SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE
 6:45 pm, County Building cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San José

MINUTES  FOR Thursday, JUNE 3, 2003
 ***** Refreshments  provided by the Santa Clara County Democratic Club*****

1.  CALL TO ORDER  7:20 pm

2.  ROLL CALL

Absent: Gap Kin, Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Bill Dias, Cathy Dias, Thelma Spaziani, Alyson Abramowitz, Tom Cochran, Deniese Alejandro, Terry Gregory, Hope Allen, Jean Cohen, Phyllis Ward, Alex Kennett, Larry Carr, Greg Sellers, Craig Mann, Sal Alvarez, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, John Laird, Simon Salinas, John Vasconcellos, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren, Madge Overhouse, Martin Gorefinkel, Ruth Ashford, Frank Bosche, Denelle Fedor, Jim Boynton, , Mike Markman, Teresa Daley.

Alternates for:  Anna Song, Joe Simitian, Sally Lieber, Manny Diaz, Rebecca Cohn.

 3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Tim Oncerko of Ira Ruskin for Assembly, James Kim of the Asia-Pacific American Democratic Club, Philip Bump of the Soth Bay Labor Council, Irene Hsu of the South Bay Labor Council, John Soper of the SOuth Bay Kerry for President campaign, Buu Thai, Jill Holdaway of the Media Action Alert Team.. 

Special visitor: Jerry McNerney - candidate for Congress, District 11.  Jerry came to ask our help in his campaign.  He described himself as a political newcomer and complete novice, running because he's fed up with what is happening in Washington.  There was no Democrat running, so he signed up.  In 2000 we were lax and lost the election.  Now we're in a real mess; this election is about returning to basic American values.  Renewable energy is one of his favorite subjects -- we need 50% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.  We can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we can create millions of new jobs, we can create entirely new industries, we can clean up the air.  Health care is another very important issue.  This country needs  affordable health care with provider choice for all Americans.  Foreign policy is complicated but cooperating with our allies is the best way to reduce terrorism.  We need to act like responsible citizens in the world.  "I am your Democratic candidate; I can beat Richard Pombo and get the House back under Democratic control."  In resposne to a question Jerry said that the 11th  district looks like a fishhook.  It starts in Lodi, come down through Stockton, Tracy, Manteca, and west to Pleasanton, San Ramon, Danville, Brentwood, and all the way down to Morgan Hill.  We are now represented by a man at the extreme right of the Republican Party.  We need to raise money to be taken seriously by the Democratic Party.  We need volunteers and email addresses.  The web site is www.jerrymcnerney.org.  There's a donation page and his positions there.

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

A motion to adopt the proposed agenda without change was moved, seconded, and carried.

A reminder: Our bylaws require that new business items be submitted to the E-board before the regular meeting.  Only emergency measures may be submitted at the meeting, and these require a two thirds majority approval for inclusion.

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

Rena Modell pointed out that she was excused, not absent, at the last meeting.  Steve Chessin pointed out that last month's minutes had not been approved.  Emy Thurber pointed out a spelling error in Paul Fong's name.  With these changes the minutes of the May meeting were approved.

Special visitor: Tim Oncerko, Campaign Coordinator for Ira Ruskin for 21st Assembly District.  Ira is on target for fundraising.  We received the endorsement of the Democratic Forum, which will bring close to $30,000.  Ira's number one priority is endorsements and fundraising.  Jack O'Connell endorsed Ira as did the League of Conservation Voters.  The Silicon Valley Manufacturer's Group had a forum this morning between Ira and Steve Poizner.  It went very well.  We are up against a man with close to a billion dollars, although he won't admit that.  He has loaned himself a huge amount of money, and we are likely to be outfunded.  That's OK because we have grass roots Democratic support.  We need volunteers.  This is going to be the hottest campaign in this area.  The district includes Redwood City, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, some of San José, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Los Altos, San Carlos, Los Altos Hills, and some other cities.

6.  REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

Steve said that Phyllis Ward is at Valley Medical Center.  She had a brain aneurysm, but she's doing fairly well and slowly getting better.  She can't have visitors yet, but she'd love to get a card or letter.

A.  Executive Board:  Herb Engstrom for Hope Cahan. 

The E-board met at the Thurber's on May 26th.  Scott Rafferty attempted to register voters at the Veterans Hospital in Menlo Park, and he was not allowed to enter in, whereas he was allowed in Livermore.  Being a lawyer he is suing the Veterans Administration. The suit does not involve the Central Committee but is rather "Steve Preminger vs the Veterans Administration." The E-board authorized an expenditure of $500 to cover some of his expenses.  We had a discussion of the web site.  We have two proposals for upgrade of the web site each costing several thousand dollars.  David Cohen and Jon Kessler are going to evaluate these and make a recommendation.  We discussed the Call to Action.  Linda Spangler is now a full time volunteer.  We still need the technical capability to recruit 5,000 precinct workers.  One suggestion was to ask volunteers if they want information on the clubs.  If yes, the club will be notified of the volunteer providing the clubs share their membership lists with Call to Action.  We need someone to help at the county fair.  Jim Thurber will help set up and Gap Kim will help taking down.  We then approved the agenda.

