1. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Steve Preminger
at 7:15 PM.
2. ROLL CALL
Absent were: Bill Ferguson, Peter Chiu, Jewelle
Gibbs, Francis La Poll, Rod Diridon, Alex Kennett, Gene Wagner, John Dutra,
Joe Simitian, Liz Figueroa, John Vasconcellos, Anselmo Chavez, Pete Stark,
Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Ruth Ashford, Jodi Wittlin, and Alex Edelstein.
Excused was: Emily Thurber.
3. IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS
A class in communications from San José
City College.
Ron Del Pozzo, candidate for Superior Court Judge,
seat #16.
Parris Correa
Chris Bail
Mary Grozenski, campaign manager for San José
Council District 9 candidate Chris Hemingway.
Hope Allen, candidate for Central Committee from
the 24th AD.
Dan Hoffman, past President of the Century Club.
Bob Dhillon, Candidate for San José City
Council, District 7.
Vince Cortese, candidate for Central Committee,
22nd AD.
Judy Chirco, candidate for San José City
Council, District 9.
Jean Cohen, California Young Democrats.
Manny Diaz, State Assemblyman from the 23rd Assembly
District.
Special guest: Steve Westly, Candidate for State Controller.
Steve told us that he got his start in this County
Committee 22 years ago, when Madge was a youngster and Steve (Preminger)
hadn't been born. At the age of 24 he ran and was elected the youngest
state party officer ever elected in State Party history. In a classic
battle between San Francisco, which always won the state party positions,
and Santa Clara County he was the first person from the South Bay to be
elected a State Party officer. "That was because of you, so thank
you for giving me my start in politics."
Twenty years later he is running to become State
Controller. He has spent 7 years as a senior manager in government
including 4 years running economic development for the City of San José.
He spent 5 years as an educator on the faculty of Stanford's Graduate School
of Business. He spent 15 years as an executive and most recently
as Senior Vice President at eBay. He's running for Controller with
a unique combination of experience in business as the officer of a profitable
$15 billion a year company and with the government experience to be a successful
manager. But what he is most proud of is his 22 years as a Party
grassroots activist, who has been to every single E-board meeting except
for three in that period, elected 4 times to the Democratic National Committee,
and now with our support, he is running for State Controller.
He gave us a quick overview. The State Controller
does three things: 1) He is the chief financial officer of the State of
California, which is the fifth largest economy in the world. 2) He
sits on over 60 boards and commissions that affect virtually every person
in the state of California, like the boards of CalPIRS and CalSTRS, which
are the largest pension funds in the world. He sits on the state
Lands Commission where he could be the key vote preventing Bush's
plans to instigate oil drilling off our coast. 3) He has the power
of the audit over every state agency, so he could hopefully bring some
of the entrepreneurial spirit and the technology to bring cost savings
and efficiency to government in Sacramento. He is campaigning up
and down the state to be an activist Controller, to use the incredible
power of CalPIRS and CalSTRS to reinvest in rebuilding the state of California.
To rebuild the state with a quarter of a billion dollars, over half of
which is now invested outside of the state of California. He wants
to see that money invested in the state of California, rebuilding the inner
cities of the state of California, and doing it with good, union paying
jobs. "That's my commitment as Controller."
He wants to be an environmental champion for the
state of California, using the State Lands Commission not just to make
sure we say no to offshore drilling but to raise the standards of environmental
protection of this state, and frankly because the Controller also sits
on the Franchise Tax Board to provide new tax incentives for corporations
and individuals to donate land back to the state of California so we can
give California the sort of green belt that Santa Clara County has enjoyed.
He repeated, "That is my commitment as Controller of this state."
The third thing he wants us to know about the Controller's
position, and he told us it sounds boring with green eyeshades and accounting
and so on, is that the Controller sits on these boards and commissions
including many you've never heard of like HFFA, the Health Facilities Financing
Authority. This commission is key because it provides matching state
funds to every county hospital in the state. His Republican opponents
have said they would not allow one penny of matching funds to go to any
hospital that provided full access to family planning (read "abortion")
to the women of this state. We must beat the Republican candidates
for Controller. He is a firm candidate for choice, and that is why
the Controller's position is so important.
