6:45 pm, County Building cafeteria, 70 W. Hedding St. San Jose
MINUTES FOR Thursday, December 7th, 2006
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. ROLL CALL
Absent: Julie Lind, Francine Davis, Bill Dias, Cathy Dias, Thelma Spaziani, Scott Rafferty, Aldyth Parle, Tom Cochran, Deniese Alejandro, Xavier Campos, Alex Kennett, Mark Moore, Dan Kenney, Brittany Bach, Craig Mann, Tony Alexander, Peter Arellano, Kristine Dillon, Alberto Torrico, Joe Coto, Simon Salinas, Liz Figueroa, Elaine Alquist, Peg Pinard, Jerry McNerney, Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, Chris Stampolis, Ruth Ashford, John Nguyen, Fran Bennett, Morteza Tajally
Alternate: Carolyn Curtis for Jim Thurber, Brandon Sulser for Anna Song, Swanee Edwards for Dennis Kennedy, Alex Kobayashi for Ira Ruskin, Jon Kessler for Rebecca Cohn, Mike Honda, Clarence Madrilejos for Herb Wadley, Diego Barragan for Anil Babbar, Sandra Avila Diaz for Enrique Colin
Excused: Emy Thurber, Beverly Waller-Wharton
3. IDENTIFICATION OF VISITORS
Natasha from Morgan Hill, Mariam Kathleen with South Bay Mobilization
4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion to approve, second, addition of resolution to support the DNCÕs 50-state strategy under New Business and discussion of UDC under ChairÕs report, motion passes with amendments.
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Minutes are posted at sccdp.org)
6. ISSUES
Assemblymember John Laird discussed the election results and the current situation in Sacramento and the State.
Assemblymember Sally Lieber: will be a candidate for Supervisor for District 5 against Liz Kniss instead of District 3 so that she can represent her own district.
Pierre Oliverio: discussed his campaign for San Jose City Council
Jacquie Heffner: Wanted to bring to our attention the Values Advocacy Council and their anti-Democratic policies such as combination of church and state and anti-homosexual policies. They are trying to get support for these and other such policies from candidates running for office.
7. NEW BUSINESS
Emergency Resolution in Support of The Democratic National CommitteeÕs (DNC) 50-State Strategy
Motion to support resolution, second, so carried
8. REPORTS FROM OFFICERS AND OTHERS
A. Executive Board: Hope Cahan
B. Chair: Steve Preminger
UDC: Had our effort up and running this year. We funded the offices in San Jose, South San Jose, and Palo Alto. We raised a lot of funds and did a number of slate mailers in various cities. Discussion about contributions to Cruz Bustamonte and various Central Committees.
C. Vice Chair: James Kim
The Annual Club Holiday Party is next Friday, December 15 at 6pm at Tom CochranÕs house
D. Treasurer: Drina Collins
E. Secretary: Hope Cahan
F. Community Services and Voter Registration: Carolyn Curtis
We walked 69 of our 108 precincts in North County and phoned at least 81 (3500 phone calls total)
G. Finance: Jim Thurber
Steve Chessin: We need to correct the California Form 460, Schedule D, Summary of Expenditures which now reads that we spent $811.96 in ÒsupportÓ of Arnold Schwarzenegger: should say ÒopposeÓ
H. Candidate Recruitment and Endorsement: Jon Kessler
Many successes this election including Margaret Abe-Koga (received the most votes), Evan Low, Mountain View, school boards, especially our own David Cohen, and others. We have a few run off races in San Jose, D4 and D6. We will be interviewing on the 19th of this month and would like the same interview group to attend.
I. Communication: David Cohen
We will be reorganizing in January including changing all of our emails so let people know that the current emails will not be working. Please let David know if you have any new contact information.
J. Campaign Services: Philip Bump
K. Issues: Herb Engstrom
L. Political Outreach: Tom Cochran
Club, AD, SD, & CD Reports
Peninsula Democratic Coalition: Rich Watters
The PDC hosted Assemblyman Ira Ruskin at our quarterly legislative luncheon on Sunday afternoon, October 15th, at 1:00 pm at Chef Chu's restaurant in Los Altos. The Assemblyman highlighted his work in Sacramento and answered many questions from PDC members.
