SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

MINUTES FOR Thursday, October 2, 2003

 *************** Refreshments provided by the 28th AD *****************

1.  CALL TO ORDER 7:20

2.  ROLL CALL

Absent: Ron Lind, Bill Ferguson, Francine Davis, Tom Cochran, Terry Gregory, Jean Cohen, Alex Kennett, Mark Moore, Larry Carr, Greg Sellers, Dan Kenney, Craig Mann, Sylvia Alvarez, Susan McKuhen, John Dutra, John Laird, Simon Salinas, Anselmo Chavez, Anna Eshoo, Ruth Ashford, Frank Bosche, Jim Boynton, Teresa Daley

Excused: Thelma Spaziani, Jim Thurber, Joe Pandit, Chris Stampolis, and Deniese Alejandro

Alternate: Jay Jackman for Emy Thurber, Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Karen Brunton for Joe Simitian, Bill James for Sally Lieber, Drina Collins for Manny Diaz, Jim Brady for Rebecca Cohn, Sari Wisch for Byron Sher, Sandra Soto for Zoe Lofgren, Joan Goddard for Carol Garvey

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Brian Davis from Kucinich for President, Mike Chorost from PDC, Edesa Bitbadal from DAWN, Sarah Fields from SJSU College Dems, Duy Vo from SJSU College Dems, Scott Rafferty, Patricia Jones, Nathan Britton from CA Peace Action, Kaija Viopio, Kathy Chavez Napoli

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Addition of a brief report about the Democratic Convention under Madge Overhouse’s report

Motion to adopt, second, approved

Motion to approve, second, carried

A.  Executive Board: Hope Cahan

The executive board discussed the following items:

-Update on Call to Action committee activities

-Club updates on election activities

-Recognition for Clubs and AD committees which sponsored voter registration mall shifts on September 20^th and 21^st

• the 21^st AD worked the Saturday mall shift at Stanford
• the PDC/PYD worked the Sunday mall shift at Stanford
• the Asian Pacific American Democratic Club worked the Saturday mall shift at Oakridge
• the African American and Mission City club worked the Sunday mall shift at Valley Fair
• the 24^th AD worked the entire weekend at the Great Mall
• the Evergreen Democratic Club worked the voter registration booths at Eastridge on Saturday and Oakridge on Sunday
• the Santa Clara County Democratic Club worked the Saturday shift at Valley Fair

-Access to voter lists for precinct walking

-Update on voter registration activities

• Big Mall weekend with 12 voter registration booths on Sept. 20^th and 21^st
• Taste of Morgan Hill and Health Fair on Sept. 27^th & 28^th
• Italian Festival and Manny Diaz Women’s Health Fair October 4^th and 5^th
• Naturalization Ceremony on Sept. 25^th
• Multicultural Day In the Park (table hosted by the Evergreen Club) on October 18^th & 19^th

-Use of the website to post completed endorsement questions

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger

Briefing on call from Davis office on the get out the vote effort.

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins

No report

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim

$35.64 in account

Gap emailed those members who have not paid yet. He expressed the need to be proactive on contacting people for this and reminded the group that we have the ability to suspend voting rights to those who have not paid their dues.

E.  Secretary:  Hope Cahan

Please sign the pink sheet being passed around. Please sign up for phone banking at the Labor Council

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Hope Cahan

The volunteer committee had its meeting on September 16^th. The committee will meet on the 3^rd Tuesday of every month and our next meeting will be on October 21^st at 7pm.

The committee is:

• doing voter registration at the monthly Naturalization Ceremonies
• organizing sign up for monthly club mall voter registration
• checking the hotline
• checking the emails and responding appropriately
• working on other voter registration organization
• and thinking of new and creative ways to bring in and maintain volunteers

We have had a great success with the email as a source for new volunteers and are still getting new volunteers daily.

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber

No report

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Sari Wisch

The Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement Committee conducted another round of endorsement interviews a few weeks ago. Thank you to all who came to participate in the interviews.

We interviewed:

Judy Kleinberg, incumbent candidate for the Palo Alto City Council; *recommend to endorse

And we interviewed 3 Democratic candidates who are running for the Cupertino School Board. This was at the request of one of the candidates who is running.

