Thierry Wernaers's Profile
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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Has tyranny come to our shores?
As Jon Stewart explains to my GOP friends: " Losing is supposed to taste like a sh*t taco".
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Monday, April 6, 2009
I need your vote and support.
After long consideration, I have decided to run for Chairman of the Cabarrus County Democratic Party for 2009-2010.
Why?
Because I'm crazy enough?
Seriously though, we've come a long way from the summer of 2004, when I first got involved with the Democratic Party. Thanks to past leadership and a "hardcore" group of active Democratic volunteers in Cabarrus County we helped realize huge victories in 2008. We now have a Democratic President and a Democratic Congressman and Democratic Senator representing us in DC.
Well, I believe that, since we just took our country back, it's high time we take our county back.
More than 38,000 Cabarrus County voters right now are not represented in our County government. There is absolutely no Democratic voice on our all Republican Board of County Commissioners. A government without an opposition is not a democracy. It's time we bring democracy back to Cabarrus County.
How?
By expanding and improving on proven successful tactics from the recent past, while at the same time trying new things.
The best place to find new Democrats is in your own backyard.
Back in 2004 I could count the number of local Democratic precinct organizations on one hand. Since then we've grown by leaps and bounds, but we still need to expand our local precinct organization.
We need to keep the newly discovered Obama volunteers engaged. This past year a lot of people came out of the wood works to help with the Obama campaign. Many of those volunteers had never been politically active before. We need to keep these volunteers engaged and in tune with our local Democratic Party organization.
We need to continue our effort to register new Democratic voters.
Thanks to a very dedicated effort to register new voters last year we closed the gap in voter registration between Democrats and Republicans by 4,000.
If we register another 4,000 new Democrats, we will turn Cabarrus County blue.
There are already more Democratic women than Republican women in Cabarrus County.
We need to engage folks who recently moved to Cabarrus County.
Our County is growing rapidly and a lot of traditionally Democratic people are moving in. We need to make sure to register these Democrats a.s.a.p. and get them involved in our organization.
Connecting with other local Democratic parties in "blue" counties and learn from their efforts while at the same time passing on our knowledge to other Democratic county organizations in our 8th Congressional District.
I will start a Committee that actively searches for excellent local candidates.
You can have the best county organization, if you don't have any candidates you won't win elections. In 2010 there will be 3 seats on the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners up for grabs. With some excellent candidates, who have the backing of a good Democratic county organization, the voice of almost 40,000 Democrats will be heard.
Of course, I am not going to do this all by myself.
It will take a big effort from all the active Democratic volunteers in our County, who I've gotten to know over the years, and many more who we still need to get to know.
I'm energized and hopeful for our future. Let's get to work.
How can you help me?
If you've attended your local Democratic precinct meeting this past March and got elected to be a delegate at our County Convention, i need your vote.
If you're not an official delegate you won't have voting rights, but I would love to see you come show your support at our convention as well.
The Cabarrus County Democratic Party holds its Convention on Saturday, April 25th from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm at Troutman's BBQ restaurant, 1388 Warren Coleman Blvd in Concord. You can click here for directions.
If you use facebook, you can join my support group on there.
I am, naturally, open to any questions and suggestions you might have.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Where in the world is that Left on 49 dude?
Yeah yeah yeah. I know. I know, I know, I know. I KNOW. So get off my back already, will ya? I've been busy! Actually, maybe i haven't.
Call it recuperating, call it a burn out or maybe it was just time to get away from politics for a little while. In any case, i'm back baby!
The extremely busy year of 2008 started for me on October 6th 2007 in a high school in Rock Hill, SC, where i watched this Senator from Illinois give a speech and ended in Raleigh, NC on December 15th 2008 when i witnessed 15 Presidential Electors, including one from my own Cabarrus County, cast their vote for that same Barack Obama.
In that same 2008 i also saw the election of a new Democratic Governor, Senator and Congressman i really liked and i became a citizen of my new country and cast my very first vote.
I saw our President in Columbia SC, Durham NC, Charlotte NC and finally managed to shake his hand in Raleigh NC at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
I volunteered for him in Rock Hill SC for the South Carolina Primary and traveled to the freezing Cleveland OH to do the same for the Ohio Primary. Upon my return from OH i organized the "Cabarrus for Obama" group and all the volunteers i found with that i put to work in the NC Primary. Against all demographic odds and predictions by the Obama Campaign themselves, we managed to win the May 6th primary in Cabarrus County with a 4% lead.
When it came time for the General Election, i was employed by the Obama Campaign as Deputy Field Organizer for my County and together with the only other staff member and hundreds of volunteers we registered 6,000 new Democrats and won 12,000 more votes for Obama than we received for Kerry in 2004.
So now, after a break from politics, i'm back and everyone who knows me a little knows that i'll stop caring about politics on the day i die.
So where do i go from here? You'll find out soon enough...
P.S.: All Obama pictures you see in this story have been taken by me.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
What a day!
Thursday, August 28 2008 was a historic day not only for this country, but also for me.
After a process that lasted about 15 months, i was sworn in as a new US citizen at the USCIS offices in Charlotte. With me, 102 other citizens from 45 different countries were sworn in as new Americans.
And if that wasn't enough, that same night i was treated to one of the most amazing speeches i heard in my lifetime, live from Denver, delivered by the first African-American Presidential candidate for a major political party, exactly 45 years after M. L. King gave his "I have a dream" speech.
Today i handed in my voter registration form at the Cabarrus County Board of Elections and i'm very much looking forward to casting my first vote in the USA for an historic presidential candidate. No, it won't be for the oldest candidate in history.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Want to get involved in the election campaign?
This Saturday is the day to get active!
The Cabarrus County Democratic Party is kicking off the election season with a big organizational meeting for all experienced and new volunteers. If you want to be involved with the election campaign in any way, I highly recommend showing up.
I will see you there.
Cabarrus County Democratic Party (CCDP)Read More......
Election 08 Countdown Meeting
For everyone that wants to get involved in our 2008 election campaign. We need your help!
Please join us for a working lunch at Troutman's BBQ. Lunch will be $6.00/person.
Saturday, July 19th
Troutman's BBQ, Hwy 601, Concord (directions)
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Now's the time folks. We need all of us working together!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
And then there will be 7... in 2012
During the Cabarrus County Commissioners meeting this past Monday, the commissioners made a decision on their board expansion plans. Remarkably enough it's not one of the options they had considered before.
After a lot of folks showed up and spoke up against the idea of quickly expanding the board haphazardly before the November election this year, Commissioners decided to expand the board in 2012 not in 2008.
There also seemed to be a majority on the current all republican board in favor of going to district representation and not keep the current at-large system. The consensus seems to be to have 5 members represent districts and have 2 at-large members next to that.
It will be interesting to see how those districts will be drawn. The final districting plan will more than likely be voted upon in a referendum on the ballot in 2010. We should all keep a close eye on this one.
For now I want to thank all the folks who showed up at the Board meeting or who made their voices heard in another way. Thanks to all of you sanity prevailed on this issue.
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