We are coming down the stretch; there are 53 days
to the primary election in March. What he wants us to know is this:
He now has the endorsement of Speaker Hertzberg and Speaker Wesson, over
50 members of Congress and the Legislature, from Mike Honda, Anna Eshoo,
Zoe Lofgren, to Maxine Waters, Jane Harmon, the entire San Diego delegation.
He has the endorsements from Labor including (is Vince Cortese here?) CTA,
He has the endorsement of CWA, the Machinists, the Steelworkers, the Teamsters,
Miguel Contreras, the head of the Central Labor Council of Los Angeles,
and yesterday they did their campaign kickoff in Los Angeles where they
had not only Maxine Waters, the Speaker and the Speaker to be, the president
of the LA City Council, the County Sheriff, and the majority of the County
Supervisors in LA.
"I got my start here, and I'm, very proud of what
I've done." He has now built a 4-to-1 advantage in terms of cash
on hand. He has the highest name ID of anybody in this race.
"We're going to win in March, and we're going to win in November."
He needs our help and if we haven't endorsed, Gregg (campaign manager)
has got cards. Steve Preminger was the very first County Chair to
endorse. We now have the County Chairs of Los Angeles, San Diego,
San Mateo, Santa Clara, and at least 20 others -- "not as important as
yours, but close. I'd love to have your support tonight."
He is now in Los Angeles literally half time.
Running for statewide office is a daunting job. You have to raise
and spend $4 million in the primary and turn right around and do it again
in November. He claimed to be ahead of goal and will do it.
He predicted that with a little help from us, Santa Clara County will have
its first statewide officer in some time.
He asked for questions.
The first was from Dave Wilkes who asked about $140
million lost from the Insurance Commission's office. Steve responded
with three points: First. Chuck Quackenbush belongs in jail as does anybody
that rips off that much of the public trust, and he thinks of the executives
at Enron who have been feathering George Bush's nest for so long -- they
belong in jail. Second, we were talking about this very issue today
in Sacramento. We had nine back-to-back meetings before driving down
here. We have to take the state's information technology systems
into the 21st century so we can avoid this sort of thing happening again.
He believes his background in technology and the fact that he is a candidate
from Silicon Valley says something about our need to provide people with
expertise in these areas to make government efficient, to make sure we're
not losing the public's money, and to make this a better business environment
so that companies come to California instead of leave California because
we've finally streamlined the permitting process.
How does the Controller's position affect revenue?
The Controller oversees all of the money that comes into the state, $100
billion annually. Every check that goes out will have the Controller's
signature. The Treasurer, by the way, invests the money in between.
The Controller can challenge any of these moneys that go out. It
is very important to be looking out for the public interest. "I believe
my combination of business and government background will make me the best
qualified to do that." He promised not to be the kind of Controller
that is poking at the governor. He is a team player, who doesn't
agree with Gray Davis all the time, but who Steve regards is far and away
the best candidate for Governor, who will have Steve's full support as
Controller.
Bev Wharton said she was a former state employee
who was concerned that the current Controller did not always vote in favor
of the appropriate benefits for state employees. Steve replied that
he was a former state employee who knew what it was like to get a zero
percent pay increase and can only imagine what it is like to live on a
pension fund that does not increase appropriately. The governor has
had to do budget balancing and has done some of that at the expense of
state employees. Steve does not want to see that happen. He
would make the case that by underpaying our state employees we have horrible
retention problems, we lose money by underpaying people that every one
of us depends on.
He acknowledge the appearance of Assemblyman Manny
Diaz, whom he described as one of the best people we have in Sacramento.
A student asked if he supported the proposal for
a new ID card. No. Technology is a great thing, but there is
a clear delineation: we must protect people's privacy. The issue
of a national database, putting everybody in it with fingerprinting to
track people down is exactly the wrong thing.
In closing he added that he believes his candidacy
represents something new in a number of ways. 1) He is one of the
very few people with a business and government background. 2) He
spent seven years living and working in Silicon Valley; that is a new thing.
