SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, March 6th, 2008

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER: 7:20

 

2.             ROLL CALL

 

3.             IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, San Jose City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, Lisa Jensen, Jon Graff, Sean Bagley (Region 9 Director), Andrae Macapinlac, Christina Keshena Lofink, Galen Swain, Merriam Kathaleen, Randy Sandberg, Peter O’Reilly, Michael Blomquist

 

4.             ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Motion to approve, second, so carried

 

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

Motion to approve, second, so carried

 

6.             ISSUES

Candidate Introductions:

Cynthia Papermaster Congress

Jesus Valencia for Superior Court Judge

 

               

7.             NEW/UPCOMING BUSINESS

                Call to Action: meeting this Saturday

 

                CDP Convention: Emy Thurber: In 3 weeks here in San Jose. The State Party is looking for volunteers to work at the convention. If you are not going to make it to the convention, there are a number of people who would like to attend. Please let Emy know if you will not be attending so that we can assign your proxy to someone who would like to attend.

 

                Democratic Office: James Kim: We have volunteers who would like to open the office, but need more to fill all of the time slots. We will be discussing this further at the Call to Action meeting on Saturday.

 

                JJ Diner report: Hope Cahan: We are currently accepting ads for our dinner program. Please see one of our dinner committee members tonight for more information. Please remember to purchase your dinner tables and tickets soon.

 

Anne Mack: The Madge Overhouse Volunteer of the Year award nominee paperwork needs to be turned in to Anne Mack by March 30th.

 

Jim Thurber: need to make money at this dinner to open our campaign headquarters, please keep this in mind when deciding whether to purchase ads and tables.

 

8.             REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.      Executive Board: Hope Cahan

B.      Chair:  Steve Preminger

End the War speak out on Wednesday March 19th from 4-6pm in front of the Dr. martin Luther King Jr. Library.

 

Charlie Walton has an annual peace essay contest for $1,000 prize. You need to write an essay on how the war in Iraq has affected you personally.

 

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

D.      Treasurer: Drina Collins

E.       Secretary:  Hope Cahan

Please sign in on the visitor form

F.       Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne Grey

Continuing to do registration at the new citizen services. We had a new registration event: the PantheaCon Conference. This is an annual conference, occurring every President’s Day weekend. The fairs and festivals for the summer are coming up, please start thinking about how you and your clubs can participate in these events.

 

G.      Finance:  Jim Thurber

We have a formal system for paying bills now. If you make any payments or need reimbursements, you must fill out our reimbursement form and send it to Jim. The forms will then be sent to our accountant. Please allow a week or 2 for processing.

 

H.      Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Jon Kessler

We will have our candidate interviews on Saturday March 22nd. Filing closes tomorrow for most of the races.

 

I.      Communication: David Cohen

The fastest and easiest way to register for the dinner is on our website.

 

We have new activity on our blog; please check it out.

 

The Madge Overhouse award nomination form will be available online

 

J.        Campaign Services: Tom Cochran

K.       Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis

Thank you to the Dawn club for bringing the refreshments tonight

 

2 new clubs chartered tonight: Obama Democratic Club of Silicon Valley & Catholic Democrats of Silicon Valley

 

Club Reports

Evergreen Democratic Club At the Villages: Beverly Waller-Wharton

February’s meeting with SJSU Professors Terry Christensen and J. Bento White as our speakers brought a full-house crowd of 126. Prof. White talked about the role in politics religion has played since the beginning of the US. Issues such as same-sex marriage, he said, are dividing the nation, resulting in the growth of conservative churches at the expense of the more liberal and that we need to look, listen, and learn the art of compromise.

 

Prof. Christensen followed with his analysis of the primaries, highlighting five major topics and their effect on the election: public opinion polls; immigration; the rise of Latino voters; increase in absentee voting; and where we are now in the election cycle.

