Texas State News

Vol. 1, No. 6--December 23, 2004

The Texas Progressive Populist Caucus co-sponsored the Capitol 51 Voting Rights protest staged at our State Capitol in Austin on Dec. 12; David Van Os, co-founder of our caucus, was a speaker at that meeting, and members of Austin regional group worked on the event organizing.

Additionally, the PPC prepared a substantial policy paper on voting process security breaches as well as both procedural and polling place infractions occurring on Nov. 2 in Harris County (Houston), the state's largest electoral subdivision. It was prepared as a result of many of our members volunteering as members of the Harris County Early Voting Ballot board, getting us inside the "tent" of a hostile Republican-controlled county voting system. Also through the work of a Committee on Voting Security the PPC formed in conjunction with the Harris County Democratic Party. The policy paper was presented to our Harris County Democratic Party Chair for future release also to the media and activist community.

We also held a statewide PPC strategic planning meeting in San Antonio on November 20th to assist our Steering Committee in setting our 2005 Caucus Agenda for Party Reform. In that meeting we also endorsed Howard Dean for DNC Chair, should he choose to run, and conveyed that endorsement to all of our Texas DNC delegation and our State Party Chair, who attended this past weekend's Orlando DNC conference.

A new regional group was formed. It was voted onto our Statewide Steering Committee from Corpus Christi and South Texas, now covering six of our largest urban areas with regional PPC Caucuses.

Additionally, we are networking with both MoveOn organizations active around the state and continuing our linkage with DFA groups in Texas to expand our impact on Party reform and progressive candidate recruitment. Our work was acknowledged at a recent "Gala" dinner held in Austin to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our Texas Observer muckraking magazine founded by Ronnie Dugger, co-founder of the national organization Alliance For Democracy, author, and frequent columnist in a wide range of national progressive publications, as well as guest on national cable and network political programs. Ronnie specifically singled out David Van Os and Stan Merriman for their work in Party reform with the Progressive Populist Caucus to the assembled audience, which included many icons of the left such as Jim Hightower, Mollie Ivins, Louis Dubose, Jamie Galbraith, Amy Goodman, Adam Clymer, John Judis, Lawrence Goodwyn, Matthew Rothschild, and John Stewart, along with former Gov. Ann Richards and many Texas Democratic office holders, past and present.

Stan Merriman, Chair, Progressive Populist Caucus

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