3) He's just a little bit younger than a lot of the people that run for
statewide office. 4) His wife was a non-English speaking immigrant
to this county; his children are of mixed race. When people talk,
especially in southern California, about racial profiling, about this statewide
database, about not providing full social services to our immigrants, he
knows at a visceral level that is wrong. Every investment we make,
especially in health care and education for our immigrant population enables
the next generation to succeed. His wife, who literally grew up on
public assistance because she had English as a second language training,
had a good public education at San Diego High and San Diego State, has
repaid a hundred fold every tax benefit she ever got. We owe these
same social services to the next generation.
He said that if any of us are coming to the State
Convention, he'll to push for the Convention endorsement. He thinks
he'll get well over 60%. "I'd be eager and honored to have your support.
Thank you very much."
Special guest: Dennis Kennedy, Mayor of Morgan Hill and candidate
for Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, District 1.
The District 1 seat is currently held by Mr. Gage,
the only Republican on the Board of Supervisors, and the only Republican
holding a position at the level of Supervisor or above in Santa Clara County.
This is Dennis's 4th 2 year term as mayor of Morgan Hill; the last two
times he ran unopposed. He described his strength as dealing with
issues that we are now facing: issues of traffic congestion -
he served two 4 year terms on the Board of Directors of the VTA , and was
Chairman of Transit Planning and Operations Committee of the VTA.
He led the effort to get Highway 101 widened between Morgan Hill and San
José, led the effort to expand Caltrans service throughout the county,
was a strong supporter of Measure A, the BART extension, which his opponent
opposed. With respect to affordable housing he served on Manny Diaz's
Assembly Select Committee on Affordable Housing here in Santa Clara County.
With respect to medical services he helped create the Morgan Hill Community
Health Foundation whose goal it is to restore medical services in south
Santa Clara County. The economy: he went through a period of tough
times as mayor of Morgan Hill in which he had to lay off 30% of the city
staff. The economy of Morgan Hill has now been restored to health,
and there is a budget reserve, surplus of over 80% which will allow the
city to ride through difficult times. He knows how to deal with the
problems that we face today with respect to this difficult economy, and
he promises to rebuild the economy of Santa Clara County.
He has the strong support of many elected officials
including Congressman Mike Honda, Congressman Sam Farr, State Senator Byron
Sher, Speaker Pro-Tem of the State Assembly Fred Keely, Simon Salinas,
Manny Diaz, support from the Latino Caucus, 5 or 6 mayors, council
members, school board members, Open Space members, environmentalists throughout
Santa Clara County.
He brought up the environmental issue, which he
described as critical in District 1. District 1 is the largest geographical
district in the county; it has the largest amount of open space, hillsides,
mountains, rivers, and streams. A lot of those valuable resources
are being destroyed because of his opponent, Mr. Gage. He's known
in South County as the individual who has never found a development project
which he didn't like. We're losing our hillsides, our open space,
our agricultural land. We cannot tolerate another four years of Mr.
Gage being in office.
He's proud to be a lifelong Democrat, a former member
of the Teamsters. He's walked on picket lines with the teamsters.
Santa Clara County is his base. He promised to bring strong leadership
to this position and asked for our help. His kick-off meeting will
be this weekend in Morgan Hill. He's looking for volunteers to help
throughout the district, which includes in (addition to Morgan Hill, San
Martin, and Gilroy) Los Gatos, south San José, Blossom Valley, Santa
Teresa, Almaden Valley, Coyote Valley, parts of Silver Creek, the Villages.
It's a huge district. He would love to have our support and would
welcome any help we can provide. He thanked the Democratic Committee
for the opportunity to speak.
Special guest: Manny Diaz, State Assemblyman, 23rd Assembly
District.
Manny invited everyone here to step up to the plate
and get behind these great candidates like Dennis Kennedy, and Terry Gregory,
City Council Candidate from District 7, with Chris Hemingway running for
District 9. We have some great people here, and it's a real commitment
on their parts. It's not easy being a public servant - it takes them
away from their families. He acknowledged his own wife, Sandra Diaz,
who was present.
This morning in Sacramento they elected a new speaker
of the Assembly, Mr. Herb Wesson, and Manny told us he was very excited
about this person. He'll do well for us in Silicon Valley.
He'll do well for working families. He's a very strong Democrat,
and as you know we'll face a strong challenge this year with the budget.
