SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, September 4, 2003

 *************** Refreshments to be provided by the 27th AD *****************

 

 

1.  CALL TO ORDER: 7:15PM

 

2.  ROLL CALL

Absent: Ron Lind, Francine Davis, Larry Carr, Susan McKuhen, Greg Sellers, Dan Kenney, Craig Mann, Sylvia Alvarez, Sal Alvarez, John Dutra, Sally Lieber, John Laird, Simon Salinas, John Vasconcellos, Anselmo Chavez, Mike Honda, Ruth Ashford, Frank Bosche, Carol Garvey, and Jim Boynton.

 

Excused: Rena Modell

 

Alternate: Karen Brunton for Joe Simitian, Jim Brady for Rebecca Cohn, Sari Wisch for Byron Sher, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins for Anna Eshoo, Sandra Soto for Zoe Lofgren, Teresa Alvarez for Teresa Daley

 

3.  IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Sharon Barrington, Mike Soukup, Becky Kellogg, Matt Moreles, Kathy Chavez Napoli, Laura Goenne, Lee Sturtevant, Jay Jackman, Jack Digby, Kaija Voipio, Alexandra Mixter

 

4.  ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Motion to approve, second, carried

   

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

Motion to approve, second, carried

 

6.  REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

 

A.  Executive Board: Hope Allen Cahan

We discussed the plans for the candidate interviews, the meeting with Sandy James and Steve Preminger, Mall voter registration booths on Sept. 20th and 21st, and the plans for the Call to Action.

Additionally, all Central Committee members should be aware that any Democratic political candidate/ volunteers are welcome to volunteer at our voter registration booths. We will allow them to wear supportive t-shirts and/or buttons and will allow them to distribute a small amount of literature. Additionally, in the event that we have a voter registration booth at an event, we will provide storage space for shift changes for those Democratic volunteers who choose to walk around events distributing literature.

 

B.  Chair: Steve Preminger

Susie Wilson is turning 75 in a couple of weeks there will be a big b-day party on Sep 24th at LouÕs Village.

There has been a request for us to support keeping the San Jose Medical Center Open. Steve asked for authority to join coalition to help them in their efforts

Steve has been working on anti-recall efforts, no on 54 efforts, and conference calls with the State Party, Regional Directors, and Assembly Chairs. Additionally, Steve met with Sandy James.

 

C.  Vice Chair: Drina Collins

No Report

 

D.  Treasurer: Gap Kim

$61.90 in the account

 

E.  Secretary:  Hope Allen Cahan

Sign visitor sheets

 

F.  Community Services & Voter Registration: Liz McDavit

G.  Finance: Jim Thurber

Any clubs spending money on candidates or recall election are advised to consult with Jim for advice on the strict rules for these expenditures.

 

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Sari Wisch

Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Submitted by Sari Wisch, SCCDCC Endorsement Committee 

The interviews are finished!!! We interviewed Democratic candidates who are running for city council in Palo Alto, Los Altos, Gilroy, and Sunnyvale. None of the candidates in Cupertino responded to the questionnaire. We also interviewed candidates running for the Foothill-DeAnza school board, and for Sunnyvale School Board. 

Interviews were held on Tuesday, August 26; Wednesday, August 27; and Tuesday, September 2nd. I want to thank everyone who participated in the interview process, and thank all candidates who showed up. 

The candidates we interviewed: 

Palo Alto

Dena Mossar, Mayor*

Nancy Lytle*

LaDoris Cordell*

Harold ÒSkipÓ Justman 

Los Altos:

Francis LaPoll*

Val Carpenter

David Casas 

Gilroy:

Guadalupe Arellano, Mayor*

Paul Correa*

Peter Arellano*

Bruce Morasca* 

Sunnyvale:

Otto Lee*

Dean Chu*

Ron Swegles* 

Foothill De-Anza School Board:

Betsey Bechtel*

Andrea Leiderman*

Hal Plotkin* 

Sunnyvale School Board:

Phyllis Fowler* 

 

 

The full Santa Clara County Central Committee membership approved all of the endorsement recommendations of the sub-committee.

 

I.  Campaign Services: Phaedra Ellis Lamkins

Great kick off event for the October election, the event was on every news channel.

Phone banking is occurring at Labor Council and CA for Justice. Clubs are asked to adopt certain nights for phone banking.

Will work with clubs regarding resources that they can provide to candidates we just endorsed.

 

J.  Issues: Emy Thurber

The Health Care for All Committee will present the health care plans of the Democratic Presidential candidates at the November Central Committee meeting.  The presentation will begin at 6:30 and go for no more than an hour.  The program is being arranged by Rich Watters.

