February Calendar
2/10 (Thurs) — General monthly meeting @ County Courthouse Annex, 5:30. All are invited to attend!
2/10 (Thurs) — Nacogdoches STOP meeting @ Austin Heights Baptist Church, 7:00.
2/17 (Thurs) — February luncheon at Ocean Buffet (3613 North St.) at Noon. Everyone is invited, but it’s helpful to call Elaine Sanders (560-6436) to RSVP so she can have a good head count.
Fellow Nacogdcoches County Democrats,
Now that everyone has dug themselves out of the snow and ice, it’s time to continue gearing up for the 2012 elections (an event that, despite being so far away, requires preparation now)! Your monthly news wrap-up is below (along with my favorite news sources), but let’s focus on three locally relevant items first:
1) We need you to come to Thursday’s meeting at the County Courthouse Annex (101 W. Main). It begins at 5:30 and we will be working to shore up, as well as report on, several different committees crucial to our 2012 success. If you’re not already on one, think about which area you may be able to contribute in and let me know. These are fairly self-explanatory, though we will discuss them further during Thursday’s meeting. Here they are in current form:
Nac County Dems Committees (tentative)
Communications – Vance Rogers, Bruce McNellie, Amy Nixdorf, Louise Stoehr
Candidate Recruitment – Stephen Wright, Roy Boldon, Eloise Adams, Claire Martin
Fundraising – Tim Garrigan, Claire Martin
Voter Registration – Reggie Cotton, James Montoya, Wilma Cordova, Doris Perkins, Becky Mayo, John Mayo
Issues – Eva Bowers, Stephen Wright
Community Outreach (Chamber of Commerce, religious/community organizations, etc.) – Doris Daniel, Kent Hutchison, Anita Farr
Governmental (attendees of County Commission, City Council Meetings) – Joe Devine, Roy Boldon
SFA Young Dems Collaboration – Carl Kalmick, Bryce Alger, Stephen Wright
Events – Ralph and Elaine Sanders
2) After our meeting on Thursday, head over to Austin Heights Baptist Church (2806 Appleby Sands) to attend the Nagocdoches STOP meeting, beginning at 7:00. The group will discuss the pipeline permitting procedure, differences between this TransCanada pipeline and crude oil pipelines, and eminent domain issues. TransCanada, a foreign oil company, is using eminent domain against Texas landowners to seize private land for a tar sands bitumen oil pipeline planned from Canada through Texas to the gulf coast. The meeting will end with clips from H2Oil, an award-winning documentary which tells the story of the depletion and contamination of vast quantities of water in the tar sands mining process, and uncovers the adverse effects of tar sands mining on the health of those living downstream.
3) If you receive this email, but haven’t been active with our party, please consider donating a little bit of time and/or money to help the cause. 2012 is a Presidential election year and we need each one of you to maximize our vote in order to elect Democratic candidates to office. If you’d like to get involved, attend our Thursday meeting or send me an email. If you’re interested in making a much-needed monetary contribution, please send your check to Nac County Democrats, P.O. Box 633961, Nacogdoches, TX 75963. You can also follow us on our website (www.nacdemocrats.org) or on our Facebook page (search “Nacogdoches County Democrats” and then fan the page). Don’t just sit there-be a part of the movement to turn Texas Democratic Blue!
NEWS
International — For updates on important international stories, including the political uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, the election results in Southern Sudan ( possibly our planet’s newest nation), and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition trial, check out the BBC World Service (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/) or Al-Jazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net/).
National — For analysis on national news, including President Obama’s recent “State of the Union” speech, the GOP-led House of Representatives assault on health care reform, abortion rights, and the working class, updates on the 2012 Presidential race (yes, it’s begun and it doesn’t look good for Ms. Palin who is trailing President Obama in the polls in several Republican states), the State Department’s response to the Egyptian situation, and crazy winter weather, look no further than Politico (http://www.politico.com/), National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/), or CNN (www.cnn.com).
State — For the skinny on state political happenings, including the preliminary state budget (which would make drastic, unnecessary cuts to our public schools and health and human services), the state budget shortfall, daily updates on filed bills and other action at the capitol, the race to succeed Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2012, and Governor Perry’s focus on “emergency” items which only bolsters his conservative base in preparation for a potential run at the Presidency, link up with the Texas Tribune (http://www.texastribune.org/), the Texas Observer (http://www.texasobserver.org/), or the Austin American-Statesman (http://www.statesman.com/).