Joe Lucey *recommend to endorse

George Tyson *recommend to endorse

And Robert Heslop

Yesterday, Steve and I also met with Nancy McCaa, who is a candidate for the Sunnyvale School Board. Members of the Sunnyvale Democratic Club were invited to attend the interview, and we hoped to receive input, but no one attended. After meeting with Nancy, the recommendation is to endorse her candidacy.

Motion to pass recommendation for endorsement, second, carried

The endorsed candidates will be posted on our website

We have not done candidate recruitment this year, but plan to do this next year.

Will be looking at March candidates

Central Committee members filing is Nov 10^th-Dec 5^th

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins

Please encourage people to say yes to Cruz as well as no on recall and remind people that the polling places may have changed.

GOTV efforts found that recall support changes when someone calls them and talks to them about the issues.

Our county has to win by a significant amount of percentage points for the State to win.

Remember that we have to beat the recall, not just about Gray, but also about defeating Bush

Gray Davis will be here on Oct. 5^th at 2pm at the IBEW Hall

David Cohen and Herb Engstrom reported on the success of the precinct and phone banking efforts we have done via email. David and Herb thanked Scott Rafferty for urging the group to do this.

J.  Issues: Emy Thurber

K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse

Convention was in LA and the purpose was to endorse Cruz

The E-board meeting was going to be held in October, was canceled, and held in September. The purpose of the meeting was to adopt an agenda for January’s State Convention. Pre-Endorsement conference for region 5 will be on December 14^th. Those in 28AD are now in Region 9 and their endorsement conference will be either on 13^th or 14^th.

The State convention is in San Jose in January on the 15, 16, and 17

Will bring the details for becoming a delegate for the Democratic National Committee to the next meeting.

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

Submitted prior to meeting for reporting:

Chris reported that the DNC would meet Friday, October 3 and Saturday October 4 in Washington, DC to prepare for the 2004 National Convention in Boston.

Chris submitted a resolution in favor of voter-verifiable audit trails for all electronic voting. Donna Brazile (former Gore Campaign Manager) is a

co-sponsor and has merged her resolution in favor of HAVA in with Chris's resolution. Presidential candidates are expected to attend the weekend. Terry

McAuliffe was in Oakland Tuesday for a media conference. Chris attended along with State Chair Art Torres, labor and legislative leaders

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

Davis signed Sally Lieber’s bill, SB 681, the sex education bill, SB490 and the emergency contraception bill.

There is a press conference against Proposition 54 tomorrow from 12:30-1:30 Santa Clara Medical Center on South Bascom.

The Pro-Choice Coalition meetings: 1746 The Alameda on the 3^rd Thursday of each month

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our September taping was with Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Our guest in October is TBA

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A October 9^th with Dr. Martha J. Kanter of Foothill-De Anza, October 23^rd and November 20^th with Attorney General Lockyer, and November 6^th and December 4^th with the show we tape 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:

Oct 9 DTV 103 Dr. Martha J. Kanter

Oct 23 DTV 104 Hon. Bill Lockyer

Nov 6 DTV 105 TBD-105

Nov 20 DTV 104 Hon. Bill Lockyer

Dec 4 DTV 105 TBD-105

Dec 18 DTV TBD-106

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes

Q. Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez

Tabled for next meeting

20th AD committee:

21st AD Committee: Mike Markman

22nd AD Committee:

23rd AD Committee:

24th AD Committee: David Cohen

28th AD Committee: Sal Alvarez

African-American Democratic Coalition:

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Gap Kim

Clinton*Gore Action Network:

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Joan Goddard

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Wharton

Membership is 145 and growing. We welcomed 15 new members last month. Our October newsletter, in addition to being delivered to our members, was hand delivered to all 1000+ registered Democrats in the Villages. We hope this effort will engender another surge in new club members.

In addition to Assemblyman Diaz, SJ City Councilman Cortese, and Kathy Chavez Napoli, Candidate for AD23, guests at our September BBQ included SJSU Political Science Department Professor Terry Christensen, Doug Winslow from Sally Lieber’s office, and three representatives from "Health Care for All California."

Ten members did voter registration at Eastridge and Oakridge Malls on September 20^th and 21^st, registering a total of 47. We will be conducting another voter registration on October 18^th at Dave Cortese’s "Day in the Park."

Speakers for our October 14^th meeting will be 23^rd AD candidates Kathy Chavez Napoli and Joe Coto.

