SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL
COMMITTEE
6:45 pm, Sheriff’s Auditorium, 55 Younger St, San Jose
MINUTES FOR Thursday, January 5th,
2006
1. CALL
TO ORDER: 7:15
2. ROLL
CALL
Absent: Francine Davis, Bill
Dias, Cathy Dias, Deepka Lalwani, Peter Chiu, Thelma Spaziani, Francis La Poll,
Anna Song, Xavier Campos, Kevin Moore, Alex Kennett, Brittany Bach, Kristine
Dillon, Bruce Morasca, Alberto Torrico, Liz Figueroa, Kansen Chu, Anna Eshoo,
Ruth Ashford, Fran Bennett, Morteza Tajally, Paul Fong, Genni Gerard, Anil
Babbar
Alternate: Swanee Edwards for
Dennis Kennedy, Mike Potter for Joe Coto, Alex Kobayashi for Ira Ruskin, Bill
James for Sally Lieber, Jon Kessler for Rebecca Cohn, Clark Williams for John
Laird, Sal Alvarez for Simon Salinas, Sabra Foley for Joe Simitian, Jim Ross
for Jerry McNerney, Mike Honda, Sandra Soto for Zoe Lofgren, Bob Applebaum for
Beverly Waller-Wharton, Clarence Madrilejos for Herb Wadley
Excused: Anna Song, Kevin
Moore
3. IDENTIFICATION
OF VISITORS
Pat Kirk-Evergreen Democratic
Club at the Villages, Bob Applebaum, Katie Desmond- Planned Parenthood
Advocates Mar Monte, Gwendolyn McDaniel- Santa Clara County Democratic Club,
Joe Aliarado-Santa Clara County Democratic Club, Mariam Ghazviui- Santa Clara
County Democratic Club, Spandon Chakrabarti- Dean Democratic Club of Silicon
Valley, Diane Rolfe- PDC, DFA, Century Club, John Nguyen-Evergreen Democratic
Club, Geoff Crockwell- Congressman Mike Honda’s Office, Jo Moore- Morgan Hill
4. ADOPTION
OF AGENDA
Add presentation from Katie
Desmond from Planned Parenthood and 2 additional emergency resolutions to New
Business.
Motion to approve as amended,
second, carried
5. APPROVAL
OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted at
sccdp.org)
Motion to approve, second, so carried
6. ISSUES
Electronic
voting and paper trail audits discussion and resolution: Cheryl Lilienstein
Motion to make the
resolution “Paper Ballots and Absentee Voting Rather Than Voting Machines” an
emergency resolution, second, carried.
Discussion on the
resolution:
·
the resolution ignores the voting machine, should be talking about
improving them, not throwing them out.
·
Absentee ballots present there own issues such as being lost by the post
office or not being sent in time to out of State/Country voters.
·
Should be pushing for the registrar of voters to provide back up paper
ballots at the polls.
·
A task force should be set up to re-craft the resolution:
o
Task force volunteers include: Adrienne Grey, Alyson Abramowitz, Sal
Alvarado, Chris Stampolis, and Kevin
Motion to Table resolution to have task force work
on it and will send out to the Eboard for approval, second, so carried.
Final
Version of resolution drafted by Task Force:
Protecting Election Integrity
Whereas,
there are serious questions about the security of electronic voting machines
and insecure and untested electronic voting equipment endangers the integrity
of our democracy; and
Whereas,
absentee voters record their votes on paper ballots and have a higher
likelihood of casting their ballots; and
Whereas,
paper balloting provides a well-tried and well-accepted methodology which helps
to secure victory with integrity for candidates;
Therefore
be it Resolved that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central
Committee
will commit to a concerted campaign to: (a) increase the public's use of paper
balloting and permanent absentees in the 2006 election cycle and until such
time as e-voting can be sufficiently secured to guarantee every vote is counted
accurately, and (b) prepare county election officials for this increased level
of paper balloting so that they will ensure timely availability and accurate
processing of those ballots; and
Be
it Further Resolved that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee
supports urgent efforts to force transparency in voting system software,
construct national standards for electronic voting machine certification,
create external, non-partisan certifying groups who publicly disclose testing
results, develop reliable voter verified paper trail systems, adopt robust
auditing procedures, and update recount procedures.
