SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, October 4th, 2007

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER: 7:20

 

2.             ROLL CALL

Absent: Ron Lind, Francis La Poll, Anna Song, Margaret Abe-Koga, Jim Brady, Alex Kennett, Dan Kenney, Kevin Moore, Alex Kennett, Dan Kenney, Dennis Kennedy, Greg Sellers, Veronica Andrade, Deniese Alejandro, Alberto Torrico, Sally Lieber, Jim Beall, Anna Caballero, Ellen Corbett, Joe Simitian, Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, Chris Stampolis, Carol Garvey

 

Alternate: Ralph Wheeler for Diane Rolfe, Andres Quintero for Javier Gonzalez, Alex Kobayashi for Ira Ruskin, Claudia Shope for Joe Coto, Clark Williams for John Laird, Jon Kessler for Elaine Alquist, Swanee Edwards for Jerry McNerney, Alfredo Magallanes for Mike Honda, Adrienne Grey for Wanda Bryan, Rena Modell for Beverly Waller Wharton, Dan Hoffman for Jay James

 

Excused: Xavier Campos, Jim Brady

 

3.             IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Darlene Kraus, Daisy Mariam, Cat Tucker, Sean Bagley (Region 9 Director), Royce Kelly (Region 6 Director), Erin Quigley, Lan Nguyen (Candidate San Jose City Council District 8), Brian Darby (Chair, Libertarian Party), San Jose City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio

 

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.             NEW BUSINESS

Daisy Mera & Maria Valdez from HERE Unite discussed issues surrounding the gamming referendum and asked for our support for contracts that provide enforceable workers’ rights.

 

Motion to move this issue to the executive board meeting for further discussion, second, so moved.

 

7.             REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.      Executive Board: Steve Preminger:

The board discussed the next Democratic dinner, the bounty and registration program, and voted to support Measure B in Sunnyvale for library funds.

 

Dan Hoffman requested that the board take up writing a resolution regarding cuts in children’s health insurance.

 

B.      Chair:  Steve Preminger

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

In order to have our Democratic Party Office up and running, we need volunteers to run the office. Additionally, if everyone assigned themselves the 2 allotted alternates, we would increase our funds, therefore increasing our ability to do activities.

 

D.      Treasurer: Drina Collins

E.       Secretary:  Hope Cahan

We had a successful Democratic Dinner. Thank you to the wonderful dinner committee: Steve Preminger, Drina Collins, Kristen Johnson, Jacquie Heffner, Ralph Wheeler, Carolyn Curtis, Martin Gorfinkel, Wren Clark, Jim Thurber, Emy Thurber, Alan Breus, and Andrea Eaton. The members of the committee put in many hours of hard work and the dinner would not have been a success without them!

 

Our next dinner will be on April 18th, 2008. Please see me if you would like to volunteer on the committee.

F.       Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne Grey

Thank you to the APA club for running the voter registration table at the Cupertino Moon Festival.

 

To date, we have registered 807 people and raised $2,400 in bounty money. Most of this money is going back to clubs who volunteered to sponsor tabling at our registration events.

 

G.      Finance:  Jim Thurber

We are trying to help ease the clubs expense for insurance by having the central committee be in charge of all of the voter registration events.

 

Clubs should remember that if a club volunteers for a period of time at a voter registration event, the majority of the bounty money will go to the club for the period of time they are tabling.

 

H.      Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Jon Kessler

No report

I.      Communication: David Cohen

To keep our website calendar updated, you need to add your event to the calendar and then email me to let me know that you added it so that I can approve it.

 

Anyone who is interested in writing/updating documents for our site or in doing other web work, please let me know.

 

We do have a member roster on our website that is password protected. I will email everyone’s password to them.

 

Steve Preminger: we will have a discussion about face book to see how/if we can improve our communications.

 

J.        Campaign Services: Tom Cochran

Look at our website to see who our endorsed candidates are and volunteer on their campaigns

 

K.       Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis: Please get your club chartered

Club Reports

 

Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Ralph Wheeler

 

At the monthly DFA-Link meeting, members in the north county wrote letters to the editor on behalf of their favorite candidates for president, discussed what makes an effective letter to the editor, & discussed the presidential race in general. We also viewed interviews with George Lakoff & Howard Dean.  In the south county members watched the Lakoff interview and discussed framing and watched an interview with economist Paul Krugman.

 

The Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley held its monthly members meeting on September 17 at the Santa Clara IHOP.

 

This months DFA Night School discussed a number of ways we can make an impact next election by simply talking to the people on our block.

