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Posts tagged ‘Douglas County Democrats’

Creating Caucuses with Ken Riter, DCDP LGBTQIA Caucus Chair


OMAHA , NE – The DCDP LGBTQIA Caucus is finally official. This afternoon, October 22nd 2016, we met the new, required quorum of 5 LGBTQIA Democrats, with 5 LGB people and 1 straight ally meeting to elect officers, approve a mission statement, approve a nondiscrimination statement, support a platform and adopt bylaws. We also discussed prioritizing support for challenger candidates, Jay Irwin (write-in) – Ralston School Board, Justin Wayne – LD13, and Tony Vargas – LD7. I want to thank Elena Salisbury, Ernest Vining, Chelsey Gentry-Tipton, Ford Brown and Keith Putzier for attending helping to make the meeting an outstanding success!

Officers elected were:

Caucus Chair – Ken Riter

Caucus Vice-Chair – Elena Salisbury

Caucus Secretary – Ernest Vining

Parliamentarian – Ford Brown

We are looking to fill 3 positions; Treasurer, and two Community Relations Director roles (one for gender identity and one for a queer or trans person of color) to help boost diversity participation. As the DCDP LGBTQIA Caucus grows, more positions may be created on the Executive Committee to ensure a sense of diversity and engagement.

The DCDP LGBTQIA Caucus is a Volunteer-led Grassroots Progressive LGBTQIA movement within the Douglas County Democratic Party, which focuses on ensuring the enactment of a Bold, Sensible Progressive Equality Agenda in the Democratic Party.

The Mission of the Douglas County LGBTQIA Democrats is to act as a go between for the Douglas County Democratic Party and LGBTQIA Democrats residing in Douglas County.  The Caucus will meet monthly on the second or third Saturday of the month at rotating locations. Please call Ken at 531-205-3193 for any questions you have.

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Announcements, Press Release

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Douglas County Democrats To Vote On LGBT Inclusive Measure!


OMAHA, NE – This Thursday, Nov 15th, the Douglas County Democrats will be considering an amendment to their Constitution and Bylaws, hopefully ensuring an inclusive County Level Democratic Party. The measure will include the LGBT community when it comes to electing officers in the Douglas County Democrats’ Executive Committee. The measure, if approved, will begin the creation of several County Level Caucus Organizations for 8 different identified groups, including African-American, Latino and LGBT.

I am very excited for this! I  have helped push for this since the County Convention back in June 2012. We have been hashing this out in the Inclusive Task Force Committee since July.  We have now finished a proposal that will introduced to the Central Committee for the first time. I am a member of of the Central Committee from LD9, and all 4 original committee members from LD9 have been in involved in some manner.  I’m very proud of my LD district for that involvement!  A total of 15 people were involved in the Inclusion Task Force Committee.  As fellow activist and friend, Mika Covington, says, “Great things happen when Queers step up!!”  The meeting is this Thursday, Nov 15th at 7pm at the IBEW at 8946 L Street Omaha, NE 68127 near 90th and L.

I hope this will help people understand that political parties, especially the Democratic party, will listen to us as a people.  We just have to put ourselves in a position to talk where we will be heard. Many Democrats won election because they support the LGBT community, and because they had the support of great organizations like the National Stonewall Democrats.  The creation of a county level LGBT Caucus would give us a nice stepping stone in creating a Stonewall Democrat chapter here in Omaha.

You can view the proposal here, Inclusion_Task_Force_Proposal_Presentation_Packet

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Douglas County Democrats To Support On Election Day!


OMAHA, NE – Here is a list of Democrats running for office in Douglas County, Nebraska.   They will be on your specific ballots when you vote.  These Democrats run on a wide range of issues. Let’s keep Omaha and Douglas County Blue!!!