7. NEW
BUSINESS
Whereas: 1,000,000 children in California lack
health care coverage; and
Whereas:
Passage of the Tobacco Tax Initiative will generate $2.27 billion for
health-related programs to support:
·
$405
million for children’s health insurance
·
$828
million for hospital emergency care services
·
$416
million for prevention, treatment and research of diseases such as cancer, lung
disease, and asthma
·
$213
million to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit
·
$100
million for nursing education and training
·
$64
million for 100 + primary care community clinics that serve uninsured children
and adults; and
Whereas, The
California Democratic Party values and works for universal health care and has
made universal health care a Democratic Party priority.
Therefore be it resolved that the Santa Clara County
Democratic Party endorses the Tobacco Tax Initiative and the signature
gathering effort, and
Be it further resolved that this resolution be
forwarded to the California Democratic Party for its consideration at its
Executive Board Meeting January 27-28th, 2006.
Submitted by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party
Motion to include this as an emergency item, second,
so carried. Motion to endorse, second, so carried
WHEREAS the Iraq war has cost Santa Clara County
taxpayers approximately $1.7 billion and the U. S. taxpayers more than $200
billion and thus deprives Santa Clara County and our nation of essential funding for social programs
benefiting our citizens, and
WHEREAS over 2000 U.S. service men and women have
lost their lives and over 15,000 have been wounded with some of the wounded
permanently disabled and many of the 103,000 American military who have
returned from Iraq are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder,
depression, anxiety and other war related illnesses and in addition over
100,000 Iraqi civilians and security forces have lost their lives and many
others are suffering from the effects
of this war with severe physical and emotional problems, and
WHEREAS this war is causing division amongst the
peoples of Santa Clara County and our nation and has brought disrepute to our
country because of the pain, suffering and destruction caused by the war as
well as the accusations of political imprisonment and torture,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Santa Clara County
Democratic Party, believing that the presence of United States troops in Iraq
is provocative and provides impetus for the insurgency, urges that the United
States Government begin the withdrawal
of all U.S. troops from Iraq according to the detailed plan set forth by
Congressmember John Murtha and supported by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Submitted by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party
Motion to include this as an emergency resolution,
second, so carried. Motion to approve, second, discussion about time of
completion of the withdrawal, motion carried.
8. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS
A. Executive Board: Hope Cahan
The board discussed whether to have an issues forum (decided against),
strategic planning, the precinct captain project, and set the date of January
19th for our next meeting.
B. Chair:
Steve Preminger
Encourage county chairs
and regional directors to put on a united front against Richard Pombo.
Scott Rafferty reported
on the lawsuit against the VA hospital and about the lawsuit to help our
soldiers keep their right to a secret ballot.
C. Vice Chair: James Kim
Went to a few Democratic activist holiday parties: the PDC party and a party hosted by many of the South County Democratic Clubs.
At one of the club
meetings, a question was raised about how to endorse non-Democratic candidates
in non-partisan races. Would like to
stress the importance of the non-partisan races and on the education of new
activists about the importance of voting as a party.
D. Treasurer: Drina Collins
$711.01
E. Secretary: Hope Cahan
No Report
F. Community Services and Voter
Registration: Carolyn Curtis
No Report
G. Finance: Jim Thurber
No Report
H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Jon Kessler
Will be doing the interviews in March, which will be close to the filing date.
I. Communication: David Cohen
Look at website, submit
events, and look at the blog
J. Campaign
Services: Philip Bump
K. Issues: Herb Engstrom
See #6
L. Political
Outreach: Tom Cochran
Thank you to the
Asian club for the food this evening, PDC will supply the food for the next
meeting.
Club, AD, SD, & CD Reports
Evergreen
Democratic Club: Bob Applebaum
Assistant District
Attorney, Karyn Sinunu, the most experienced, qualified, and independent
candidate for District Attorney will speak at our meeting on Tues, Jan. 10th,
2006 at 3:30 pm in the Foothill Center.
Dr. Terry Christensen,
the popular SJSU Political Science Professor, will speak at our meeting on Feb.
7th.
We raised enough in
contributions from our members to provide a happy holiday for 4 families in
temporary shelter at the InnVision center in San Jose.
At the last Century Club
Luncheon in December, Zoe Lofgren was upbeat about our chances to take back the
House and the Senate in 2006. I told Zoe that she could then have the honor of
participating in the impeachment hearings of both Bush and Cheney, over
misdeeds of grave consequences, unlike the Clinton hearings she suffered
through. If successful, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, would serve as
President through the end of 2008.
