SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE
  Minutes of the meeting of October 3, 2002.

1.  CALL TO ORDER
    The meeting was called to order by Chair Steve Preminger at 7:20 PM.

2.  ROLL CALL
    Absent were:  Francine Davis, Bill Ferguson, Allan Thiessen, Jewelle Gibbs, Rod Diridon, Jr., Bart Fisher, Larry Littlejohn, Liz McDavit, Larry Carr, Craig Mann, Gene Wagner, John Dutra, Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn, Liz Figueroa, Byron Sher, John Vasconcellos, Anselmo Chavez, Pete Stark, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Ruth Ashford, Gap Kim, Teresa Daley, Charlie Ahern, and Alex Kennett.
    Excused were Francis LaPoll, Aldyth Parle, and Rena Modell..

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS
    Aaron Persky, candidate for Superior Court, Office 16
    Kansen Chu, candidate for Berryessa Union School Board
    John Coyle, candidate for Berryessa Union School Board
    Norma Hammes
    Linda Gold
    Virginia Frank
    Joan Goddard, new alternate for DAWN
    Toni Stone
    Amanda Pingarron
    Juan Ayala
    Adelita Gomez
    Liz Chong

    Aaron Persky spoke about judicial races.  "Behind every important policy, Supreme Court/Appelate Court decision--Roe vs. Wade, Brown vs. Board of Education--every one of those cases started with a trial court judge, and you and your friends and everyone in Santa Clara County have to power on November 5th to vote for those trial court judges.  I have some literature here from the Mercury News and and Palo Alto Daily News from the March primary talking about me.  I'd like to pass that out, and I'd like to give you the opportunity to talk to me, call me because it really is a critical decision that you're facing on November 5th, and please come talk to me."
    Anne Mack mentioned the forum for the four judicial candidates sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Saturday, Oct. 12, from 10 to 12.  Another will be Thursday night, Oct. 17th, in Mountain View.

    Kansen Chu spoke:  "Hello, my name is Kansen Chu.  I'm running for Berryessa Union School Board.  First of all I want to thank this body for supporting me two years ago in the city council race.  Thank you very much for supporting me in this school board race.  I'm very happy that I still have the energy to run for a public position after a long city council race, and I'm very fortunate and very honored to have a lot of support from the community.  I have the support of all five Board members plus the teachers association of Berryessa, the CTA, and city council members Chuck Reed and Nora Campos, and all five members of the Board of Supervisors and a lot of city officials.  Again I want to take this opportunity to thank you very much for your support.  Thank you."

    John Coyle then spoke:  "My name's John Coyle.  I live in the Berryessa District, and I'm running for school board.  Hopefully Kansen and I will be seated together.  We can work together.  I run a small business; I've 9 employees.  I've been endorsed by every union I've asked, and hopefully by the Central Committee, whom I've asked.  My ideas are to try and bring the grades up and the test scores.  I spoke to an ex-city council person the other day and was informed that we're just not socially and economically equipped to compete with Cupertino, and I don't believe that.  I think we can do better than we have been.  I think schools can be built better and safer.  My daytime job is as a school building inspector where I've managed to get some districts straightened out, and some of them a little ticked off.    Any support or help I can get walking precincts would be greatly appreciated.

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA
    A motion to approve the agenda was made, seconded, and carried.

5.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES    (Minutes are posted on  www.scc-democrats.org)
    Jim Thurber pointed out that the minutes should indicate that the Latino Forum was certified.  Steve Chessin added that in the DTV report, "Tapings" should read "Airings."  With these corrections, the minutes of the meeting of September 5th were approved.

6.  REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.  Executive Board:  Herb Engstrom.
    We made additional school board endorsements, including Alum Rock, Berryessa, and Evergreen school districts.  Keith Garvey will report on these.  David Cohen will compile and send out an email each week to ba-dems starting immediately.

