Wednesday, August 15, 2007

PAYD in Dallas!

The Pennsylvania Young Democrats sent a 28 member delegation to the 2007 Young Democrats of America Convention in Dallas, Texas. PAYD’s Executive Board, including State Representatives Tony Payton Jr and Chelsa Wagner, were joined by a diverse group of young Pennsylvanians from all walks of life and every corner of the commonwealth.

The four day convention that began on July 18th included invaluable seminars by political professionals from organizations like Emily’s List, the NAACP, Young Voter Strategies and the DNC. Topics included not only traditional workshops like fundraising, media and field, but issue discussions from experts on the Iraq War, climate change and college affordability. The Pennsylvania delegation especially enjoyed presentations by YDA Political Director Tony Cani and YDA Finance Director Andrea Pagano. In addition, YDA’s five state executive directors, including Pennsylvania’s, presented seminars on emerging aspects of youth organizing, such as using social networking websites as political tools and peer-to-peer organizing.

A highlight of the Dallas experience was the speeches of Democratic stalwarts like radio host Jim Hightower, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope and General Wesley Clark. A particularly powerful moment came when former Senator John Edwards took to the stage to detail his advocacy for America’s poorest citizens. His clarion call that "It's time for the president to ask America to be patriotic about something other than war," brought the Pennsylvania delegation to their feet in approval.

The Keystone State was doubly proud to witness two of their favorite sons take the main stage before the audience of 750 delegates and guests. Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org gave an impassioned history of his involvement in ending Bush’s unjust war and bringing our troops back to America’s shores. Soltz, a Pittsburgh native, is a nationally recognized authority who has appeared on numerous cable news programs giving voice to the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Chuck Rocha of the United Steelworkers (USW) told the assembly about his unique experience being the youngest Political Director of a major labor union in the country while detailing the miserable record of the Bush White House on issues that affect working Americans. Thanks to Rocha’s strong support of PAYD and its mission to build a reliable voting bloc of young voters in Pennsylvania, PAYD and the USW have begun a partnership to work for common goals in 2008 and beyond.

True, when many think of young people and conventions, they think of networking, social events and partying. Not to disappoint, a few very memorable evenings were enjoyed by Pennsylvania’s delegation, including a reception hosted by the five state executive directors. Nevertheless, this convention was about work – and our delegation rose to their duties each morning.

Special thanks goes to Tara Reynolds, our National Committeewoman, who represented PAYD during the 14 hours that the YDA Platform Committee met to discuss issues of national import affecting young America. Josh Pasek, our former National Committeeman, sat on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, while Tim Brennan, our current National Committeeman, joined the Credentials Committee. In addition to these YDA standing committees, all of our delegates attended the meetings of the various caucuses that carry out much of the work that Young Democrats do.

Josh Pasek at Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting

PAYD members participated in the GLBT, Women’s and Rural caucuses, but other caucuses saw Pennsylvanians assume leadership roles. Winning elections were Stephanie Strasizar and Rocco Giammaria in the Labor Caucus, Nyota Robinson in the Disability Issues Caucus and Alexandra Wood in the College Caucus. Josh Pasek regained his position as chair of the Jewish Caucus while Alicia Froio, the youngest member of our delegation, won her election to become the new chair of the High School Caucus. PAYD believes that a targeted effort to organize among high school students is a critical goal in 2008. We can’t wait to begin working with Alicia and all of the other caucus officers over the next two years.

Those elections were the prelude to the main event: the election of new officers to replace the administration of Chris Gallaway, who held the presidency for four years. Under Gallaway’s leadership, YDA increased its staff from 1 part-time employee to 10 full-time professionals while membership increased to 150,000. The most impressive statistic is the growth of YDA’s annual budget from $70,000 to well over $1,000,000 this year! Pennsylvania received its fair share from that budget in matching money paying for our two very successful peer-to-peer voter contact campaigns in 2004 and 2006. PAYD extends its thanks to Gallaway and our best wishes for the future.

In his stead, the Young Democrats of America elected a bold new leader from the conventions host state, David Hardt of Texas. Receiving over 90% of the delegates’ votes, Hardt, YDA’s first openly gay president, spoke from his heart during his acceptance speech by promising to reinvigorate YDA from top to bottom. Hardt’s new executive committee includes some of PAYD’s best friends, such as Vice Presidents Chris Anderson of Tennessee, A’shanti Gholar of Nevada and Josh Blevins, former president of Pennsylvania’s sister organization in the great state of Arkansas. PAYD is thrilled to see Amy Lewis of Virginia elected to the office of Treasurer and Stephanie Hausner assuming the role of Secretary. In our hopes that young people are fully represented at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, PAYD can think of no stronger advocate than our friend Crystal Strait of California, newly elected YDA National Committeewoman. Together, these officers make an impressive team that we expect will make an indelible mark on YDA for years to come.

PAYD Members with YDA President Hardt

In the opinion of this humble scribe, the 2007 YDA National Convention was a tremendous success. We would like to thank President Payton, who acted as our chief ambassador throughout the convention, and Abe Haupt, who enthusiastically served as our Delegation Chair. We would be remiss not to thank Alexandra Acker, YDA’s phenomenal new Executive Director, YDA’s Convention Director Amber Goodwin, and YDA Intern Tiana Epps-Johnson for making our Dallas experience so memorable.

PAYD’s large, vocal and active delegation made our presence felt in Dallas. As we chart a new course through 2008, we will look back at the time we shared at convention as the beginning of a new chapter in our continual growth.

-Paul McKrell
PAYD E. D.

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