SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
6:45
pm, County Building cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San JosŽ
MINUTES FOR Thursday, July
10, 2003
***************
Refreshments provided by the 23nd AD *****************
1. CALL TO ORDER:
7:15PM
2. ROLL CALL
Absent: Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Peter Chiu,
Francis La Poll, Terry Gregory, Jean Cohen, Mark Moore, Larry Carr, Greg
Sellers, Sylvia Alvarez, Sal Alvarez, John Dutra, John Laird, Simon Salinas,
Liz Figueroa, Anselmo Chavez, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren, Ruth
Ashford, Jim Boynton, Alicia Lanies, Dave Wilkes
Excused: Joe Pandit, Phyllis Ward, Madge Overhouse,
Carol Garvey
Alternate: Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Bill James
for Sally Lieber, Jim Brady for Rebecca Cohn, Sari Wisch for Byron Sher, Jon
Kessler for John Vasconcellos.
3. IDENTIFICATION OF
VISITORS
Carolyn Curtis and Matt Jones from the Howard Dean
Campaign, Ana Maria Rosato, Ke Liutieng, Musa Kamara from African Refugee
Community Services, Thelma Thompson, Carmen Baca, Kayla Le, Chieu Nguyen,
Michelle Beauchany, Phuong Le, David Chou, Sherwin Jimenez, Reginald Jensen,
Mishy Balaba, Dean Chu, James Keenan, Nick Steinmeier, Caitlyn Bradey (Jim
BradyÕs daughter), Jay Jackman, Assemblymember Manny Diaz
Assemblymember Manny Diaz spoke to the group about
the State Budget crisis, including an update on the outreach the electeds have
been doing to inform the communities in the Republican areas of California
about the levity of the situation.
The Assemblymember discussed the RepublicansÕ budget
proposal that they presented on Sunday. This proposal included cuts to:
Commission on Status of Women, Family Planning funding, Domestic Violence
Centers Funding, money to Kindergartens, money to Community Colleges,
Universities, Public Schools, to medical benefit reimbursements for Seniors,
environmental programs, and many more.
These cuts were perceived as an attack on the
Democratic Values, such an attack that only 27 of the 32 Republicans even voted
for the plan and of course, none of the Democrats voted for it.
The Assemblymember also discussed efforts to lower
the State voting threshold to 55% instead of 2/3.
6.
PRESENTATION:
Christopher Ige
Christopher
Ige discussed the Super Majority and how the State is being held hostage by the
minority of Republicans in the Legislature. He then passed out a petition for
signatures to get issue on the ballot for March 2004.
Chris
Stampolis made a Motion to support this effort, motion was seconded and
carried.
4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Steve Chessin requested that a report from the State
Executive Board Meeting be added to New Business
Motion to approve, seconded, carried.
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes
are posted on www.scc-democrats.org)
Motion
to approve, seconded, carried
A. Executive Board: Hope Allen Cahan
Discussion
on David CohenÕs work on creating a calendar and potential blog site.
Call
to Action de-brief
B. Chair: Steve Preminger
Discussed Recall issue and the wide leadership
support within the Democratic Party for Davis. Steve assured the group that if
we get into a campaign, there will be a strong Davis campaign including
discussion about the great things Davis has done for the State and about the
potential Republicans candidatesÕ stand on the issues.
The Platform meeting will be on Saturday at the
Labor Council. Platform suggestions may be submitted via the form on the
internet.
C. Vice Chair: Drina Collins
Keeping up with current events on the budget and
recall.
D. Treasurer: Gap Kim
$83.39 in budget
E. Secretary: Hope Allen Cahan
Again,
please submit your reports to me in writing or through email.
F. Community Services
& Voter Registration: Liz McDavit
G. Finance: Jim Thurber
H. Candidate Recruitment and
Endorsement:
I. Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins
J. Issues: Emy Thurber
Multiple
reports:
Volunteer
Committee met on Tuesday to discuss the areas where volunteers are needed and
to create a plan of action.
Candidate
Recruitment: looking into the upcoming races to see if there are any areas
where our attention is necessary.