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger.
    I'd like to invite the United Democratic Campaign staff, those that are here, to come forward.
    Felicia Ordaz spoke first: "My name is Felicia Ordaz, and I'm with the United Democratic Campaign out of the Almaden Road site.  I'm really excited about our first kickoff we had.  We had over 200 volunteers come out.  We still have 1800 volunteer slots to fill for our phone banking and precinct walking.  We have 33 more days until the election November 5th  We have opportunities for phone banking during the week.  We now have precinct walking on Sundays at 11 A.M. up until the last weekend.  We are looking forward to getting at least 10 of you to work with us.  We've been calling Democratic activists to see who've had interests with us before to see if they want to come back and work with us again."
    Heath Clark:  "My name's Heath Clark, and I work at the North County OFfice.  I'd like to say thanks to Steve and the Thurbers for giving me the opportunity to work with all the neat people I've already met in the last two weeks.  I'm in a similar situation that they are in down here.  Whereas we always need volunteers, we're trying to get at least two walks per weekend, Saturday and Sunday, and then we're phone banking as they are Monday through Thursday evenings.  Any help you can give is much appreciated.  I get to have a lot of contact with the PDC members, who are primarily my labor pool, and they are all wonderful people.  If anyone can help us get more volunteers it would be much appreciated.  The North COunty is going really well.  We've got 33 more days until the election, so I'd like to thank everybody in advance for all their hard work.  The address of the North County office is 1411 El Camino Real between Shoreline and El Monte.  The phone number is 650-938-6166.  I'm there primarily from 9 to 9."
    Steve added that the Central County office is at 2102 Almaden Road, San José, on a trailer at the Labor Temple.
    Dan Kenney reported on the South County operation;  "I'm Dan from A.D. 27.  We have a UDC headquarters in Morgan Hill.  We'll be phone baking on the 10th and 17th, Thursday nights, and precinct walking on the 12th and 19th.  We're working for Simon Salinas in the Gilroy area and for John Laird running for A.D. 27, and also Elaine Shaw running for Congress.  We had a Democratic booth at Taste of Morgan Hill and registered about 40 Democrats.  We ran it for two days, and both candidates showed up.  We have an event coming up where Phil Angelides is coming to Morgan hill, to Villa Mira Monte, it's Morgan Hill House fully restored.  I have handouts here.  It's an event John Laird is sponsoring, and he'd love to get a lot of people down there.  Thanks for your support."    Steve added that the goal of the operation--actually a number of operations because within each area there are a number of local candidates we're working with.  A number of candidates we've endorsed are bringing their precinct efforts to our headquarters, and we're trying to work with campaigns that are not working out of these offices
    Chris Stampolis commented on the Santa Clara office:  "I met with Barbara today.  Barbara is going to be Sally Lieber's legislative director, coordinating that portion of the office in Santa Clara.  We were able to work out an agreement with the UDC office since Sally's office is right in Santa Clara, and we're kind of in between the other offices."
    Steve went on: "We have a lot of work to do.  The goal of the Democratic Party and all our efforts is to see that Democrats who are occasional voters who voted at one or two or three of the last elections get a contact or more and to see how important the election is and make sure they go vote because we're concerned that a lot of people are getting a lot of messages.  People are getting turned off, and that's not going to help us.  That's why you see people circulating all around you with clipboards asking you if you can help, sign up, so some walking, do some talking, and also be organizers for the Democratic Party.  Talk to your friends and co-workers, and see who else you can bring into our joyous activity that'll be over with in 33 days.
    "If you look at our web site, our webmeisters have put up the campaign offices, the schedules, the kinds of volunteer opportunities that are there, so if you don't get a chance to sign up now, please check it out and share that information with all your friends, neighbors, family, acquaintances, people that owe you money, anything you can. So if you could sign up quickly, we want to have our staff get back to their campaign offices and get back to work."