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger.  

We've been pushing the Call to Action to other county committees and trying to get the word out and trying to engage the state party in getting these committees more involved.

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins.  No report..

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim.  No report.

E.  Secretary:  Herb Engstrom.  No report..

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Jim Brady. 

We are working at least one weekend per month in conjunction with clubs.  A couple of clubs are taking more than one weekend per month.  We’ve had a good presence at the new citizen swearing in ceremony and will be there next month.  Contact Jim for more information.

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber.   No report.

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: John Kessler. 

The endorsement calendar will be in place by August.  Anyone that wants to participate, contact John.

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins  Absent, no report.

J.  Issues: Emy Thurber. 

Tonight’s scheduled speaker on affordable housing was not able to make it, so we will reschedule.  If you have any ideas for issues, contact Emy.

K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran

20th AD committee: No report.

21st AD Committee: David Cohen for Beth Shaw.

21st AD Summer Meeting will be Sunday 6/27 at 4:00 pm , Greg Loew's house, 255 Polhemus ave, Atherton, for a party to get together & give exposure to local candidates and elected officials. Beth Shaw will introduce featured speaker Joe Simitian with an  annual report from Sacramento.  Ira Ruskin will give a campaign update report from local Kerry campaign.  Food & drinks will be served. 

22nd AD Committee: No report.

23rd AD Committee:  No report.

24th AD Committee: David Cohen.

We are passing around a card to send to Phyllis Ward to wish her well in her recovery from a brain aneurysm.

28th AD Committee:  No report.

African-American Democratic Coalition: Tony Alexander.

American Sikh Democratic Club: Sukhdev Singh.

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: James Kim And Buu Thai.

James Kim, Vice President of SVAPADC announced the two bay area events for Kerry.   He encouraged everyone to work together as Dems to support Kerry.

Buu Thai, Vice Chair of Programs of SVAPADC announced that the club is organizing a

"Bowl Against Bush" event on July 30th (location to be announced).  This social event is an opportunity for all Dem Club members to meet one another and network in a friendly competition of bowling.  For all clubs who are interested in forming a team and participating, please contact Buu at bc_thai@yahoo.com or (408) 226-6830. 

Clinton*Gore Action Network: No report. 

Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Carolyn Curtis.

The Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley holds its kickoff party and meeting Sunday June 13 at 2pm in Rengstorff Park in Mountain View.  This organization is the successor to Silicon Valley for Dean, which has had an outreach list of 1300+ and an email list of 800+.  At the kickoff we will ratify our bylaws, elect our steering committee, and celebrate.  We intend to be an activist club and are looking forward to working closely with the Central Committee.

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Edesa Bitbadal.

DAWN organization hosted a brunch on May 23rd.  The topic for the May 23rd event is the role of the Labor movement in women's lives, particularly 21st century American women. We had two great speakers, Kristy Sermersheim of SEIU and Dr. Elena Dorabji of San Jose State University.  While Dr. Dorabji concentrated on global issues affecting women, Ms. Sermersheim concentrated on the labor movement in California and Santa Clara County. Both of our speakers were well received by our members.

We also had our election of officers.  The following is the newly elected boardmembers' list:
Carol Garvey, President
Edesa Bitbadal, Executive Vice-President
Vice President, Claudia Shope
Vice President, Joan Goddard
Treasurer, Lee Sturtevant(interim)- In 30 days Buu Thai will assume this responsibility.
Secretary, Fred Fowler
Officers:
Pearl Cheng 
Jean Cohen
Merylee Shelton
Bobbie Nipper
Julia Miller
Carol Kaye
Margaret Abe-Koga
Sandra Avila-Diaz
Deepka Lalwani

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Bev Wharton.

This month, due to numerous requests, we in the evening rather than afternoon. We were amazed at the huge turnout -- at least 100. This enthusiastic crowd heard Emy Thurber and John Soper, co-coordinators of the Santa Clara County "Kerry for President" campaign, and saw the film about Kerry., followed by a question and answer period. Many hardy souls remained for the screening of Moveon.org's documentary film, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War." We've received many requests to borrow the copy we have from those unable to stay to see the film.

Members continue to be involved in registering voters The weekend of May 16/17, 33 voters were registered and we are scheduled to be at the Oakridge Mall June 5/6 and July 10/11.