“But I am tired of people
complaining and berating this administration. The President needs our help! We
share the same goals of promoting democracy.” With fond memories of Walt
Kelly’s “Pogo”, I suggest that each of us send a note to the President offering
support and help in finding the terrorists. Include, with the note, a small
mirror. Ladies, if you have any empty mirrored make-up cases, it could be your
“compact for peace”.
I have stepped down after
three years as President. The privilege of leading our club now belongs to
Kathleen McNally. My application to fill a vacancy on the Health Advisory
Commission of Santa Clara County has been accepted and will be effective after
1/24/06. I expect this to be a very productive year.
Best wishes to all for a
year of Peace, Health, and PROGRESSIVE Happiness.
DAWN: Carol
Garvey
DAWN ended the year with 183 paid members. We began the year by hosting a panel discussion by DAWN endorsed women candidates who won elective office in 2004 which featured: Rebecca Cohn, Jamie McLeod, Laura Macias, Nancy Pyle, and Linda LeZotte and was moderated by Sally Lieber. In between, we held endorsement interviews and a brunch featuring candidates in the special San Jose District 7 City Council race, co-hosted the first group Democratic Club’s picnic, held interviews and an endorsement brunch for the November candidates, followed by a successful fundraiser, worked to defeat prop 73, along with all the other propositions in November, and finished up by co-hosting the Club’s Holiday party.
In 2006 we look forward to a full election-year schedule of candidate forums, interviews and endorsements. We will be looking for ways to work more closely with the other clubs on issues of importance to all Democrats. To kick off the year, we will be co-hosting a panel discussion/dinner of the San Jose Mayoral candidates in March. The Santa Clara County Democratic Club is the leader on this event. DAWN is only too happy to spread the word to its members.
Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club: Clark Williams
The Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club is sponsoring a candidate forum for the four announced candidates running for Santa Clara County District Attorney. The forum is being co-sponsored by the Log Cabin Republicans and is being held on January 23rd
South County Democratic Club: Mark Moore
There are three big events in South County for
Democrats over the next two months. At
the next Club Meeting in Morgan Hill on January 21, the three Democratic Candidates
for Congressional District 11 will be speaking. In order to defeat Richard Pombo in November, the Democratic
Party must decide on a viable alternative and this will be our first
opportunity to make a comparison at one sitting. On February 11, the 27th AD Committee (working with
the 28th AD) will hold an all day retreat at California State
University at Monterey Bay. Training of
Democratic leaders for coordinating campaigns and energizing voters will be the
goal. At the February 18th
meeting in Gilroy the Democratic candidates for the 28th Assembly
District will be speaking to the membership.
Watsonville Mayor Ana Ventura-Phares and Salinas Mayor Anna Caballero
will be seeking the seat being vacated by Simon Salinas due to term limits.
Following is a submission by Dan Kenney from the South County Club
meeting and from meetings in Monterey County.
Progressive Democrats
Values
We believe in the Equal
Rights of All, with minimal government interference.
We believe with the
Freedom we are given, Responsible Action is essential.
Progressive Democrats seek
to align Individual Rights with the Common Good, this alignment allows for a
Stronger Nation, admired by all Democratic Nations.
We fully understand the
importance of protecting Mother Earth and all her Creatures as well as
Environmental protection and Sustainability for Future Generations.
We support Fair Trade that
benefits all participants and citizens.
We support the Right to
Unionize for all workers.
We support fair and
reasonable taxation of all the people, for the benefit of all the people.
We will support Transparency in all our Political and Governmental
offices while working for the citizens of the United States.
We believe that Good
Diplomacy and Good Trade relations are in the best interest of World Peace, and
that War and the production of Weapons of Mass destruction are not in a
Peaceful People’s best interest.
We believe in the freedom
to Worship as We choose, and the separation of Church and State.
We believe in our Hearts
and Minds, that All People are Created Equal
And we will actively work
on behalf of All the People.
We believe in the Sanctity
of Marriage and the Personal Rights of All the People to Profess this in their
own personal way.
We will shepherd the conservation of our planet, we will
conserve equal access to a quality education, and we will conserve families'
rights to affordable healthcare.
We believe in Free Speech,
Free Will, a Value-Oriented Life, the Pursuit of Happiness, and Liberty for
All.
@Djk/12/1/05
Dean
Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Carolyn Curtis
At our December 2005 meeting, we set our goals for the coming year. We will prioritize these at our January working meeting.
At our January 4th
meeting, we wrote a letter to legislators about AB583, Loni Hancock’s Clean
Money bill. At least 4 of us are going to Sacramento on Tuesday, January 10th
to lobby for this bill with California Clean Money.