C.  Vice Chair: Tom Cochran.
    "For those of you that haven't been in the offices yet, they're really good.  I stopped by North County today, and that's a fun place.  It's got a funkiness to it.  There's good energy there.  I was at the Labor Council Democratic headquarters yesterday.  All machines are set up, computers going.  It's a good thing to do.
    "What I really want to talk about is my favorite race, the Terry Gregory race.  Yesterday in the mail I received an invitation to go to a fundraiser for Terry's opponent that was hosted by Ron Gonzales and Jim Cunneen.  If that doesn't turn your stomach...  So the forces that are up against Terry are the most conservative parts of Santa Clara County, and it's really important to get behind him.  For those of you who haven't written checks or haven't called or walked, I'd really appreciate it if you would; so would Terry.  It doesn't have to be $250 -- $25.  The mayor, Jim Cunneen, the Chamber of Commerce -- they're pulling all stops.  They're raising money.  They're getting together with really rotten people, so help out Terry.  I'd really appreciate it.  Thanks."
    Steve added, "What we're doing in Santa Clara County is going on all across the state.  There are campaign offices, there are staff people, there are a lot of phone calls being made, and all that.  One of our staff people was on a call with other campaign staff people at the other headquarters.  The sad news is most of the other headquarters are barely up and running.  They're not able to get the kind of walkers that we've gotten in Mountain View and San José offices, and that I know we'll be getting in the Morgan Hill office.  The good news is I think we're doing well, and we need to set the tone for the rest of the state."

D.  Treasurer: Dennis Chiu.
    After a $200 donation from the UDC to help with our phone bill we have about $200 in the account.

E.  Secretary:  Herb Engstrom.
    From those of you giving reports I would really appreciate a handwritten or emailed copy of the report.  It really helps.
    David Cohen described the new .  "We have an email list created last year that has about 300 Democrats on it called 'ba-dems.'  People can sign up to be on this list by going to the Central Committee web site.  At the bottom of the home page it says if you want to receive announcements from the party, sign up here.  You submit your email address and you'll be signed up to receive announcements.  I think everybody on the Central Committee is on the list by default but we also have about 150 other people who have signed up to receive announcements.  There was some confusion because the name 'ba-dems' implies that this is a Bay Area wide list, and it is a Bay Area wide list but at this point the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee sort of controls the list, so we are using it now as a way of getting out information about our campaign activities in the county and maybe in the future we will expand it to be Bay Area wide announcement list for events.  A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that we have volunteers on this list that we are not reaching during the campaign season to tell them what we are doing, so I decided it would be a good idea to send out weekly bulletins which list campaign opportunities, volunteer opportunities, and events that are happening in the county, and so each week this bulletin will go out to these 300 people, and hopefully this will grow as word of mouth spreads and people will have ways and people will have ways to tap into the campaigns we are doing.  Perhaps we will use the list after the election to have people stay involved because one of the things we don't often do well is keep people involved in the off years."

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Lorre Vaughn for Liz McDavit.
    Thank you to Lorre Vaughn for reading my report this evening. I was training new volunteers at Valley Fair and knew there was a chance I might not get to the meeting in time.
    We've had a very busy month with the help of lots of volunteers and some of  the clubs. I don't want to give too much detail of specific events because I'm sure the clubs would like to report on it themselves. I would like to thank Keith Garvey for working with us on the Manny Diaz event. It was very successful and we had very good outreach.
    In addition to the clubs mentioned in previous reports, we are working with some members of the High Tech Dems to cover Valley Fair and Los Gatos. Thank you to them for contacting us.
    The last day to register to vote is Oct. 21st. and we are planning a large VR drive for the week-end of the 19th and 20th. If you plan to do any VR that week-end, please contact me so we will not have any duplication of efforts. We had duplication of efforts last week-end and we need to avoid that in order to be as productive as possible.
    Thank you to everyone who helped this month,

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber
    No report.

