SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

AGENDA FOR Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER: 8:00 (Directly after the Vice Presidential Debate)

 

2.             ROLL CALL

Absent: Bill Ferguson, Deepka Lalwani, Sara Lind, Pearl Cheng, Margaret Abe-Koga, Alyson Abramowitz, David Parker, Xavier Campos, Alex Kennett, Dennis Kennedy, Greg Sellers, Veronica Andrade, Peter Arellano, Alberto Torrico, Sally Lieber, Jim Beall, John Laird, Anna Caballero, Joe Simitian, Anna Eshoo, Chris Stampolis, Bill Roth, Manny Diaz

 

Alternate: Darcie Green for Omar Torres, Margie Mitchell for Kevin Moore, Alex Kobayashi for Ira Ruskin, Claudia Shope for Joe Coto, Mary Creasman for Ellen Corbett, Jon Kessler for Elaine Alquist, Mike Honda, Diego Barragan for Zoe Lofgren, Dan Hoffman for Jay James

 

Excused: Diane Rolfe, Craig Mann, Gloria Nieto

 

3.             IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Paul Fong, Craig Dunkerley, Margaret Amaro, Virginia Pizarro, Sheila Stevens, Tim Fitzgerald, Wynn Barnes, Sari Wisch, Lynn Hanchett, Yve He Scott, Van-Anh Vu, Cynthia L. Frybarger, Anita Stroud, Carmen Barragan, Adboul K. Keita

 

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

Jennifer: Rep CDP to discuss ways to get involved in the campaign

               

7.             NEW BUSINESS

Endorsements of candidates and ballot measures: Jon Kessler 

Attending candidate introductions: Anna Song: Santa Clara County Board of Education, Adrienne Grey: West Valley Mission Community College Board of Trustees, Tim Fitzgerald: San Jose Unified Board of Trustees, Craig Donnelly: Mayor of Milpitas, Albert Gonzalez: Governing Board Member Santa Clara Unified School District, Julie Lind for Noelani Sallings: Governing Board Member Santa Clara Unified School District, Lizandro Carrasco: Campbell Union High School District

 

Interview Committee recommendations:

Board of Education #4: Joseph Di Salvo

 

Board of Education #5: Anna Song

 

West Valley/Mission Community College Board of Trustees #3: Adrienne Grey

 

Santa Clara Unified School District #2: Noelani Sallings

 

Campbell Union High School District: Diane Gordon, Lizandro Carrasco

 

Alum Rock Union School District: Sandra Stattion, Esau Herrera

 

Berryessa Union School District: Rudy Nasol

 

Cambrian School District: Don Rocha

 

Milpitas Mayor: Bob Livengood

 

Milpitas City Council: Pete McHugh

 

Measure B- San Jose: Yes

 

Measure M- San Jose: Yes

 

Pull: Milpitas Mayor & Campbell Union High School District

 

Motion to approve consent calendar minus Campbell Union High School District & Milpitas Mayor, second, so carried

 

Campbell Union High School District: Discussion (2 seats available, 5 candidates). Motion to support the recommendation of the committee, second, so carried

 

Milpitas Mayor: Discussion: Bob Livengood has been a registered Democrat for at least the past 8 years and has been endorsed by us before. Motion to support the recommendation of the committee, second, motion fails due to lack of 2/3 vote.

 

Motion to give the Executive Board the power to endorse additional races interviewed by the endorsement committee with ratification by the Executive Board. Substitute motion to have Rebecca Scheel’s recommendation for the 3 democratic candidates in Gilroy Unified School District be endorsed: Rhoda Bress, Fred Tovar, Jaime Rosso: second, so carried.

 

Return to original motion, second, addition to have the board alert the membership prior to endorsing someone to allow time for comment. Motion carries.

 

8.             OLD BUSINESS

 

 

9.             REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.      Executive Board: Steve Preminger

B.      Chair: Steve Preminger

Sarah Palin will be at the Hyatt in Burlingame and we will be meeting at our headquarters at 8am to carpool to the hotel for a protest. Keep checking our website for any updates

 

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

Volunteers run this headquarters. We have about 20 office leads who volunteer 20-40 hours a week; tonight’s lead volunteers were: Judy Pipkin, Richard Dunkle, and David Kessler

 

We have close to 400 first time volunteers

 

D.      Treasurer: Drina Collins

The balance is currently $276.14

 

E.       Secretary:  Hope Cahan

F.       Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne Grey

Next & last festival for voter registration is the Campbell October Fest (Oct 18th & 19th)- still need volunteers

 

G.      Finance:  Jim Thurber

Have raised $15,450 from buttons, bumper stickers & lawn sign donations

 

H.      Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Jon Kessler

I.      Communication: David Cohen

All of the local issues are on our website, please send people there for information including voting places.

