1. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chair Steve Preminger
at 7:17 PM.
2. ROLL CALL
Absent were: Tony Alexander, Francine Davis,
Ron Lind, Allan Thiessen, Jewelle Gibbs, Rod Diridon, Jr., Bart Fisher,
Liz McDavit, Sal Alvarez, Larry Carr, Rena Modell, Gene Wagner, John Dutra,
Joe Simitian, Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn, Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Byron
Sher, Anselmo Chavez, Pete Stark, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Ruth Ashford,
Gap Kim, Denelle Fedor, Beverly Wharton, Jim Boynton, Dan Hoffman, Teresa
Daley, Alex Kennett, and David Wilkes.
Excused were Dennis Chiu, Thelma Spaziani, Chris
Stampolis, and Madge Overhouse.
3. IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS
Virginia Frank
Dennis Vogen
David Snider
T.J. Moynahan
Ross Gomez
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)
A motion to approve the minutes of the October meeting
was made, seconded, and carried.
6. ELECTION 2002
Steve invited two successful candidates that had
Central Committee endorsements to speak.
Patty Mahan, the successful candidate for mayor
of Santa Clara, thanked the Central Committee for its endorsement.
That helped, she said, because Santa Clara is a Democratic town.
Despite what happened at the national level, city offices in Santa Clara
are almost all held by Democrats. Now that the election is over she
feels a slight letdown but wants to get to work. She promised to
be here at the Central Committee more often. "You'll see more of
me in the future," she said.
Terry Gregory won his race for San José City
Council District 7. He said it was a pleasure being here after a
hard fought race in San José. He acknowledged strong support
from Labor, "1000%," but appreciated support from others, such as Central
Committee members, as well, people that came, walked precincts, and phone
banked. The results showed the value of this hard work. Voters
really believe in having someone on the council that will fight for the
residents and for the kind of commitment that we have. He thanked
us for his sole endorsement in the primary and in the general election
and for our financial support. It made the difference of 22% between
him and his opponent. He assured us that he was still a member of
the Central Committee and will be here. He particularly acknowledged
Phyllis Ward, who, he said, attended one hearing from 6 P.M. to 1:30 A.M.
That kind of hard work, commitment, money, and resources made him realize
he was not working hard enough. He said he would continue to be inspired
by Phyllis's example.
The first to comment on the election was T.J. Moynahan,
who described himself as a student who is taking a speech class next door.
The election was important although he admitted to not voting. He
is a teenager and said that the teenage vote does not seem to be important.
There is no advertising or high school programs where people would come
and
speak about the issues. Teenagers are always busy with other things.
Organizations such as this should have a program to go to the high schools,
talk about your issues. High school students don't know what a debate
is, and they need to learn this. They need to learn the importance
of democracy and that every individual counts. Most think that one
vote does not matter, but one vote could be the difference between 50-50
and 49-51.
Steve replied that one thing we could do is to develop
our speakers' bureau. The state party was concerned about the youth
vote and had a college campus program.
Scott Rafferty spoke next.
"I am new to the County Party because I recently
moved to Santa Clara County from Washington, where I served for more than
20 years in a variety of positions at the DNC, including counsel to the
Association of Democratic State Chairs.
"I’d like to suggest that the County Party undertake
as a project a review of how the DNC uses technology as a party building
tool, particularly with regard to developing and promulgating issue positions
that will attract new members and strengthen state, local, and national
party organizations. As a county party effort, from Silicon Valley,
we have the talent and credibility to make effective changes in the design
of the DNC web site and other potential outreach technologies.
I propose that we make it a county party project to propose a technology
program for the DNC. I believe that our party’s commitment could
get on the agenda for the January DNC meeting and make a real contribution
to the National.
"The time for this effort is now and the development
needs to take place at the national level, so it can be rolled out to states
and counties. In the new Republican congress, we need to use the
national web site to mobilize issue oriented voters in Republican states
and districts to make calls to 'their' Senators and Representatives.
Often, there won’t be a strong local organization in those areas to make
this happen. And, if the National can make technology work, the same
techniques can be rolled out to every state and county.
"Imagine if the DNC could use email, direct mail
and automated phone messages to alert hundreds of citizens in key districts
who waived their privacy rights because they 'wanted' to call their
congressman to protest the radical legislation that may now move through
the Republican Congress. As a former Hill staffer, I can tell you
how closely members track calls from their district, even from members
of the opposite party. We could do this if we use the DNC web site
and other issue related sites to help voters identify themselves 'by
the issues they most care about.' Public officials also need
a better understanding of the positions that will get out the base vote
and attract independents. There aren’t enough of us who vote for
candidates just because they are Democrats. We need to reach out
to people who care passionately about issues, issue by issue, and show
them why they want to support and build our party.