Issues:
have not been a focus at this point due to the Call to Action, budget, and
recall focus.
K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran
L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse
M. Democratic National
Committee:
Chris Stampolis
N. Pro-Choice
Coalition:
Claudia Shope
Manny
Diaz covered many of the budget crisis effects on women. Budget crisis also
affecting the Family PACT, wants to take away from funding for family planning
(which includes birth control)
O.
DTV Report: Steve Chessin
Democratic
Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our June
taping
was with Claire Kiely and Naiema Din of Girls For A Change.
Our
guest in July will be State Controller Steve Westly.
We
will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A July 17th and August 14th with
Girls
For A Change, and July 31st, August 28th, and September 25th with
Hon.
Steve Westly.
I
regret to report that both Cupertino Channel 15 and Los Altos Channel
26
went off the air on July 1st. We
hope they will be broadcasting
again
by the end of this month.
We
could still use more good Democrats on the crew. No prior video
experience
is necessary.
San
Jose Channel 15A, 8:00pm every other Thursday (serves part of
Cupertino)
(408-918-3200):
2003:
Jul
17 DTV 101 Girls
For A Change (II)
Jul
31 DTV 102 Hon.
Steve Westly
Aug
14 DTV 101 Girls
For A Change (II)
Aug
28 DTV 102 Hon.
Steve Westly
Sep
11 DTV 103 TBD-103
Sep
25 DTV 102 Hon.
Steve Westly
Oct 9 DTV
103 TBD-103
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
Political outreach clubs and
ADs
20th AD committee:
21st AD Committee: Mike Markman
22nd AD Committee:
23rd AD Committee:
24th AD Committee:
28th AD Committee: See South County
African-American Democratic
Coalition:
American Sikh Democratic Club:
Asian-Pacific American
Democratic Club: Gap Kim
Clinton*Gore Action Network:
Democratic Action for Women
Now (DAWN):
Claudia Shope
Evergreen Democratic Club at
the Villages:
Beverly Wharton
Participation in the Villages Fourth of July parade
took the place of our July meeting. The fact that I was one of five people
judging the parade this year had nothing to do with the fact that our clubsÕ
entry (one of 33), which was comprised of three red, white, and blue
convertibles, each bearing a placard inscribed ÒTruthÓ, ÒHonestyÓ, and
ÒIntegrityÓ, and decorated with bunting, was awarded 2nd place for
Best Depiction of the Parade Theme, ÒUnited we StandÓ. The Villages Republican
Club only got 3rd place in Best Club Entry category.
WeÕll be back to our regularly scheduled meeting
time on August 5, at 3:30 p.m. with Manny Diaz as our scheduled speaker.
Mission City Democratic Club:
Peninsula Democratic
Coalition:
Mike Markman
Peninsula Young Democrats: Mike Markman
Santa Clara County Democratic
Club: Herb
Engstrom
Silicon Valley Latino
Democratic Forum: Teresa Guerrero-Daley
The
club had CDP Chair, former Senator Art Torres, at the last luncheon.
The
club will join the Southwest Voter Registration Drive. The clubÕs goal is to
register 10,000 new voters.
The
club will be celebrating its first anniversary in August and will meet to focus
on the recall of Davis.
Teresa
will be attending the National Council of La Raza Conference in Texas, where a
meeting of thousands of elected and community leaders will share issues of
importance to Latinos.
South County Democratic Club:
Next meeting on Saturday the 19th at Alex
KennetÕs house. This will be their candidate endorsement meeting
San Jose College Democratic
Club:
West Valley Democratic Club:
8. OLD BUSINESS
9. NEW BUSINESS
A)
Report
on Call to Action
á
Hired
Consultant Hope Allen Cahan to coordinate the activities
á
Committee
Chair reports:
i.
Speakers Committee: Ron and Janice Naymark
Presentation
of speakers committee: passed around packet of information of who, why, and
what the committee is
and a sign up sheet for people interested in volunteering to be a speaker
and/or work
on
the committee.
Description of what it is to be a
speaker and the variety of opportunities available to people of many different
speaking abilities.
Working
to have kick off in mid August
ii.