We're talking about a $12 billion deficit, so we need to get behind Steve
Westly as well. It's important to have someone from Silicon Valley,
because about a third of the $100 billion in state revenue comes from our
Valley. So it's important that somebody knows what's going on in
our Valley and works in Sacramento statewide. We're going to be dealing
with the budget, but we'll make it. We want to make sure that we
protect the people that need the most help. With our new leadership,
Mr. Wesson, and the Democratic caucus, we're going to protect most of what
is important to all of you. We've been a majority in Sacramento for
a while, and we spent a lot of time working for all of you. We want
to make sure that we don't fall back in everything we've been able to accomplish
because of the budget shortfall.
He thanked us and said it would be an honor to serve
us again with his re-election to the 23rd District.
Special Guest: Barbara Wardenburg, League of Women Voters.
Barbara began by thanking us for providing an opportunity
to speak about "SmartVoter." She distributed information on SmartVoter,
which is shown in Appendix I.
Barbara is a member of the League of Women Voters
of Los Altos-Mountain View. She also is the Santa Clara County coordinator
of the LWV on-line Election Information Service.
In the old days, and sometimes even today, election
information would be distributed in paper form, very expensively, and people
lost it, just as they would lose than sample ballot or newspaper clippings
they cut out. At the last minute they could not find this information
that they thought would help them cast an informed vote. SmartVoter
is there all the time; it's on line. You can't lose it. That's
why we're so excited about it.
We invite every single candidate to participate.
She just sent out 125 letters to candidates. The problem is the candidates
get an awful lot of stuff, wo she ends up calling at least half the candidates.
"This is free - how can you pass it up?" So she is asking those of
us that are candidates to participate in SmartVoter and learn how easy
it is. When you work for other candidates in November, encourage
them to do it.
The other thing we could help with is publicizing
SmartVoter. Your organization's web page could link to SmartVoter,
your homeowner's group could link, your city could link, so the people
when they are casting around for information could find it.
SmartVoter provides not only information about the
candidates, but where you vote and exactly what will be on your ballot.
Do you know how many people don't know what Assembly District they're in?
You type in your street address and you get your ballot.
We're hoping this will take off; we've been doing
it since 1996. It's getting easier. Almost every candidate
not only knows what a computer is but has one and can use it, so we're
making progress.
She addressed the members of the class and asked
if they were all registered to vote. She offered to bring voter registration
cards in for anyone that needs one. She invited people to e-mail
her at barbward@pacbell.net
if they have questions.
Alyson Abramowitz asked if the SmartVoter site has
been updated to reflect redistricting. Barbara responded that SmartVoter
gets all its information from the Registrar of Voters. "If their
stuff is right, ours is right." But the March 5th page is not up
yet. The data files have come in and the programmer is working to
get the information up early next week.
4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Steve asked for a motion to approve. Phyllis
Ward asked to add an item relating to a change in election law. With
this addition a motion to approve was made, seconded, and passed.
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted
on www.scc-democrats.org)
A motion to approve the minutes of the December
meeting was made, seconded, and passed.
6. CANDIDATE ENDORSEMENTS Keith Garvey
Keith pointed out that the interview process, particularly
the scheduling over the holidays, was very laborious. It took several
evenings to come up with the recommendations. He offered sincere
thanks to the people that worked so hard on these; some went above and
beyond the call sometimes devoting several evenings to it. The recommendation
of the committee is essentially a motion for the endorsements in the form
of a consent calendar. A voting member can ask to take a race off
the calendar and have a discussion. At the very end we want to discuss
the mayor's race and the issue of endorsements in the judges' races.
He asked that this issue be dealt with separately.
In some cases the Democratic candidate was running
unopposed. We found this to be a good opportunity to have a dialog
with that candidate. In the cases of Assessor Larry Stone, Supervisor
Jim Beall, and City Councilwoman Cindy Chavez we had some really good conversations
and some suggestions about what we might do as a committee in the future
to better prepare candidates, to better deal with candidates when they
are first in office, and we hope we can have some influence on how they
make up their minds on issues. So we went ahead and interviewed these
people, exchanging information about what they thought were the key issues.
These discussions were as valuable as those with questionnaires in a contested
race.