 

Last month club members participated in voter registration, single-payer health care activity, & clean money activity, a member hand-delivered letters to our congress members in Washington D.C. urging them to cut off funding for the Iraq occupation and to instead fund the withdrawal of our troops and we had two tables at the SCCDP dinner.

 

We were poised to counteract the power grab initiative & will be ready if it resurfaces.

 

We are very proud of our Madge Overhouse award honoree, Adrienne Grey.

 

The Jerry McNerney event a member was giving in Palo Alto is postponed, no date set yet. Alice Smith is hosting a fundraiser brunch Oct 21 for Charlie Brown at 11am, flyers on the table in the back.

 

Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club: David Parker

Meetings are the 4th Monday of the month, 7PM at the DeFrank Center, 938 The Alameda.  All LGBT Dems and our friends and allies are welcome. The LGBT Dems will be holding endorsements as soon as possible after the close of nominations for the June '08 election cycle.

 

Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Rich Watters

 

1) On September 15th the PDC hosted Congressman Mike Honda at our quarterly Legislative Luncheon, held at the Jade Palace Restaurant in Palo Alto. Mike shared his insights on policy-making in the Democratic majority, and answered many questions posed by PDC members.

 

2) The PDC has adopted a policy of accepting paid advertising in its New Democrat newsletter. If you are interested in reaching our membership of approximately 560 Democratic activists via the New Democrat newsletter, please contact Kristen Lohnes.

 

3) The PDC was pleased to have many of its members attend the Democratic Dinner on September 8th. A fine time was had by all.

 

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Herb Engstrom

 

At the September meeting of the Santa Clara County Democratic Club spokespersons of the three leading Democratic candidates for president told why they are supporting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.  Linda Grindel, a registered nurse, found herself dealing with patients who were indigent and was therefore attracted to Clinton's efforts to provide health insurance for all Americans.  She wrote to Clinton and received personal replies addressing her Linda's concerns exactly.

 

Lawyer John Stonich spoke for Edwards saying that Edwards was committed to restoring the good government that served the people before Ronald Reagan began deconstructing it.  Edwards, he said, was a populist who refuses to take special interest or PAC money.  He has the strongest position in opposition to the war in Iraq.

 

Last was Obama supporter Melodi Masaniai, an employee of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.  Melodi's mother returned to her native Illinois after retiring and found a number of state laws benefiting seniors were written by Obama, who realized that only incremental changes were possible under the state's Republican governor.  Melodi pointed out that on the Iraq war, Obama was right from the beginning.

 

The October meeting will feature California Democratic Party Deputy Director Jose Benjamin Tengco, who will discuss the misnamed "Presidential Election Reform Act," the initiative by Thomas Hiltachk to award Republicans at least 20 of California's 55 electoral votes in the presidential election.  The meetings are held the third Monday of most months at Carrows Restaurant on El Camino Real in Santa Clara.

 

"Straight Talk" is the TV show produced by the Club.  In September we taped two shows with real estate experts Ted Faravelli and Dan Tosh on the subject of the mortgage industry crisis and what to do about it.  In October we plan a show on "Running for Office" with 22nd AD candidates Paul Fong and Dominic Caserta and a second show on the presidential race with John Stonich and Melodi Masaniai.  Details are on the web site at http://www.democraticclub-scc.org/.

 

 

Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum: Darcie Green

There are seats available for the October 27th presidential candidates forum at Google. The cost for the event is $25 for members.

 

The next membership meeting is on Thursday, October 18th at 6:30 at South First Billiards and will be followed by billiards. Our guest of honor is Alex Gallardo-Rooker the 1st Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party. For more information please contact svldf@sbcglobal.net

 

L.     Regional Director: Emy Thurber

Royce Kelly: Region 6 delegates meeting and platform hearing is on Oct 20th in Dublin

 

Shawn Bagley: Region 9: CA Democratic Party campaign skills academy training in Sea Side. Our next goal is to have an office in South Santa Clara County.

 

Emy Thurber: Our Regional meeting is on October 6th at Hillview Community Center in Los Altos If you plan on presenting at the hearing, you must submit your report in writing to Emy.

 

On Sunday Oct 21st, there is a brunch for Charlie Brown in Palo Alto at Alice Smith’s house. On the same day at 2:00, the San Mateo Democrats are having their presidential straw poll. They are trying to raise $25,000.