High Tech Dems’ December event will be on Tuesday, December 9^{th (}note the special day for this event only). The topic of our panel will be, "Where Oh Where Has My (Professional) Job Gone?:  High Tech and Telecom Professional Job Migration Overseas." High Tech Dems’ meeting will be held at Mings Restaurant, 1700 Embarcadero, Palo Alto from 6:15-9:30 PM. The cost to attend is $25 for members and $35 for non-members in advance. At-the-door cost is $35 members and $45 non-members. For more information or to register on line please go to our web site, http://www.hightechdems.com

Mission City Democratic Club:

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Mike Markman

Peninsula Young Democrats: Sari Wisch

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Alicia Lanier

SCCDC Anti-recall Efforts include:

• Ads -The SCCDC and individual members are sponsoring two anti-recall newspaper ads and I have the early proofs of the two ads with me if anyone wants to see them. You may have already seen the half-page "signature" ad in this week’s Metro as well as a smaller 1/8 page ad in this week’s Evergreen Times.

• Voter Registration Events -The SCCDC had a voter registration table at Westfield’s Valley Fair Mall on Saturday, September 20, and collected about 50 new registrations. We also had a voter registration booth at the annual Santa Teresa Community Fest on Sept 27 at George Page Park. Karen

• Precinct Calls - SCCDC members have been asked to contact occasional Democratic voters in their Precincts to remind their neighbors about the October 7 election.

Straight Talk TV Show on Public Access Stations

• You’ll soon be seeing a show with the Silicon Valley Civil Rights Group on the topic of the Patriot Act and another with California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell on Education.

• Our next taping will be Saturday, October 18. Representatives from the Howard Dean and John Kerry Campaigns will be guests on the show.

Next Meeting on Monday, October 20

You are all invited to our next meeting at Carrow’s on El Camino in Santa Clara. We will have our annual election of President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer and members at large representatives to the Executive Board. Dinner is at 6 and the program begins at 7.

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum:

West Valley Democratic Club:

Summary of Action Plan written by Mike Markman

9. NEW BUSINESS

Sally Lieber: Report on Assembly and anti-recall activity: 6 bills by women, for women, and about women were signed yesterday. Still a lot that needs to be done and we need a Democratic Governor to fight for these issues. Need to look at what we need to learn as Democrats on message and candidates.

Discussion on Assembly speakers race, with Jenny Orpeza from Long Beach as top candidate

Discussion about the problems Arnold would cause if he wins the Governorship. He would most likely become the biggest national Republican fundraiser that we have seen thus far, including targeting State Assembly and Senate seats

Human trafficking; Zoe has been working on this issue and there will be a hearing in Santa Clara County in early December on this issue

Have 2 more bills in front of the Governor for signing

10. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Steve Chessin announced that the Registrar of Voters needs poll workers for November elections and discussed the blanket primary which were ruled unconstitutional a couple of years ago. He announced that they are coming back with another form of blanket primary targeting Nov. 2004 for ballot initiative. If we abolish closed primary, all candidates from all parties will be on one ballot to be voted on, top two vote getters will face off in November in election regardless of what party they are from.

David Wilkes announced that the CDC has taken a position against the open primary

Dan Hoffman clarified that both of no on 54 events are tomorrow.

Drina announced that Manny Diaz’s 2^nd annual women’s summit is on Saturday from 8-2. This is free to the public and will be in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Topics are on health issues.

Kathy Chavez Napoli told the members about an interaction that she had with her partner who is a Republican and an NRA member. Kathy’s partner told Kathy that he voted absentee and voted no on recall and yes on Cruz.

Sal Alvarez met with the Governor at a couple of Latino events. Sal is heading up the viva Alquist campaign

Jim Brady announced that the St. Cyprian Peace and Social Justice Committee’s candidate’s forum for the Sunnyvale City Council race on 10/23 at 6:45pm at St. Cyprian Church at Washington and Leota in Sunnyvale.

Steve announced that the National Day of Action to save Health Care is in Bakersfield on October 10^th

Madge announced that Terry Christensen would be speaker at Oct. 10^th Century Club luncheon

Thanks to 28^th AD for Refreshments

11. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

    The next Executive Board will be on October 21^st.

12. ADJOURNMENT 9:15