The Endorsement Committee recommendations are as
follows:
8. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS
A. Executive Board: Herb Engstrom.
The resolution concerning the Bush Administration's
proposals to counter terrorism was discussed and approved.
Keith Garvey reported on the endorsement process.
We decided to recommend to the Central Committee
that we do endorse in judge's races.
Proposed changes to bylaws will be distributed
to the Central Committee in January and voted upon in February.
Olivia talked about the proposed newsletter.
B. Chair: Steve Preminger.
No report.
C. Vice Chair: Tom Cochran.
Tom thanked Keith for his hard work on the endorsement
process.
D. Treasurer: Dennis Chiu.
Nothing was earned and nothing was spent.
E. Secretary: Herb Engstrom.
Attendance for 2001:
20th: 65%
21st: 68%
22nd: 82%
23rd: 85%
24th: 89%
28th: 65%
Assembly: 61%
Senate: 18%
Congress: 32%
Clubs: 40%
We presently have 59 voting members. A quorum
is one more than half of the voting members, or 30 and one half members.
With a liberal interpretation, a quorum is 30 voting members. At
our December meeting we had 33 present; dangerously close to not having
enough members to conduct business.
F. Community Services & Voter Registration: Liz McDavit
1. Would like to thank the Evergreen Valley Democratic
Club for inviting me to their meeting to talk about our voter registration
program. It was a
great meeting.
2. Thanks to Pat. O'Hare and Frank Bosche for helping
at Westgate Mall. We were also at Valley Fair and at Costco Almaden.
3. We will have VR tables at the beginning of February
so we are visible and available to register Democrats and Decline
to State (which the Party now recognizes) before the primaries in March.
4. I have made a flyer listing all the dates for
the New Citizen Voter Registration Events for the next year. They
take place at the Civic Auditorium downtown San Jose. If you would please
tuck the flyer away and use it as a reference and if you can help for one
or more of those dates, let me know by either calling me at the hotline
number or telling me at a CC meeting.
G. Finance: Jim Thurber
No report.
H. Campaign Services: Keith Garvey
Nothing further to add to the candidate endorsement
discussion.
I. Candidate Services: Cristina Uribe.
Cristina added her thanks to Keith for his efforts
in the endorsements.
J. Issues: Willie Wool
No report.
K. Political Outreach: Jim Thurber.
Jim reminded us that clubs need to be reaccredited
for the new year. The process is simple: Each club needs to
submit a list of officers, a list of at least 20 members, and a financial
report. If Jim receives these by the end of the month the club will
be reaccredited by the February meeting. They documents may be submitted
by e-mail.
Rather than have the ad committees and clubs give
their reports as usual, Steve encouraged them to come to the rally on Sunday,
where they will have time to present their reports.
Herb suggested that the reports be submitted in
writing for inclusion in the minutes.
Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Dennis Chiu.
The SVAPADC is mourning the loss of Gordon Chan,
the godfather to the Chinese American community. Approximately 1500
attended his services in San Jose. His passing is a tremendous
loss to the community. The club has also been working on its endorsement
process for the March election.
Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Wharton
Our first meeting of 2002 on Tuesday, Jan. 8 was
conducted by newly elected President Jim Gleeson. Guest speaker was Morgan
Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy who is seeking support for his candidacy for
the District 1 seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. His
presentation, giving his background and position on 4 major issues facing
the district (provision of medical services, transportation and traffic
congestion, the economy, and affordable housing, was well received by the
members.
Erica Jones, Senior Specialist for Beneficiary Relations
for CMRA, will be guest speaker for our February 5 meeting on the topic
of Medicare (a subject near and dear to the hearts of seniors).
The InnVision family our Club adopted for Christmas
enjoyed a bountiful Christmas, receiving a $150 Safeway gift certificate
and $40 cash in addition to outfits and personal articles purchased for
the mother and her two daughters.
Peninsula Young Democrats: Michael Markman.
A large contingent of PYD members attended the year-end
PDC holiday party, graciously hosted by the Thurbers. On January
6, many PYD members participated in a breakfast fundraiser for Mike Honda's
campaign, again hosted by the Thurbers (this was a follow-on to the December
fundraiser for Mike Honda's campaign, which Congressman Honda was unable
to attend due to obligations in Washington). PYD will host a social
event on the third Thursday of February (details will be available in February).