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Keith Garvey
    We're hoping to be done with our endorsements before the election.  The Executive Board met, and we made some decisions on school board races, and we continued some interviews up to about a half hour before this meeting.  We have a couple of candidates still out there for scheduling purposes that we agreed to interview if we possibly could.  We're still trying to put together something for the judges.  Because there are two Democrats running against each other in both races, we don't want to go through a regular endorsement process.  However, we still hope to have a meeting for those that are interested.
    For Alum Rock School board we decided to recommend Adriana Garza and Tony Alexander.  We will still try to work in an interview with a third candidate, Kathleen Dolci.
    For the Berryessa Union School District we recommend Kansen Chu, John Coyle, and Jorge Licea.
    For the Evergreen School Board there are several candidates but we really like Sylvia Alvarez.
    We encourage you to bring good candidates to our attention, and sometimes we are surprised to find one.  For Los Altos Hills Town Council we interviewed and decided to recommend  Breene Kerr.
    And today for the West Valley/Mission Community College for one of the the seats we recommended Jeffrey Schwartz and for the other seat, the one we interviewed right before we got here we have endorsed Kevin Moore.  There is one other candidate we will try to interview.
    Chris Stampolis moved that we endorse all recommended candidates.  The motion carried unanimously.
    Sal Alvarez asked what will happen now with the endorsements.  Steve replied that a slate mailer would require funds, which is a problem, but we will work with candidates and their campaigns.  Literature from the candidates can be distributed in our campaign offices.  Walking precincts for candidates such as Simon Salinas can benefit our endorsed candidates in that area.

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins
    Everything is going well.  We had a meeting with the Deputy Director of the State party.  We have automated phone banks up; we're calling Democrats.  We're going to focus on two things: one, people who voted in the last elections and two, one of the last elections to get out occasional votes to increase turnout.  The feedback we got is that we are by far the best county that they've seen.  You've done a great job, and now the challenge is to get the volunteers out, so please, please, please volunteer because that's what it's going to take to increase turnout this year.
    Steve added that the staff that was here earlier has circulated a copy of the State Party walk piece that's got state candidates in it and statements by Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and all the statewide candidates.  This is the first wave of literature to come, and we are expecting to get Gray Davis bumper stickers.  We will have them in our campaign offices this weekend, and please affix them.

J.  Issues: Willie Wool
    No report.

K. Political Outreach: Emy Thurber

20th AD committee:
    No report.

21st AD Committee: Rich Watters.
    The Executive Board of the 21st AD Committee met on September 25th in Redwood City.
    1) Chairman Ian Bain reported that the voter registration drive had so far netted over 300 affidavits, collected in the north, central and south areas of the district. He re-iterated that volunteers were still need for VR activities on October 12th and 19th.
    2) Ian also reported that the state party urged Democrats to remind voters about the economy, even as the Republicans try to shift the political focus to war in Iraq.
    3) The 21st AD will hold one more general meeting in November, a holiday party in December, and a reorganization meeting on January 5th.

22nd AD Committee: Chris Stampolis.
    The 22nd AD looks forward to providing great snacks at the November SCCDCC meeting!  The Committee is grateful that Mountain View is hosting the North County UDC office.  The City of Santa Clara club has met twice and looks to be in good formation.  We have some leads to help us form a Berryessa Democratic Club, as well as a Sunnyvale club.  The AD Committee will meet in November and December to plan for the next year, and to develop a plan to meet the new statewide guidelines for AD Committees.

23rd AD Committee:  Keith Garvey.
    The 23 AD Report :  Assemblymember Manny Diaz hosted a very successful Women's Health Summit and Resource Fair at the Center for Employment Training (CET) on Saturday Sept 21.  The hope was to have 350 participants for workshops in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.  The response was overwhelming with 570 people attending.  Dr. Denise Johnson from Stanford was the keynote speaker and all the women San Jose City Council members were also on stage. Congress member Zoe Lofgren and Supervisor Jim Beall were also in attendance.  Members of DAWN and the 23AD committee helped staff the event and Liz McDavit's voter registration team registered new Democrats.  Thanks to all democrats who participated.

24th AD Committee:
    No report.

28th AD Committee: Sal Alvarez.
    Assemblymember Manny Diaz hosted a very successful Women's Health Summit and Resource Fair at the Center for Employment Training (CET) on Saturday Sept. 21.  The hope was to have 350 participants for workshops in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The response was overwhelming with 570 people attending.  Dr. Denise Johnson from Stanford was the keynote speaker and all the women San Jose City Council members were also on stage. Congress member Zoe Lofgren and Supervisor Jim Beall were also in attendance.  Members of DAWN and the 23AD committee helped staff the event and Liz McDavit's voter registration team registered new Democrats. Thanks to all democrats who participated.

