SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

MINUTES FOR Thursday, January 10th, 2008

1.         CALL TO ORDER

7:20 pm

2.         ROLL CALL

absent – Deepka Lalwani, Ron Lind, Peter Chiu, Margaret Abe-Koga, Omar Torres, Kevin Moore, Alex Kennett, Dan Kenney, Dennis Kennedy, Greg Sellers, Veronica Andrade, Denise Alejandro, Bruce Morasca, Rebecca Scheel, Alberto Torrico, Sally Lieber, Anna Caballero, Ellen Corbett, Joe Simitian, Elaine Alquist, Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda

3.         IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

visitors signed in

4.         ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Amend agenda to add endorsement of Measure E under new business and a discussion of Big Four gambling deals

Agenda adopted unanimously as amended

5.         APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted at sccdp.org)

Correct “district 2” under announcements

Minutes approved as amended

6.         ISSUES

Bill Roth, Catholic Democrats of California – discussed his organization, trying to convince Catholics to be Democrats – wants to form Catholic Democratic Club in Santa Clara County – nationally trying to build Catholic Democratic organizations in battleground states like Ohio and Colorado

7.         NEW BUSINESS

A. Anti-Recall Resolution (see below) – Clark Williams presented the resolution, with minor amendments – Chris Stampolis moved the resolution, which was approved unanimously (complete amended text is available at sccdp.org)

B. Propositions 94-97 – Emy Thurber moved to oppose Props 94-97 – Ted discussed the reasoning behind voting no: does not protect labor & strips out environmental restrictions – motion to oppose passed

C. Discussion of Proposition 92 (Community Colleges) – Chris Stampolis advocated for supporting Proposition 92 – Jim Thurber gave con argument – discussion followed with several folks on each side of the issue

D. Measure E – Jacquie Heffner presented Measure E, East Side HS District Bond – body voted to endorse Measure E

8.         REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A. Executive Board: Steve Preminger – ex board discussed upcoming CDP convention and Call to Action kickoff scheduled for March 8 (will meet Feb 2 to plan)

B. Chair: Steve Preminger

C. Vice Chair: James Kim – no report

D. Treasurer: Drina Collins - $2247.49 balance

E. Secretary: David Cohen on behalf of Hope Cahan

F. Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne Grey

G. Finance: Jim Thurber – JJ dinner, April 18 – Hope is chairing – invitations coming out in a month – Kristen Johnson does the program for the dinner and the format is changing, looking for all clubs to place ads in the program – Drina Collins wants help calling all elected officials, particularly school board members, to invite them to the dinner

H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Jon Kessler – no report

I. Communication: David Cohen – newsletter went out today, will have 2 per month, please send events – we’re getting a large increase in new volunteers

J. Campaign Services: Tom Cochran – campaign for your favorite candidate

K. Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis

Club Reports

Dean Democratic Club – Wanda Bryan

December 5, 2008

Holiday Party/2008 Brainstorming Goals was held at Club Member Marcene Van Dierendonck's home. Great potluck food!

Our brainstorming session resulted in 19 Goals to be prioritized and ranked at our Jan. 14th Meeting into categories Advocacy and Outreach.

Each member chose 2 names of Iowans to write letters to asking them to attend a caucus and make sure a progressive Democratic Candidate was selected before they left the caucus.

Jan. 5, 2008

Met to watch the Iowa caucus results at club member Stephanie Grossman's home.

Ralph Wheeler co-chair presented a DFA Night School session on "Holding Your Elected Representatives Accountable".

LGBT Club – Gloria Nieto

Moorpark –Clarence Madrilejos

Evergreen Club at Villages – Beverly Wharton

A record turnout of members attended last Tuesday’s meeting to hear a presentation by the League of Women Voters on the pros, cons, and fiscal effects of Feb ballot propositions. A presentation was given by several members on the candidate they were supporting and why, followed by a straw vote of members present on which candidate they were likely to vote for on election day. The results were: 1^st – Clinton; 2^nd – Edwards; 3^rd – Obama.

