SANTA CLARA COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

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

 

 

MINUTES FOR Thursday, November 1st, 2007

 

1.             CALL TO ORDER: 7:15

 

2.             ROLL CALL

Absent: Julie Lind, Sara Lind, Peter Chiu, Anna Song, Margaret Abe-Koga, Omar Torres, Xavier Campos, Kevin Moore, Alex Kennet, Dennis Kennedy, Greg Sellers, Veronica Andrade, Alberto Torrico, Ira Ruskin, Sally Lieber, Jim Beall, John Laird, Ellen Corbett, Joe Simitian, Anna Eshoo, Chris Stampolis, Beverly Waller Wharton

 

Excused: Ron Lind, Jim Brady, Peter Arellano, Clark Williams, Carol Garvey

 

Alternate: Carolyn Curtis for Jim Thurber, Tim Quigley for David Parker, Rena Modell for James Kim, Claudia Shope for Joe Coto, Chris Cote for Anna Caballero, Swanee Edwards for Jerry McNerney, Shannon Carroll for Mike Honda, Diego Barragan for Zoe Lofgren, Dan Hoffman for Jay James

 

3.             IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS

Bill Roth-Catholic Democrats of California, Norm Tarowsky-The Villages, Rob Means, Bui Thang, Shannon Carroll

  

4.             ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Addition of library filtering to new business. Motion to approve agenda with addition, second, so moved.

 

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

Motion to approve, second, so moved

 

6.             ISSUES

Senator Elaine Alquist: discussed issues in Sacramento including the budget.

               

7.             NEW BUSINESS

                Library filtering: David Cohen

                Discussed many of the important reasons not to support library filtering. Motion to make this an emergency resolution opposing filtering, second, so carried.

 

8.             REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS

A.      Executive Board: Hope Cahan

We discussed the following at our last meeting: blogging, how to improve our relationship with clubs, the upcoming dinner, the San Mateo Straw poll, doing another call to action, the resolution regarding gaming, the DNC voter file.

 

B.      Chair:  Steve Preminger

C.      Vice Chair:  James Kim

D.      Treasurer: Drina Collins

Same amount as last month

E.       Secretary:  Hope Cahan

F.       Community Services and Voter Registration: Adrienne Grey

Campbell October fest was our final event for the year and we registered 56 democrats. Total Democratic registrations this year total around 800. We collected $2904 in bounty money for those registrations.

 

The Junior State of America event for young people is Saturday November 17th. Would anyone be willing to have a table there for high school age children 1:30-4:30 to staff with young people? It will be at the Santa Clara Marriott.

 

G.      Finance:  Jim Thurber

H.      Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement:  Jon Kessler

I.      Communication: David Cohen

Jacquie: new democratic network online: sccdems.ning.com. Email Jacquie if you have any questions.

 

J.        Campaign Services: Tom Cochran

This is the last weekend to help our candidates, visit our website to see who our candidates are and please volunteer on a candidates campaign.

 

K.       Political Outreach: Carolyn Curtis

Thank you to the Villages for bringing the food this evening. There will be a meeting for representatives for all for all of the clubs at 5:30 on December 6th

Club Reports

 

Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley: Wanda Bryan

October 15,2007, Working Meeting

Club members:

 

Supported a resolution in favor of Split Roll Commercial Property Tax Reform to encourage the State Democratic Party make this reform part of the State Party Platform, passed with one abstention.

 

Sponsored a "Brunch with Charlie Brown", Fundraiser, Oct. 21, 2007, hosted by club member Alice Smith. It was successful, well attended and raised over $4000.

 

Attended the "Presidential Straw Poll", presented by San Mateo Democratic Central Committee. An exciting time was had by all.

 

Registering Voters continued on 10/20-21/07 at the Oktoberfest in Campbell and the Palo Alto Farmer's Market.

 

Will participate at the Stanford Opportunities Fair on Nov. 5, 2007.

 

Joint co-sponsor with the Santa Clara County Democratic Club of author and speaker, David Barsamian, "Targeting Iran", plus book signing on Sun. Nov. 11, 2007, 6-9 pm. at Carrows, 3180 El Camino, Santa Clara. RSVP www.adrienne@sccdp.org

 

Annual holiday potluck and goal brainstorming, Wed. Dec. 5.

 

And a DFA Trust House Party on 12/12/07. Details to follow.

 

Dean Club has been setup on the SCCDEMS.NING.COM by Ralph Wheeler.

 

Santa Clara County Democratic Club: Herb Engstrom

 

Our October meeting featured California Deputy Director JB Tengco discussing the misnamed "Presidential Election Reform Initiative", which would, if passed, allocate 53 of California's 55 electoral votes to the winner in each Congressional district thereby almost guaranteeing the Republican nominee 20 electoral votes, a number equal to those of the battleground state of Ohio.  He told of the Republican efforts to pass this initiative and what Democrats are doing to stop it.

