SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, May 1st, 2008

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER:

 

2.             ROLL CALL

Absent: Julie Lind, Deepka Lalwani, Ron Lind, Sara Lind, Peter Chiu, Bill James, Margaret Abe-Koga, Xavier Campos, Kevin Moore, Alex Kennett, Dan Kenney, Dennis Kennedy, Greg Sellers, Veronica Andrade, Peter Arellano, Bruce Morasca, Rebecca Scheel, Alberto Torrico, Ira Ruskin, Jim Beall, John Laird, Anna Caballero, Ellen Corbett, Joe Simitian, Elaine Alquist, Anna Eshoo, Chris Stampolis, Beverly Waller Wharton, Rich Watters, Manny Diaz

 

Alternate: Steve Chessin for Alyson Abramowitz, Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Jay Jackman for Emy Thurber, Claudia Shope for Joe Coto, Swanee Edwards for Jerry McNerney, Mike Honda, Diego Barragan for Zoe Lofgren, Dan Hoffman for Jay James, Chris Riley for Sally Lieber

  

3.             IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Sean Bagley

 

4.             ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Add DNC convention under new business

 

Motion to approve with addition, second, so moved 

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

Motion to approve, second, so carried

 

6.             ISSUES

Jay Boyarsky candidate for judge introduced himself and discussed his reasons for running for judge.

               

7.             NEW BUSINESS

Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System: Kim Roberts & Cliff Staton

Presentation of what the hospital does and the potential effects of the budget cuts

 

DNC Convention: Phyllis Ward

Reminded us that we have a number of people from our County going to the DNC convention and asked if it was possible for us to do fundraising to help defray the costs of their trip? This will be discussed at our Executive Board meeting.

 

8.             OLD BUSINESS

Democratic Dinner

A huge thank you to the dinner committee: Drina Collins, Jim & Emy Thurber, Carolyn Curtis, Ralph Wheeler, Diane Rolfe, Kristen Johnson, Steve Preminger, Jacquie Heffner, Alan Breus, Andrea Eaton, Martin Gorfinkel & Wren Clark

 

We had a great dinner and increased our numbers from last year!

 

9.             REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.      Executive Board: Hope Cahan

B.      Chair:  Steve Preminger

The campaign season is here and the UDC will be meeting soon.

 

Motion to elect Drina Collins for the UDC (to fill Paul Fong’s seat) second, so moved.

Motion to have Mary Creasman: Political and Organizing Director for the South Bay Labor council to fill the remaining seat, second, so moved.

 

Update on Veterans case: VA is consenting to allowing veterans to get to vote. Senators Feinstein and Kerry challenged the VA’s position and Debra Bowen  officially designated the VA as a motor voter location for the State which should require the VA to distribute forms to patients and to more than a million prescription drug beneficiaries throughout the state. This is a big victory for the veterans and us.

 

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

Democratic Party Office is running part time. We would like to extend it to full time, but need volunteers. The office is currently open Monday -Friday 1-4 and Saturday 10-2. We are providing a place for Democrats within our County to go when they have questions or want to get involved.

 

We are also organizing voter registration drives.

 

The office phone number is 408.445.9500

 

D.      Treasurer: Drina Collins

$1,717.30 prior to paying our current bills

 

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

We have 2 endorsed candidates that we can work for: Craig Mann and www.craigmann.org and Ash Kalra 903.9769 5222 Rooster, San Jose

 

Madison Nguyen is having some trouble and she is looking for volunteers and money to help fight the recall. Call Tom for additional information on how to help.

 

K.       Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis

Thank you to the LGBT club for bringing the refreshments. The APA club will provide our refreshments for the next meeting

Club Reports

Dean Democratic Club Silicon Valley: Wanda Bryan

April 14, 2008 Meeting

-The Wildflower Walk for Jerry McNerney led by Carolyn Curtis and Don Mayall was attended by 24 participants. Field Director, Robbyn Umland updated us on the McNerney Campaign at a delicious Brunch prior to the walk. Volunteers are needed for precinct walking for Jerry.