 

J.        Campaign Services: Tom Cochran

Mary Creasman: Absentee ballots are being mailed out next week. Phone banking & precinct walking are happening everyday

 

K.       Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis

Club Reports

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Aldyth Parle

 

Nominations for Club officers will take place at the November Meeting.  A notice of the Nomination Committees's recommendation slate will appear in the October newsletter.

 

The general meeting will take place on Monday, October 20 at Carrows on El Camino Real.  We will screen the movie "Uncounted" followed by an open mike session.  Information on ballot propositions will be provided.

 

Voter registration at Valley Fair has been successful with the help of Presentation High School students.  The next registration will be on October 18th and 19th.  We request volunteers to help.

 

Two new Straight Talk TV shows are now on line:  Attorney and mediator Diane Ritchie explained the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment to a group of boy and girl scouts.  Even most adults can learn some interesting things from this lesson.  On the second show Watergate whistleblower and author John W. Dean talks about the content of his latest book, "Broken Government."  He explains why all three branches of the government have been corrupted by the Bush administration.  See these shows at http://www.democraticclub-scc.org/StraightTalk.html.

 

L.     Regional Director: Emy Thurber

Bob Mulholland reported that California has 1,873,593 more registered Democrats than Republicans. This year we have 352,000 new Democratic registrations and 19,000 previously registered Republicans became Democrats.

 

M.      Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

N.      Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

No on Prop 4

 

The polling numbers that came out last week showed No on Prop 4 at 41% and Yes on 4 at 48%. Although it seems somewhat alarming, this is exactly the same situation that we were in at this point in the campaign season for Props 73 and 85. It is with the help of our volunteers that we have to earn every No vote by reaching out to voters.

 

Our goal as a state is to reach 120,000 undecided voters to tell them how dangerous Prop 4 would be. In the Santa Clara/Coastal region our portion of that is 11,000 contacts. With 5 weeks to go before the election we have 8,000 more contacts to go. On nights that we have had a good turnout for phone banks we have made over 600 contacts in a day! With your help we can reach our goal. We have not let them win and the past and we will not let them win this third time around.

 

Phone Banks are running in San Jose every Wednesday and Thursday from 6-9 p.m. and every Sunday from 12-3, 3-6 and 6-8:30 p.m. Please sign up to adopt a phone bank and make a difference in what is proving to be a very close race on this proposition. Contact Fran at fran_linkin@ppmarmonte.org to sign up.

 

Please make sure to check out all of the new updates on www.noonprop4.org . Make a video for the YouTube contest and win $1,000, check out all of the editorials across the state that have denounced Prop 4, and look up events in your area.

 

Party Against Props 4 and 8!

Everyone is invited to come to a party with a purpose this Friday Oct. 3rd at 6 p.m. at the Billy De Frank Center on the Alameda. Speakers from No on 4 and No on 8 will explain the props and the importance of working together to defeat them. There will be music, food and a photo booth, so come and enjoy the company of other local activists while picking up all your No on 4 and No on 8 materials.

 

O.       DTV Report: Steve Chessin

In absentia, Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our guest in September was Rose Herrera, candidate for San Jose City Council District 8.

 

Our guest in October is TBD.

 

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A October 2nd and 30th with Rose Herrera, October 16th with Hon. Paul Fong, and November 13th and December 4th with whomever 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:

Oct  2    DTV 164    Rose Herrera

Oct 16    DTV 163    Hon. Paul Fong

Oct 30    DTV 164    Rose Herrera

Nov 13    DTV 165    TBD-165

Nov 27    DTV 166    TBD-166

Dec  4    DTV 165    TBD-165

 

P.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman 

 

10.          ANNOUNCEMENTS

South County raised $1,800 in donations and registered 70 new Democrats at the last festival.

 

Craig Dunkerley: The public financing bill has been trimmed down to a pilot program for the Secretary of State. It was signed, so will go on the ballot for 2010.

 

Alex Kobayashi: Encouraged everyone to do phone banking here and also for Joan Buchanan on Tuesday nights

 

Jim Brady: The team and training ride that he did in Honolulu raised over $700,000 for leukemia

 

David Cohen: Talk to your neighbors about the measures on your ballots to raise money for schools. The schools are in dire need of additional funding and the years to come will only be harder.

 

Tom Cochran: Tomorrow is Mary’s birthday

 

Emy Thurber: The next Century Club speaker will be Assemblymember John Laird

11.          EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

12.          ADJOURNMENT: 9:20