SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER: 7:20

 

2.             ROLL CALL

Absent: Ron Lind, Marsha Grilli, Peter Chiu, Margaret Abe-Koga, David Cohen, Alex Kennett, Dan Kenney, Charmaine Jabr, Dennis Kennedy, Greg Sellers, Veronica Andrade, Deniese Alejandro, Alberto Torrico, Sally Lieber, Joe Simitian, Jerry McNerney, Anna Eshoo, Rich Watters

 

Alternate: Julie Lind, Jim Thurber, Xavier Campos, Ira Ruskin, Joe Coto, John Laird, Anna Caballero, Ellen Corbett, Elaine Alquist, Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren, Jay James, Manny Diaz 

 

3.             IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Visitors signed sign in sheet

 

4.             ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Motion to add Endorsements and Parental Notification to new business, motion to approve as amended, second, so carried

 

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

Motion to approve, second, so carried

 

6.             ISSUES

               

7.             NEW BUSINESS

Motion to approve the Catholic Democrats and the Obama club, second, so carried

 

Endorsements: Jon Kessler

Candidates who were present spoke briefly to the committee: Dave Cortese, Otto Lee, George Shirakawa, Richard Hobbs, Craig Mann, Sylvia Alvarez, Ash Kalra

 

Reminder that only paid members or alternates are allowed to vote

 

Endorsement board recommendations are:

 

County Supervisor – District 2

George Shirakawa  6:00 pm 

 

County Supervisor – District 3

Dave Cortese          7:00pm      Dual

Otto Lee                  7:30pm      Dual

 

San Jose City Council – District 2

Ash Kalra                 8:30pm  

 

San Jose City Council – District 8

Craig Mann              8:00pm  

 

 

Members of the Central Committee pulled County Board of Supervisor District 2 & District 3 and San Jose City Council District 8 from the slate.

 

Motion to approve the rest of the board recommendations (Ash Kalra for San Jose District 2), second, so carried.

 

Motion to substitute the motion for a sole endorsement of George Shirakawa for Supervisor in District 2 with a motion for a sole endorsement for Richard Hobbs, second, discussion on the substitution. Call the question. Motion fails.

 

Discussion on motion for sole endorsement of George Shirakawa. Call the question. Motion fails.

 

Motion for a dual endorsement for George Shirakawa and Richard Hobbs, second, motion approved.

 

Motion for a dual endorsement for Dave Cortese and Otto Lee for the Board of Supervisors District 3, second, discussion. Motion for an indefinite postponement of the vote. Motion fails.

 

Back to original dual endorsement, substitute motion for a sole endorsement to support Otto Lee, second, motion fails. Back to original dual endorsement, second, motion approved.

 

Motion for sole endorsement of Craig Mann for San Jose City Council District 8. Explanation of committee’s recommendation. Second, discussion, motion fails.

 

Motion for dual endorsement of Craig Mann and Sylvia Alvarez, second, discussion, motion fails.

 

Motion to reconsider the sole endorsement of Craig Mann, second, motion approved.

 

Motion to endorse Liz Kniss for County Supervisor and Kansen Chu, Pierluigi Oliverio, and Nancy Pyle for San Jose City Council, second, so carried.

 

 

Jon and Steve gave a big thank you to the endorsement committee members: Don Mayall

Gloria Nieto, Swanee Edwards, Charmaine Jabr, Drina Collins, Jim Thurber, Emy Thurber, Claudia Shope, Xavier Campos, Buu Thai, Mehdi Safipour, Anne Mack, James Kim, Javier Gonzalez, Alyson Abramowitz, Steve Chessin, John Linder, Clarence Madrillejos, Frances LaPoll, Steve Preminger and Jon Kessler

 

Parental Notification:  Claudia Shope

Discussion on the initiative. Motion to oppose, second, so moved

 

8.             OLD BUSINESS

                Call to Action

                CDP Convention

Aldyth: glad that Steve finally got an award at the convention

 

Emy: our regional director award this year went to Jacquie Heffner

 

Bill Roth: promoted a mass at the convention. The mass went very well

 

Steve: Pilipino veterans who fought in World War II did the color guard. The United States still has not recognized these people for their help. Phyllis Ward led the Convention pledge of allegiance

 

Jon Kessler: CDP officially endorsed Paul Fong

 

Carol Garvey: student video shown about the convention only had male interviews and the only woman shown was Nancy Pelosi, but her speech was dubbed over. 

 

                Democratic Office: James Kim

Our office is now open for work on the Presidential race. The official office opening is this Saturday at 10:00 and many new volunteers will be joining us.