For Feb’s meeting we have scheduled Professor Terry Christensen for an analysis of Super Tuesday and retired SJSU Professor of Religious Studies, Rev. Benton White, who will speak about evangelicals and politics. We expect another record turnout for February.

We are working hard to get members to participate in voter registration efforts, as poll workers, and volunteers for the March California Democratic Convention in San Jose.

Santa Clara County Club – Aldyth Parle

Eboard met 1/2/08. Holiday party was a success – held at Mariani’s in Santa Clara. Silent auction was very successful. Attendance was 65 people. Bill and Mary have organized Valley Fair voter registration event for January 19 and 20. Last day to register for primary is Jan 21. Next Eboard meeting is Jan 21.

PDC – Rich Watters

1) On Sunday, December 9th, the PDC hosted Stanford Law School Professor Mariano-Florentino Cuellar at a luncheon held at the Jade Palace Restaurant in Palo Alto. Professor Cuellar spoke on the relationship between national security, Presidential power, habeas corpus and the US constitution.

2) The PDC held its annual holiday party Saturday evening, December 15th, at the home of Jim and Emy Thurber in Los Altos. Many people attended and a fine time was had by all.

3) This Saturday, January 12th at noon, we will host Assemblyman Ira Ruskin at our quarterly Legislative Luncheon, again at the Jade Palace Restaurant in Palo Alto. The charge will be $20.00 and we invite everyone to attend.

4) The PDC’s annual membership meeting will be held Sunday, February 24th at the Los Altos Youth Center. At this meeting the PDC membership will elect officers and Executive Board members for the coming year. Our guest speaker will be Barry Kendall of the Commonweal Institute.

Young Democrats – Darcy Green

Iranian-American Club – Mehdi Safipour

Latino Democrats – Omar Torres

DAWN – Carol Garvey

L. Regional Director: Emy Thurber – Will be a large need for volunteers at the convention, information not posted yet. Pre-endorsement meetings Thurs, March 13 – clubs should send in membership lists with AD info. Regional meeting probably to be combined with Call to Action on March 8. Form A (declare as DNC delegate candidate) will become available on Jan 15 – caucuses will be on April 13. Central committee election filing due in March. Jay Jackman hosting fundraiser for Charlie Brown.

M. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis – media cares more about who comes in first rather than actual delegate count – delegates selected by congressional district – superdelegates make up about 20% of total - many independents in IA and NH came out for Democrats

N. Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia Shope – no report

O. DTV Report: Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our December taping was with Dr. Lauren Speeth, CEO of the Elfenworks Foundation.

Our guest in January will be Assemblymember Jim Beall of the 24^th District.

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A January 10th and February 7th with Dr. Lauren Speeth, January 24th with Councilmember Oliverio, and February 21st and March 20th with Assemblymember Beall.

See the sccdp web site for the schedule in the other communities, and to download our shows.

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): 2008:

Jan 10 DTV 155 Dr. Lauren Speeth

Jan 24 DTV 154 Hon. Pierluigi Oliverio

Feb 7 DTV 155 Dr. Lauren Speeth

Feb 21 DTV 156 Hon. Jim Beall

Mar 6 DTV 157 TBD-157

Mar 20 DTV 156 Hon. Jim Beall

P. CDC Report: Jay Jackman – no report

9.        OLD BUSINESS

10.       ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bill Ferguson – Democracy café in Milpitas, Jan 19 9 am at India Community Center

Ash Kalra – candidate for SJ City Council in District 2 – already raised $34K – Jan 20 fundraiser

Dan Hoffman – MLK events Jan 21, breakfast and freedom train

Pierluigi Oliverio – trying to convince parents in SJ Unified to send their children to public school

11.        EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

            The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

12.        ADJOURNMENT