The new millennium had arrived and the Harris County Democratic Party was in search of candidates to fill the ballot for the 2000 presidential election. Unfortunately, with no electoral county-wide wins in the last half of the 1990s, this process proved difficult. Only a handful of Democratic candidates ran that year. The ballot contained more Independents than Democrats in the judicial races.
Then came the 2002 gubernatorial election year. Sue Schechter, the Harris County Democratic Party Chairwoman, was determined to have a Democrat fill every slot on the ballot. With dogged purpose and determination, she accomplished her task with the help of good Democrats like Bruce Mosier. By 2001, Bruce had run for judge several times. He was a very persuasive and gregarious man who assisted the Chairwoman in recruiting candidates. Bruce recruited candidates to run in the 2002 election, with a pitch something like this:
“We’re not going to win; but, we must fill the ballot. We cannot give it to the Republicans by default. We must fight for our values and Democratic principles.”
The Chairwoman made similar arguments to other candidates and that is how the 2002 ballot was filled. For the 2002 ballot, only a handful of candidates were missing, a complete turn-around from the 2000 presidential election, even though the electoral map did not really look any different.
Again, however, like the 2000 presidential election, there were no county-wide electoral victories to be had for the Democrats and and spirits could easily have diminished to the vanishing point for Democrats in Harris County
Shortly after the 2002 election, Diane Mosier (who ran Bruce’s campaigns and worked with the Democratic Party Chair on preparing candidates to run for office) and Marc Whitehead (the 2002 candidate for County Attorney) met for a burger and beer to commiserate over the election results. Diane describes her lunch with Marc as follows:
“Marc and I went for a burger and beer … for a pity party. Marc complained that attorneys who agreed with each other in every aspect had no place to congregate.” Having recently formed the Heights’ Democrats, Diane asked Marc: “why don’t we just make one? The idea tickled Marc and I. Diane started writing down names on the only available paper on the table [a napkin]. We realized that we needed to find someone to help who was as adventuresome and motivated as we were-Marc, of course, [from the list of names on Diane’s napkin] called Lee Arellano.” (the 2002 candidate for the 55th Judicial District Court and former President of the Association of Attorney Mediators, Houston Chapter).
Diane, Marc and Lee had their inaugural meeting at Birraporettis on West Gray. Vowing to not let the Democratic ballot revert backwards to the status of the 2000 presidential election, an idea began to take shape. They decided to attempt to keep the core group of 2002 Democratic candidates together over the next couple of years with the obvious goal filling the next Harris County presidential ballot. The question was how to do it.
It was decided that a new association would be formed. Marc recalls that Diane again took notes of proposed names for the new organization on a Birraporettis’ napkin [sticking with her preferred method of note-taking]. Ultimately, the organizers decided on the name: The Harris County Democratic Lawyers’ Association (HCDLA). The name, it was thought, would be the primary tool to attract lawyers members, however, Diane and Lee thought the new group should be open to all interested Democrats. The stated goal would be to recruit qualified candidates to run for office in Harris County. Diane, Marc and Lee, as co-founders of HCDLA, immediately set about recruiting the 2002 Democratic candidates to become HCDLA members. Most of those candidates expressed interest in continuing the camaraderie established in the 2002 election and joined the new group. Lee filed the incorporation paperwork, drafted the initial By-Laws and served as the first vice-president. Marc served as president for HCDLA’s first formal term, 2004-2005. Lee then took over as president and served in that role from 2005-2012.
HCDLA could not have survived its first few years without the dedication of two primary volunteers and members of the initial Board of Directors, Georgia Cole (Lee’s wife), and Gwen Snyder, (a non-practicing lawyer who served as Secretary). Georgia and Gwen greeted guests at each meeting, collected their dues and accounted for and reported CLE hours for members who attended luncheons. Georgia also prepared the initial campaign finance reports of the organization. This core group, Diane Mosier, Marc Whitehead, Lee Arellano, Georgia Cole and Gwen Snyder were nominated by Judge George Barnstone to receive HCDLA’s first Lifetime Memberships at the 2012 annual membership meeting.
Diane has recently commented on those events by saying:
“I’ve always laughed about it because it was one of those random conversations that makes things happen. What is the expression: ‘If you build it, they will come’”.
The first officers of HCDLA were Marc Whitehead, President [2004-2005]; Lee Arellano, Vice President; Martha Failing, Treasurer; and Gwen Snyder, Secretary. The initial Board of Directors consisted of: Les Ribnik, Vince Ryan, Tim Riley, Mike Doyle, Andreas Jones, Jim Dougherty, Dinesh Singhal, Georgia Ruth Cole, Leslie Taylor and Tasso Triantaphyllis. When Lee Arellano took over as President [2005-2012], Byron Barclay replaced him for one year as Vice President. Tim Riley replaced Byron Barclay as Vice President in the 2006-2007 year. Tim Riley succeeded Lee Arellano as president [2012-2015]. Tim was replaced by Dinesh Singhal, as president [2015-2018]. Mike Doyle served as president 2018-2023.
Together we the people achieve more than any single person could ever do alone.
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