Media
Committee: Jennifer Myronuk
iii.
Message
Committee: David Cohen
Committee
will work to create the unified message for the other committees to carry out
iv.
Volunteer
Committee: See Issues report
Matt Jones discussion on the voter registration at the America
Festival: focus needs to be on letting the community know that we are out there
and active and that there is a group that they can connect with to get involved
in the Presidential election
Jacquie: outraged by LA Times editorial about Howard Dean and his
supporters. Upset because this sort of article will only divide the party when
the focus should be on uniting the party for the fight after the primary.
B)
Pre-Primary
Endorsement Discussion- State Executive Board Meeting
Steve Preminger: The State Executive Board
voted to hold pre-primary endorsements after close of filing for Primary of
those candidates who qualify
Anne Mac: The main focus of the meeting was the recall. Anne
announced that Steve Smith has been hired to coordinate the anti-recall
efforts.
Announced that the Executive
Board passed a lot of resolutions and prioritized them.
Emy Thurber: Explained that the support of our troops resolution
passed (one from our county) as well as the electronic voting machine paper
trail resolution (also from our county).
Steve Chessin: Announced that he will be coming back to the
Executive Board meeting in September with a new resolution on the paper trail.
Discussion on San Francisco instant run off voting.
C)
County
Fair: Anne Mac
This year the fair is only 3 days: August 1-3. Sign up sheets for
2 hour sessions that need 3 volunteers per session are being passed around.
Anne challenged all of the clubs to fill these positions and announced that PDC
and Manny Diaz have already signed up to sponsor time slots. (PDC will be
sponsoring Saturday, August 2nd 11-5, Manny Diaz sponsoring Sunday,
August 3rd 11-3)
10. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Dan Hoffman announced that on the 11th of
July, the Century Club Luncheon will be at LouÕs Village. The speaker for this
luncheon is Deputy District Attorney Ben Field.
Marylee Shelton introduced students from San Jose
City College who came to the meeting to make a couple of announcements. Adrian
Avila was the first student speaker and announced that there was a large group
of students who went with CA for Justice the day before to protest exit exams
for high school students. These exams were deferred for 2 years.
The second student announced that students are
facing a challenging time obtaining financial aid for college. She urged the
group to support the fight to keep the fees the same to prevent students from
having to take valuable time off of college to earn additional money for
tuition.
Beverly Wharton thanked the State Party for
supporting the CA State Employees Association so that they may receive their
full payment of wages despite the State budget crisis.
Volunteers for the Fair may contact Anne at
650-493-7798. Anne also has tickets for sale for Zoe LofgrenÕs annual picnic
which is August 9th at Kelly Park from 1-4.
Carolyn Curtis announced that Howard Dean t-shirts
will be on sale at the next meet-up. The next meet-up is on August 6th
in two locations. There will be house parties which feature a live conference
call with Dean on July 26th 5-7pm. Go to www.deanforamerica.com for site
information. Additionally, there are local effort sign-up sheets in the back of
the room.
Bill Ferguson announced that KucinichÕs phrase for
the day is Òredefeat BushÓ
Steve Preminger announced that part of State budget
crisis could be alleviated if we could get some Republicans to vote with
Democrats. He encouraged the South County Democratic Club to work on getting
McPhersonÕs vote.
An explanation of a campaign effort that was successful
in Oregon was given. The Oregon campaign for Wayne Morris collected $1 per person around the country with
the idea that each person who donated $1 would vote for them. The speaker
thought this was a good plan because Morris was elected as a Republican,
Democrat, and Independent to the US Senate.
He also believes that the SCCDCC should raise its
dues to $120 per year. He believed that this would give more of an incentive to
people to donate small sums of money, that they would not mind $10-$20 donations
when the members were paying $120 per year.
Additionally, the speaker suggested a direct mail
campaign to all Democrats in the county requesting $5-$25 contributions for the
purpose of building the clubs and that members should be encouraged to collect
contributions whenever and wherever possible.
11. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
The next Executive Board meeting will be on July 17th; the board
will discuss the recent problems in Cupertino.
12. ADJOURNMENT Ð9:35pm