Instead of a July meeting, we will be participating in the Villages Independence Day parade and registering voters.

For August we are looking at a variety of possibilities for a program, such as Congresswoman Lofgren or a Walter Cronkite video. September will be our annual barbecue. 

Membership now stands at 193 and growing.

We've been getting great coverage of our meetings in the Evergreen Times.  Member Tom Harney says the articles he submits are printed in their entirety, whereas those he submitted to the Villages newspaper are drastically edited. Evergreen times editor, Bea Baechle, was present at our meeting Tuesday and witnessed the fantastic turnout and great meeting we had.

High Tech Dems: No report.

Mission City Democratic Club:  No report.

Peninsula Democratic Coalition and Peninsula Young Democrats: Karen Brunton.

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Alicia Lanier.

We are thrilled to be the first club to provide refreshments.  Thank Herb for the pizza, Dan for the drinks, and Loretta for help with the organization.

We are doing voter registration the third Saturday of each month at Valley Fair mall, usually registering about 50 people.  There are a lot of decline to states, but many of these take Kerry material with them.

 “Straight Talk” TV show continues.  The May taping was of Stanford Law professor and former National Labor Relations Board Chair Bill Gould discussing the NLRB and how its authority has been undermined by the Republicans.

We meet every third Monday of the month at Carrows in Santa Clara.  This month we’ll have a strategist from the Kerry campaign speak to the club.  Our annual picnic will be the last week in August at a place to be determined.

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum: No report.

South County Democratic Club: Mark Moore.

Our last meeting was on May 27 in Gilroy.    Former Assemblymember Elaine Alquist attended and was endorsed by the Club in the Senate District 13 race.   Jerry McNerney was also endorsed in the District 11 race to unseat Republican Richard Pombo.   Our next meeting will be in Morgan Hill on June 19.   Members will be planning for a major fundraiser for Senate Candidate Peg Pinard in District 15 on July 9 in Morgan Hill.   All Central Committee members will receive invitations.   Club members will also be manning a voter registration booth at Juneteenth in Gilroy on June 18/19. 

San Jose State Democratic Club:  No report.

Stanford Democratic Club: No report.

West Valley Democratic Club: No report.

 L. Regional Directors: Steve Preminger for Madge Overhouse 

Madge is not able to be here.  We are having our annual Century Club meeting at the Thurber’s home this Saturday, 1 to 3 pm.  Let the Thurbers know.

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis.  Absent.

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope.

You are cordially invited to a special screening of Emmy-winning, Oscar nominated filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman's newest film "Motherhood by Choice, Not Chance" .

Ms. Fadiman will be personally present at this special screening. Her new riveting film brings alive the history of the struggle for women's reproductive rights in the United States and the chilling facts about the threat to those rights. Intimate interviews reveal the passion of people who moved abortion from the danger of the back alleys to a safe, legal choice.

The special screening will be held on:

Saturday June 19th- 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Planned Parenthood Education Building

1746 The Alameda (Taylor and The Alameda) San Jose, CA 95126

Admission: $5.00

To RSVP, please email sanjosepa@ppmarmonte.org or call (408) 297-9255 ext. 17.  Donations are not tax deductible. Donations will benefit in part Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte which works to elect pro-choice candidates and support pro-choice legislation.

Background of Filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman:

Thirteen years ago, Ms. Fadiman embarked on a mission: to use the medium of documentary filmmaking to raise awareness about the importance of women being able to make conscious choices about their reproductive health. These choices include contraception, abortion and childbearing. Her motivation for this work was personal.

When Ms. Fadiman became unintentionally pregnant in 1961, she had no safe choices. contraception was not an option for unmarried women, and safe legal abortions were not available. As a result of conditions at that time, Ms. Fadiman almost died from an unanesthetized, blindfolded back-alley abortion.

In 1973, with the Supreme Court Decision in Roe v. Wade, the judges affirmed a woman's constitut}onal right to a safe abortion. With a team of  independent filmmaking talent, Ms. Fadiman produced a series of films: FROM the BACK-ALLEYS to the SUPREME COURT & BEYOND. Awards for those films include an EMMY and an OSCAR Nomination.

For more information about Dorothy Fadiman, please visit  http://www.thepowerofchoice.net.

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin.

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our May taping was with San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Peg Pinard, who is running for the State Senate from District 15.

Our guest in June will be Newark City Council member Alberto Torrico, who is running for the Assembly from District 20. We also have Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, 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 June 3rd and July 1st with Supervisor Peg Pinard, June 17th with Mountain View Councilmember Rosemary Stasek, and July 15th and August 12th with Councilmember Torrico.