 

K. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran

Voter Registration outreach, asking clubs to sponsor one weekend a month mall shift. Tonight the African American Democratic Club, Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum, Mission City Democratic Club, Peninsula Young Democrats, Peninsula Democratic Coalition, and Santa Clara County Democratic Club volunteered for mall shifts.

 

L. Regional Directors: Madge Overhouse

There is a special meeting of the endorsement caucus on September 13th; the October e-board meeting will be held at the September meeting as well. Proxy forms are different for each meeting. If courts decide in favor of the court lawsuit then the September meeting will not occur. The State convention is in San Jose in January 16, 17, 18 at the convention center.

 

Madge has been participating in the conference calls with the Davis committee. Sharon Davis was on the last call. The discussion was about the 2 commercials with Diane Feinstein who has been in constant contact with the Governor. There is proof now that 30 days after the election the white house and Karl Rove were looking into how to change our election. They are believed to be looking at all of the states to do this.

 

Please go to www.no-recall.com to sign up against the recall.

 

Howard Dean out strongly against the recall.

 

League of Conservation Voters has $100 million to spend against the recall.

 

Today there was a town hall with the Governor in San Diego.

 

Sign up with moveon.org (which was in the paper this morning). High points of the group: the founder reports a grass roots effort of at least 1million voters against the recall and asks 1.5 million members nation wide to urge family and friend in CA to vote against the recall.

 

Legislative Proxies may be given to Madge to ship to the credentials committee. Central Committee members may give to other members or alternates. AD members may give to other AD members or alternates.

 

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

Our meeting will be the 1st weekend in October, we will be discussing National Convention resolutions (in Boston). Chris must submit any resolutions by Sept 10th so let him know ASAP you have one. The Recall is a wake up call to other states about precinct activity, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, etc will be talked about back east.

 

N.  Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

Meeting on Sept. 18th at 1746 The Alameda

 

Paul Hill was lethally injected, Jeff white from operation rescue from Bay Area was there. The fact that so many people supported Paul Hill and carried signs that said ÒDead doctors can not killÓ and Òmass murders beware, hunters of God are out to get youÓ is frightening.

 

O.  DTV Report:  Steve Chessin

Democratic television producer Steve Chessin reported that our July taping was with State Controller Steve Westley, and our August taping was with Dr. Martha J. Kanter, Chancellor, Foothill-De Anza Community College District.

 

Our guest in September is scheduled to be Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

 

We will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A September 11th and October 9th with Dr. Kanter, September 25th with Controller Steve Westly, and October 23rd and November 20th with Attorney General Lockyer.

 

Neither Cupertino Channel 15 nor Los Altos Channel 26 are broadcasting ÒforeignÓ shows at this time (we produce in Mountain View). We hope this situation will change.

 

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:

Sept 11 DTV 103 Dr. Martha J. Kanter

Sept 25 DTV 102 Hon. Steve Westly

Oct.  9  DTV 103 Dr. Martha Kanter

Oct. 23 DTV 104 Hon. Bill Lockyer

Nov.  6 DTV 105 TBD-105

Nov. 20 DTV 104 Hon. Bill Lockyer

 

See http://www.scc-democrats.org/dtv.htm for full schedule.

 

P.  CDC Report:  David Wilkes

CDC urges NO on recall and endorses Cruz Bustamante.

CDC urges NO on 54

There will be a Bay Area CDC meeting sometime around October 19th.

The next CDC board meeting will be Sunday, November 9 in San Bernadino. 

CDC endorsement meetings will be held in early December after filing close on Dec. 5.

The CDC is looking for one representative from each club, assembly district and central committee to join in conference calls on the recall. Contact David Wilkes or Chris Stampolis for details. The calls may be weekly and last about an hour. We had one of Davis' top aides on the last call, it was very informative and useful.

 

Q. Welfare Reform:  Sal Alvarez     

 

 

Political outreach clubs and ADs

20th AD committee:

21st AD Committee: Mike Markman

The 21st AD will hold its next meeting at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Los Gatos on Thursday, September 25th.  Monte Sereno Councilmember Barbara Nesbit will speak to the committee regarding issues of importance in the southern part of the district, and former Chair of the 21st AD Committee (and current candidate for the Redwood City City Council) will discuss issues of note in the northern portion of the district.  Additionally, the 21st AD Committee is finalizing its efforts to roll out its "precinct leader" initiative, and is investigating opportunities to conduct voter registration at the new IKEA in East Palo Alto.