 

M.      Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

N.      Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

 

Ø       Medi-Cal Provider Rate Increase – The Cost of Doing Nothing

The Governor and the Legislature recognizes that Medi-Cal rate increase is an important component of their health care reform agenda for the year. But our need is now. Planned Parenthood is facing a critical juncture where the need for the safety-net services we provide is far greater than our capacity to serve. After more than 20 years without a significant Medi-Cal rate increase, our affiliates are struggling financially and we are and turning away over 10,000 patients every month. We need a rate increase NOW or we won’t even be able to keep up our current level of quality health care services – let alone meet new demands.

 

Ø       The Governor did not include the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate increase in the Budget. Senator Sheila Kuehl introduced SB 94 proposing Medi-Cal reimbursement rate be 80% parity to Medicare.  The bill is on the Governor’s desk.

 

Ø       SEXUAL ABUSE REPORTING ACT (new initiative) has been terminated.  However, another Parental Notification has been introduced in the State Attorney General’s office.  Planned Parenthood is keeping a close eye on this as it moves forward. 

 

 

PRO-CHOICE COALITION MEETING

The next meeting of the Pro-Choice Coalition will be held on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. at 1605 The Alameda. Please join us and get more involved with the Pro-Choice Coalition. 

 

O.       DTV Report: Steve Chessin

 

Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our September taping was with San Jose City Councilmember Sam Liccardo, who represents District 3.

 

Our guest in October will be State Senator Ellen Corbett, who represents District 10.

 

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A October 4th and November 1st with Councilmember Liccardo, October 18th with Mountain View City Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga, and November 15th and December 13th with State Senator Corbett.

 

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):

2007:

Oct  4    DTV 152    Hon. Sam Liccardo

Oct 18    DTV 151    Hon. Margaret Abe-Koga

Nov  1    DTV 152    Hon. Sam Liccardo

Nov 15    DTV 153    Sen. Ellen Corbett

Nov 29    DTV 154    Hon. Pierluigi Oliverio

Dec 13    DTV 153    Sen. Ellen Corbett

Dec 27    DTV 154    Hon. Pierluigi Oliverio

 

P.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman

 

8.             OLD BUSINESS

 

9.             ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cat Tucker: I am running against 5 Republicans in Gilroy. My precinct walking kick off breakfast is this weekend and I will be walking every weekend thereafter.

 

Carolyn Curtis: email your club reports to Hope. Thank you to PDC for bringing the refreshments. The Villages are scheduled to bring next month’s refreshments. Please change your cell phone server from Verizon, a company that does horrible things with your money.

 

Anne Mack: Bloggers will be speaking at our next Century Club meeting next Friday

 

Jay Jackman: I am part of a group seeking to get Al Gore on the presidential ballot, this requires getting 500 signatures from each Congressional District. Contact me if you would like to help

 

David Parker: AB43, The Marriage Equality Bill, authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno, has passed the State Assembly and Senate and currently sits on the Governor's desk.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact the Governor and urge him to sign this bill into law.

Tell him discrimination against gay and lesbian couples should not be tolerated and the importance of supporting equal marriage for gay and lesbian people.

The Governor can be contacted by phone (916)-445-4633  or on his website:  www.gov.ca.gov

 

 

Mark: Congressman Mike Honda will have a rally Friday, October 12th at 11:00

 

Rena Modell: I received a call from Scott Rafferty this week. He asked me to tell everyone “hello” and asked for an update on how we are doing.

 

Deepka Lalwani: The Indo American Council’s first panel meeting is this weekend. Thank you to David and Herb for your help getting me prepared for the panel discussion.

 

Saturday October 27th is National Make a Difference Day. Green Challenge will be working in Council District 2 canvassing door-to-door handing out light bulbs and discussing 10 habits that families can do to help the environment. Visit our website: www.vcsv.us for more info.

 

Saturday October 27th there is an “End the War Now” March at 11am at the San Francisco Civic Center.

 

Jon Kessler: On October 19th at 10am, Senator Alquist will be in the Health Care Forum in the California Mission room at Bension Memorial Center. On Saturday October 27th, Senator Alquist will host her twice a year Women’s Health Forum. As many as 50 vendors will be there and health shots will be available. 9:30-12:30

 

Jacquie Heffner: I left an embroidery bag here last meeting, please let me know if you found it. If the scheduled Berryessa school board special election happens, it will cost the school board a lot of money. However, if no one files but the person appointed (and then unappointed), they will not have to have the special election and the money can be used for better purposes.

 

Dan Hoffman: I encourage everyone to talk to Steve about Building Peaceful Families. Additionally, I encourage everyone here to help in the registration efforts that will be going on. I also request that Steve reinstate the Call To Action.

 

Steve: thank you to PDC for your refreshments

 

 

10.          EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

                The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

 

11.          ADJOURNMENT: 8:45