Since Smarty Pants Liberal won't toot her own horn...

[WestHoustonDem]

Check out this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

SPL and others worked their butts off to convince the Chronicle editorial board to advocate election machine reform.

[Gman]

1. Jeff Cohen at the Chronicle is a good guy

kinda dorky in a good way, but a helluva nice guy. The Chronicle is no longer the "Comical" since Cohen came on board.

Kudos to all the DU Houston bunch!

[merci_me]

5. Jeff Cohen has been slowly but surely

moving the Chron from the edge of the rightwing cliff, to darn near middle and even slides to the left from time to time. He's been a godsent.

James Campbell (who runs the Chron's blog) spoke to the West Houston Dems last month and he's great. He was almost giddy at being invited to speak to a group of Dems for a change. He said he felt very much at home (in jeans and a t-shirt!) and welcomed the opportunity to be invited to speak to more Dems. Rick Casey, who was a speaker at the Harris County Democratic Party's Brown Bag lunch last year, another sure liberal has been writing terrific columns for the past two or three years. Before Jeff Cohen, he'd have been fired in six month. Also, I've heard that Tim Fleck (of the Houston Press, back when they had good political and investigative articles) is now a "behind the scenes" member of the editorial page. And of course, Craig Hines can always be counted on.

DeLay has been an easy target, but they've been slapping down John Culberson CD7 on a very regular basis, too. Hopefully, they'll be endorsing more Dems this fall and in 2008.

[Gman]

6. Cohen brought Casey over from the San Antonio Express-News

Both Casey and Cohen worked together for the old San Antonio Light back in the 80's. Cohen left the SA EN to take a job as an editor in upstate NY. Several years later when Cohen moved to take over the Chronicle, he brought a few San Antonio EN folks over, including Casey. He couldn't get Buch Harvey in sports to move.

Just remember the Chronicle is a Hearst paper so these guys have got to be very careful. Their personal feelings are more to the left than people really think. Casey's moved more and more to the left over the years. He was a Republican in the 80's, but NOT a neocon type.

[ananda]

2. Yay SPDem!

Thank you so much ya'll!

[sonias]

3. Congratulations Houston Dems!

And thank you for doing this. You do rock.


Sonia

[Smarty Pants Liberal]

4. Aw shucks

[Melissa G]

7. Way to GO!!! Thanks for all your hard work on this important issue!

[lavenderdiva]

8. thanks WHD for sharing this...

somehow, I missed this but am SO glad to read about it now. Smarty Pants Liberal ROCKS!!