 

22nd AD Committee:

23rd AD Committee: Tom Cochran

The 23rd AD did voter registration at the San Jose Jazz festival and are working on having a voter registration booth at the women and families summit on October 4th with Manny Diaz.

 

24th AD Committee: David Cohen

Doing a voter registration booth on Sept. 20th and 21st at the Great Mall. Please contact him to volunteer. Additionally, the AD may do precinct walking before the October election.

 

27th AD Committee: Mike Moore

 

28th AD Committee:

 

African-American Democratic Coalition: Marylee Shelton

Will be doing a community welcoming of Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, Executive Director of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council on Sep 26th 5-7 1460 Emory St. San Jose, RSVP to 408.998.0428x214.

 

American Sikh Democratic Club:

Phaedra and Steve came to Sikh temple and brought the no on recall and 54 information. The group is rapidly growing in number.

 

Asian-Pacific American Democratic Club: Gap Kim

Our Annual BBQ went well and we hope everyone who attended had a lot of fun.  We want to thank those who

came.

 

The club also had a successful voter registration drive at the Cupertino Moon Festival, which ran Sat.

and Sun, Aug. 30th and 31st.

 

Our Annual Appreciation Dinner is on Friday, October 3rd.  This year, the dinner will be held at the new

Northside Community Center in San Jose.

 

We will be sending out a newsletter that will give more details regarding the upcoming dinner.

 

Clinton*Gore Action Network:

 

Democratic Action for Women Now (DAWN): Claudia

Endorsement potluck 1:30-4:30 on the 21st of September

 

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Wharton

23rd AD Field Representative Jennifer Farris, spoke at the August 5th meeting. She focused on health issues and answered membersÕ questions on issues ranging from campaign finance reform to the planned closure of the San Jose Medical Center. She complimented our members, saying Òyou people are great. I am impressed by your grasp of vital issues.Ó

 

Our annual barbeque meeting will be next Sunday, September 7, 3-6pm, at The VillageÕs Gazebo Park. Confirmed guests are Joe Coto and Kathy Chavez-Napoli, candidates for the 23rd AD. Other local representatives have been invited and we hope theyÕll be able to join us before going to the Garden Party for Gov. Howard Dean at the home of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and John Marshall Collins.

 

Members attending the barbeque will have an opportunity to volunteer for our Special Election Telephone Tree and/or to distribute the special election edition of our October Newsletter to ALL registered Democrats in The Villages, as well as volunteer for phone banking and voter registration. Our newsletter editor and former club president, Pat Kirk, did a particularly outstanding job on our September newsletter.

 

Our next meeting will be either Tuesday, Oct. 7th or Oct. 14th depending on whether or not the Special Election occurs as scheduled.

 

Mission City Democratic Club: Laura Goenne

 

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Mike Markman

The PDC's Annual Summer Picnic was a resounding success.  We were joined by many elected officials and candidates running in local races in November 2003, and who plan to run in the March 2004 Primary.  The PDC expresses its thanks to Assemblyman Joe Simitian for his service as auctioneer in the PDC's auction.  The PDC's voter registration efforts are continuing.  In August the PDC registered voters at the Palo Alto Art & Wine Festival in efforts led by the Peninsula Young Democrats.  The PDC will also be assisting the County Democratic voter registration effort by registering voters monthly at a shopping center on the peninsula.   

 

Peninsula Young Democrats: Genni Gerard

 

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: By Alicia Lanier

 

RECALL ELECTION

At our last meeting, club members voted to unanimously accept a resolution to vote NO on the gubernatorial recall election in October and YES for the Lt. Governor on the second part of the ballot.

 

YOU ARE ALL INVITED TO OUR MEETING ON MONDAY, SEPT. 15

Among the speakers will be one from the Recall Opposition Campaign letting our members know what they can do to help defeat the recall effort. Also, the following candidates have requested time to address our club and each

will each be given 5-10 minutes to speak: *Joe Cato, Candidate for the 23rd Assembly District (his opponent is

Kathy Chavez Napoli, who spoke to our members at the August meeting)*Manny Diaz, Candidate for the California Senate (his opponent is Elaine Alquist who has been endorsed by the club)*Dick Lane, Gubernatorial Candidate on the Recall ballot

 

Straight Talk TV Show on Public Access Stations

The recent tapes on the Anti-Recall and Anti-Prop 54 Campaigns are almost ready for distribution to 5 area public access stations. By the way, these were the first shows for Jennifer Myronuk, who has signed on to be our Executive Producer, and she did an excellent job!

