By  Dianne Anderson

Kicking off the first leg of the Black Caucus Progressing Together 2012 Tour this week, the Orange County Young Democrats plan to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday in a big way–around increasing the Black vote.

Nicholas Anas, chair of OCYD, said the event marks the start of what he hopes will bring more Black voters to partner with their organization for a strong Obama run.

Going forward, the young Dems are getting revved up and ready to go around organizing for the President, who, despite unrelenting Republican obstructionism, has managed to accomplish much of what he promised during the campaign.

This weekend, the Young Dems will be networking with the California Young Democrats Black Caucus in Orange County, looking to tap some of the 2-3% of the Black community here.

Anas, who has been involved in local politics since late 2008, said both organizations have hit the ground running. The county already has a solid Latino base, with several Latino board members. But up until now, he said there hasn’t been a strong enough movement to get more African Americans on board.

The progressive community wants to know what the Black organizations want and need from the OCYD group.

“There are a myriad of Black organizations out here. We want to introduce ourselves to each other and have a discussion on the status for Orange County and what should be done here,” he said.

On January14, the community is invited to the Crystal Jade Asian Fine Dining at 6511 Quail Hill Parkway in Irvine starting at 4:00 p.m.

Sean Dugar, chair of the California Young Democrats Black Caucus, said that he is excited about working with the progressive Dems of Orange County, which also kick off their three-city tour, followed by San Francisco and Fresno.

“Our focus in Orange County is really on building a movement, bringing together African Americans, bringing together Labor, the Democratic Party and Young Dems, to be a solid unified body to re-elect the President, and elect Democrats across the board,” he said.

Keeping California Blue and expanding Democrats in the Legislature to reach the two-thirds vote is critical, especially to get a decent budget passed.

Nationally, lost electoral seats may pose another challenge for the President, but Dugar said it’s not making the Party nervous.

“If we need to put some energy into Nevada, or Arizona with Organizing for America, then we’d be ready to do that, and we’d have our base of votes to do that to make sure the President gets reelected,” he said.

Another push this year is getting voters re-registered if they’ve moved. Many first time voters from the last election may be surprised their vote won’t count when they reach the polls.

While it’s probably legal to return back to the county where the voter was registered last election, Dugar said that it’s no guarantee they will be allowed to vote there again.

“The problem is that we don’t have our statewide voter registration database updated where different counties can look if you’re registered in another county,” he said.

He said when in doubt, voters must re-register. Even if the voter is confirmed with a provisional ballot, it will only be good for the presidential vote, not anyone else on the ballot.

Dugar is especially interested in how counties statewide will implement their new online registration under a bill passed recently into law. Implementing the systems is still up to the counties, and most counties haven’t figured it out yet.

Dugar, who is a past delegate, said the Democratic Convention starting February 10th will energize the party.

He sees a lot of power behind the Presidential election in the coming months if they can get more African American clubs and organizations partnering with the OC Young Dems and the Black Caucus.

“That’s definitely one of our long term priorities and our goals out of this event is to recruit African American members for them,” he said.

For more information or to volunteer, see  www.youngdems.org/blackcaucus