07.01.09

Draft Ronnie Earle For Govrenor

Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Election 2010, Good Stuff, Take Action at 10:07 am by wcnews

Vince at Capitol Annex has all the information, Draft Ronnie Earle For Texas Governor.

One name that keeps cropping up in discussions about 2010 races is former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. He hasn’t ruled out a run, but he hasn’t decided to run, either.

Toward that end, I and a handful of online and offline activists from across the state who think that Ronnie Earle would make an excellent candidate for governor have decided to shake the tree a little bit and see what fruit may fall. We’ve established a website, DraftRonnie.com, as well as a Facebook group urging Ronnie Earle to take the plunge and enter the race for governor.

[...]

The next big question folks are probably asking is, “Why Ronnie Earle?” I think that the answers are pretty obvious, but I’ll elaborate.

Ronnie Earle is a classic progressive, good-government Democrat with the capability to inspire people and, ultimately, reach across party lines and actually win in places in this state Democrats haven’t won in a while.

Last year, I contacted then-DA Earle about participating in a panel that we were assembling for Netroots Nation called “Blogs As The Ethics Watchdog.” We wanted him to participate because we thought he’d have a unique perspective on some of the issues bloggers in Texas had covered since, after all, his office investigated them. Shortly after that, I got the opportunity to hear him speak at a fundraiser in East Texas (if memory serves, I even got to introduce him, because I’d suggested him as a speaker). I couldn’t quote you chapter and verse of his speech, but it was inspiring and, through that speech, Ronnie Earle articulated (perhaps without even realizing it) a vision for Texas that is different from the kind of thing you typically hear gubernatorial candidates talk about. Given that he wasn’t a candidate for anything at that point, it was particularly impressive.

Ronnie Earle talked about a vision for a Texas that is proactive and not reactive when it comes to public policy areas like crime and education. He talked about a Texas where the interests of children and the elderly come first, and not the interests of big business or big donors. He even set forth a few ways Democrats could accomplish those things, but I won’t try to recount them today.

In July of last year, I got to hear Ronnie Earle speak again in a more casual atmosphere at the Netroots Nation panel. By that time (and even when he spoke at the spring fundraiser), he had been mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide office. As I listened to some of what he said in the Netroots Nation panel, though, and recalled the earlier speech I heard, I decided that if Ronnie Earle ever ran for statewide office, he was a candidate I would support.

Since he hasn’t made up his mind yet, and since I know a number of people who feel the same way I do, now is the time to offer a little encouragement–hence DraftRonnie.com.

Just as is noted on the draft site, Texas needs Ronnie Earle right now. Texas Democrats really need Ronnie Earle right now.

Of course EOW would be happy to see Ronnie Earle run for governor.

2 Comments »

  1. Earle is running for something - Off the Kuff said,

    July 3, 2009 at 6:24 am

    [...] the Draft Ronnie website. It’s drawn support so far from Faith Chatham, McBlogger, and Eye on Williamson, which can credibly claim to have been on the bandwagon before it was [...]

  2. Eye on Williamson » Ronnie Earle Files for Lt. Gov. said,

    December 21, 2009 at 5:34 pm

    [...] Earle form the earlier in the year when he was discerning a run for Governor can be read here and here. Check out his website at [...]

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