The annual PDC holiday party will be held on Saturday, December 16th from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at the home of Jim and Emy Thurber in Los Altos.
M. Regional Director: Steve Preminger for Emy Thurber
State Party Executive Board meeting in Anaheim tomorrow and Saturday. The final details of the AD meetings will be worked out.
N. Democratic National Committee: Chris Stampolis
O. Pro-Choice Coalition: Claudia Shope
Election Wrap Up:
California voters soundly rejected Prop 85 by a vote of 54% No-46% Yes.
3.6 million California voters came together and told the anti-choice extremists who put this measure on the ballot two years in a row that they canÕt use the health of teens as a pawn in their larger political agenda to overturn Roe v Wade. We even defeated Prop 85 by a larger margin than last year (eight points this year, as opposed to Prop 73Õs six point win) Ðwinning 9 more counties and increasing our percentage of the vote in virtually every conservative county in the state.
Voters also rejected South DakotaÕs dangerous abortion ban and defeated a parental notification initiative in Oregon. WeÕve gained 19 pro-choice seats in the House of Representatives! In California, the extreme anti-choice Representative Richard Pombo has been replaced with a pro-choice candidate. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with Planned Parenthood Advocates endorsed candidate Jerry McNerney.
Moving forward:
On November 8th 2006, one day after the election, the Supreme Court heard arguments about abortion for the first time since Justice Samuel Alito has taken the bench in place of retired Justice Sandra Day OÕConnor. Gonzales V. Planned Parenthood, also known as the federal abortion ban trial, bans all abortions using the dilation and extraction (D&E) method, mostly used in second and third trimester abortions. With the new conservative majority sitting on the Supreme Court, we wait anxiously for the outcome.
P. DTV Report: Steve Chessin
Democratic Television Producer Steve Chessin reported that our October taping was with Katherine Forrest, President and Co-Founder of the Commonweal Institute, a progressive think-tank based in Menlo Park. Our November taping was with Tim Quigley, Executive Director of the
Volunteer Center of Silicon Valley, Inc.
Our guest in December will be Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (16CD), who will tell us what the November elections mean for the United States and for Democrats.
We will be on San Jose Comcast Channel 15A December 14th with the show we taped with Katherine Forrest, December 28th and January 25th with the show we taped with Tim Quigley, and January 11th and February 8th with the show we will tape with Congresswoman Lofgren.
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):
2006:
Dec 14 DTV 141 Katherine Forrest
Dec 28 DTV 142 Tim Quigley
2007:
Jan 11 DTV 143 Hon. Zoe Lofgren
Jan 25 DTV 142 Tim Quigley
Feb 8 DTV 143 Hon. Zoe Lofgren
Q. CDC Report: Jay Jackman
9. OLD BUSINESS
10. ANNOUNCEMENTS
John MahanÕs memorial service will be Monday Dec 11 at 10:30 at St JustinÕs Catholic Church, 2655 Homestead Rd, Santa Clara, CA
Dan Hoffman: One week left to contribute books to Sally LieberÕs book drive for women in prison. Additionally, Nancy Pelosi has come out against attempts to impeach Bush; any efforts to impeach him will be in direct conflict with the Speaker of the House.
Carolyn Curtis: on the C-span website you can view the interview about the successes of the 50 state strategy.
David Cohen: Have envelopes for Kansen Chu for Chuck ReedÕs seat.
Pete OÕReilly: Movie: The Conscientious Projector and Scott Ridder will be here to discuss issues in Iran
Adrienne Grey: final registration numbers: almost 1600 new registrations, resulting in 969 Democratic registrations and to almost $3800 in bounty money (almost $900 of that will go back to the SCCDC for their tabling efforts).
Miriam Kathleen with South Bay Mobilization: This weekend is the National Weekend in support of war protestors. The booth will be at Martin Luther King Library on Saturday from noon to 4pm.
Steve Preminger: our meeting in January will be an organizational meeting in which we will elect officers to districts and members to the State Central Committee. We lost 5 positions from last year and now only have 38 positions.
11. EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
The next Executive Board meeting TBA
12. ADJOURNMENT: 9:00