Heads Up, Texans
Okay, here’s a very cool thing you can do this weekend.
I’m With Wendy is a website run by a friend of mine and you can get in on the ground floor because this sucker just went up this morning.
This photo project is open to anyone who lives in Texas.
If you would like to participate in this photo project:
1) Write your own sign that starts, “I’m With Wendy because…” followed by a specific reason that you are voting for Davis. Please DO NOT write, “because she’s not Greg Abbott” or “because she’s better than the other option.”
2) Send me an email titled “I’m With Wendy Pic” with the picture attached and please type the city where you live, and, if you would like, your name.
Email: imwithwendyD@gmail.com (NOTE the D in the email address!)
And some suggestions:
she backs legalizing medical marijuana and will consider its decriminalization
she has a strong history of support for the LGBT community
she has literally stood in the way of anti-choice legislation
she has been a supporter of Planned Parenthood for a long time
she filibustered a budget that cut over $5 billion from education funding
she has been an advocate of veterans
she wants state-wide Pre-K for all Texas kids
she favors granting driver licenses to undocumented immigrants
she backs re-regulating college tuition
she supports federal efforts to declare the voter ID law unconstitutional
she wants teachers to have higher pay
Let’s make this happen.
I had lunch with a longtime friend recently. We are retired educators and share a similar world view, meaning, of course, we do not vote for any Republicans. She was very demonstrative in her disappointment regarding Wendy Davis when she (Davis) came out in favor of the open carry law. Her feelings were such that she no longer intends to work on the campaign. I am interested in how the Davis’ folks spin this. I will vote for her because she isn’t Gregg Abbott, but, any hopes for success must go beyond this issue. Would like your thoughts and those of your readers.
1dbtexas – The Davis campaign has a new political director and we’re hoping for the best. So far, her campaign has been run by Larry, Curly, and Matt, errr… Moe.
I’m going to vote for Wendy Davis because it makes me cry to think about children without health care. I’m going to vote for Leticia Van de Putte because she opposes open carry and for it to get into the Texas House it has to go by the Lt. Governor first. I have come to great peace with this.
I’m With Wendy is a grassroots attempt to take Wendy’s campaign back where it started and where it belongs – grassroots. I encourage you to make your voice heard. I know her campaign is watching this movement.
2I am dismayed that Wendy has come out for “Open Carry”. I gave a nice donation with the intention of helping more later in the race, but now I’m not so sure.
3Most of Wendy’s positions are on the progressive side. That is where the focus should remain. Eyes on the prize.
4This is Texas. What difference does it make?
I’d rather see the gun on the hip, then see a car full of kids get shot for loud music. We just better remember that everybody we come in contact with is carrying.
Whatever her position on open carry, she’s right on everything else. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Glad to hear the campaign has a fresh start.
5Thanks for this post, JJ. I’m not in Texas, so I won’t send a pic, but if I were a Texan, I would DEFINITELY be for Wendy. I will tweet this post to all of my Twitter followers, some of whom are in Texas.
To all the Texans here who have expressed sudden reservations about Wendy because of “open carry”: Is that a make-or-break issue for you that would cause you not to vote for her or to lose enthusiasm, even in the face of all the other more liberal positions she holds? That’s up to each person to decide of course, but I have said that as New Yorker, “open carry” is so beneath the radar here, we don’t even recognize the term. If you ask a New Yorker how they feel about “open carry”, they will think you’re asking about people walking around in public carrying open beverage containers without lids on them! So, there are different cultures here and in Texas. But if you can put the “open carry” issue on the back burner and look at the other reasons why Wendy is good, just get her elected first and deal with the gun issue later on. Like JJ said, that will have to go through Leticia and the TX Lege first to get anywhere anyway. So, IMO, first things first. Stand with Wendy first, and pull her over on the “open carry” issue later. JMO
6@JJ #2 Said: “The Davis campaign has a new political director and we’re hoping for the best.”