"After campaign finance reform, we can’t depend
on big money anymore. The Dollars for Democrats program will not
be enough going forward. If we want small contributions, we need
to appeal to Democrats and potential Democrats issue by issue. The
national party has not yet done this – and again technology is the key
to reach out to new voters and get that first, small contribution.
It is also essential to remind our base just how much the party is doing
to deserve their strong support. The current web site won’t allow
contributors to say what issues they care about or to ask for specific
issue updates from the party.
"A programmatic commitment to issues can catapult
the party out-of-power to leadership in the House and Senate, and build
a tide in state offices. Remember the Contract with America.
Last Tuesday, even on the issues where Americans were dissatisfied, and
even where they told pollsters that they had more confidence in our party
(as on the economy), their votes did not reflect this. This may be
because ever where our public officials criticized the Administration,
they did not have an affirmative party program to promote.
"The DNC web site doesn’t just reflect this problem
of issue leadership. It is the problem. The DNC needs to use
technology so that the grass roots of the party, and its academic resources,
can provide office holders with solutions – on the economy, on the environment,
on social concerns – that resound with the voters and work in practice.
On Election Day 2002, none of these issue were even identified on the web
site, which focused on energy and education as the “featured issues.”
The DNC web site failed to provide prospective supporters with reasons
to vote Democratic in 2002. There is no way on the web site or telephone
to express a view on an issue – or to ask to help support or oppose critical
legislation.
"The DNC also needs to use technology to become
participatory. On election day, the web site listed over 20 events
around the country. They were all in September.
"The problems are National, but we can fix them
– and we must. Technology is going to be the key to grass-roots financing,
issue development, and party building, particularly now that we lack majority
status. The National leadership needs our help."
Steve suggested that we invite Scott to our E-board
meeting next Thursday, 6 P.M., at the Thurber's and to work with Chris
Stampolis, our DNC representative.
Jacquie Heffner spoke next: One thing
is very clear about this election, and that is that nobody out there knows
what Democrats stand for. Our message has been "We aren't them" but
we seem to be. MoveOn.org raised a lot of money for Democrats by
appealing to people. They raised 6 or 7 hundred thousand dollars
for Walter Mondale in two days. I believe in 48 hours they raised
$1.2 million for the other candidates. That's because they resonate
with people, and that's a very important thing. What we all may be
missing is that we say to the Republicans that you have the whole ball
of wax, so let's see what you'll do with it. But here in California
Democrats have the whole ball of wax, and we have problems here.
As a party we cannot sit back and allow those problems to get dragged through
the mud again. We need to make sure we maintain a leadership
position in the country to show other Democrats throughout the country
how we can do the things we need to do. It is very important that
we take this responsibility seriously. If we don't we'll have serious
political trouble in this state. What's happening nationally can
happen here in California.
Virginia Frank, a visitor. I don't see any
problem seeing a difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican
Party. To me the Democratic Party stands for democracy, and the Republican
for international big business. If we stress this we shouldn't have
any problem getting people to vote Democratic.
Herb Engstrom added that we have Virginia to thank
for the delicious cake that celebrated Democratic victories in California.
Dan Kenney spoke about the South County operation.
Our candidates in the South County won, although we're a little disappointed
that Elaine Shaw didn't get the votes, but in the Morgan Hill district
she got 47% of the votes, so we feel pretty good about that. Gilroy
school bonds passed and Ron Del Pozzo won his election for Superior Court,
Seat 16. We were disappointed about the national result, but we're
satisfied with the local results.
Phyllis Ward asked about the county voter turnout.
Steve Chessin replied that 46.6% of the registered voters voted.
Mike Markman said that we had some truly outstanding
results at the local level. All our representatives in Congress are
Democrats elected by large majorities. We've come a long way.
Twenty, even ten years ago this was not the case. We deserve a round
of applause. In terms of action items, what can we learn here locally?
I've come up with about four point that I think can help us develop strategies
that will help us in two years. First, the Bay Area has an incredible
opportunity coming up in the next three months. Nancy Pelosi may
very well be elected as the first woman to be elected minority leader setting
her up to be Speaker of the House in two years when we take Congress back.