African-American Democratic Coalition:
    No report.

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Dennis Chiu.
    The Asian Democratic Club report is that we were having our annual dinner on Friday, October 4, 2002.  We honored Steve Westly, Hwaja Choi, Margaret Abe and Elaine Alquist.

Clinton*Gore Action Network:
    No report.

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Joan Goddard.
    Carol Garvey, DAWN President, is now the regular representative to the DCC.  She was unable to attend this meeting due to phone banking for the election, so Joan Goddard, one of the DAWN vice presidents and the alternate representative to the DCC, reported.
    DAWN had a voter registration table for the early morning period of the 23rd Assembly District / Manny Diaz event September 21st.
    The DAWN endorsements membership meeting was Sept. 22, following questionnaires and interviews with candidates in the selected races. Repeat endorsements were made for Sally Lieber for Assembly and Terry Gregory for SJ City Council, as well as the entire Democratic Party slate for statewide offices and the Congressional and Legislature Democratic incumbents with at least sections of their districts in Santa Clara County, plus Nancy Pelosi and Jackie Speier.  New endorsements were for Elaine Shaw for Congress, John Laird for Assembly, Patricia Mahan and John McLemore (dual) for Santa Clara Mayor, Barbara Nesbet for Monte Sereno City Council, Matt Neely and Tom Frankum (dual) for Mountain View City Council, and Margaret Abe-Koga for the county Board of Education.
    Prior to endorsement voting, a bylaws change was passed, providing for endorsements by a 60% vote instead of the previous 2/3 requirement.  A consent calendar was used for all endorsements except when a member requested particular race(s) be removed from the consent calendar.  This simplified the voting process for endorsements.
    In addition to working on local elections, DAWN members plan to help with Elaine Shaw's campaign by going into the larger part of her district which is not in the county.

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Bev Wharton.
    Fifty members were on hand to hear our speaker, Howard Lewis, Former Board Member of the ACLU, at our meeting on Oct. 1st on the subject of The Impact of the Bush Administration's "War on Terrorism" on American Civil Liberties. He stressed that eternal vigilance is necessary when our basic rights as individuals are threatened as they are under the so-called Patriot Act. While we may think we have to give up freedom to have freedom, we cannot be safe by giving up our main values. As Benjamin Franklin said, "He who sacrifices freedom for security is neither free nor secure."
    Voter registration efforts at Eastridge on Sept. 21 and 28 ran into some difficulties. Tables were not set up. Security did not seem to know anything about it and then put us in a corner where we could not be seen. Managed to get the tables moved to a better location, but still not as advantageous as the first time, and over the two days registered only a total of 10.  We hope to do better on Oct. 5 when we will be registering voters at Councilman Dave Cortese's multicultural festival, "Day in the Park," and try again on Oct. 12 at Eastridge.
    For our November meeting, which falls on Election Day, we will gather together to watch election results and celebrate Democratic victories.

High Tech Dems:
    High Tech Dems next event will be on Monday, November 18 from 6:15-9:30 PM at Ming's (1700 Embarcadero) in Palo Alto. Cost is $25 members/$35 non-members in advance. $10 higher at the door. Register at:  www.hightechdems.com  or Email:   info@hightechdems.com
    Our topic will be Villain or Savior - Fair Usage vs. Property Rights in Soft Media. The Internet and cheap recording and copying technology has created a challenge for soft media companies to ensure their songs, television programs, movies, videotapes, software, and other media take advantage of new business opportunities while not loosing ownership of their unique products. Has this yin-yang between technology and industry created a conflict between consumers and business? Are our fair use rights diminishing? Is this a creative opportunity or a civil liberties nightmare?
    Additionally, High Tech Dems is providing voter registration focused at the High Tech community. Our group has, also, been invited to and members are attending various events including upcoming ones for Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and Governor Gray Davis

Mission City Democratic Club:  John Ott.
    The first meeting of the new Democratic club in Santa Clara was held August 29th.  Chris Stampolis provided reports on the races for governor, state assembly, county level races, school boards and city of Santa Clara.
    He outlined required attributes of the new club.  It was named "The Mission City Democratic Club".
    Chris Stampolis was named temporary club chairman with Jim Boynton as temporary secretary and delegate of the club to the Santa Clara County Central Committee.
    We will petition the Santa Clara County Central Committee to charter our club formally.
    We agreed to support the County Committee's recommendation for a dual endorsement in the race for Santa Clara mayor; and that a letter be sent so stating.
    A subcommittee was formed to create the by-laws, with members as follows: Chris Stampolis, Lorie Garcia, Pat Mahan, Jim Boynton and Brandon Sulser.

