DEC and OFA get new directors for 2010 elections

In six months when we’re chalking up now-unexpected victories in our difficult local electoral world, Monday May 24 may be a date we Miami-Dade Democrats look back at as a milestone in our rise to a successful political operation.

On this day two personnel shifts were presented to us. The Miami-Dade Democratic Party took on a new executive director, Ric Herrero, who appeared at a meeting of the party’s Steering Committee. And the new regional field director for Organizing For America, Marcelo Marco Ramirez, was introduced to an enthusiastic group of OFA activists as replacement for the highly esteemed Brad Schenck, who’s destined for something more national in scope (details later, we hope).

Your blogger had the pleasure of being at both events, even though they both started at 7 p.m. several miles apart in downtown Miami. Got to confess that when I burst into the OFA event at 8:15, people started yelling at Marcelo Ramirez that he’d have to start over again. It got a big laugh, so I imagine that I wasn’t the only one who’d arrived after the new field director started describing his mission.

R U ready? June 5 , less than two weeks away, is the day the OFA will start its nationally featured drive for the November midterm election: Contacting people who voted for the first time in 2008. Make them vote again this year, by hook or … No, only legal stuff is permitted. If you have not signed up to do something, now’s the time to drop in to MyBarackObama.com and pledge yourself to the fun of campaigning again, meeting fellow citizens on their doorsteps or on the phone, and talking politics with them. Saturday June 5 is when we launch again. Be there with OFA. You may already have received this invitation from David Plouffe.

The Miami-Dade Democratic Party is further energized by having the decade of political experience that Ric Herrero brings to the post of executive director, which had been unfilled for over a year.  The party aims to concentrate on gathering in as many Cuban Americans as possible, as well as working to register new voters and to sign people up to vote absentee – vote at home, where you can think about the issues and candidates at your leisure.

Here are a couple of photos (unequal quality, I’m afraid, as I shifted from the simple Flip to a flashy Nikon Coolpix model in the middle of this story) to show the players.

First is Marcelo Ramirez of OFA with some of his activists.

Now a snap of Ric Herrero during the most recent meeting of the Democratic Executive Committee.

And a bonus: as the Steering Committee was about to meet, Chairman Richard Lydecker’s new name partner in his Brickell law firm, former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, dropped in to say hello to the committee. Your blogger jumped up with the new Nikon and said there should be a photo for the blog, and this is it.