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: 

Jun  3  DTV 112  Hon. Peg Pinard
Jun 17  DTV 111  Hon. Rosemary Stasek/Afghanistan
Jul  1  DTV 112  Hon. Peg Pinard
Jul 15  DTV 113  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

See http://www.sccdp.org/dtv.htm for the full schedule.

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes.

The CDC convention will be in San Diego the weekend of the 11th.  The Board meeting will be in August in South Lake Tahoe.

I’ve got a new bumper sticker courtesy of the Nation magazine:  “George Bush is a liar”.    See them at http://www.thenation.com/. 

Q.  Welfare Reform:  No report.

7.  NEW BUSINESS

there was no new business.

8.  OLD BUSINESS

A.  Call to Action Reports

Message Committee: Ana Maria Rosato.

We are starting our Message of the Week, our way of talking about current events, things to put in letters to the editor.  Click on messageoftheweek-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. 

Media Committee: Emy Thurber.

Emy read a letter to the editor from Janice huff of Palo Alto, a “one-woman media team” because once a week she has a letter in the Merc or Chronicle.  “What is more terrible, an American dying because a soldier made a mistake or hundreds of Americans dying because the president made a mistake?”  Sol let that inspire all of us.

Emy introduced Jill Holdaway, who is working especially on letters to the editor.  Jennifer Myronuk is doing press relations, so Jill is filling a really important role. 

Jill described herself at the director of the Media Action Alert Team, the purpose of which is to influence citizens to vote for Democratic candidates and issues by writing to local publications and TV shows.  We’re looking for letter writers.  Now we have about 40 people, and we’re going to have a lot more.  To help them do their jobs, I send out a weekly newsletter called “The Media Action Alert Team Write-On” newsletter.  This has information on what to write about, whom to contact, and how to write a great letter.

Speakers Bureau: Steve Preminger for the Naymarks.

The Speakers Bureau used to be about issues and the positions of our candidates.  Now we find that people just want to know how we’re going to defeat George Bush.  We use those opportunities to recruit more Democrats.  If you know folks you could bring together in your house, let us know.  We want to tie in local candidates wherever possible

Volunteer Committee: Steve Preminger for Jim Brady.

The Volunteer Committee is out doing tabling and registering voters at the Naturalization Ceremony.

We had a Call to Action meeting here the week before last with an interesting speaker, Kate Forrest, to talk about how you speak to folks you normally don’t speak to, like Republicans or people who aren’t engaged.  One of her important messages was that we should not get into an argument with people we don’t agree with.  All you’ll do is reinforce the other person’s feeling that they are right and that you are wrong.  To a Republican you might want to say, “More and more Republicans seem to be turning against George Bush because they feel he’s deceived them.”  Just plant a little seed in their heads, so that they’ll think that maybe there’s something to that.

Our next Call to Action meeting will be in this room on Saturday, June 19th at 9 A.M.  We need you to send all your friends and co-workers.  There will be some meetups in San José next week.

Emy Thurber, co-chair of the county Kerry campaign then spoke.   She said that she and John Soper had addressed the Evergreen Democratic Club about the Kerry campaign.  The Club had the biggest attendance it had ever had.  There must have been 70 to 100 people, who were very enthused.  We are working hard with the Call to Action to coordinate activities.

John Soper then said that this Sunday, the 6th, Teresa Heinz Kerry will be in Marin and also in Hillsborough in the afternoon.  These are fundraising events.  Costs are $500 to $1000 and $250 to $500.  Sen. Kerry will be in San Francisco and then down here at the Tech Museum on the 23rd.  Minimum for that is $500, but if you can help raise $5,000 from other people, you can get in free.  The 26th is the next national house party day.  On May 22nd at the house parties the Senator called in on speaker phones, and we raised a lot of money.  There were 2,000 such parties.  We’re hoping people will sign up to give house parties.  We are also doing something to help with swing states, so there are lots of activities.

Emy added that this Saturday at the Hillview Community Center in Los Altos we’re having our own small Call to Action for Kerry volunteers.  This is mostly about fundraising since that ends in the middle of the convention.  Anyone interested in the sister states program for swing states, Otto Lee, City Coucilperson in Sunnyvale, is heading up that effort.

For more information go to www.siliconvalleyforKerry.com.  You can join there.  It goes to the same Call to Action database.

9.  ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jerry NcNerney reminded us that he is mathematician and is interested in numbers, 12, 2, and 1.  We need 12 seats to takes back the House, 2 to take the Senate, and 1 to take the White House.  He noted that George Bush is our best campaigner.

Steve asked club reps for volunteers to provide refreshments next month.  Bob Dhillon of the American Sikh Democratic Club volunteered, and Steve noted that we would eat well next month.

10. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:30 P.M.

This page was last updated 6/8/04.