We need to think about what we can do here locally to help her win that
battle. She is not the "wacky California liberal" as some in Congress
portray her. Ellen Tauscher is one of the top three people in the
Democratic leadership council; they portray themselves as the moderates
in the House. They need to know that Nancy Pelosi can effectively
lead the Party. We need to tell them. Second is an issue that
will probably be controversial but one that we need to address. That
is the endorsement process, which is a good process. But in Mountain
View we learned that we need to be careful about whom we endorse and about
the endorsement process. There are a variety of approaches we can
take to deal with this situation. There were allegations raised and
not denied about one of the individuals who this organization and I voted
to endorse. Those issues need to be addressed, and I think there
are simple steps that we can take to make sure that candidates are accountable
for what they tell us and how they persuade us to provide them with
an endorsement.
To wrap things up I spoke with David Cohen about the use of technology
and about what Jacquie said about MoveOn.org. David had been phoning
about a Senate race outside of California. We need to tap into that
technology, and I hope the technology research group can work on.
The final point is important for the Presidential race of 2004. All
our county headquarters need to focus on precinct based activities.
I signed up to be a precinct leader, but the State Party did not
send lists until the week before the election, which made it difficult
to call people. The saddest thing was that when we received the lists
we found they had been generated for primary races back in January, so
I was calling number after number that were no longer in service.
That's a problem with all our lists but a more serious when on the day
of the election when you're trying to do a get out the vote. In 2004
we're going to need a smooth running precinct operation, and we ought to
start thinking about it now. We need to win in 2004.
Herb Engstrom made a couple of observations.
George Bush has exploited the tragedy of September 11th, but I think that
tragedy, although it was indeed a tragedy for the people that lost their
lives, will have have even more long term effects that are even more tragic.
It has given the opportunity for this ethically challenged, intellectually
usurper of the Presidency to look "Presidential." And then when his
good-ol'-boy, jolly good fellow persona kicked in the American public was
seduced, and that had a lot to do with the losses of the Democratic Party.
But that wasn't all. I agree with those commentators who made the
point that the Democratic Party really didn't promote its ideas.
The Republican Party is really the Party with an ideology. This ideology
is quite simple: the free market will solve all your problems; government
should stay out of it. As Ronald Reagan said, "Government is the
problem." From this ideology comes their ideas, their slogans --
lower taxes, privatization (they don't use that word any more) of Social
Security, and so on. These ideas are simple minded and wrong,
but at leas they are ideas. The Democratic Party, on the other hand,
has said in effect, "No," and voting no is not a program. I'll
just give you one example - the war proposal in Iraq. A lot of Democrats
as you know went along with this, and the ones who voted no really didn't
have an effective argument. It seems simple to me: look how the Bush
administration is screwing up Afghanistan. We had committed very
meager resources to help the refugees who came back from Pakistan and Iran
and other places. They are facing starvation this winter because
a lot more came back than were expected. We should have been out
there saying what we need is a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan. We
shouldn't be afraid to help in pacifying the country, not just Kabul.
That is where our resources should be. One final point. Mike
mentioned Nancy Pelosi. She has one competitor for minority leader
in the House, one guy from Texas (Martin Frost). The point is, look
at the Democratic Party in Texas. It's in shambles; Look at the Democratic
Party in California. We've one every single statewide office, the
first time since 1882. That alone is a reason to support Nancy Pelosi.
They says, "she's too liberal," but you have a middle of the road, semi-conservative
and what happens in Texas? You have somebody like Nancy Pelosi and
the other Democrats in California and we do well. So I think the
example of California and our success is a good reason and a good argument
in favor of Nancy Pelosi.
Phaedra Ellis Lamkins gave a report on the central
county operation. This year was very good locally. We got a
lovely card from the California Democratic Party just because of our turnout.
One weekend we had more people in our local area than they had throughout
the state. Terry Gregory won; Sylvia Alvarez won. We were really
able to turn people out for phone banking. We managed to have contacts
in every precinct the State Party had targeted for us, walking or phoning
those areas. We saw significant increases in turnout here compared
to the rest of the state, and a good number of victories. We learned
that the Democrats do have to have a better message. We were more
successful locally because people had messages and agendas about what they
were working on, and that was effective. We were not able to mobilize
people and get them excited about Gray Davis or electing a statewide team.
Jim Thurber commented on the north county office.
It had equally good success and an unbelievable turnout in volunteers.