Several PYD members also plan to attend the State Convention next month.
Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Charlie Ahern
The club held a very successful 20th Anniversary
Holiday Gala at Lou's Village on December 13th. We had over 100 guests,
including Assemblyman Manny Diaz, Assemblywoman Elaine Alquist, and several
founding members of our club. The silent auction raised several hundred
dollars for future club activities.
On January 21st at 7:00 PM the club will be holding
a Candidate Endorsement Forum in the community room of the Cupertino Library.
Expected participants include: 22nd State Assembly candidates Sally Lieber,
Rod Diridon, and Rosemary Stasek; District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor
candidate Dennis Kennedy; District 1 San Jose City Council candidates:
Linda LeZotte and Ross Signorino; and District 9 San Jose City Council
candidates: Chris Hemingway and Judy Chirco.
At the urging of Herb Engstrom, the club has
launched a Real Energy Independence project. The goal is to reduce America's
dependence on imported oil and, more generally, on fossil fuels. Both conservation
of existing domestic resources and alternative energy sources are part
of the recommendations for developing our energy independence.
L. Regional Director: Madge Overhouse.
There is a campaign kick-off rally this Sunday,
described by a flier available here. Last Saturday sixteen representatives
of clubs and ADs and other activists met to plan the rally. They
volunteered to do outreach. It was a tremendous working group, and
I'm really thankful and pleased.
There are meetings around the Bay Area and there
is a list of other such meetings.
In the past the Party has held endorsement meetings
called "pre-endorsement conferences." This year they decided to do
endorsements only for the constitutional offices. They would hold
usual date for the conferences open but hold rallies and fairs instead.
We decided to have kind of like a Democratic fair. This means the
clubs can have tables and recruit. Liz McDavit will have a voter
registration table. We'll be able to tell you what AD you live in
as a result of reapportionment. The important thing is that there
will be candidates there. They will speak and have materials.
So far we have Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren, Elaine Shaw, for the Congressional
Districts. Elaine is running in that horrendous Congressional District
that starts in Danville, goes to Sacramento and down to part of our South
County. For the Assembly: Joe Simitian, Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn,
Rod Diridon, Jr., Sally Lieber, Rosemary Stasek. Those three are
running for the 22nd AD. John Laird is running for the 27th AD from the
Santa Cruz district, which is now coming over into our county.
Steve Smith will be representing Gray Davis. We'll have Steve Westly,
whom you were able to visit with tonight. There will be lots of candidates
there. Come and visit at the Labor Temple, 2102 Almaden Road.
I guess I can tell you. There'll be a nice
surprise: Attorney General Bill Lockyer will be visiting.
Sal Alvarez asked why 28th AD rep Simon Salinas
was not on the list of attendees at the rally. Madge replied that
she had called him but received no reply. The people she mentioned
are those that have confirmed.
Phyllis Ward asked if there would be food and drink.
Madge replied that she would love to have refreshments but this "lofty
position" of regional director comes with no budget. There will be
coffee and tea, and she has asked people to bring cookies.
Our convention will be February 15th through the
17th. I called the State Party this afternoon and found that the
President, the President, Bill Clinton has not said no. Senator Daschle
confirmed just today, so he will be speaking Saturday morning. The
lunch will feature the leaders of the Assembly and Senate; the dinner is
a roast of John Burton. Terry McAuliffe, our national chair, will
be there.
For those of you that are delegates, if there is
any change in status, please let the Party know. We'll be voting
on endorsements of the constitutional offices.
With redistricting the composition of the Regions
will be looked at. I am director of region 5, which includes the
20th, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th ADs. The Party would like to add the 21st
AD to Region 5, but we don't know if this will happen. If the new
lines are not ready for your approval at the convention, they will be considered
at the first E-Board meeting following the convention.
At the convention the endorsement process is just
for the constitutional officers: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer,
Secretary of State (Kevin Shelley, March Fong, Michaela Alioto), Attorney
General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Controller. That's
why it's important that you clarify your status;' there will be voting
on these endorsements. Everybody should have gotten a packet with
a stamp in the upper right corner. Make sure that is correct.
If you bare not planning to go, let the secretary know for proxies.
