December 2007 DNC update

Greetings Wisconsin Democrats:

I just returned to Wisconsin from the fall DNC meeting in Vienna, Virginia and wanted to take a moment to update you on what happened. It was a very exciting meeting as we are now just one month away from the start of the Iowa caucuses and the 2008 nominating contests. Here is a summary of the DNC meeting:

DNC General Sessions
On Friday, we heard from many of the Democratic presidential candidates. All the candidates gave fantastic speeches and I would encourage you to find watch them online if you can. We also heard from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

During the general session, we adopted 22 resolutions. I was proud to serve as a sponsor of two of these resolutions. The first was a resolution in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. It is important that we support our friends in labor and get Congress to pass this piece of legislation. The second resolution I sponsored recognized World AIDS Day and called on Congress to create a National AIDS strategy.

DNC Political Briefing
Saturday morning we heard a political briefing on 2008 from DNC Political Director David Boundy. He shared with us that over 63% of people thing we are on the wrong track and are ready for something different in 2008. He highlighted the goals the party will be working for in our field plan. First, our obvious goal is to take back the White House and expand majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Additionally, we will focus on capturing gubernatorial seats and other statewide offices. Finally, we want to gain control of state legislatures so that we control the redistricting process.

In order to accomplish these goals, we need to have as many people sign up as Neighborhood Leaders as possible. The point of the Neighborhood Leader program is to have each person talk to 25 people in their neighbor three times between now and November 4, 2008. I would be happy to explain more about the program to you or direct you to the appropriate person to sign up for it. We need your help now if we want to win in 2008.

DNC Youth Coordinating Council
The DNC Youth Coordinating Council, of which I am privileged to serve as Secretary, met this past weekend. We are working on developing training programs for youth interested in running for delegate to the national convention. Additionally, we are going to begin working with DNC to develop a Student Voting Rights Institute that will provide support and resources to college students and other youth on their rights to vote so that they will not be scared by Republican threats at the voting booth.

2008 Democratic National Convention
Finally, as you all know, the National Convention will be taking place in Denver on August 25-28, 2008. The Democratic National Convention Committee announced recently announced the delegation hotels for each state and territory. Wisconsin has been given the Denver Marriot City Center in downtown Denver. We will be sharing a hotel with Illinois and the Virgin Islands. For those if you interested in attending the convention, please do not call the hotel asking for a reservation. Rooms will be held for all delegates and alternates and will be made available after our caucuses. The full list of hotels is available at: http://www.demconvention.com/a/2007/11/delegation_hote.html.

Thinking of caucuses, please be sure to mark these dates on your calendar. The first-tier county caucus will be held on Sunday, April 6 at 2PM. The second-tier Congressional District caucus will be held on Sunday, May 4 at 2PM. If you need any information on how to run to be a delegate or more information on the national convention, please do not hesitate to let me know.

July 2007 DNC Update

Greetings Wisconsin Democrats:

First and foremost, I want to apologize to each and every one of you for missing out on the 2007 State Convention in Milwaukee. I found myself stuck out in San Francisco last weekend after getting bumped from my flight. I did everything I could to make it back in time, but the airline industry just was not on my side. So please, let me express my deep sadness that I was not able to be with all of you.

Because I wasn’t in Milwaukee, I thought I would take a moment of time today and just provide you with a quick overview of some DNC happenings and other activities that I have been doing.

DNC Delegation to Taiwan
First, and most exciting, I just returned home from a week long journey to Taiwan. (That is where I was coming from last weekend). The government of Taiwan invited a delegation of 10 DNC members to visit their country and meet with officials. I was humbled to be asked to serve in this delegation. Visiting Taiwan was an extremely interesting, informative experience.

During our stay, we were able to meet with several key leaders to discuss a variety of issues from Taiwan’s relationship to China, to the United Nations, to international economics and more. Our visit included a trip to an elementary school to meet with teachers and students. It was interesting to learn that all students are required to begin studies in English in kindergarten in order “not to be behind the rest of the world.”