 

The next Straight Talk shows will be taped on September 13. Ted Lempert will again be host and the guests and topics will be:

* Silicon Valley Civil Rights Group on the topic of the Patriot Act

* California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell on

Education

 

The Straight Talk San Jose TV show will soon be promoted with a series of ads in the Metro newspaper. About six ads will run and will include the SCCDC phone number and website. All the stations and times for the Straight Talk show are listed on our website which is www.DemocraticClub-SCC.org

 

Santa Teresa Community Fest

SCCDC will have a voter registration booth at the annual Santa Teresa Community Fest on Sept 27 at George Page Park.

 

 

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum: Teresa Alvarado

 

South County Democratic Club: Mark Moore

Mark Moore from the South County Democratic Club in Morgan Hill reported that the Club has been very active.   They met in August and held an endorsement vote in the Gilroy elections.  They endorsed Guadalupe Arellano for Mayor.   Also endorsed were Peter Arellano, Paul Correa and Bruce Morasca for City Council.   He was happy to see that these were the same people endorsed by the Central Committee earlier in the meeting.   The Club also came out in opposition to the recall of the Governor.  The Club will be holding a fundraiser on Saturday, September 20, in Gilroy to raise funds for supporting their candidates.   The Club is also working closely with the issues organization of Gilroy First (opposed to the expansion of Wal-mart in Gilroy) and with a new group called Eye on the 11th (working to unseat the only Republican Congressman in Santa Clara County, Richard Pombo).

 

Mark Moore also reported on his meeting with the 27th AD in July in Aptos.   The group received a copy of the Republican budget proposal from Assemblyman John Laird and were very upset about the contents of the proposal.   They voted to become active in contacting Republican Senator Bruce McPherson to compromise on the budget plan before the legislature.   The next week Senator McPherson was one of the Senators that did vote for the compromise budget plan

 

San Jose State Democratic Club: Jacquie Heffner

 

West Valley Democratic Club:

 

7. OLD BUSINESS

Call To Action Reports

The Bureau is doing training sessions for people interested in doing public speaking at clubs, high schools, etc. Everyone is encouraged to join. At call to action will discuss how to reach out to groups who may need speakers

 

Working on letters to the editor and call in to talk shows. Looking for brave democrats to do this.

Info will be discussed on Saturday

 

The original idea of the committee was to help create messages for the other committees, has spun its wheels on this. David hopes that at the Call to Action meeting, the committee will be able to put this into practice. Additional reminder that the web site has a way for people to volunteer online and has an issues forum.

 

Need clubs to let us know if doing voter registration booths at events. At the TNT, they registered over 400 new voters

 

8. NEW BUSINESS

Resolution on Voter Verified Paper Trails by Steve Chessin

Discussion on

 

Vote to support, carried

 

 

9. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Francis La Poll- Thank you for endorsement. Discussion of campaign challenges and plans

 

Anna Song- County Board of Education (3rd year) she is running again and looking for endorsements. Enjoyed being on the board, aside from great education difficulties caused by State Budget issues

 

Dan Hoffman- Phil Trounstein is the speaker at the next Century Club meeting next Friday.

Madge recently received medical news that she will be with us a lot longer than we originally expected.

No on recall efforts are happening at the Labor Council. Every Monday until election day there are anti-proposition 54 committee meetings at 24 Moore Park Ave at 12noon on 3rd floor boardroom. Dan has talking points and bumper stickers

 

Deepka- Sunday September 14th there will be a discussion with Indians on Patriot Act 1 &2 and Prop 54 co-sponsored by Asian law alliance, Mercury News, and Santa Clara County Library Association. 

 

Jay Jackman- There will be a rebroadcast of Presidential debate tonight at 11pm

 

Sharon Barrington from Dean campaign- many new volunteers due to message of Hope instead of Fear. Ask you to remember about the message, and that we donÕt need the candidates smashing on each other. Dean is the only reason she came back to the Democratic Party because Dean inspires Hope and stands up against Bush. Ò We are here to instill Hope and get our Country back.Ó

 

Jacquie: Need to register online tonight for garden event at Zoe LofgrenÕs 

 

Mike Markman: Sept. 16th, Kerry will be in town. There will be a meet up on the 25th of Sept. Let Mike know if you are interested in more information about Kerry.

 

Madge: Democratic convention in Boston on 26th, 27th, 28th of July, delegate selection process on Feb 8th.

 

10.  EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

    The next Executive Board September 18th

 

11. ADJOURNMENT

9:03