Two weeks before the election we ran out of chairs and telephones, but
not out of food. On election day we did very well. Two of the
candidates we endorsed did not make it. Rosiland Bivings running
for the Mountain View City Council and Bill James running for the El Camino
Hospital Board. Bill was up against an almost impossible task beating
two incumbents who had done nothing wrong. Everything they did was
right, and the hospital was operating beautifully. He made a good
showing in spite of it, and we thank him for running. Other than
that it was a great success, and we've heard from a lot of candidates,
but nobody has said thank you to the entire group, which I would like to
say, because this is why these people got elected. It was a grass
roots effort of all of the people in this room and hundreds and hundreds
of others throughout the state.
Steve Chessin thanked Jim Thurber for doing an excellent
job at the north county headquarters. He said that of the candidates
we endorsed, we had a 72% success record, and of the local measured we
endorsed, we had a 70% success record.
Steve Preminger agreed with Jim and wanted also
to thank everybody for their efforts. We learned it's the grassroots
effort that makes the difference/ It's not TV; it's not radio; it's
not mail. It's people willing to get out and go door-to-door.
Next year's Central Committee should make it a priority to strengthen that
effort and to strengthen the clubs and assembly district committees and
to make sure we are strong north, central, and south and hopefully be a
model for the rest of the nation.
7. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS
A. Executive Board: Herb Engstrom.
We made an additional school board endorsements,
Kathleen Dolci of Alum Rock. The UDC reported that we have lots of
volunteers in the campaign offices. The SF Chronicle endorsed Republican
Tom McClintock for Controller. Keith Garvey will look into proposed
legislation relating to voter registration such as whether proof of citizenship
is or will be required. Legislation is now in committee; it requires
identification at the first vote if registration is by mail. There
was discussion about how to respond to requests from outside organizations
regarding publicity for their events. It was emphasized that any
such requests must be handled tactfully.
B. Chair: Steve Preminger.
No report.
C. Vice Chair: Tom Cochran.
No report.
D. Treasurer: Dennis Chiu.
No report.
E. Secretary: Herb Engstrom.
I have placed on the web site the results of the
statewide office elections. Democrats swept all offices. Also
posted are the results of the "Elections to Watch." Unfortunately,
most of those races were won by Republicans. I'll leave them up for
another week or so.
F. Community Services & Voter Registration: Liz
McDavit.
No report.
G. Finance: Jim Thurber
Jim said that he was still working on the report
of election costs and spending but that the UDC was solvent. He announced
that the 2003 Jefferson Jackson Dinner would be on March 21, 2003, with
Don Edwards as one of the two guests of honor. A dinner committee
will meet later this month - Jacquie Heffner is co-chair of the dinner.
Anyone who wants to participate in planning, let me know and I'll see that
you're invited to the meeting.
H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Keith Garvey
No report.
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.
No report.
22nd AD Committee: Chris Stampolis.
No report.
23rd AD Committee: Keith Garvey.
No report.
24th AD Committee:
No report.
28th AD Committee: Sal Alvarez.
No report.
African-American Democratic Coalition:
No report.
Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Dennis Chiu.
No report.
Clinton*Gore Action Network:
No report.
Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Keith Garvey.
Awaiting report.
Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Bev Wharton.
No report.
High Tech Dems: Alyson Abramowitz
High Tech Dems has been very active in the last
few months. We initiated a Voter Registration Committee that was extremely
successful. In one afternoon alone, we registered over 100 voters.
We were invited to and many of our members took
the opportunity to attend a number of events including receptions for Congresswoman
Anna Eshoo and Governor Gray Davis. For many of our members this was their
first opportunity to meet these individuals and they very much appreciated
the experience.
High Tech Dems’ next event will be on November 18
from 6:15-9:30 PM at Ming's Restaurant, 1700 Embarcadero, Palo Alto. Our
topic will be Villain or Savior: - Fair Usage vs. Property Rights
in Soft Media. Cost is $25 Members/ $35 Non-Members in Advance. $10 additional
at-the-door. Register at www.hightechdems.com
We have the technology to limit financial losses
from illegal copying. Should this technology be applied to these soft mediums
in a way no different than we accept those anti-theft devices on clothes
at a mall? What about those "fair-use" copies we all depend on of our CDs
and TV recordings? We are already seeing the no-copy CDs in the stores.
Are those destined to go the way of the rotary telephone and typewriter?
These are questions that are being fought in the legislature and in our
every-day use.
Are there other business opportunities and revenue
streams that the advent of cheap copying techniques and the Internet make
possible for soft media? Is it more desirable to follow these new business
opportunities in lieu of or in addition to protecting IP through restrictive
software?
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 or new business opportunities?
Are our fair use rights diminishing? Is this a new business venture or
a civil liberties nightmare?
Our panel of experts will discuss this topic affecting
us all as consumers and professionals.
Mission City Democratic Club: John Ott.