Peninsula Democratic Coalition:  Emy Thurber.
    The PDC is working hard to staff the North County headquarters and with voter registration.  I also commend all the clubs for the good work they are doing for the November election.

Peninsula Young Democrats: Mike Markman.
    PYD has been very active in this election cycle, as its membership continues to grow.  Among its official efforts in September PYD staffed the Democratic voter registration table at the Mountain View Arts & Wine Festival, registering 51 Democrats (and approximately 7 "decline to state" voters).  PYD also walked precincts for Mountain View City Council candidate Matt Neely.
    In October, we will be walking precincts for El Camino Hospital District Board candidate Bill James on Saturday, October 26 (starting at 10 am, at the UDC North County Headquarters in Mountain View).  We are continuing our call for Precinct Leader volunteers out of the North County headquarters.  Our next executive board meeting will be on Thursday, October 24 at 7 pm in Menlo Park (contact Michael Markman at mmarkman@hewm.com for details on the location).

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Herb Engstrom.
    The last meeting gave an opportunity for Barbara Lubin of Berkeley's Middle East Children's Alliance to speak.  Her talk was to be about the children of Iraq, but it turned out to be more wide ranging covering a number of topics related to war and the Middle East.  Her point of view evoked controversy among some members present.
    Dan Hoffman and I walked a precinct for Elaine Shaw on Sept. 21st in Pleasanton when the temperature was 96°.  I was disappointed that not more people showed up in this critical race, but you have another chance this Saturday.  We will meet at Danville High School at 9:30 am, or you can caravan/car pool from my home.  We leave at 7 am and have breakfast in Pleasanton at the Coffee Roast Express below Elaine's office.
    The next meeting will be Monday, Oct. 21 at Carrows Restaurant, 3180 El Camino, Santa Clara (between Lawrence and San Tomas).  Dinner at 6 pm, meeting at 7 pm.

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum:
    No report.

South County Democratic Club:
    No report.

West Valley Democratic Club: David Wilkes
    West Valley had Ron Del Pozzo, candidate for judge of superior court, Schwartz  and Singh (?), candidates for West Valley/Mission school board, and Norm Kline, candidate for Saratoga city council.  Ron Del Pozzo spoke on Three Strikes and other legal issues.  The other candidates spoke on issues germane to the offices they are seeking.  In our area there is great concern about the disruptive and insulting tactics of Don Wolf and others on the West Valley/Mission college board. The other hot issue is  the attempt to make a fancier, noisier stadium at West Valley college.

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse, Martin Gorfinkel.
    The State Party E-board meeting is definitely set for December 6 and 7.  The State Party Convention will be held in Sacramento March 14 through 16.

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis.
    The DNC will meet in mid February in Washington, DC.  California continues to be lauded for its good organization.  Democrats are winning on issues nationally, but Senators and House members are chosen by their own local constituents.  The post-911 influence is felt more strongly outside of California, and it is uncertain what effect the Iraq war talk will have on the final votes in contested Congressional seats.