Our club is purchasing a
table at the Martin Luther King Breakfast on Monday, January 16th.
Santa Clara
County Democratic Club: Alicia Lanier
Clean Money,
Clean Elections
Our club has supported the "Clean
Money, Clean Elections" effort for several years. This next Tuesday,
a group of our club members will go to Sacramento along with "Clean
Money" supporters from across the state to attend the
Legislative hearing on AB 583. If you want to go along, contact Herb
Engstrom about carpooling from our area.
If you can’t go, I hope you will contact your
Assemblymember about supporting Clean Money Bill AB 583 ... your help is URGENTLY needed because
this bill must be passed by the California Assembly by the end of January or it
is dead.
San Jose
Mayoral Race Forum
Our club has invited all the candidates for the San
Jose Mayor’s race to a forum on the 3rd Monday in March and the “big
3” have now accepted this invitation. We are inviting all other Democratic
Clubs in the county to participate in this dinner meeting with us. So please save this date: Monday evening, March
20, and let me know whether your club will sign on as a co-sponsor ... we don’t
need your money, we just want you to help us produce the very best turnout
possible for these candidates.
Holiday Party
Wrap
Thanks to all of you who attended our annual holiday
party and Silent Auction in December. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber was among the
public officials who dropped by. It was a fun evening and we raised several
hundred dollars, which will be used by our club to support Democratic
candidates and issues in 2006.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting: Monday, January 16, at Carrow’s
Restaurant. This will be our annual
“Town Hall” meeting, which is an open mike,
available to all who attend. This is a good opportunity for candidates running
for office in 2006, to individuals wanting to discuss an issue near and dear to
their hearts, or members who have an idea for a program or other club activity.
We simply ask that you limit your remarks to a maximum 2-3 minutes. I invite
all of you to attend ... we meet at 6 o’clock for dinner ... and the program
begins at
7 o’clock. This meeting again is on Monday, January
16, at Carrow’s Restaurant on El Camino in Santa Clara.
Check out our
Straight Talk TV Shows on your local Public Access TV
station and on our website or pick up a copy of our Straight Talk flyer before
you leave tonight. Soon to be taped are two programs, one on Capital Punishment
and the second on a Paper Trail for Voting Machine.
Three SCCDC board members are among our visitors at tonight’s meeting: Mariam Ghazvini, SCCDC vice president; Gwen McDaniel, corresponding secretary; and Joe Alvarado, member at large.
M. Regional Director: Emy Thurber
The California Democratic
Party Pre-primary Endorsement caucuses would be held on April 1 or 2 in San
Jose. Delegates consist of members of
the State Central Committee, members of the County Central Committee who are
not already members of the State Central Committee and delegates from chartered
clubs. Clubs get 1 delegate for every
20 members who reside in the same Assembly District. All clubs should provide me with membership lists with the AD's
noted for each member so I can figure out how many delegates each club is
entitled to. If individuals hold
membership in more than one club, they will have to select a "primary
club" where their membership will be counted towards delegate selection.
N. Democratic
National Committee: Chris Stampolis
The removal of Delay, Cunningham, and Abramoff are the message right now that we need to send letters to our local papers.
Dean is continuing to focus on the State parties and local communities. We are currently ahead in the polls of where we were in the past off years of 2003 and 2001
O. Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia
Shope
In the month of January, the following three issues are the most important pressing the pro-choice community.
1.
Medi-Cal Provider Rate Cut
The Governor’s office
announced in December its intentions to instate a retroactive Medi-Cal service
provider cut beginning January 1, 2006. The administration had originally agreed
not to institute the cut in 2006. A large coalition of medical service
providers is working with the California Medical Association to stop the cut
through negotiations or emergency legislation to be passed by the time the
budget is announced on January 10, 2006. We obviously have a very short time
frame to get this done.
Main Points:
·
For a small savings to the state, the
implementation of this cut will have a devastating effect on access to care for
hundreds of thousands of Californians- at a time when the state’s fiscal
outlook is not as severer as the recent past.
·
California’s Medi-Cal rates are already among
the very lowest in the United States, making it extremely tough on safety net
providers like Planned Parenthood to continue to serve clients in our
communities with high quality health care.
·
We urge the Administration to stop the
implementation of this cut! The rate reduction on top of already drastically
low Medi-Cal provider rates could force community clinics to decrease services
to low-income patients.
