The Bluebonnet
Newsletter for Texas College Democrats Affiliates
FINANCE THE FUTURE OF TEXAS
Texas Students: Legislative
Republicans refused to
spend on our future; 59 Tex-
as Democrats stood up for
our future and voted against
a budget that cut grants to
students like you and I.
Stand up and spend more on
our future than Texas Re-
publicans by donating $1 to
Texas College Democrats to-
day. This is our state and
our future, send a message
to Austin today.
COLLEGE DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA CONVENTION
Join Texas College Democrats at the 2011 Col-
lege Democrats of America Convention held in Wash-
ington, DC, from Thursday, June 16th through Sun-
day, June 19th at George Washington University. TCD
would like to have as many school represented as pos-
sible, why pass up such a spectacular opportunity?
CHECKLIST:
 Registered with CDA
 Travel arrangements
 Lodging arrangements
TCD DELEGATION TO CDA11
By David de la Fuente
Texas College Democrats is excited to have such
a large delegation to the 2011 College Democrats of
America Summer Convention taking place in Washing-
ton, D.C. from June 16-19. Students from Austin Col-
lege, Baylor, Rice, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston
State, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M, Tex-
as Tech, Texas Wesleyan, Trinity, UT-Austin, and UT-
Dallas will be representing Texas College Democrats at
Summer Convention.
Announced speakers for convention include
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DNC Chairwoman
and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Former
DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, DNC Executive Direc-
tor Patrick Gaspard and many more. Trainings include
tracks in communications, fundraising, organizing, and
state leadership.
CDA President Alejandra Salinas of UT-Austin
will be running for reelection and TCD will be working HAVE AN AREA OF EXPERTISE
hard to ensure that a great Texan like Alejandra contin- AND WANT TO WRITE FOR THE
ues to serve CDA at the national level. Furthermore,
TCD Executive Board members David de la Fuente,
Alex Clark, and Amber Hastings will be serving on the
CDA Elections, Awards, and Credentials Committees
respectively.
If you are interested in attending CDA Summer
Convention, more information can be found at
CDA11.com. If you need more information about joining
the TCD delegation, please contact me by email at
ddelafuente@txcollegedems.org.
A FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE
By Christie Squires
Through the months of April
and May, the Texas College Demo-
crats held a statewide petition drive to
protest the grievous cuts to the Texas
higher education budget. The Texans
for Tomorrow Petition garnered over
1,500 signers from 60 colleges and
universities, from the University of
Texas at Austin to small community
colleges around the state. To publicize
the results of this impressive show of
student activism, members of the ex-
ecutive board of the Texas College
Democrats hosted a press conference
in the Speaker’s Room in the state
capitol. Present at this conference
was President David de la Fuente and
Vice President Alex Clark, both who
gave remarks on the success of the
petition and implored the Legislature
to appropriate more funds to higher
education. Rep. Donna Howard
(District 48) also spoke against the
cuts to all levels of education. Other
board members present included my-
self, and Elise Miller, Development
Director. The press conference was
well attended by the media, with both
David and Alex being interviewed by
several news outlets. The conference
was covered by Texas Tribune, the
Austin Your News Network, and
KCEN News. Overall, it was a smash-
ing success and a great way to get the
word out on the petition.
As Programs Director for the
Texas College Democrats, I had an
active role in planning for the petition
and the press conference. It was tru-
ly amazing to see such an outpouring
of support from so many students
across the state of Texas. The signers
of the Texans for Tomorrow petition
were not just students from big name
schools, they were an incredibly rep-
resentative sample of college students
in Texas. Because the petition was
such a success, we decided as a
board to make the results as public
as possible through a press confer-
ence. We worked closely with Rep.
Joaquin Castro’s office who helped us
reserve a room and find speakers who
would tout our message. Overall, it
was an interesting experience to put
together and I definitely learned what
it takes to plan and put on a success-
ful press conference, a skill that that
Texas College Democrats can utilize
for future events.
BLUEBONNET?
Email TCD Communications
Director Trenton Garza
tgarza@txcollegedems.org
CONCLUSION OF THE 82nd LEGISLATIVE SESSION
AND CONVENING OF SPECIAL SESSION
During the 82nd Legislative Session, the state of
Texas saw what happens when the most Republican
legislature in history has control. This past session ex-
perienced a radically conservative agenda, putting ideo-
logical before necessity. Holding 101 of the 150 House
Seats and 19 of the 31 Senate Seats, Republicans
could pass any legislation they wished, yet in the weeks
leading up to the end of the session, Republicans chose
to address numerous “emergency” legislation instead of
the true emergencies of state citizens from within their
proposed state budget. In the end, it was Republicans
who procrastinated by passing unfounded limitations
on women and voters, then taking action on a school
finance plan, at which point Senator Wendy Davis took
action, providing a filibuster, consuming enough time
to result in the failure to pass the greatly flawed state
budget.
Because the state legislature did not pass a
state budget, Governor Perry is constitutionally re-
quired to call for the state legislature to convene for a
special session. This special session began Tuesday
May 31 and is set to last 30 days.
During the session, the state legislature will ad-
dress and pass a state budget, in addition to reviewing
numerous other bills. Other expected legislation in-
clude Congressional Redistricting, Smoking Ban in
public places, Medicare Spending, Concealed Carry on
Campus and School Spending
Texas College Democrats would like to express
our gratitude of the determination and efforts taken by
Democratic officials in opposition to the abuses within
the state budget. With Senator Davis’s filibuster, the
legislature has more time to debate the issues and ide-
ally prevent the serious transgressions the current cuts
will have on the Texans and the future of our state.
TCD would like to encourage our leaders to fight for
what is right and oppose the irresponsible cuts to edu-
cation and the numerous other wrongs Republicans
wish the bring upon our state.
UNIFORM ELECTIONS RUNOFF
By Amber Hastings
The Texas uniform local election took place on
May 14th, but we must not forget that several im-
portant races in Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, and vari-
ous other municipalities across the state will have a
run-off election just one month after the initial push to
the polls. These elections almost always see very low
turnout (around 10% of voters). It is disappointing to
see how this voter turnout will turn around and affect
Texans. When voter turnout is low, special interests
gain a great deal of ground. This is because they have a
vested interest in a candidate or idea, and when we
aren’t voting in large numbers, our influence dwindles
even more.
A Voter ID bill was recently signed into law by
Gov. Rick Perry, which will make it even more difficult
to get people to the polls. This was after some six years
of similar bills trying to pass through the Texas Legisla-
ture. The battle was fiercely partisan and will certainly
disenfranchise some voters, and it will cause voter
turnout to be even more dismal. There is some hope for
overturning the Voter ID bill, because it was not pre-
cleared by the US Department of Justice. Texas and
eight other states must have any major changes to the
election code cleared by the Justice Department based
on a history of discriminatory policies like poll taxes
and literacy tests.
Municipal elections are a key part of our system
of government, and are sadly often overlooked. It is ab-
solutely imperative that college students turn out the
vote in any and all uniform election run-offs. The run-
off election will occur on June 18th with early vote run-
ning from June 6th to June 14th.