JJ also said: “I’m With Wendy is a grassroots attempt to take Wendy’s campaign back where it started and where it belongs – grassroots. I encourage you to make your voice heard. I know her campaign is watching this movement.”
I am very glad to hear all of the above. I am hoping for the best as well. I am just an observer in the foreign state of NY, but from what I’ve seen so far, Wendy is an excellent candidate, but she needs to stay on-message and her team needs to get the message out in a simpler and more accessible way. I hope the new team can keep the message focused. Also, I don’t know if this is true, but there don’t seem to be any highly visible surrogates for Wendy on the campaign trail at the moment. I’m not counting Leticia as a surrogate for Wendy, because Leticia’s race is separate, unlike in NY where the Gov and Lt. Gov come as one package. So, this might just be my perception as a distant observer, but Wendy seems to lack the vocal backup (like a rock singer) that she should be getting from others who will help her get the message out and simplify the issues for the broader electorate beyond the voters who elected her as their senator. Julian Castro would be great on the stump, also Kirk Watson. I don’t know if people like that have been pressed into service on Wendy’s behalf, but if not, they need to be. Thanks again, JJ.
7Ms. J, I too live in NYC. “Open carry” around here means you don’t have a brown paper bag over the can of beer with a straw in it.
8@Zyxomma #8 Exactly 🙂
9Compare her position on open carry to the way various liberals and progressives reacted when Gitmo was not shut down immediately upon President Obama’s first inaugural. First of all, a shut down like that will cost money to move the inmates in-country somewhere, like at Fort Gesundheit otherwise known as Wa-chew-ka out in the desert. Where money is concerned it must always start in the House of Representatives. There were even some Dems in the House who sided with the Rethugs on this. Consequently, Gitmo closure and transference procedure died on the back burner. I think the open carry thing will also die under the leadership of the Lite Guv Leticia. The liberals and progressives who really deeply resented the no-go on Gitmo had to really gulp that down and some of them to this day are still whining. Ya gotta look at the total picture. Wendy and Leticia. Its Texas. And its gotta go blue.
10Thanks for letting me know about Leticia’s stance; and, yes, the Lt. Gov DOES have a lot of power, something that was pointed out on NPR news recently…
11I’m going to grit my teeth real hard and vote for Wendy because it makes me cry to think another 4 years of good for nothing GOP governors. And I hope and suspect that once in office Gov Wendy will see open carry differently.
12This is very upsetting.
13http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/02/12/wendy_davis_supports_20_week_abortion_ban_a_surprise_a_betrayal_a_smart.html
However, if Twisty says stick with Wendy, that’s a pretty powerful endorsement:
14“Personal sovereignty is not a medical issue.
Vote for Davis anyway!”
As far as I’m concerned, “open carry” is acceptable.
What’s important to me is what happens after the object that’s openly carried is used. Such as guns — and alcoholic beverages as Zyxomma points out. I’m all for laws strictly regulating “open carry” at that point in time.
15Ann, did you read the article at the link? Because the body of the article is nothing like the hyperreactive URL text (“a surprise — a betrayal — a smart…?).
1. “… she could support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, if it gave ‘enough deference between a woman and her doctor’ to make the decision to abort after that point for medical reasons.” The current 20-week ban doesn’t.
2. “The exception Davis seems to be advocating for would be broader, allowing women to abort for a broader range of medical problems…”
3. “…in truth the bill she stood against was mostly written to shut down access to safe first-trimester abortions.”
I’d think that if Wendy Davis was elected, she’d seek repeal of the laws shutting down the women’s health clinics (that also do abortions), and make it less onerous for poor women to seek earlier (under 24 week) abortion if that’s their choice.
That’s apparently not a conclusion Amanda Marcotte arrives at, but that’s my opinion.
16I’m disappointed in Wendy Davis’s support for open carry, but I will still proudly vote for her. Unlike the r’s, I’m not a single issue voter.
17