You don't know who Senator Leticia Van de Putte is? Please tell me you're joking.
Meet Senator Van de Putte
San Antonio Current 2/18/09Capitol ideas Leticia Van de Putte helped unite her party in 2008.
Could Texas Dems unite behind her for higher office in 2010?(snip)
The most important gavel in Van de Putte’s collection, however, is the one that’s not here. It’s the gavel she pounded last August in front of an arena full of delegates and millions of TV viewers at the Democratic National Convention in Denver (and which Ted Kennedy touched when he addressed the convention). That gavel, which Van de Putte keeps in a satin-lined box in her San Antonio office, symbolizes what an astounding year 2008 was for her.
In January, she delivered the Spanish-language response to George W. Bush’s final State of the Union Address. In February, she block-walked on the West Side with Hillary Clinton. In June, she set the stage for Clinton’s withdrawal from the presidential sweepstakes by striking a unifying tone at the Texas Democratic Convention. The following week, she joined 11 other Latino leaders at a Washington meeting with Barack Obama to discuss his relationship with the Latino community.
In August, she co-chaired the third night of the national convention, bringing down the curtain on a night when Obama secured the Democratic nomination and Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden delivered his acceptance speech. In October, Texas A&M University Press published Latina Legislator: Leticia Van de Putte and the Road to Leadership, an examination by UTSA political-science professor Sharon Navarro of Van de Putte’s pioneering role as the second Latina senator in Texas history. In December, San Antonio mayoral hopeful Julián Castro publicly introduced Van de Putte as someone who “might be the next Democratic candidate for governor.” That same month, her office had to deny persistent rumors that Barack Obama planned to offer her a position in his administration. And Van de Putte herself has hinted that she might be open to a 2010 run for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat.
She rocks! Si se puede!
Sonia