message for turning Texas blue, which in previous elections seemed unattainable, but with Democrats only 5 seats away in the house and Rep. Noriega polling closely behind Sen. Cornyn, victory will be a reality this fall.
While at the event, Robert Garcia said, “Even with the sweltering heat, the event was a huge success with folks coming out from all over the Texas hill country to support Gov. Dean and Sen. Obama on their quest to change Texas and America.”
Back on the road with Gov. Dean, the cohort of students and staff provided much entertainment as we discuss generational politics with Gov. Dean. Each student provided stories of how they changed their parents, grand parents, or family member’s perception of politics and the Democratic Party.
As the bus rolls into Austin, more stories of hope and changing political views grab the attention of Gov. Dean and the staff. It is obvious, that even in the least likely places in Texas change is in the air.
This morning we kicked off the tour in Crawford. At 9am on a hot morning in a parking lot, 50 people came out to see Governor Dean get things started with State Rep. Jim Dunnam and County Chair John Cullar.
A group of College Dems showed up in force, local supporters set up a table with Obama gear, and a swarm of media recorded the action from a roped-off area for cameras.
For 9am on a hot Texas morning in rural Crawford, the crowd was impressive -- a great sign of what's happening to Texas.
I'm writing this on the bus (I think we're going through Prarie Dell, TX), and we're headed to a much larger rally in downtown Austin.
You can see all the photos right here.
A group of College Dems showed up in force, local supporters set up a table with Obama gear, and a swarm of media recorded the action from a roped-off area for cameras.
For 9am on a hot Texas morning in rural Crawford, the crowd was impressive -- a great sign of what's happening to Texas.
I'm writing this on the bus (I think we're going through Prarie Dell, TX), and we're headed to a much larger rally in downtown Austin.
You can see all the photos right here.
The Register for Change bus rolled out from Governor Dean's hotel in Austin about 30 minutes ago. We're headed toward Crawford, TX to do the very first stop, then back to Austin for a noon rally.
The bus is fantastic -- we've got MSNBC on, the Governor is working in the back, and we've got a few college Dems along for the Austin-Crawford-Austin leg.
Hopefully, I'll post photos of the Crawford kickoff on the way back...
Many of you have noticed the new points system we rolled out recently here. Surprisingly, the reaction hasn't been what we expected.
Your concerns about blog posts and blog comments comments for the sake of points is very valid. Right now, a certain amount of points are assigned for each post and comment. While that's unlikely to change, there are two changes we may now make after reading what you had to say. The first is that posts and comments could receive fewer points. The second is that while posts my be initially worth less, bonus points could be added based on the rating system. The better your post, the more you're rated, the more points you get. Conversely, we could penalize poorly-rated posts by removing points. (A system like this is already under consideration for the next version of Democrats.org so that quality content from you ends up more prominently on the website.)
Actions across the site are weighted depending on their frequency and importance. Posts and comments, for example, are actually comparatively less valuable than many other things on the site. Creating an event gets you 50 points -- ten times what a comment gets you. Point totals were tweaked a lot, and can be changed in the future. I'll make sure we get a full list up shortly so that you can weigh in on where you think we're giving away too much and where we're not giving away enough.
On the negative profile points you may have: that was just a small bug when we were going back and calculating points. You do lose points for un-doing certain actions -- making friends with someone and then deleting them means we take away points so that you don't spend hours doing that to get to the top.
Some have also said that we were using points all along, but that's not entirely true. We certainly reach out to activists who may have hosted an organizing event, for example, but we've never used points for anything before.
At the end of the day, points are designed to reward you all for being here and helping build the Party. They're also designed to incentivize and get people using PartyBuilder -- we want people to know that creating a real-world event that Democrats can find here is important. We also want people to understand that creating or joining a group is important, or that posting on this blog is important.
There's no prize package or anything like that, but don't be surprised if you find 50 bumper stickers in your mailbox one day -- we know that you're the people that care enough to hand them out to your friends and family. That's why we implemented the points system -- to help new people recognize the importance of their actions here, and to reward everyone in little ways when we can.
Your concerns about blog posts and blog comments comments for the sake of points is very valid. Right now, a certain amount of points are assigned for each post and comment. While that's unlikely to change, there are two changes we may now make after reading what you had to say. The first is that posts and comments could receive fewer points. The second is that while posts my be initially worth less, bonus points could be added based on the rating system. The better your post, the more you're rated, the more points you get. Conversely, we could penalize poorly-rated posts by removing points. (A system like this is already under consideration for the next version of Democrats.org so that quality content from you ends up more prominently on the website.)
Actions across the site are weighted depending on their frequency and importance. Posts and comments, for example, are actually comparatively less valuable than many other things on the site. Creating an event gets you 50 points -- ten times what a comment gets you. Point totals were tweaked a lot, and can be changed in the future. I'll make sure we get a full list up shortly so that you can weigh in on where you think we're giving away too much and where we're not giving away enough.
On the negative profile points you may have: that was just a small bug when we were going back and calculating points. You do lose points for un-doing certain actions -- making friends with someone and then deleting them means we take away points so that you don't spend hours doing that to get to the top.
Some have also said that we were using points all along, but that's not entirely true. We certainly reach out to activists who may have hosted an organizing event, for example, but we've never used points for anything before.
At the end of the day, points are designed to reward you all for being here and helping build the Party. They're also designed to incentivize and get people using PartyBuilder -- we want people to know that creating a real-world event that Democrats can find here is important. We also want people to understand that creating or joining a group is important, or that posting on this blog is important.
There's no prize package or anything like that, but don't be surprised if you find 50 bumper stickers in your mailbox one day -- we know that you're the people that care enough to hand them out to your friends and family. That's why we implemented the points system -- to help new people recognize the importance of their actions here, and to reward everyone in little ways when we can.
Hey there. I'm Josh, part of the DNC's Internet team. Welcome to PartyBuilder, the first small move into the next generation of websites for the Democratic Party and the DNC.
We're going to be testing PartyBuilder for a little while. There are hundreds of little corners and details and things that we just can't see with 10 people clicking around. If something breaks, send an email to partybuilder@dnc.org and we'll take a look. It would be really helpful if you could include as much information as you possibly can.
Anyway, invite your friends and build your network. I'll save the full features list right now, but you can read up on everything here, or in more detail here.
We're going to be testing PartyBuilder for a little while. There are hundreds of little corners and details and things that we just can't see with 10 people clicking around. If something breaks, send an email to partybuilder@dnc.org and we'll take a look. It would be really helpful if you could include as much information as you possibly can.
Anyway, invite your friends and build your network. I'll save the full features list right now, but you can read up on everything here, or in more detail here.
Posts By Month
Posts