We were also able to meet with the Director of the Bureau of National Health Insurance. Taiwan has a government provided health insurance program for all citizens that currently covers nearly 100% of the population. The cost for a person to visit a doctor: $6. The cost for medication: $6. Everything else is covered by the government. It was fascinating to hear about their system. We asked several questions regarding frequency of visits, hospital stays, specialized treatments and more. As the Director said, “It is cheaper to have a baby delivered than to have the paper delivered.”

We were also able to sit down and meet with President Wang, the President of the Legislative Yen. (While termed president, he is the equivalent of Nancy Pelosi.) We discussed a wide host of issues with him, including cost of college educations in Taiwan. (It is much less than anywhere in the United States.) We also had an afternoon with the National Security Director to discuss pressing international threats impacting Taiwan.

Our visit included meeting with leaders of both political parties in Taiwan, the KMT and the DPP. It was interesting to learn about their party structure and their primary process. There are many aspects that our similar to our system in the United States and many very unique components.

That short summary does not even begin to explain the great amount of information and experiences that were had in Taiwan. I would be so happy to speak with you about my travels on a one-on-one basis. I truly want to thank the Taiwanese government for providing me and other DNC colleagues from across the country this opportunity. I was humbled to be included in the delegation.

DNC Youth Council
The DNC Youth Council is now fully formed and functioning. It has been an almost two-year process to get the group up and running but we know are in full operation. I am currently serving as the Youth Council Secretary. We just filled all of our at-large seats in the Council and are beginning the process of training young people how to run for national convention delegate spots.

Delegate Selection Plan
The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee approved the 2008 DPW Delegate Selection Plan. I was given the opportunity assist Joe Wineke in writing that plan. For those who have ever read the plan before, it is a very complex, intricate document as we are required to comply with a host of DNC rules and regulations. I am ecstatic to say that the committee found our plan to be in full compliance. More information will be coming out from the State Party about the plan in the next few months.

Leadership Summit
I wanted to be sure that you are all aware of a DNC Summit you are all welcome to attend. Many of the DNC caucuses are coming together to hold a joint summit in Las Vegas on August 23-25. Those groups participating include the DNC’s Womens, LGBT, African-American, AAPI, and Hispanic caucuses. This is supposed to be a phenomenal event so I would highly encourage you to attend if possible. If you have any questions, please feel free to visit the DNC’s website at http://www.democrats.org/page/s/dncJointSummit or contact me.

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Finally, I wanted to give you all just a brief personal update. After finishing my sophomore year at Marquette University, I am spending the summer in Washington, D.C. interning with People For the American Way. I’m focusing on public policy, which is certainly a change from “campaign-world.” I am enjoying it, but also looking forward to starting classes again in August.

That takes care of everything that I have right now. If you have any questions or if there is anything that I can do for you, please do not hesitate to let me know. Thanks for your time. I hope you have a phenomenal day!

Democratically yours,
Jason Rae

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Jason R. Rae
DNC Member – WI
Youth Council, Secretary
raejason@yahoo.com

February 4, 2007, DNC report: 2008 elections and candidates

Greetings Wisconsin Democrats!

Doesn’t it feel great to be the party in control of Congress? We are just wrapping up our winter DNC meeting here in Washington, D.C. and I wanted to provide you with a report on that is happening on the national level.

This has been an extremely exciting meeting. First, we took some time to celebrate our wins in November. It felt great to be in our Nation’s capital and know that we control Congress and set the agenda now. It felt great knowing that the morning our meeting started the Democrats had raised the minimum wage in the Senate. It felt great to be looking forward to 2008 when we take back the White House.

I want to touch on just a few of the many things that happened out here this weekend.

Presidential Candidates
General sessions on Friday and Saturday consisted primarily of speeches from all of the Democratic candidates running for President. If you have an opportunity to watch these address on C-SPAN or elsewhere, I would highly recommend you to do so. Each candidate did a phenomenal job. I truly believe this is an amazing field of Democratic candidates.

