On The Record: Vince Leibowitz

For this episode of On The Record, we speak with Vince Leibowitz, creator of and writer for Capitol Annex and chair of the Texas Progressive Alliance.

How did you get started in politics? Did you come to it in your youth or later on?

In 1980, I remember that my late maternal grandmother was a very big supporter of President Carter, and it crushed her when Reagan won.

In 1984, when Reagan ran against Mondale, it seemed to be the thing that everyone was talking about--my teacher at school wore a "Women for Mondale" pin, something that would probably get her fired today, and people on our street had Reagan signs.

When I would see in the newspaper or on television that a politician, especially Phill Gramm or Lloyd Bentsen, were going to be in Tyler, I would ask my mom to take me to see them speak. I remember that we went to the opening of Phill Gramm's office in the middle of what seemed like 100-degree heat.

In college, although my core Democratic beliefs remained the same, I ended up spending a lot of time on the other side of the issues. The student newspaper hired me as a freshman to write for the Opinion page for the university newspaper. I ended up writing pieces that were essentially on the opposite side of all of the beliefs I hold dear. That experience helped me sharpen my fangs, so to speak, because I had to look very seriously at the Republican or "conservative" argument on a myriad of issues.

After college when I went into the newspaper business, I had to put my political activity on hold to a degree, as it was not appropriate to support openly candidates when you are running the editorial boards and covering their fund-raisers. That was very hard, but I spent the majority of every week engrossed in the coverage of local, state and national politics.

How do state politics affect your neighborhood?

My neighborhood is made up of about five houses on a dead-end street, so it is often difficult to see exactly how state politics might affect our little cul de sac--especially since the state doesn't pave the streets!

Seriously, though, I think you can look into any neighborhood and see how state politics affect people. I can see it affect a couple of my neighbors, because they are retired teachers and excited about the "13th Check" that Teacher’s Retirement System will send them shortly.

Another family on the street includes a current teacher and her children, and from talking to them, I know that she needs another raise, and her kids need relief from standardized testing. Yet another family includes a man who works for a utility company, and his job has changed a good deal since deregulation.

Perhaps we do not see the impact of major legislation on our street because we are such a small sampling of society, but we can surely feel the impact of most things.

Who are some of your political heroes?

Without question, Lyndon B. Johnson is one of my political heroes. Many people look down upon LBJ's record because of the shadow that Vietnam cast over his presidency and "Ballot Box 13" cast over his Senate career, but the big picture is that LBJ had the most progressive domestic policy of any president before or since.

What LBJ did for Civil Rights is astounding, although some policies are only now being revealed. People seem to have forgotten the phrase, "the Great Society," and its myriad of programs and legislation. Of course, the Republicans have done their best to leave the Great Society in shreds, along with the New Deal, but I digress.

I also admire Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards and, of course, Pete Laney. In addition, I would have to put former State Senator David Cain and former State Rep. Bob Glaze into that category, too. Not only for the many things, they did while in office, but also for fighting the heroic battles they fought after the Legislative Redistricting Board destroyed their districts in 2002.

What are you looking forward to in the coming cycle?

I am looking forward to the cycle to be over and the swearing in of a new, Democratic Speaker of the Texas House. Seriously, I am looking forward to election night, both for the primary and the general.

On election night, you can usually find me in front of my laptop blogging the night away to keep my readers informed about what is going around across the state. My election coverage got a lot of recognition in 2006, and I hope to repeat that in 2008.

Tell us a little bit about the Texas Progressive Alliance, and what roles you fulfill in that group, official or otherwise.

The Texas Progressive Alliance is a group of about 50 bloggers and net roots activists representing more than 30 of the state's most widely read political blogs. We are not a formal PAC, political committee or non-profit, but we do operate under a set of rules and elect members for admission based upon their work as net roots activists. It honors me to serve as the group's first elected chair.

Our group was founded in 2006 by Anna from Annatopia, Charles Kuffner, Karl-Thomas Musselman, a handful of other bloggers and me. It initially began as a group that geared itself primarily toward internal networking among bloggers but quickly turned into a blogger's activism group.

As we continued to grow, we codified our rules early this year and elected a board and slate of officers that includes bloggers from across the state. Charles Kuffner is the groups vice chair.

The TPA, or the "Alliance," does a number of things. Most widely recognized is probably our "Texan of the Year," award, which was begun by some of the same bloggers who founded this group right before our formal founding.

We are also responsible for TexRoots, which is a format by which bloggers can help raise money for candidates using the online fund-raising clearinghouse, Act Blue. TexRoots began in 2006. I think it will be bigger and better than before in 2008.

We host the "Blogger's Caucus" at the Texas Democratic Party Convention, which was a tradition started in 2004 when a handful of bloggers had an informal get-together with congressional candidate Richard Morrison at a coffee shop near the convention center in Houston.

In 2006, the TPA took on the reins of organizing this event and last year more than 300 people--including many bloggers — attended our off-site mixer, along with Speaker Pete Laney. I am sure that the 2008 Blogger's Caucus will be even bigger.

As Chair, my duties are informal, but mainly I do what I can to ensure that any of our members who need help--whether it is blogging a particular issue, finding a source, or something else--can get that help.

I believe that Texas has the most vibrant, diverse blogosphere of any state in the United States, and I expect that we are one of the more "organized" state blogospheres when it comes to some of our activities. The growth of the Texas Progressive Blogosphere has been tremendous, and has helped the TPA at least quadruple in size.