SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

 6:45 pm, County Building cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San José

MINUTES FOR Thursday, July 1^st, 2004

 *************** Refreshments provided by the American Sikh Democratic Club *****************

1.  CALL TO ORDER: 7:20

2.  ROLL CALL: Absent: Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Deepka Lalwani, Peter Chiu, Francis La Poll, Terry Gregory, Jean Cohen, Joe Pandit, Alex Kennett, Larry Carr, Greg Sellers, Dan Kenney, Craig Mann, Sylvia Alvarez, Sal Alvarez, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, Joe Simitian, John Laird, Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Byron Sher, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Ruth Ashford, Frank Bosche, Denelle Fedor, Laura Geonne, Teresa Daley

Alternate: Anne Mack, Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Jon Kessler for John Vasconcellos, Sandra Soto for Zoe Lofgren,

Excused: Rena Modell, Phyllis Ward, Madge Overhouse

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS Grant Armstrong, Jay Jackman, Nancy Crosby, Philip Bump, Adrienne Grey, Phil Grisier, Dave Grover

Candidates: Nancy Pyle San Jose City Council, Betty Martinez Evergreen Community College, Lan Nguyen Eastside Union School District Candidate, Jamie McCloud Santa Clara County City Council

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Motion to approve, motion to add Eastridge boycott to agenda

Motion to approve amended agenda, second, so carried

5.  APPROVAL OF MINUTES    (Minutes are posted on  www.scc-democrats.org)

Motion to approve, second, so carried

6. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.  Executive Board: Hope Cahan

No Report

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger

UDC committee is up and running. Meet 1^st and 3^rd Thursday of the month. The members are: Steve Preminger, Jim Thurber, Tom Cochran, Paul Phong, and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins

Report from David Cohen on database: have almost completed the database functions so that they will all be automated and will use this to communicate to everyone. Clubs need to be aware that there is a link on the volunteer form to sign up to join a club. Clubs will begin receiving emails from interested people and will need to respond to them in a timely manner. Additionally, there will be a new calender function that will allow people to add their own events and volunteer responses will go directly to the lead for this event.

Chris Stampolis: State Secretary for CDC: CDC is purchasing a system which will provide voter data access via the internet for precinct walking. We will have some test counties and Santa Clara will be the pilot county. The current voter file has already been uploaded into the system. You will have a code to allow you access to your precinct. You will then be able to input your feedback from your walking activities. The data system should be up by July 19^th.

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins

Great Kerry event at the Tech Museum.

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim

Currently have $302 in our account

E.  Secretary:  Hope Cahan

No report

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Hope Cahan

See Call to Action Report

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber

Made $64,000 on Democratic Dinner. Still have a few people who owe us money. Have roughly $40,000 in the bank.

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Jon Kessler

Endorsement interviews will be August 23, 24, 25 in the County building. If you would like to be interviewed or a part of the interview team, please contact Jon Kessler.

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins

No report

J.  Issues: Emy Thurber

No report

K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran

Naymarks: need club representatives for House Parties

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse

No report: Madge is in the hospital recovering from knee injury

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

If people still need the voter pledge cards, please let Claudia know.

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our June taping was with Newark City Council member Alberto Torrico, who is running for the Assembly from District 20.

Our guest in July will be Assemblymember Rebecca Cohn, who is running for re-election to the Assembly from District 24. We also have San Jose/Evergreen Community College Trustee Nancy Pyle and Redwood City Councilmember Ira Ruskin booked for future shows.

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A July 1^st with San Luis Obispo Supervisor Peg Pinard, July 15^th and August 12^th with Councilmember Torrico, and July 29^th and August 6^th with Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn.

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):

2004:

Jul 1 DTV 112 Hon. Peg Pinard

Jul 15 DTV 113 Hon. Alberto Torrico

Jul 29 DTV 114 Hon. Rebecca Cohn

Aug 12 DTV 113 Hon. Alberto Torrico

Aug 26 DTV 114 Hon. Rebecca Cohn

Sep 9 DTV 115 Hon. Nancy Pyle

Sep 23 DTV 116 Hon. Ira Ruskin

Oct 7 DTV 115 Hon. Nancy Pyle

Oct 21 DTV 116 Hon. Ira Ruskin

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes

Q. Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez

Political outreach clubs and ADs

20th AD committee:

21st AD Committee: Thelma Spaziani

Need volunteers to work and support Ira Ruskin

Annual Simitian report was made on Sunday

Barbara Nesbet is scheduling house parties for Kerry, please contact Barbara or Thelma to host a party

22nd AD Committee:

23rd AD Committee:

24th AD Committee:

27^th AD Committee:

28th AD Committee:

African-American Democratic Coalition:

American Sikh Democratic Club:

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club:

Clinton*Gore Action Network:

Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Carolyn Curtis

The Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley ratified its bylaws and elected its steering committee (7 members) at its kickoff party Sunday June 13, 2004, in Mountain View. We have 30 to 35 members.

One of our first activities as a club was to leaflet & register voters at the opening night of Fahrenheit 9/11 in Mountain View at Century 16, also at the Los Gatos CInema, & a couple other theaters Fri & Sat June 25-26.

We are helping with tabling at several farmers' markets throughout the county. One of our members held our 4th Mainstreet Moms Opposing Bush house party, writing letters to unregistered single moms in a swing state (Missouri this time).