 

9.             REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS (Due to the length of the endorsement process, most reports were put on hold until May’s meeting)

A.      Executive Board: Hope Cahan

B.      Chair:  Steve Preminger

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

D.      Treasurer: Drina Collins

E.       Secretary:  Hope Cahan

F.       Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne Grey

G.      Finance:  Jim Thurber

H.      Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Jon Kessler

I.      Communication: David Cohen

J.        Campaign Services: Tom Cochran

K.       Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis

Club Reports

Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Wanda Bryan

 

Meeting - March 17, 2008

 

Recommended and passed NO VOTE on Parental Notification Act 2008.

Hosted the DFA table at the Democratic Convention March 28-30, 2008. Jim Dean was there and at least 100 DFAers served shifts or visited.

Veterans Bake Sale raised $280 in sales and donations. 14 phone cards were purchased and delivered by club member Mary Gill to the Vets in the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital. The Sale Day was published in the Palo Alto Daily News with Article and Pictures.

Our Annual Picnic and Elections of Officers will be held June 21, 2008, at Ponderosa Park in Sunnyvale.

 

Meeting - April 2, 2008

 

Discussed all aspects of the Democratic Convention.

 

Evergreen Democratic Club at the Villages: Beverly Waller-Wharton

 

Our club has two full tables for the Santa Clara County Democratic Party Dinner and bought $250 half-page ad in the program. The club president attended the Financial Workshop at the Convention Sunday morning.

 

Last Tuesday’s meeting had a good attendance to hear our speakers, Emy Thurber on behalf of Senator Hilary Clinton and Steve Spinner on behalf of Senator Barak Obama and a Convention report by Beverly Waller-Wharton, who attended all three days of the Convention as an “Honored Guest” representing her union, CSEA/SEIU Local 100, which gave her the privilege of sitting in a Reserved front row seat.

 

The Cub is co-sponsoring with the Villages Republican Club a meeting on May 1^st, open to all Villagers, to present all the candidates running for the District 8 seat on the San Jose City Council.

 

The May 6 meeting will feature a presentation by Kim Conner from the DA’s office on Elder Fraud and the League of Women Voters on the June ballot propositions.

 

Silicon Valley Young Democrats:

 

We, the Silicon Valley Young Democrats, would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of those that were able to help us during our recent fundraising campaign.  We raised over $15,000, and donors ranged from local activists to a $5,000 sponsorship from EdVoice.  We had a great party at the Marriott on the Saturday night of convention, and a good time was had by all who were able to attend.

 

Another exciting piece of news that we’d like to share is that the California Young Democrats awarded SVYD the “Chapter of the Year Award” due to all that we have accomplished over the past year.  We were nominated multiple times by different people/chapters across the State, and were found out of a diverse pool of nominees to be the most meritorious.   This is a huge honor for us, and we are both excited and humbled.  Look to see even more great things from us in the coming months, and please feel free to send any young people interested in becoming involved to our website at www.svyd.org. 

 

L.     Regional Director: Emy Thurber

M.      Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

 

N.      Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

O.       DTV Report: Steve Chessin

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our guest in March was Bill Roth, State Director of Catholic Democrats of California.

 

Our guest in April will be Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of the 14th CD.

 

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A April 3rd with the Campaign Volunteers, April 17th and May 15th with Bill Roth, and May 1st, May 29th, and June 26th with Congresswoman Eshoo.

 

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:

Apr  3    DTV 157    Campaign Volunteers

Apr 17    DTV 158    Catholic Democrats of California

May  1    DTV 159    Hon. Anna Eshoo

May 15    DTV 158    Catholic Democrats of California

May 29    DTV 159    Hon. Anna Eshoo

Jun 12    DTV 160    TBD-160

Jun 26    DTV 159    Hon. Anna Eshoo

P.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman

 

10.          ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jon Kessler: April 17^th 6:00 fundraiser for Paul Fong

 

Pete O'Rielly: must have impeachment hearings.

Impeachment movement: John Conyers said that he is circulating a letter among his colleagues for them to sign. The letter states that an attack on Iran will result in impeachment hearings. Please contact your representatives and urge them to sign the letter.

 

Emy Thurber: Sam Liccardo is the next Century Club speaker

 

Javier Gonzalez: running for DNC delegate

 

Carol Garvey: running as a pledged delegate for Hillary Clinton

 

Omar Torres: running for pledged delegate for Obama 

 

Carolyn Curtis: April 26^th in Palo Alto, brunch/walk for fundraising for either Charlie Brown or Jerry McNerney.

 

Claudia Shope: running for Hillary delegate

 

11.          EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

                The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

 

12.          ADJOURNMENTL: 9:30