What you can do:
·
Send a letter to Schwarzenegger and urge him
to withdraw his support of the provider cuts.
·
Talk to local Assemblymembers and Senators and
urge them to support the emergency legislation to stop the provider cuts.
2.
Oppose the nomination of
Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court
On Monday, the Senate
considers whether ultraconservative Judge Samuel Alito should sit on the
Supreme Court.
Alito’s record as a
lawyer in the Justice Department and his opinions during 15 years on the 3rd
US Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrate that he takes a narrow view of
defendants’ rights, anti-discrimination laws, church-state restrictions and
federal powers. He has also advocated for the expansive Presidential powers and
issued decisions restricting a woman’s right to choose. Alito’s nomination to
the Supreme Court threatens the values of the progressive community.
What you can do:
·
Join the coalition of progressive
organizations in Santa Clara County opposing the nomination of Samuel Alito to
the Supreme Court. Progressive organizations in Santa Clara County will be
working together to organize 1-3 phone banks in the month of January to contact
supporters to contact Senators in California and Nevada. Sign-up on the sign-in
sheet if you are interested in participating in this campaign.
·
Send a letter to Dianne Feinstein urging her
to oppose Samuel Alito and use her leadership in the Judiciary committee to
make sure that he is asked the tough questions.
3.
Commemorate the Anniversary
of Roe v. Wade
January 22, 2006 marks
the 33rd anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
“Roe” has come to be known as the case that established the constitutional
right of women to choose to have a safe and legal abortion.
There will be several
events in Santa Clara County to commemorate this important anniversary.
Happy Hour
70s Event:
On January 19th
at 6pm at the Dive Bar located at 78 E. Santa Clara St in San Jose. $10
donations are requested.
Jan. 22nd at
3pm at 1746 The Alameda in San Jose. Attend this panel discussion featuring
Linda Williams, CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Maggie Crosby, from the
ACLU of Northern California and Esperanza Garcia Walters, Board Chair of
Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
P. DTV Report: Steve Chessin
Democratic
Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our December taping was with
Philip Bump, Political Director of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council.
Our
guest in January is TBD.
We
will be on San Jose AT&T Channel 15A January 12th with the show
we taped with Christine Pelosi, January 26th with the show we taped
with Philip Bump, and February 9th and March 9th with the
show we will tape this month.
See
the sccdp web site for the schedule in the other communities.
We
could still use more good Democrats on the crew. No prior video experience is necessary.
San
Jose Channel 15A (also serves part of Cupertino), 8:00pm every other Thursday
(408-918-3200):
2006:
Jan 12 DTV
130 Christine Pelosi:
Platform process
Jan 26 DTV
131 Philip Bump
Feb 9 DTV 132 TBD-132
Feb 23 DTV
133 TBD-133
Mar 9 DTV 132 TBD-132
Mar 23 DTV
133 TBD-133
See
http://www.sccdp.org/dtv.php for the
full schedule, and to download our shows.
Q. CDC Report: Chris Stampolis for Jay Jackman
The next meeting will be March 24-26th at the Santa Clara
Convention Center.
9. OLD BUSINESS
10. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Have to file between
February and March to run for Central Committee.
Drina: IRIS (Immigrant Relations
and Integration Services) is having a forum: Challenging The Sound Bytes of
Anti-Immigrant Sentiment on Wednesday, January 11th from 11-2. The
forum will be at the Santa Clara County Office of Human Relations at 1880
Pruneridge Ave, Santa Clara.
Dan Hoffman: Martin Luther
King religious night is Friday, January 13th at Prayer Garden,
Church of God. The Mover of Mountains Breakfast will be on Monday, January 16th
at 7:00am with Honoree Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. This will be at the Wyndham
Hotel in San Jose and the Freedom Train Ride to San Francisco will follow at
10:00 am.
Emy Thurber: Rally
commemorating Roe v. Wade will be on Jan 23rd in Los Altos at the
Youth Center in back of City Hall. Becky Morgan, former Republican State
Senator will be leading the troops.
Carol Garvey: Jim Beal’s
annual Friend Raiser will be on Feb. 9th, it is a spaghetti event
and is $25
Chris Stampolis: Lawsuit
that West Valley bond measure faced has been dropped
Ross Signorino: running for
Council District 1
Anti war protest Jan 24th
at 6pm at the Council Chambers
Thank you to Phyllis Ward
for booking our rooms.
11. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
The
next Executive Board meeting is January 19th
12. ADJOURNMENT: 9:52