 

Last Tuesday’s meeting brought out a smaller, but none-the-less interested, number of 60 to become informed by Anne Mack, wearing one of her many hats as a Senator of the California Senior Legislature. Most in the audience had never heard of the California Senior Legislature before, but left knowing what it is, what it does, how it works, and some of the major issues that affect seniors, which it has addressed.

 

Our club continues to reach out to increase membership by developing a brochure that is given to new residents of the Villages inviting them to join. Initially, 93 brochures have been given out.

 

With a sizable number of members signed up, we will soon begin Voter Registration at Eastridge and Oakridge Malls

 

We are happy to report that 20 members (2 full tables) will attend the Annual Jefferson/Jackson dinner, with the club subsidizing a portion of the cost. 

 

Obama Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Galen Swain

Newly accredited Democratic Club

Our next meeting will be at 754 The Alameda

Will be fundraising, phoning and campaigning for Obama

 

 

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Aldyth Parle

The club will be purchasing 2 tables for the JJ dinner.

 

The Santa Clara County Democratic Club continues to be very involved in voter registration. Coordinated by Mary and Bill Barmettler, SCCDC voter registration in February netted many new Democrats, including former Republicans and new citizens. The new citizen effort is held at the Campbell Heritage Theater at the naturalization ceremony and will take place again on March 20th.

 Voter registration at the Valley Fair will be held in May and will again have student volunteers from Presentation High School.

 

SCCDC’s guest speaker in February was Dr. Larry Gerston, political science professor from SJTU and television political commentator. He discussed Super Tuesday and beyond and gave six factors that, in his opinion, would determine the outcome of the primaries and the eventual Democratic Party nominee for president. Herb Engstrom, producer of Straight Talk, SCCDC’s television show, taped the program and it is currently being broadcast on public access stations. The schedule is listed on SCCDC’s website. The program can also be accessed on SCCDC’s website, www.DemocraticClub-SCC.org.

 

SCCDC’s speaker in March will focus on the changes in the state legislature now that Proposition 93 has failed and what these changes will mean in getting things done in Sacramento.

 

Finally, Jay James presented a candidate’s questionnaire. Candidates for AD 22 will appear at SCCDC’s April meeting to seek the Club’s endorsement.

 

South County Club: Swanee

2 tables

 

Dean Democratic Club: Wanda Bryan

2 tables and 2 ads

 

Feb. 18, 2008 Meeting

 

Four members plan to attend the Mar 1-2 DFA Training in Berkeley.

Endorsed Barak Obama as the Presidential Candidate (Original endorsee John Edwards dropped out).

Many Club members plan to attend the SCCDP "Call to Action", on Sat. Mar. 8, 2008.

Plan to bake "upside down cupcakes", in accordance with the National DFA Action for 1st quarter, sell them and buy phone cards for our Veterans confined to the hospital.

Discussed and added Cool Cities/Global Warming to the Task Force List 2008.

Signed up for Task Forces, 10 categories, to help us accomplish our goals for 2008.

Member Jay Jackman's Fundraiser for Charlie Brown for Congress, Sun., Feb. 14, 2008, was a huge success, raising $6,000.

Senator Barak Obama for President, fundraiser debate watch party Feb. 26, 2008 raised $1,500, paid a couple local HQ bills.

 

Mar. 5, 2008 Meeting - North and South County

S.County discussed Tues. primaries.

Recruited 2 more people to serve on Task Forces.

N. County planned Veteran's Bake Sale for Mar. 15-16.

We'll be hosting the Democracy for America table at the convention & help staff it. Contact Carolyn Curtis to sign up for a shift.

 

Catholic Democrats of Silicon Valley: Bill Roth

We are a new club and will be attending the convention in hopes of finding more Democrats interested in joining.