In order to carry a proxy, you have to have some linkage to the County
Committee such as being an alternate.
Steve added that if you want to be a proxy let us
know as soon as possible because there are things you have to do, like
pay your dues.
M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis.
No report.
N. Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia Shope.
At its last meeting, January 8, the Pro-Choice Coalition
showed a very interesting movie, "Woman to Woman and the Fragile Promise
of Choice."
There will be a march commemorating Roe v Wade,
"Step out for pro-choice" on January 22 from 11:45 to 1:15. This
is the 29th anniversary of Roe v Wade. For several years the local
Catholic Church in Los Altos has sponsored an anti-choice march and the
pro-choice march will take place at the same time. Meet at 11:45
AM at the Los Altos Youth Center on North San Antonio Road. The Youth
Center is just behind the Los Altos City Hall. For more information
call (650) 941-8135.
Planned Parenthood will have a lobby day January
22, 8:30 to 4:00 in Sacramento, 1400 J Street.
O. DTV Report: Steve Chessin.
Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported
that our December taping was with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.
Our guests in January will be all three 22nd AD
Assembly candidates, in for a round-table discussion.
In February we hope to have Supervisorial District
1 candidate Dennis Kennedy, but details are still being worked.
We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A January
17th with Patrick Kwok. The roundtable with the 22nd AD candidates
will air February 14th and be repeated March 14th. The show with
Dennis Kennedy will air February 28th and March 28th.
John Himrod was our floor director but the downturn in the economy
has forced him to move to Los Angeles. We could use a good Democrat
on the crew to replace him. No prior video experience is necessary.
P. CDC Report: David Wilkes.
Dave received a call from State CDC Chair Jim Clarke
who said that the number of CDC affiliated clubs ad increased from 40 to
79 in one year. The local CDC endorsement meeting will take place
on January 26th at Foothill College from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM in Bldg 5001
off parking lot 5. For more information contact Art Lynch at 650-948-8762
or Dave himself at 408-996-1613. The endorsements will cover offices
from statewide down to central committee.
Q. Welfare Reform: Sal Alvarez.
There has been a major development: Bush has made
a policy shift such that food stamps will now be available to legal immigrants.
Clinton had approved a policy cutting out all food stamps but then restored
them for those qualified before the law. Now Bush is attempting to
court Hispanic voters. This new policy will add 400,000 to the food
stamp program and will have serious ramifications as it will increase support
for Bush among Latinos.
9. OLD BUSINESS
A. Resolution on threats to civil liberties: Emy and Jim Thurber
and Martin Gorefinkel.
Jim passed out a copy of the revised resolution
(which combined the two resolutions introduced last month.) Herb
Engstrom moved to adopt, and his motion was seconded. In the discussion
Margie Baker noted that there was a reference to the U.S. as a "constitutional
democracy." She asked if the U.S. really was that or more of a constitutional
republic. Jim replied that he would check the exact term that applied.
With that assurance, the motion passed and the resolution adopted.
The resolution is shown in Appendix II.
B. Bylaws revisions: David Cohen.
David distributed copies of the substantive changes
in the bylaws and briefly mentioned them:
10. NEW BUSINESS
Change in election law: item by Phyllis Ward.
If you are registered as "decline to state" a party affiliation, you may
now ask for a Democratic ballot in the primary election. Also, you
can now obtain an absentee ballot on a regular, permanent basis.
In Santa Clara County there are 179 different ballots
multiplied by 8 different parties multiplied again by 3 different languages.
11. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dan Hoffman said that the Martin Luther King, Jr.
memorial breakfast will take place at the Wyndham Hotel Monday, the 21st
at 7 AM.
Madge Overhouse said there will be a fundraiser,
$50, for Gina Pappen, candidate for the 19th Assembly District.
Sally Lieber, the newly elected mayor of Mountain
View, thanked the Committee for its help. There will be a precinct
walk every weekend. Her headquarters is behind the Coleman Still.
12. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 9: 37.