We heard from Senators Dodd, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Gravel, and Edwards; Congressman Kucinich; Governors Richardson and Vilsack; and General Clark. I had the opportunity to speak with many of these candidates during the weekend on a one-on-one basis, including Senators Obama, Clinton, and Biden.

There were a few major themes between all candidates. They all spoke about the need to end the war in Iraq as quickly as possible. Additionally, many of them highlighted the issue of health care as one of America’s most grievous problems. Each candidate did did a great job. Out of all of them, I found four that I would consider tied for having given the best speech, those being Senators Biden, Obama, Edwards, and Governor Richardson. I encourage you to find their speeches and watch them. They will blow you away!

Watching these candidates over the next few months will be a thrilling experience. Do you have any favorites early out? I’m not going to be making a decision for quite some time, but would love to hear your thoughts on the candidates.

2008 National Convention
As you are probably aware, the 2008 Democratic National Convention has been set for August 25th to 28th in Denver, Colorado. It should prove to be a remarkable convention as we nominate the next President of the United States.

During the meeting, we did adapt the official Call to the Convention. The Call provides for a new system of bonus delegates to be awarded to states who hold their nominating conventions later in the process. This is an attempt to prevent front-loading in the nominating calendar.

DNC Youth Coordinating Council
After over a year of work on drafting by-laws and rules, we formally established the DNC Youth Coordinating Council on Thursday afternoon. The Council consists of all DNC members under the age of 36, as well as 12 at-large non-DNC members yet to be selected. The Council will ensure that the Democratic Party does everything possible to reach out to younger voters, as well as increase opportunities for young members of the party.

Additionally, because the Council is now official, we will soon be electing additional officers. I have submitted my name for consideration as Secretary of the Council. We will likely be voting on that soon on a conference call, so I will keep you posted on that.

DNC Midwest Caucus
The Midwest Caucus of the DNC met on Friday afternoon. The Midwest Region had many spectacular victories in November. Indiana, for example, picked up three new Democratic seats in the US House. Ohio elected a Democratic Governor, Secretary of State, and US Senator. In South Dakota, the Democrats picked up five seats in the State Senate and one in the State House. Those are just a sampling of the wonderful gains made in America’s Heartland.

In addition to celebrating the phenomenal wins, we had two internal caucus elections. The first was to fill a vacancy on the DNC Executive Committee. In a very close race (39 votes to 38 votes), we elected Doug Brooks of Missouri. We also had an election for Rotating Advisory Committee Member. This person is responsible for providing input in the planning of the next DNC meeting. I am proud to say that I was unanimously elected to that position. I am eager to learn more about the DNC and serve the great people of the Midwest.

DNC GLBT Caucus
The DNC schedules many constituency caucuses during our meeting. I try to attend a variety of different caucuses to see what is happening within different communities in our party. During this DNC meeting, I sat in on the GLBT caucus.

Governor Dean came and spoke about the recent gains in openly gay elected officials, but talked about the need to fight against discriminatory amendments. During his remarks, he highlighted the effort in Wisconsin against the amendment and praised the work that Mike Tate and Fair Wisconsin had done. He said that in the future he hopes the DNC will be more pro-active against these measures.

That provides just a brief snippet of all that took place this weekend in Washington, D.C. I could probably right you a book on all the candidates and the general feeling out here in Washington, but I don’t want to take any more of your time.

If you have any questions or concerns or comments, please do not hesitate to let me know. Additionally, if there is anything I can do for you, your county party, your Congressional District, or any other organization, let me know. I am here to serve you. Also, feel free to pass this on to anyone you feel may enjoy hearing what the DNC is up to.

I hope you have a phenomenal day and I look forward to talking to you soon!

Democratically yours,
Jason Rae
DNC Member – WI
raejason@yahoo.com
715.790.4334