If you are interested in running for the Assembly,

You are cordially invited to attend

“Running and Serving in the Nevada Assembly: An Overview”

Sponsored by the Assembly Democratic Caucus

Las Vegas:   Wednesday, July 29, Noon and 5:30 p.m., Nevada State Democratic Party, Conference Room, 1210 S. Valley View Blvd., Ste. 114, Las Vegas, NV 89102

This seminar will provide interested candidates a comprehensive overview of what prospective candidates can be doing now and details on what is involved in an Assembly campaign.

RSVP to the Assembly Democratic Caucus—Attention: Cianti

(702) 737-8683 or cstewartreid@gmail.com

For more information see Nevada Assembly Democratic Caucus.

I like looking at Democratic Party websites of Nevada’s different counties. Yeah, I know, I do need to get a life. But I like to look just the same, probably because I have been the webmaster of various websites over the years.

Today I took a look at the Clark County Democratic Party’s website. Their Home page is really good. Nice, neat and clean looking. Not too “busy” with a lot of pictures and other stuff that might distract from the information they convey on the Home page. There is a Featured Story, a list of Future Events, E-Board & Staff, News, Clubs and Caucus News, Greeting from Senator Reid, Web Resources, a Monthly Archive and even a Current Visitor list. [Read more →]

The election of Clark County Democratic Party officers will be held from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, July 25, 2009, in the atrium of the CCDP office, Building B, 2320 Paseo del Prado.

Newly elected officers (Chair, First Vice Chair, Second Vice Chair, Third Vice Chair, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, and Treasurer) will be sworn in immediately after the final vote tally is completed, and will serve for two years, until the next election in 2011.

Duties of the Officers are specified in the CCDP Bylaws, along with the requirement for eligibility:

Section 3.2 Eligibility.

Any citizen of Clark County registered to vote as a Democrat for at least the preceding 180 days shall be eligible to hold any office of the Central Committee.

Nomination forms to run for any CCDP Office are now available online and at the CCDP Office. Forms received by 3 p.m. each Monday through Friday will be posted on the website in the order received for each office by 5 p.m. on the day received. Nominations close at 5:00 p.m. PDT on Thursday June 25, 2009.

For more go to Clark County Democratic Party.

Notice also, the inclusionary manner Clark County uses rather than the exclusionary method Nye County used in it’s last election which pared down eligible voters to a mere handful out of the 9,000+ registered Democrats residing in Nye County.

Nye County Democrats should keep this in mind when adopting new by-laws for the Democrats of Nye County.

Dawn Hardina notified me that the Nye County Democratic Party’s Central Committee is holding a pancake breakfast!

Where: Pahrump Senior Center, 1370 West Basin Avenue, Pahrump, NV.

When: Sunday, June 14, 2009 between 8-11:00 a.m.

How Much: $5 per ticket.

So, Sunday Morning, June 14, before you go on to church, go have some pancakes. Take the wife and kids too.

Give the Nye County Democratic Party a hand in this fundraiser. It takes money to keep things going. It takes the support of all rank and file Democrats to accomplish anything. It would be a shame to waste all that effort to elect Barack Obama then throw all that away by becoming inert. Help prevent the Republican political virus of the likes of Governor Jim Gibbons, Congressman Dean Heller, State Senator Mike McGuiness, and Assemblyman Ed Goedhart. Support your party. Yes, you can! I’ve got my ticket—got yours?

Bill Dawson of Pahrump has a letter to the editor of the Pahrump Mirror today. He wrote:

Today, May 30th 2009 I attended the called meeting of the Nye County Republican Central Committee. In my opinion the meeting was an insult to any person attending such a “Farce.”

When I entered the meeting location, The Community Center, I was asked to sign in to verify my right to vote in an election scheduled for the meeting.

After signing in I was given a ballot with the five names of people who were candidates for the office that were to be voted on at this meeting were “Hand Picked” at some at some secret meeting.

I asked the secretary why the other candidates that were submitted to her were not on the ballot and her answer “You can nominate them from the floor.”

Of course, this prevented the members of the Central Committee who were not familiar with the candidates from even knowing who the other candidates were that that were not on the ballot. The remaining candidates, who were not on the ballot, were nominated from the floor. Members asked who they were and the Chair Person told the inquires how to spell their names verbally. What a “rigged election” in my opinion and a good number of other members voiced the same concern and as usual it was to no avail. It was announced by the Chairperson that we would now have an election. No Tellers” or Vote Counters” [sic] or people to observe the counting” were announced but someone came around and collected the ballots.

No one knew who was in charge of the ballot counting but it appeared that some to the Central Committee members who were on the ballot were involved, however the members were never informed of anything except that the “Hand-picked Candidates who were printed on the ballot” had been elected to all the offices that were involved in the election.

The results of this ??? Election should be “Declared Void” and a new election scheduled with the proper supervision by the Nye County Republican Central Committee as soon as possible. Or will you do what you usually do, “Ignore the minority.”