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope.
    Jane Howard is running against Simon Salinas for the 28th Assembly District.  She's having an event from 5:30 to 7 at the Church of the Valley in San Marin.  She's evidently doing a lot with the religious right.  She's very anti-choice.  Another anti-choice stealth candidate from south county is Roger Salstrom running for Morgan Hill Unified School District Board.
     Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte will hold a weekend candidates forum on Saturday October 19th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday October 20th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Planned Parenthood Education Building - 1746 The Alameda (Taylor and The Alameda) in San Jose.
     Meet local Santa Clara County school board candidates on Saturday October 19th and city council candidates on Sunday October 20th.
     School boards and city councils make important decisions that affect reproductive health care rights.  Know the candidates' views on reproductive healthcare issues before you cast your vote in the November election.  The candidates forum is free to the public.  For more information, email  sanjosepa@ppmarmonte.org  or call (408) 297-9255 ext. 17.
     The House will soon be voting on legislation drafted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and introduced by anti-choice Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-FL) which would allow a broad range of health care entities to refuse to comply with existing federal, state, and local laws and regulations pertaining to abortion services. This legislation would allow any health care entity (not just religious entities) exemption from the same laws that govern other health care providers by claiming discrimination.

     Recent research shows that the vast majority of Americans oppose allowing health care institutions to deny services based on religious or moral objections. These entities operate in a secular sphere, and employ and serve people of diverse backgrounds and faiths. Thus, their claimed right to refuse to provide these services imposes serious burdens on people who do not share their religious views. This law would allow the "conscience" of the entity to trump the "conscience" and needs of the women they serve. Women would be left without access to vital reproductive health services and in some cases not even told what options are available to them. This is wrong.
     On Thursday September 5,2002, Governor Davis signed four pro-choice bills at a special ceremony at the Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco.     Planned Parenthood meetings are now to be held on the third Thursday of the month, at least for a little while.

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin.
    Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our September taping was with the Honorable Sally Lieber, Democratic nominee for Assembly District 22.
    Our guest in October is yet to be determined.  In November we plan to have Dr. Terry Christensen analyze the election results for us.
    We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A October 10th with Terry Gregory, and October 24th with Sally Lieber.
    We could still use more good Democrats on the crew.  No prior video experience is necessary.

San Jose Channel 15A, 8:00 pm every other Thursday (serves part of Cupertino)
(408-918-3200):
2002:
Oct. 10  DTV 92  Hon. Terry Gregory
Oct. 24  DTV 93  Hon. Sally Lieber

See  http://www.scc-democrats.org/dtv.htm  for the full schedule.

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes.
    There is a lot of political issue talk on the CDC chat email lists.  SIgn up.  It is not logical to complain about a lot of email and then complain about not being informed.

Q.  Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez.
    No report.

7.  OLD BUSINESS
    None.

8.  NEW BUSINESS
    None.

9.  ANNOUNCEMENTS

Executive Board meeting
    The next Executive Board meeting will be Thursday, Nov. 14th at the Thurber's.
    Steve Preminger: Anna Eshoo will hold an event at Ricky's Hyatt House in Palo Alto on Thursday, Oct. 24.  A special guest will be Sen. Chris Dodd.  Tickets are relatively inexpensive: $1,000 for sponsor, $125 for patron, $50 for sponsor.  For the Century Club luncheon on October 18th at the Wyndam Hotel with Sharon Davis RSVP to Debi at 988-1591 or  debi99@aol.com .
    David Cohen: I compile email lists once a week to send ot people in the county, and I'm willing to include everybody's events and activities.  If you have an event or volunteer activity, send me an email, and I will include it in the weekly bulletin.
    Bill James:  I'm running for El Camino Hospital District Board of Directors.  If you have any questions or want to learn about the race and why I'm running, I have campaign literature.  We'll be walking precincts every Saturday between now and election day in coordination with Sally Lieber and some of our other Democratic endorsed candidates working out of the north county UDC office on El Camino Real in Mountain View.  I'll be looking forward to seeing folks any Saturday between now and election day.
    Steve Preminger: I'd like to thank the 21st Assembly District.  Anne and Rich got here early to set up the refreshments that we so much appreciated.  Next month it's the 22nd Assembly District's turn , and we look forward to your bettering the 21st.
    Phyllis Ward: I received the newsletter, the Democratic Advocate, and think it's good.
    Juan Ayala:  This election is important, and it is very important that people turn out for precinct walks.  Please volunteer.

10. ADJOURNMENT
    The meeting was adjourned at 9:49 P.M.

This page was last updated 10/9/02.
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