Our general meetings continue to be the Democracy for America meetups, 7pm the first Wed every month, usually in two locations; for July 7 these are Hillview Community Center in Los Altos and Hugh Gillis Hall on the San Jose State campus. We look forward to working closely with other Democrats in Santa Clara county.

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN):

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Wharton

No meeting scheduled for this month. Instead, we are participating in the Villages July 4^th parade and celebration taking place on Saturday, July 3^rd. Our “float” will be a golf cart decorated as a covered wagon, with adults and children dressed as early Americans with coonskin hats as well as astronauts (the theme is Exploring America: The 200^th Anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) with large photos of Lewis, Clark, and Sakajawea. Following the parade we will have a voter registration booth. On July 10^th and 11^th, we will again be registering voters at Oakridge Mall.

Two club members volunteered at the Kerry event at the Tech Museum and two (myself and Tom Harney, who was also taking photos for the Evergreen Times) also were at SJSU’s Student Union to hear Kerry speak.

Our next meeting is August 3^rd. A video “Navigating the New RX Law” will be shown and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren will be our speaker.

On Sunday, September 14^th, we will host our Annual Barbeque at the Villages Gazebo Park from 3-6pm. Please let me know if you are interested in attending. This is a fun event and we are expecting a number of candidates to be there and a great turnout of members and guests.

The club is also donating $200 to Peg Pinard’s campaign and many will be attending the fundraiser in Morgan Hill on July 9^th.

Mission City Democratic Club:

Peninsula Democratic Coalition:

Peninsula Young Democrats:

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Alicia Lanier

• Our next SCCDC meeting will be Monday, July 19, at Carrow’s Restaurant on El Camino in Santa Clara. Our speaker will talk about strategies for the John Kerry for President Campaign. Anyone is invited to attend. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m.

• The SCCDC is continuing to register voters at Westfield’s Valley Fair Mall each 3^rd Saturday of the month during 2004, on the 1^st Saturday at Safeway Midtown and helping with events like Cupertino Art Festival. This past weekend, club volunteers registered voters at Century 23’s showing of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” and will do so again over the July 4 holiday weekend. 

• The SCCDC has committed to raising $1,000 in donations for the CDC’s Voter Data Project. A letter went out to all club members last weekend requesting financial support for this effort and donations are already coming in.

• Our annual summer barbeque is scheduled for Sunday, August 29, at Sera Park in Sunnyvale. All Democrats are invited to attend.

Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club: Clark Williams

During the month of June, volunteers for the Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club operated a booth at the 2004 San Jose Pride. Club members handed out nearly 3,000 John Kerry lapel stickers, registered seventy (70) LGBT voters and collected 320 signatures on a petition opposing a constitutional amendment defining marriage. At the June 23rd monthly membership meeting, club members discussed the role of gays and lesbians in the John Kerry campaign and discussed politics with openly-gay candidate Jamie McLeod running for the City Council in Santa Clara.

At the July 28th membership meeting, club members will approve proposed endorsement guidelines and talk state politics with Ira Ruskin, Democratic candidate for the 21st Assembly District. For more information about the club's activities, call 408.566.3595.

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum:

South County Democratic Club:

San Jose State Democratic Club:

West Valley Democratic Club:

7. OLD BUSINESS

A. Call To Action Reports

· Speakers Bureau: See Club report

· Media Committee: Jennifer Myronuk

Please contact Jennifer if you would like a copy of the Kerry speeches.

· Message Committee: Anna Maria

Contact Ana Maria if you would like to receive the weekly email update. Additionally, the message committee is looking for bi-lingual translaters for materials.

· Volunteer Committee: Hope Cahan

Had a very successful couple of weeks recruiting volunteers and registering voters at the Kerry events and the Clinton book signing. There are a number of voter registration activities this month: need volunteers for San Jose Mariachi Festival on 7/18, the Naturalization Ceremony on Wednesday, 7/28, Santa Clara County Fair on Friday, Saturday, Sunday August 6^th, 7^th and 8th, and the San Jose Jazz Festival August 7^th and 8^th

Working on having a volunteer celebration right before everyone goes to the convention in Boston.

8. NEW BUSINESS

July 10^th boycott: Chris Stampolis: motion that committee vote in favor of Eastridge boycott, second, discussion, so carried

9. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Steve Chessin: Discussed AB 2003 which will change apportionment of electoral votes to be divided by area instead of States. Please call you Assemblymember to tell them you are opposed to any change to a district vote.

Push to change the primaries so that all states have the same primary election date.

Carolyn Curtis: Jerry McNerney was endorsed by Dean.

Jim Thurber: North County headquarters will open on Saturday, July 3^rd. Anyone who is available to help us move, please come by between 9-2pm. 3898 El Camino Real, Palo Alto.

Alyson: Still need volunteers for Fahrenheit 9/11 especially for Shoreline Century 16.

Thelma: Have Zoe Lofgren BBQ tickets for August 7^th, $40

Steve Preminger: Today is Bob Dhillon’s birthday.

Philip Bump: referendum on SB2 is 72. Please vote yes on 72.

Thank you to the American Sikh Democratic Club for providing refreshments

10. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

Wednesday, July 21^st 6pm at Tom Cochran’s house

11. ADJOURNMENT