At this point, a considerable number of those attending got up and walked out to protest the questionable conduct of those in charge.

The Chairperson suggested several ways to help promote The Republican Party in Pahrump?

I know it may sound a bit “Old-Fashioned” but how about trying “Honesty” and see how it does, as you have tried everything else and it has not worked.

To those who read this and are familiar with the methods used last April in the election of the Nye County Democratic Central Central does this sound déjà vu?

The election of the Democratic Central Committee was no more an exercise in Democracy than the Republican Central Committee, as it was described by Mr. Dawson.

I could invite Mr. Dawson to change parties and join the Democrats but I’m not sure if there is a dimes worth of difference in the way either conducts elections.

Another sign that perhaps the Town of Pahrump is beginning to join the 21st century after decades of being stuck in an 1800′s mentality.

The town is about to publish a newsletter! The idea is to keep residents informed of local government plans and actions and answer questions of residents.

Town Manager Bill Kohbarger said:

Communications between people and their government is essential. Open communication lines assures better service for our residence (sic) and representatives alike.

You can receive your Pahrump Newsletter through e-mail. Just send your e-mail address to ekohbarger@pahrumpnv.org. [Pahrump Mirror, Thursday, May 28, 2009 issue, page 5]

Maybe the Nye County Democratic Central Committee will take note of this communication technique and use it. Reckon?

It took me some time to understand exactly what RT meant in Twitter.  I had tweeted a tweet about something. Then I noticed someone had put an RT in front of my tweet. I wondered why and what did that accomplish. RT means “retweet” in Twitter talk. I had in my head it meant “reply to” but I was wrong.

I tried to figure out what the reply was to me from whomever put the RT in front of my tweet. I never got a message.

Wandering around the Internet I found the answer. Let me try to illustrate just what this RT is all about. Let’s take Twitterer A and Twitterer B.

Twitterer A has 10 people who “follows” A’s tweets. Twitterer B has 10 more different people who “follow B.” That means those people who “follow” Twitterer A get to see every tweet A sends out (except Direct tweets). So when A writes a significant tweet about something of interest, Twitterer B (who follows A) thinks the tweet should interest the 10 people who follow B. Since the 10 people who follow B are different people than follows A Twitterer A simply RTs A’s tweet. That results in 10 more people get to read A’s original tweet bring the total exposure of A’s original tweet to 20, rather than just the original 10 followers of A.

See how a single tweet can become geometically increased to a wider audience?

If I didn’t make sense here, go read The Art of ReTweeting. There you will learn about some etiquitte applicable to RTing.

Imagine that the Nye County Democratic Central Committee used Twitter to communicate with the 9000 Democrats in Nye County.

I’m a 76 year old member of the Young Democrats of Nevada. I joined the group because I like the idea of young people being politically involved in matters surrounding them.

I have some good company in that group.

A’shanti Fayshel Gholar. I first saw A’shanti at a Nevada State Democratic Convention held in Hawthorne several years ago. She was among 50 or so other young Democrats. Intelligent, articulate, energetic. Two or three years ago I became something of a mentor of about five high school girls who were trying to form a Young Democrat’s organization here in Pahrump under the YDA umbrella. As time moved on the formation of the group faded away. A’shanti came to a meeting of the young group held at my home at my request. I was impressed with her effort of driving to Pahrump seeking to aid them in getting it off the ground.

Then there is Dina Titus, also a member of the Young Democrats of Nevada. A prominent high quality person now serving in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.

Steve Platt of Carson City. I had the opportunity to attend the Rural Nevada Democratic Caucus in Tonopah. Steve was a member of that caucus which was focused on building the Democratic Party organization in the rural counties of Nevada. Another quality individual.

You get the idea. There are some outstanding members in the Young Democrats of Nevada organization. But, where are the Young Democrats of Nye County?

I’ve seen no concerted effort in Pahrump to form and help build a vibrant Young Democrat group in Pahrump or Nye County. I know of no intention of the Nye County Democratic Central Committee to exert any effort to help or even encourage the formation of such a group.

I had hopes of some young people to become involved in the year old Nye County Pahrump Chapter Democracy for America group that meets monthly in Pahrump, but that hasn’t come about.

When I attend the monthly meetings of the Central Committee most of the audience is comprised of people of my generation, not the younger generation.

Unless there is some attention to reach out and engage young Democrats the Nye County Democratic Party will simply fade away into oblivion. Fresh, new, innovative ideas are needed, modernization of  the rank and file members is essential, but not yet visible on the horizon.

Twitter is an effective means of communicating with Washington politicians, news organization, even C-Span. [Huffington Post] It will even work to increase the ability of communicating with the Nye County Democratic Central Committee. All they need to do is sign up on Twitter, then notify all 9,400 Nye Democrats and ask them to “follow” the Central Committee. Of course the Central Committee has to Tweet something to follow.