APPENDIX I
Leagues of Women Voters of Santa
Clara County
Southwest Santa Clara Valley
Cupertino-Sunnyvale San Jose-Santa Clara Los Altos-Mountain
View Palo Alto
www.smartvoter.org
LWVC Education Fund
SMART VOTER:
provides online election
information (candidates and measures)
is a polling place locator
provides your personal ballot
provides information about
Santa Clara County (www.smartvoter.org/ca/scl)
is non-partisan
is free (funding is provided
by contributions from the public and from local Leagues)
is owned by the League of
Women Voters of California
Smart Voter has been providing citizens with information necessary to cast informed votes since 1996 and is an outgrowth of the League's candidate questionnaires published on paper.
CANDIDATES:
may enter information online
and add to or edit their information up to the day before the election.
must provide a minimum amount
of information (2 line of biography and 3 top priorities
may provide a photo, additional
biographical information, political philosophy, endorsements, and up to
three position papers.
THE VOTERS:
can read information about
candidates and measures
can get their personal ballot
can locate their polling
place
can get information about
candidate forums
can get links to political
newspaper articles
SMART VOTER NEEDS YOUR HELP
encouraging candidates to
participate in Smart Voter
publicizing Smart Voter
linking to Smart Voter from:
city web pages
political web pages
community group web pages
business web pages
LINKING TO SMART VOTER: (see details at: http://www.smartvoter.org/voter/linktosv.html
)
Link to the main page: http://www
.smartvoter.org
Link to the Santa Clara
Co. page: http://www.smartvoter.org/ca/scl
Use a Smart Voter logo on
your web page
Put Smart Voter's ballot
lookup feature on your web page.
Barbara Wardenburg: barbward@pacbell.net
Santa Clara Co. Smart Voter coordinator
APPENDIX II
Resolution on threats to civil liberties
WHEREAS, the United States of America was established as a constitutional democracy, governed by laws guaranteeing those accused of crimes due process, habeas corpus, the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, to be informed of the charges against them and to have legal counsel, and
WHEREAS, the United States is a strong supporter of international human rights for all peoples and takes great pride in promoting democracy and the rule of law at home and abroad and even publishes a yearly scorecard of how other nations are doing in regard to judicial guarantees, and
WHEREAS, the Bush Administration, in response to the terrible events of September 11, has proposed to try non-citizens in military tribunals which will be closed to public scrutiny, where normal rules of civilian or military justice will not apply, where defendants can be sentenced to death without unanimity and where there is no right to appeal the sentence to a higher court; and has further detained numerous aliens in secret without disclosing their identities or the charges against them and where the detained appear to have limited access to legal counsel; and has, in addition, selected for questioning thousands of young men from targeted countries which is a clear case of ethnic and racial profiling, a practice which should be abhorrent to all Americans; and whose Attorney General, representing the Administration, has tried to intimidate critics of these actions and proposals by accusing them of being unpatriotic.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee calls upon the Administration to balance the need to be secure against the ever present danger of losing our treasured civil liberties, to recognize that dissent is an important part of our Democratic process, and to listen with an open mind to the many critics of its plans including much of the national press and even some members of the Republican Party.
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon all Democratic Party elected officials at a local, state and national level not to be intimidated by public support for some of these extreme measures, and to speak out continuously and fearlessly to protect our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and against selecting one group of people as less deserving of internationally agreed upon civil rights than others and who are suspect merely because of a shared nationality or religion with terrorists.
APPENDIX III
Request to announce an event on the SCCDCC Newsletter
a. The date on which the event is to occur:___________________________________________________________
b. Opening and Closing times for the event:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
c. The name, street
address and location of the site. If there is no street number, this must
be
stated clearly, and the
street name, highway number, or other designation for the road on which
it
is located must still be
listed. There should be sufficient information in the announcement to allow
someone to find the general
area of the site on a road map without using the rest of the
directions, and to ask directions
to the specific site once they arrive within the local area.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
c. The name of the sponsoring group.
_________________________________________________________________________________
d. The statement "Make checks payable to <group>", and the cost of the event, if there is a fee.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
e. Any other information you would like included.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Event announcements will
always appear in the issue published before the event occurs. Every
effort will be made to publish
announcements as far in advance as possible, but space
considerations may not always
permit this.
You may e-mail this information
to Olivia Graeve at ograeve@email.sjsu.edu,
or you may call and
leave a voice message at
( 408) 293-1718.
This page was last updated 2/7/02.
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