President – Barack Obama and Joe Biden

US Senate – Bob Kerrey

2nd Congressional District – John Ewing

Board of Regents – Larry Bradley

County Clerk – Tom Cavanaugh

County Commissioner #1 – Mike Boyle

County Commissioner #3 – Christopher Rodgers

County Commissioner #5 – Marc Kraft

Learning Community #4 – Amy Friedman

MCC – Board of Directors #1 – Linda McDermitt

MCC – Board of Directors #2 – Fred Conley

MCC – Board of Directors #4 – Stephen Brock

MUD – Jim Begley

NRD #3 – Brandon Clark

NRD #7 – James Powers

OPPD – Thomas Barrett

OPPD – NP Sandy Dodge

OPS #2 – Freddie Gray

OPS #6 – Mary Morissey

OPS #8 – Danyelle Baratta-Krause

OPS #10 – Nicole Nash

OPS #12 – Patrick Bourne

OPS #12 – Jennifer Tompkins-Kirshenbaum

Register of Deeds – Diane Battiato

State Board of Education – Rebecca Valdez

State Senate #5 – Heath Mello

State Senate #7 – Jeremy Nordquist

State Senate #9 – Sara Howard

State Senate #11 – Brenda Council

State Senate #13 – Tanya Cook

State Senate #31 – Rick Kolowski

State Senate #39 – Judy Domina

Bennington Board of Education – Douglas Laaker and Brad Renter

Bennington City Council – Mary Johnson and Gary Sather

Ralston City Council – Maureen Konwinski and Ben Preis

Valley Mayor – Carroll Smith

Valley City Council – Rodney Marshall and Bryon Ueckert

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Second Meeting Minutes from March 25th 2012.


OMAHA, NE – Greater Omaha LGBT Democrats held a second meeting, on Sunday, March 25th at 13th Street Coffeehouse. Just a few of us were there, but we discussed and went over some example bylaws and party platforms that we may use for helping to establish the bylaws and platform for our new political organization. We also discussed the necessity of forming the initial steering committee ASAP,as well as steering committee officers; Chairman, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.   What we really need right now are more members so we can fill the positions. So, if you are interested in helping to start a new political organization with the mission of forwarding LGBT issues on a political basis please come to a meeting.  You can contact the group’s Facilitator, Ken Riter at cell phone #4o2-686-6389 or email at omahamaverick(at)yahoo.com with the subject Greater Omaha LGBT Democrats with any questions you may have.  You can also check out the Greater Omaha LGBT Democrats FaceBook Page.

The next meeting is scheduled to be Sunday April 8th at 7pm at 13th Street Coffeehouse. To expand opportunities for members of the community to attend a meeting, additional meetings will be scheduled throughout the week. Additional meetings scheduled so far are Saturday April 7th at 6pm, or Friday, April 13th at 7pm all at 13th Street Coffeehouse.

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First Meeting: 11 March 2012


OMAHA, NE – The Greater Omaha LGBT Democrats held their first meeting Sunday night, March 11th, 2012 at the 13st Coffeehouse.  An informal meeting was conducted, and informal minutes were taken, but I will summarize our discussion.  The meeting had 6 attendees, all males. We are definitely in need of a wider variety of attendees! I’d like to see all letters represented, including lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered, as well as straight allies and any questioning types and intersexed individuals, if they are in the area.  Increased racial diversity would also be a plus.  If are going to stand up for LGBT issues, as many people as possible in the LGBT Community should be represented!  We discussed some of the things the group would be involved in, for example: voter registration drives, collectively choosing an LGBT friendly candidate and assisting those candidates with their campaigns. I also believe the group could become a very important source of information for the local LGBT Community for politics as well as educating the community in the democratic process.  The group could also be instrumental in organizing volunteers for our chosen candidates as well as doing work within the local Democratic Party.  I did mention that I would like to see the group grow into a local Stonewall Democrat Chapter, but that is NOT the primary goal.  Right now, we need to grow our numbers and network so each attendee agreed to bring 2 people with them at the next meeting which is scheduled for Sunday March 25th, 2012 at 7pm at 13st Coffeehouse.

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