 

Two meetings are planned for November.  The first, jointly sponsored with the Dean Democratic Club, will sponsor David Barsamian, author and host of "Alternative Radio", talking about "Targeting Iran" concerning the developing U.S. conflict with Iran.  The meeting will take place at Carrow's Restaurant in Santa Clara, Sunday, Nov. 11.  No host dinner is at 6 PM to be followed by the discussion.

 

The second meeting is our regular one on November 19th, also at Carrow's.  We will discuss input to the California Democratic Party platform with guests Region 5 Director Emy Thurber and platform committee member Alyson Abramowitz.  We will also hold our annual election of officers.

 

Two Straight Talk TV shows were taped in October.  The first, "Running an Assembly District Campaign" had two 22nd AD candidates, Dominic Caserta and Paul Fong, discussing the mechanics of an AD race with host John McLemore.  The second show, "Democratic Grassroots Organizing: Presidential Election 2008."  The shows had representatives of the Edwards and Obama campaign, John Stonich and Melodi Masaniai, respectively, advocating for their candidates. The shows can be seen on your local cable channel and on the Internet at Santa Clara County Democratic Club.

 

L.     Regional Director: Emy Thurber

Discussed how to become a frog buster.

 

Executive Board meeting for the California Democratic Party is this month. The hotel changed due to a union strike.

 

Bob Mulholland sent a letter explaining how to become a delegate to the DNC

 

M.      Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis

N.      Pro-Choice Coalition:  Claudia Shope

 

We did it!!!  The Governor signed two critical bills this year that will help to improve reproductive health.  Both bills will be effective starting January 1, 2008.

 

Ø       SB 94: 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.

 

We applaud the legislative leadership, especially Assemblymember John Laird and Senator Sheila Kuehl for making this possible.

 

Ø       AB 629 The CA Community Sexual Health Education Act (Brownley):

This bill is a reintroduction of SB 1471 (Kuehl) which created standards for community based organizations providing state-funded sexuality education. 

 

Ø       Birth Control Pricing: For nearly 30 years, federal laws have been in place

to help safety net providers, including college health clinics, buy birth control at affordable prices, then pass on their savings to college and low-income women. But last year, Congress changed this long-standing law — putting affordable contraception out of reach for millions of women.

 

For example, women on college campuses typically pay between $5 and $10 a month for birth control. Now, because of the change in the law, college women are paying upwards of $40 and $50 a month for birth control. That translates into an additional $500 out of their pockets each year, a costly expense for women already on tight budgets.

 

How did this happen? The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), passed by Congress in 2006 included a provision that adversely affects the ability of university health centers and other safety net family planning providers to purchase contraceptives at a discounted or nominal price. By most accounts, it was an inadvertent outcome of a complicated change in the law. However, nothing has been done to fix it, and millions of college women and low-income are being penalized. 

 

Congress has known about this pricing change and its devastating effects all year, yet has dragged its feet on fixing it. The solution will cost nothing, and would simply clarify that college health clinics and other safety net providers are eligible to purchase nominally priced birth control.

 

PRO-CHOICE COALITION MEETING

The next meeting of the Pro-Choice Coalition will be held on Wednesday, November 28, 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 October taping was with State Senator Ellen Corbett, who represents District 10.

 

Our guest in November will be San Jose City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, who represents District 6.

 

We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A November 1st with Councilmember Liccardo, November 15th and December 13th with State Senator Corbett, and November 29th, December 27th, and January 24th

with Councilmember Oliverio.

 

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:

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

2008:

Jan 10    DTV 155    TBD-155

Jan 24    DTV 154    Hon. Pierluigi Oliverio

 

P.     CDC Report:  Jay Jackman

 

9.             OLD BUSINESS

 

10.          ANNOUNCEMENTS

Craig Mann: Filed for District 8 Evergreen Community College seat for the June 3rd election. Craig gave a discussion on his qualifications and issues of import. To help Craig’s campaign please visit www.craigmann.org. The contribution period opens December 6th. 

 

Hope Cahan: I am collecting clothing for needy people in Afghanistan until November 9th.

 

Anne Mack: A Renter’s right elimination petition is going as the “California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act”. If you come across it, do not sign it!

The next Century Club luncheon speaker is Dr. Barry Kendall, Executive Director of the Commonweal Institute to discuss what individuals can do to promote their progressive values.

 

Wanda Bryan: SCCDP & Dean Democratic Club are co-sponsoring an event featuring author David Barsamian “Targeting Iran”. The event will be at Carrow’s in Santa Clara on Sunday Nov 11th 6-9. 

 

Rob Means: I am a community activist in Milpitas working with neighborhood associations. We are having a conversational activist meeting that is following the world café model. The topic of the conversation is “how do we make democracy stronger in Milpitas?” The Republicans and Green party have already signed on to send 2 people to the event. For more information, please email me at: rob@electric-bikes.com

 

Dan Hoffman: The national holiday for Dr Martin Luther King is in January. There will be a breakfast at the Wyndham Hotel, $40 per person on January 21st and a 10am freedom train to San Francisco on January 24th for the big rally there. Contact Dan if you are interested.

 

11.          EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

                The next Executive Board meeting is TBA

 

12.          ADJOURNMENT: 8:45