 

-Nominations are now open online for Club Officers and Elections will take place at our June Club Picnic on June 21, at Ponderosa Park in Sunnyvale.

 

-The DFA Table which we hosted at the State Democratic Party Convention received about $100 in contributions and 44 new members signed up from around the state.

 

L.     Regional Director: Sean Bagley

In our region, we are working to register Latinos & fighting to recall Jeff Denham. If the recall goes through and 1 person votes for Simon Salinas, he will fill the office. We have many full and part time offices and will have more open by the November election.

 

Jim Thurber for Emy:

Regional meeting on May 10th from 9-11 at the community center on Hillview Ave in Los Altos.

 

There is also a regional meeting to find out what issues are that we should take to the Executive Board meeting in June.

 

Next Friday, Century Club meeting speaker is the author of Beyond Capitalism

Please rsvp to Jim and/or Emy

 

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 April was Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of the 14th CD.

 

Our guest in May is TBD.

 

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A May 1st, May 29th, and June 26th with Congresswoman Eshoo, May 15th with Bill Roth, and June 12th and July 10th with the show we tape this month.

 

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:

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

Jul 10    DTV 160    TBD-160

Jul 24    DTV 161    TBD-161

 

P.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman

The CDC annual convention is this weekend in Fresno. There will be about 15 workshops on Saturday and Sunday morning. This is the organization focused on the enhancement of Democratic Clubs throughout the State.

 

 

10.          ANNOUNCEMENTS

Steve Preminger: I want to publicly apologize to Jaime McLeod for not allowing her to vote at the endorsement meeting. I forgot that I received authorization from Gloria Nieto for Jaime to vote.

 

Hope Cahan: I am collecting winter clothes to send to Afghanistan again. Please take your donations to the Democratic Party office by May 23rd.

 

Peter O’Reilly: our organization attended the Longshoreman union shut down of the ports to end the war in Iraq. Outnumbered the South Bay Labor Council 4-1.

United Autoworkers benefit on Saturday night to help the workers in North Carolina.

The Impeachment group got a resolution passed through the South Bay Labor Council to impeach Dick Cheney.

 

Justin Carvalho: fundraiser this Sunday for Otto Lee for Supervisor

 

Tim Quigley: week from Saturday is the annual Human Race

 

Bill Ferguson: volunteering for Richard Hobbs. Please help with phone banking and precinct walking

 

Carolyn Curtis: Tonight on the Daily Show Howard Dean is the special guest

 

David Cohen: budget crisis is affecting the schools. Rally on May 14th to say to the Governor “don’t do this to our schools”. Each school district is having a rally as well.

 

Dan Hoffman: this Saturday May 3rd, the South Bay Labor Council is hosting a meet the candidates breakfast to meet endorsed candidates & phone banking begins Tuesday May 6th.

This Saturday May 3rd is the Century Club meeting at the Thurbers.

Paul Fong: www.paulfong.org needs assistance on his campaign.

I Commend the Dean Democratic Club on its efforts for Jerry McNerney.

On June 3rd ballot are measures 98 & 99 regarding eminent domain.

I have extra copies of the program book from the dinner if you would like one.

 

Hope Cahan: There is a solar meeting to learn how to get discounted solar on May 29th at 7pm at the Cambrian Library.

 

Jim Brady: There is an issues forum on Wednesday May 14th at 6:30 pm.

Thank you for your support for my run to raise money for research to fight leukemia; I have raised $5,000 so far.

 

Steve Preminger: Service towards the end of this month or the beginning of June for Hal Riddle.

 

Ann Mack: Hal recognized that he was the recipient of the Lifetime ach award at the dinner before he died.

11.          EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

                The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

 

12.          ADJOURNMENT

We adjourned in honor of Hal Riddle who passed away last Saturday.