Melancon (D for TX 4th) asks "Are you ready to lead?"

[sonias]

First hand account of the Collin County convention speech by Glenn Melancon:

"Are you ready to lead?"
Texas Kaos blog diary by Glenn

I had the great honor of winning the Democratic nomination for the Texas Fourth Congressional District. The bigger story, however, is the growing bipartisan dissatisfaction with Ralph Hall. He received only 42,212 of 57,530 Republican votes. If you add those who voted against Ralph in both parties' primaries, almost twice as many voters - Republican and Democratic - want a new Congressman!

"new direction"
80,479 votes

"stay the course" with Hall
42,212 votes

The tide continued to move forward four weeks later as Democrats packed precinct and county conventions. Particularly, impressive were the crowded conventions that I attended in Grayson, Hunt, Rockwall and Collin Counties. If Democrat are going to win a state-wide races, we have to do better in these "Republican strongholds.

Here's the speech that I delivered in Collin County to over 3000 cheering Democrats. I asked a very simple question, "Are you ready to lead?' Texans shouted back, "Yes!!!"

Great speech he's added to YouTube. Very powerful speech. Go check it out on Texas Kaos. :loveya:

Give Glenn a helping hand:
http://www.melanconforuscongress.net/contribute.html

:kick:

Sonia

[Horse with no Name]

1. I do believe he might just pull this off

:kick:

[sonias]

3. Diary on Daily Kos about congressional races

Congressional races round 2: Texas
District: TX-04
Location Northeastern TX, bordering OK and AR, including Texarkana
Representative Ralph Hall (R)
First elected 1980
2006 margin 64-33
2004 margin 68-30
Bush margin 2004 70-30
Notes on opponents In 2004, Jim Nickerson raised $200K to Hall's $1.1 million, in 2006, Glenn Melancon raised less than $100K
Current opponents Glenn Melancon is running again; he has raised $25K but has no COH; Hall has $350K COH, not much for an incumbent with a challenger
Demographics 44th most rural (50.4%), 25th most Republican
Assessment Long shot, but not totally long.... Hall is getting old (born 1923 - he is the oldest person in the House) and his fundraising has been anemic.

Ralph Hall is the oldest person in the House? Glenn has to use that to his advantage. Show off as being youthful and taking action. Contrast that with Hall sitting around and just well looking old.

I think it's worth the long shot. With this year's Presidential election, Glenn may just pull this off.

Sonia

[NoPasaran]

2. Just to inject a dose of reality

2006 Election results, 4th Congressional District

Ralph M. Hall(I) REP 106,495 64.43%
Glenn Melancon DEM 55,278 33.44%
Kurt G. Helm LIB 3,496 2.11%

[Horse with no Name]

4. and then there is the 2008 Primary

Ralph M. Hall - Incumbent 14,084 71.41% 42,212
Glenn Melancon 12,519 57.05% 37,409

[twompy]

5. To win

For Glenn to win (maybe that should be his slogan) he needs name recognition in the district. Everyone up there votes for Hall because they have been voting for him for 20+ years as a dem and a repub, and they don't know anyone else. The district makeup itself also makes it very hard to win, there are a lot of dems in the district but they are outvoted by the parts of Collin county that are in the district, Allen and McKinney effectively out vote the other 15 counties.

With this said I think that with the turnout for the primaries in the area it is possible to use these names to draw on grassroots dems to help Glenn win.

[sonias]

6. Absolutely needs the grassroots dems

And I've said this before. Every activist Democrat better be working their asses off this fall, and not just in the Presidential race either. If you're happy with your Congressman and he's in a safe district, help someone else out. Plenty of Texas Congressional districts that need help. Too far from home - no problem- send money, phone bank etc. Or pick a Texas House race to help in.

Both my Congressman and Texas House Representatives are safe - 100& guarantee to win. So I'm picking Diana Maldonado in HD52 to help, and CD10 for Congress (Larry Joe) both close to home.

We can take back this county and take back Texas, but we can't slack off like we did in the runoff election.

Sonia

[bmbmd]

7. Melancon ran a particularly sour and sordid campaing last time.

It did not sit well in north Texas. His "Hall of Shame" website was amateurish, vindictive, and highly speculative. No facts, just wild allegations against Hall. I did work for Mr. Nickerson in 2004, but quickly lost interest in Melancon. The real issue is that party-jumping Hall has done almost nothing of consequence in his almost thirty years in office.

[twompy]

8. Hall of Shame

I don't think the "Hall of shame" website was highly speculative at all. Hall attacked a rape victim in the congressional record, to make his buddies in the Mariana islands look like the good guys. His ties to the sweat shop factories there should have been enough to open peoples eyes. North Texas has its own problems though that Glenn should have been focusing on economy, Halls job performance, meth problem. I also think that the people that were helping Glenn run his campaign last time(and Glenn himself) thought that they could go negative and people would listen. The residents of N. Texas have been voting for Hall for 26 years, you have to show them why you are better or they will vote with what they know. Hopefully Glenn has learned from his mistakes last time around and will build the grassroots effort that it will take to win in the North Texas area.