No report.
Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Emy Thurber.
The PDC actively supported the North County Headquarters
with many volunteers who walked precincts, did phoning, and staffed the
very successful voter registration drive in coordination with the 21st
AD. The PDC will feature Phil Trounstine, former political editor
of the Mercury and Communications Director for Governor Davis, at a luncheon
on November 9 at Chef Chu's.
Peninsula Young Democrats: Mike Markman.
PYD congratulates Matt Neely, the first PYD member
to be elected to office -- Matt won his race for the Mountain View City
Council last Tuesday. PYD also congratulates its former member Bill
James for running an outstanding campaign for the El Camino Hospital Board.
Bill came in third out of five candidates, only about 4% behind second
place (the top two candidates won seats on the Board). The fourth
place candidate finished nearly 20 points behind Bill. PYD will hold
its next meeting on Thursday, November 21st at 7 pm (location TBA) for
an Election 2002 De-Briefing. Contact khopea@yahoo.com
for details on location.
Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Herb Engstrom.
The Club devoted it resources to the forlorn election
bid of Democrat Elaine Shaw in the 11th Congressional District. Four
of us walked precincts on Saturday the 2nd. Two attended her election
day Party in Pleasanton. Unfortunately, incumbency and name recognition
gave the election to Republican Richard Pombo by a margin of 60% to 40%.
The next meeting will be Monday, November 18, 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
No report.
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.
No report.
N. Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia Shope.
We continue to plan the Roe v Wade events.
Davis has signed some more good bills for reproductive health care and
planning: the stem cell research (Ortiz) bill, a breast cancer research
fund, and a maternity parity act. One of the bad things is that Bush
continues to appoint wackos like W. David Hager to the FDA Reproductive
Health Drugs Advisory Committee. That is scary because in AUgust
2002 he assisted the Christian Medical Association with filing a petition
with the FDA to ban the medical abortion pill RU 486. He is alleged
to refuse to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. He has
spoken against the use of birth control pills and condoms outside of marriage.
He has written books and articles that encourage women to use prayer and
scripture to heal PMS.
O. DTV Report: Steve Chessin.
Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported
that our October taping was with Jenny Niklaus, Associate Executive Director
of the Support Network for Battered Women.
Our guest in November will be Dr. Terry Christensen
who will analyze the election results for us. The taping will be
on November 16th. If you'd like to be in the TV studio audience,
contact Steve Chessin.
We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A November
7th and December 5th with Jenny Niklaus, and November 21st, December 19th,
and January 16th with Dr. Christensen.
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:
Nov 7 DTV 94 Jenny Niklaus
Nov 21 DTV 95 Terry Christensen (II)
Dec 5 DTV 94 Jenny Niklaus
Dec 19 DTV 95 Terry Christensen (II)
2003:
Jan 2 DTV 96 TBD-96
Jan 16 DTV 95 Terry Christensen (II)
Jan 30 DTV 96 TBD-96
See http://www.scc-democrats.org/dtv.htm for the full schedule.
P. CDC Report: David Wilkes.
No report.
Q. Welfare Reform: Sal Alvarez.
No report.
8. OLD BUSINESS
None.
9. NEW BUSINESS
Steve invited Hayes Alexander to report on the "Protect
the Vote" project, in which volunteers monitored polling places to watch
for problems and irregularities. We did not anticipate such problems
in this county, so Hayes volunteered to watch the vote count at the Registrar
of Voters.
Hayes said that everything ran smoothly, they know
what they are doing, and they are very good at it. He watched the
machine counts and the people counting the absentee votes. They verified
signatures by eye. There were no problems such as in San Francisco
or Los Angeles. Turnout was pretty low, and they finished before
midnight.
Phyllis asked if electronic voting machines were
used. Some demonstration machines were used in some precincts.
David Cohen added that these machines were used in parallel with the usual
punch cards. Bill Ferguson asked it these will be used again.
Steve Chessin replied that 15 precincts were chosen for the demonstrations.
Some will be used in 2003, and the plan is that all precincts will have
them for the 2004 elections.
Ross Signorino asked when they start counting the
absentee ballots and if they check signatures. Steve Chessin replied
that they begin to check signatures two days before election day, but they
only begin counting on election day.
10. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Executive Board meeting
The next Executive Board meeting is Thursday, November
14 at the Thurber's at 6 PM.
Next meeting
The next Central Committee meeting will be Thursday,
December 5th. The 23rd Assembly District Committee will be responsible
for refreshments.
11. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:29 P.M.
This page was last updated 11/17/02.