 

Silicon Valley Young Democrats: Julie Lind

 

DAWN: Carol Garvey

1 table 1 ad

 

Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club: Gloria

Will be supporting a no recall of Madison Nguyen

 

L.     Regional Director: Emy Thurber

Next Thursday, March 13th, we will have our pre-endorsement conference for Region 5. All of you who are delegates to the central committee and designated club reps should receive information about the meeting. I urge all of you to come Sunnyvale Community Center 550 East Remington Drive starting at 5:30. I need volunteers for the evening. Chris Meyers is going to send a reminder email.

 

Sean Bagley: Region 9 has a goal of setting up 7 offices and 5,000 volunteers. We are going to provide a place for all of the excited Democrats to volunteer. From those volunteers, I will get clubs formed.

 

We need to be gentle with each other as a lot of hearts will be broken after our candidate is chosen. We must also remain focused on the goal of winning in November.

 

M.      Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

N.      Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

Capitol Day in Sacramento is on Tuesday, April 22nd

 

O.       DTV Report: Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our February taping was with Elizabeth D'aunno, a former organizer for Barack Obama for America, and Tim Quigley, an organizer for Hillary Clinton for President.  The title of the show was Campaign Volunteers.

 

Our guest in March is Bill Roth, State Director of Catholic Democrats of California.

 

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A March 6th and April 3rd with the Campaign Volunteers, March 20th with Assemblymember Beall, and April 17th and May 15th with Bill Roth.

 

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:

Mar  6    DTV 157    Campaign Volunteers

Mar 20    DTV 156    Hon. Jim Beall

Apr  3    DTV 157    Campaign Volunteers

Apr 17    DTV 158    Bill Roth

May  1    DTV 159    TBD-159

May 15    DTV 158    Bill Roth

May 29    DTV 159    TBD-159

 

P.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman

Motion to re-affiliate with the CDC and to donate $100, second, so carried

 

9.             OLD BUSINESS

 

10.          ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hope: had coffee with Rosemary Stasek and she says hello to everyone

 

Peter O’Reilly: Zoe Lofgren is only pushing to have hearings on hearings. So, our group is supporting a candidate to run against her

 

Alten: Dominic Laserta is running as a young democrat for the 22nd AD

 

Jay James: Thank you to everyone who came to the fundraiser for Charlie Brown, we raised almost $6,000. Tom McLintoc is moving to run against him.

I will be running as an Obama delegate to the National Convention. If you live in my district, please attend the caucus and vote for me.

 

Wanda Bryan: email from President of Democratic club in southern California. She is looking for housing while she is here for the convention.

 

Buu: Planned Parenthood fundraiser on June 8th in Los Altos at Becky Morgan’s house.

 

Jim Brady: raising money for the Leukemia Team in Training.

 

Ash Kalra: update on campaign for San Jose District 2. The campaign kick off is this Sunday at 10:00

 

Adrienne Grey: I will reach out to all of the Hillary supporters if you provide your email addresses to me. I will work to make sure that you are getting all of the campaign activity emails so that you may keep connected and active in the campaign.

 

Caroline Curtis: The campaign office is still open at 3898 El Camino for Obama. They are open from 9am to 7pm

 

Jackie Adams is having a campaign kick off on Saturday, March 8th for San Jose City Council District 2

 

David Cohen: want to remind you that the Republican governor of our state wants to use the budget deficit to cut social services and education in our State. Please let your representative know that it is unacceptable to cut the education budget.

 

Dan Hoffman: don’t believe anything positive that you hear about John McCain. He has been flip flopping regularly for many years. An article about it is online at www.tnr.com

 

I believe that the impeach Cheney effort is a waste of our time, please put your focus on productive activity of getting a democrat elected as president.

 

Gloria: James Dobson is going to be sending people to a church in Mountain View so that they can “pray away the gay.” Our club will be doing some faith and interfaith gathering at the church to educate the public. For more information, check out our website www.lgbtdems.org

 

Steve Preminger: Building peaceful families coming up on July 26th

 

1.             EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

                The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

 

12.          ADJOURNMENT: 9:00