County/City — For updated news on local matters, including the upcoming importation of 500 Burmese families to Nacogdoches County, the County Commission’s potential plans to streamline the budget (including the possibility of a centralized location for all four Justices-of-the-Peace), City Council updates, coverage of Nacogdoches ISD and surrounding school districts, police reports, obituaries, and local commentary, check out our own Daily Sentinel (http://dailysentinel.com/) or the fantastic new website Everything Nac (http://everythingnac.com/).
This (along with contact info for your elected representatives below) should keep you updated with needed information to remind your family, friends, and neighbors how our lives benefit from Democratic policies or how they are harmed by those of the far-right. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any ideas or questions for our local Democratic Party. I’m proud of our organization and our voice-we need you to strengthen both!
Progressively Yours,
Stephen Wright, Chairman
Nacogdoches County Democratic Party
stephen.wright15@gmail.com
(936) 560-0781
Elected Officials
President of the United States
Barack Obama (D)
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111 Fax: 202-456-2461 Switchboard: 202-456-1414
White House Website: www.whitehouse.gov
U. S. Senators
U. S. Senator John Cornyn (R)
517 Hart
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Tel: 202-224-2934 Fax: 202-228-2856
East Texas Office: Tyler
Tel: 903-593-0902 Fax: 903-593-0920
http://Cornyn.Senate.gov
U. S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R)
SR 284 Russell Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Tel: 202-224-5922
Local Texas Offices
http://hutchison.senate.gov/offices.html
U.S. Representative
Louie Gohmert (R)
508 Cannon House Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Tel: 202-225-3035 Fax: 202-225-5866
Texas Governor
Rick Perry (R)
Room 200, State Capitol
Austin, Texas 78701
Tel: 1-800-252-9600 / 512-463-2000
Fax: 512-463-1849
Texas Lieutenant Governor
David Dewhurst (R)
Capitol Station,
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711
Tel: 512-463-0001
Texas State Representative
Wayne Christian (R)
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78711
Office: 512-463-0556 Fax: 512-463-5896
wayne.christian@house.state.tx.us
202 E. Pillar, Room 209
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Tel: 936-598-9966 204 Houston Street
Center, Texas 75935
Texas State Senator
Robert Nichols (R)
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711
Office: 512-463-0103 Fax: 512-463-1526
robert.nichols@senate.state.tx.us
202 E. Pillar, Room 208
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Tel: 936-564-4252 4100 South Medford Drive, Suite B-1
Lufkin, Texas 75901
Tel: 936-699-4988
Speaker of the Texas State House
Joe Strauss, III (R)
State Capitol, Room 2W.13
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78768-2910
Office: 512-463-3000 Fax: 512-463-0675
House of Representative’s Phone: 512-463-1000
House of Representative’s Fax: 512-463-5896
County Judge, Joe English
101 W. Main Street
Nacogdoches, TX 75961
Phone: (936) 560-7738 Fax: (936) 560-7841
County Commissioner Jerry Don Williamson, Precinct 1
101 W. Main Street
Nacogdoches, TX 75961
Phone: (936) 560-7709 Fax: (936) 560-7841
County Commissioner Charles Thomson, Precinct 2
101 W. Main Street, Suite 170
Nacogdoches, TX 75961
Phone: (936) 560-7784
County Commissioner Jim Elder, Precinct 3
101 W. Main Street
Nacogdoches, TX 75961
Phone: (936) 560-7756 Fax: (936) 560-7841
County Commissioner Elton Milstead, Precinct 4
101 W. Main Street, Suite 170
Nacogdoches, TX 75961
Phone: (936) 560-7738
County Clerk Carol Wilson
101 W. Main St., Suite 205
Nacogdoches, TX 75961
Phone: (936) 560-7738 Fax: (936) 559-5926
Justice of the Peace
http://www.co.nacogdoches.tx.us/ips/cms/countyoffices/justiceofthepiece.html
Constables
http://www.co.nacogdoches.tx.us/ips/cms/countyoffices/constable.html
Tax Assessor, Janie Weatherly
101 West Main
Phone: 936-560-7767
Fax: 936-564-2217
Nacogdoches City Commission
http://www.ci.nacogdoches.tx.us/government/cc.php
Nacogdoches ISD Board of Trustees
http://www.nacisd.org/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=147&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-12061
Friends and Fellow Republicans:
