Platte County Democrats Meeting on January 23rd, 2012

Platte County Democrats will meet at the First State Bank Conference Center in Guernsey on Monday, January 23rd, 7 pm. Speakers include Bob Vernon-Kubicheka, Wyoming State Director of Obama for America, and Robin Van Ausdall, Executive Director of the Wyoming Democratic Party. Please attend, and bring a friend!

Platte County Democrats to Meet Tomorrow Night

Platte County Democrats,

We will meet Monday, November 28, 2011, at the First State Bank Conference
Center at 7pm.

Pete Gosar ran for Governor in 2010 and will be the featured speaker.

Chris Kanwischer, Platte County Clerk, is tracking the redistricting effort
and will provide insight on this important issue.

Please plan to attend and bring your friends. It will be informative and
fun.

Terry R. Jones
Chairman

Rev. Rodger McDaniel to speak on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Press Release from the Platte County Democratic Party:

The public is invited to hear Rev. Rodger McDaniel speak on the topic of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The talk will take place on Wednesday, May 25th at the First State Bank Conference Center in Wheatland at 7 p.m. The guest speaker will also welcome questions from the audience.

Rev. Rodger McDaniel served in the Wyoming legislature from 1971-1981, was the Democratic Party nominee for US Senate in 1982, practiced law for 18 years, and was the Director of Habitat for Humanity operations in Nicaragua from 1991-1992. He holds a Masters of Divinity Degree from the Iliff School of Theology, and is an currently the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church after serving as director Wyoming Department of Family Services and head of the state's mental health and substance abuse programs for 8 years.

Refreshments will be served following the Q&A. The event is being sponsored by the Platte County Democratic Party.

Hope you can make it!

News from the Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee

We had a good turnout and and got fired up at Wyoming Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting. I'll be posting more information summarizing what I learned at the meeting, to help answer questions about our Democrat party and our function as members. Meanwhile, our Executive Director Bill Luckett summarizes some of the important highlights of the meeting:

The Wyoming Democratic Party State Central Committee convened today Casper College in the Sharon Nichols Auditorium, to elect state officers finalize the delegate selection plan for 2012 state and national conventions.

Central Committee members elected, by acclamation, the following leadership for a two-year term and to lead the party through the 2012 election cycle:
Chuck Herz of Moose as State Chair
Jodi Guerin of Laramie as Vice Chair
Sherry Shelley of Riverton as Secretary
Leslie Petersen of Wilson as Treasurer

The Central Committee amended the 2012 Delegate Selection Plan to hold County Conventions on April 14, 2012, in every county seat across the state. The selection of this specific date will make Wyoming eligible to earn two bonuses in the size of its delegation: one by virtue of waiting until April to hold its “first-step” events in the presidential selection process, and the other for holding its events on the same date as neighboring states. The Nebraska Democratic Party is currently planning to hold its event on April 14, and the Democratic parties of Kansas and Idaho are also considering whether to schedule their events on the same date, pending votes by their respective state committees.

After approving the amendments, the Wyoming Democratic State Central Committee today voted to formally adopt and submit the plan to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee for approval. Under the plan Wyoming will elect 19 delegates and 2 alternates to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. In addition, the state should be eligible for four bonus delegates, pending the formal approval of the plan by the DNC.

The Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee is composed of the Chairs, Vice Chairs, State Committeemen, and Committeewomen from each county, State Chair and Vice Chair, State Secretary and Treasurer, National Committeeman and Committeewoman, Legislative Representatives selected by the House Caucus and Senate Caucus, and the Young Democrats Chair, Vice Chair, State Committeeman, and State Committeewoman.

Wyoming Democratic Party Central Committee Meeting, April 30, 2011

The following is a letter from Bill Luckett, Executive Director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, regarding the upcoming Central Committee meeting in Casper. I would like to see a good turnout from Platte County, and encourage anyone interested to attend.

Folks,

The Central Committee of the Wyoming Democratic Party will meet in Casper on Saturday, April 30. The meeting will take place at Casper College, in the Sharon Nichols Auditorium in the McMurry Career Studies Building, which is at the extreme south end of campus. Directions: take Wolcott Street (which runs parallel to Center Street, just one block east) southbound toward Casper Mountain. Wolcott Street’s name changes into Casper Mountain Road, but it’s the same street. Go past 15th Street, past College Drive, past T-Bird Drive, and then take a right. THEN, take an immediate left onto Lisco Drive, circle around for 5 to 10 seconds, and turn left into the parking lot. The attached map should help some – just know that on this map, SOUTH is up, so our meeting place is at the top of the map.

Members of the Central Committee include county chairs, vice chairs, state committeemen and state committeewomen. But note that this meeting, like all of our meetings, is open to the public, AND we are going to focus heavily on training for county party leaders, so you may want to encourage others from your county who are not technically members of the Central Committee to attend. They’ll be most welcome. We also especially hope any members of the Legislature who are not technically members of the Central Committee will attend.

In addition to the training, the major orders of business will be to elect state party officers for the next two years and to approve our state party’s Delegate Selection Plan for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Attached is a tentative agenda.

The Leadership Group of the Wyoming Democratic Party will meet in Casper on the previous day, Friday, April 29, for a session on Party strategy, as previously announced. That meeting is planned for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday the 29th in the downstairs conference room of the Stratton Real Estate/Blue Cross Blue Shield building at 231 E. Midwest Ave., which is between Wolcott and Durbin streets just a half block south of 2nd Street. The Leadership Group and others who’ve indicated interest in attending will get further information on this session early next week.

I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks!
Bill

Bill Luckett
Executive Director
Wyoming Democratic Party
(307) 473-1457 (office)
(307) 631-7638 (cell)
luckett@wyomingdemocrats.com

Press Release: Platte County Democrats Elect New Leadership

Wheatland, WY – Last night twenty Democrats from across Platte County gathered and elected new leadership for a two-year term.

Terry Jones of Wheatland was elected as Chair and Stacey Reichardt of Wheatland was elected as Vice Chair. Rick Robbins of Wheatland retained his position as Secretary and Jeff Wilhelm of Wheatland will continue serving as treasurer. Michael Crowley of Wheatland was elected to serve as State Committeeman. The position of State Committeewoman is vacant and will be filled by appointment.

“I’m looking forward to leading the Platte County Democrats. I hope to see a lot more people at our monthly meetings, including a lot of younger faces,” commented Jones.

Monthly meetings of the Platte County Democrats will resume in April. The time and place will soon be announced.

Platte County Democrats Elect Officers

The Platte County Democrats met at the county library on March 22nd to hold elections and discuss plans for the party. Thanks to all who came out to vote! Our new Chairperson is Terry Jones, and our new Vice-Chairperson is Stacey Reichardt! Continuing as our Secretary is Rick Robbins, and maintaining the Treasurer position is Jeff Wilhelm. Michael Crowley (yours truly) is our State Committeeman, and the position of State Committeewoman will be appointed soon.

We were very fortunate to have Brianna Jones, Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director, with us to review the party's upcoming goals and to discuss the Affordable Care Act, reviewing some of the benefits available to Wyoming citizens. For example, did you know about 9,000 Wyoming residents with preexisting conditions qualify for affordable insurance, but only 50 enrolled for the program? Go to www.pcip.gov for more information.

Brianna will be pursuing other personal goals starting in May, and thus will not continue in her current position. She has been a great asset to the party, and I know our next Communications Director will have big shoes to fill. Good luck and thanks for all your hard work, Brianna!

Our Platte County Democrats members discussed short term goals, and we will be looking at having regular meetups to work on goals, party promotion, and ways to improve local politics!

If you aren't on the local party e-mail list, please send us a message and you will be added. Also, please add to our discussions by joining our Facebook group. This group requires a request to join, so that we can keep it to just to members of our party.

2012 is just around the corner, it's time to get this party energized! Stay tuned...

Platte County Democrats Meeting

The Platte County Democrats will be holding a meeting on Tuesday, March 22nd at 7 p.m. for the purpose of electing officers for the upcoming term. The meeting will be held at the Platte County Public Library Meeting Room. Linda Shelton is our current chairperson, taking up the chairmanship after the recent resignation of Charlie McDonald. See you there!

Wyoming State Senate Kills HB74

Two articles were posted this morning regarding how HB74, the validity of marriage bill, was stopped:


http://equalitystatewatch.blogspot.com/2011/03/house-bill-74-dies-in-senate.html

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1770226

From the second piece: "WyWatch State Director Becky Vandeberge was disappointed with the vote, but says she will keep working to keep same-sex unions from being recognized in the state. "The goal here was to get a voting record on a clean bill that defines marriage as between one man and one woman," she said. "And now we have that for the next election."

I couldn't agree more Becky. In Platte County, all of our representatives attempted to pass law that simply pushes for inequality. Senators Curt Meier and Jim Anderson, Representatives Matt Teeters and Frank Peasley all voted Yea on SJ005, the defense of marriage constitutional amendment. It was placed in the general file and was not considered in the committee of the whole. Then our all Republican "representatives" got behind HB74, which was defeated in the Senate yesterday.

Our elected leaders disguise their motivations as being sound, rational attempts at "creating consistent verbiage" across the board to guide our court systems. But I truly feel this is all religiously motivated, an attempt by followers of the christian bible to influence politics, and deny other Wyomingites the freedoms that they themselves enjoy. There is a reason why we have separation of church and state. These Platte County senators and representatives don't understand it. You have the right to practice religion, but you do not have the right to push your agenda on others through the government.

By the way, the e-mails I sent to Frank Peasley and Matt Teeters went unanswered. Thanks for the representation and response to a constituent, gentleman. Outstanding work.

This issue was only one of several bills this legislative session considered to interfere and control the rights of Wyomingites. They wanted government prescriptions for abortions. They tried to force children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Is if this is the Republicans idea of smaller government, I'm afraid they have their wires crossed. Next election cycle, we certainly will remember this.

EDIT: and from the trib: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/article_70dd42f1-ba13-519b-b9a8-87c0922aff6e.html

WyWatch keeping tabs on our State House and Senate

If you are a Facebook user, I suggest checking out the WyWatch Watchers group, which is doing a fine job of keeping tabs on the legislation and proposals that affect our personal freedoms.

There is just one week to go until the 2011 legislature session. The Republican Party candidates have clearly shown what kind of power trip they go on when they have control of the house, senate, and governorship of our state. It hasn't been pretty to watch, but hopefully this will get our party riled up and start planning for the 2012 election cycle. We need to toss out our district representatives. They have helped push through legislation that denies equality to all Wyoming citizens, and have successfully pushed their so-called morality issues while blindly ignoring our U.S. constitution.

Our county caucus is fast approaching in March. I'd like to see some serious discussion concerning our need to fight back and put some people in power that want to prevent this state from continuing down the path of prejudice and hate mongering.

A Discussion Saloon

Platte County Democrats,

I want to start a discussion saloon here in Wheatland. Sponsored and moderated by the democratic party here it would be a sorta of weekly open forum. There is much to be discussed and the weekly forum seems like a good idea. Not formal meetings, those would be separate but a more informal discussion on topics and issues. Health care for instance, or current legislative bills, or some need in one of our towns or farm or ranch. It would be moderated to keep it ordered and work in the time alloted. Creating open dialog is important and keeps our democracy going. This web site helps to do that, and indeed I would hope to see follow ups on the discussion on this site.

What I need is input. A sorta of show of hands ( or comments in this case) on this idea. Help me to shape this forum and where we could hold it, what time is best. I will send this out via the e-mail list as well as on the web site. Lets start an understanding of the issues and topics that will shape Wyoming's elections in 2010.

~ Charles McDonald, Platte County Democrats Chairperson

Lummis leading Trauner at end of October

Polls conducted from Oct 27-29 show Cynthia Lummis having a lead over Gary Trauner, 49 to 45, compared to a previous poll where Trauner led 44-43. It's still close, but it's not the best news for those hoping for Democratic representation in Congress.

So what's going on here? My best guess is that people afraid of a "Democratic majority" are trending toward Lummis, to offset the fact that Barack Obama is likely going to be our next President of the United States. Yesterday I was speaking to one of our Democratic candidates running for office, and we agreed that in 2006 we may have seen a lot of "No More Cubin!" votes going to Gary. Perhaps it is a combination of the two. At any rate, this race is not over, and Gary Trauner is still the best choice for Wyoming to send to Congress. But we need every Democrat, Independent, and tired-of-partisan-politics Republicans to get to the voting booth. This is not a time to stand on the sidelines. Talk to your neighbors, friends and relatives. Ask them to do the same. At this point, with four days to go, it's a ground game. Game on!

Get out the vote Platte County

By the end of the day, it will be "times up" for donating money to your favorite candidate(s). Most of the political hopefuls and diehards will be hitting the streets this weekend, a last push to find those few extra people that haven't quite decided to whom they will cast their ballot. This is the pre-party to the Superbowl of politics, Election Day. And like a diehard sports fan, I feel the need to trumpet the virtues of my team. We have some great players, and I'd like to see some touchdowns on Tuesday. First, Barack Obama is looking good but he needs every vote he can muster. Statewide, our best chance to bring home gold is with Gary Trauner with a U.S. House Seat. Locally, I'm thinking Terry Jones has a decent shot at getting the win in State House District #3.

Enough sports analogies. My point is, if you have a candidate that you want to support, this is the time to do it. Call your candidates and ask what you can do. Get out the vote!

Early voting in Platte County

My wife and I headed down to the Platte County Clerk's office this morning and voted early. It was real simple, and only took about 10 minutes. We were both wearing Obama campaign buttons, and a gentlemen also at the counter commented that he liked them. A fellow blue voter! I replied that I was happy that he liked them. There was another young female at the booth voting early too...which was good to see. Not that we should have a real problem with extensively long lines here in Platte County, but why not go and vote now? There was literally no waiting. If there is a problem with your registration, you'll have time to fix it, and you'll be assured your vote is included. I encourage every eligible citizen to take the time to vote, especially my fellow Platte County Democrats! This election, we have the opportunity to make a difference. Every vote counts.

Wyoming Democratic Party needs your help Platte County Dems

I received this e-mail this afternoon from the Wyoming Democratic Party Treasurer Chuck Herz:

Ten days to go! And much at stake.

The congressional race in Wyoming is neck-and-neck. Gary Trauner leads Cynthia Lummis by a mere one percent in the latest polls and even the Republican National Congressional Committee admits that the race a tossup. We have a strong chance to elect the first Wyoming Democrat to either house of Congress in over thirty years.

We also have a strong chance to increase Democratic representation in both houses of the Wyoming Legislature, quite possibly enough to boost our representation on committees and secure any veto by Gov. Freudenthal. The Presidential and US Senate races currently look tougher, but we’ve an off-chance to pull a big surprise and should at minimum be able to narrow margins so that potential candidates, funding sources, the national party, and Wyoming Democrats will see Wyoming as much more competitive in the future.

Everything now depends on turnout. So we’re setting out to mount the strongest get-out-the-vote effort Wyoming has probably ever seen. An army of you are involved already, and thanks for that. But we need every Democrat in Wyoming to pitch in as much as they possibly can. So if you’re not already signed up as a volunteer to help whenever and wherever you can on the last weekend (November 1 and 2) and especially on Election Day itself (November 4), please, please do so now. If you’re already signed up, please consider signing up for another shift.Here are the contacts in each county with their contact information:

Here are the shifts for which we need volunteers:
Saturday, Nov. 1 Doors: 10am-1pm, 2pm-5pm
Saturday, Nov. 1 Phones: 10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm, 4pm-6pm
Sunday, Nov. 2 Doors: 12pm-3pm, 3pm-6pm
Sunday, Nov. 2 Phones: 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm, 4pm-6pm, 6pm-8pm
ELECTION DAY, Nov. 4 Doors: 10am-12:30pm, 1:30pm-4pm, 5pm-7pm
ELECTION DAY, Nov. 4 Phones: 10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm, 4pm-7pm

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD DEMOCRATS TO COME TO THE AID OF THE PARTY, AND OF OUR EXCELLENT CANDIDATES AT ALL LEVELS! Good hunting.

If you can lend a hand, the contacts for Platte County are Katie Lass, 307-680-6128, katie@wyomingdemocrats.com, or Dana Walton, 307-258-1825, dana@wyomingdemocrats.com.