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Contact Information
P.O. Box 6591
Ventura, CA 93006 1.800.446.9709
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Welcome to Our Resource Center!
This site is intended to provide a central resource area for club activists, affiliates and CDC staff. Many resources and areas are not visible to the general public (like officer forums and files) and can only be accessed by signing in. Therefore we encourage you to sign in during your visit to make sure you have access to everything. To actively participate in the website, you must create an account (similar to how you do so with Yahoo) by using the "Signup" link on the left. Please remember that user ids and passwords are case-sensitive. If you are having troubling logging in (forgot your id or password), please contact us: -email-. Area Central South  Area Central South held a very successful Area meeting in Fresno in February. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a better communication network among the various Democratic entities throughout the central California. We discussed scheduling two or three meetings on one day to reduce time and travel requirements in an area covering hundreds of miles. Everyone was enthusiastic and eager to offer their ideas. We agreed to meet every three months on the fourth Saturday of the month and will make every effort to have every Club and Central Committee represented.A discussion regarding the CDC convention brought many offers of help and some good ideas for activities at the convention. We agreed to hold a silent auction on Saturday evening and have had several offers of items for donation to the auction. We are asking that Clubs, Central Committees, or individuals donate a basket or other item for the auction. If everyone will join in this effort, we can raise some money for CDC without too much effort and have a lot of fun in the process. Please respond to secretarycdc-ca.org or to Jery Lacayo at -email- or 209.742.7891 if you will participate in this activity. All donations will be appreciated. Read the rest ...   Marilyn Grunwald Honored  I have known about this honor since last October, and so, in typical writer’s fashion, I prepared these remarks—yesterday. What I would have loved to have done is written this, photocopied it, passed it out and then had you all take ten minutes of quiet time to just read it.To be sure this is a great honor and I am very grateful for it. To be honored by one’s peers is a humbling experience that also, inevitably, I guess, makes one think of the journey. So, before I go on, thanks to Casey Robinson and all of the leadership at Sherman Oaks Democratic Club. This is truly appreciated! I am so glad my family could be here. My David, who has stood by every cockamamie political thing I have ever done, and never once said “Hey, wait, it’s my money!” He did everything I needed him to do for more than 25 years, and now, to a certain extent, it is my turn to try and do for him. Interestingly, despite being born with a disability and married 27 years, isn’t funny that I’ve just now realized what a pain in the ass it is to live with someone with a disability? Read the rest ... CDC Archive Update and the CDC Office  We are about 10 to 15 percent of the way through the CDC Archives. At this stage, we are sorting data into the outline I discussed previously. This is allowing us to access certain categories of information when needed. Most of the archives at this point cover the 1980s and 1990s. It won’t be until the end of the year before we get through this stage. In the meantime, we have had a couple of inquiries regarding campaign buttons and on cross-filing. There is a collection of buttons somewhere in the archives, but we haven’t gotten to them. We found some discussion on cross-filing in the CDC history put together by Fred Kugler in 1980. I have also been able to provide some information to Henry, particularly quotes on CDC by leading politicians, some of which you may have seen at the bottom of Henry’s emails.The major portion of this article, however, will discuss the CDC office. The office is at 8124 West Third Street in Los Angeles. It is located three blocks west of the Farmer’s Market, and just west of the corner of Third and Crescent Heights. It is not that hard to get to by car or public transportation. I have traveled both ways from Ventura, as I make the trip every Tuesday to pick up the mail at our mailbox in the building. The building is a two-story office where we share space with a number of progressive groups. In the building is the Southern California office of Americans for Democratic Action, the Green Party, and the tenant where we share the same space, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. The building is owned by activist Aris Anagnos, who has his real estate office there, and offers space to the other groups. This arrangement has gone on in this building since 1989, and prior to that with a building, he owned on Franklin Street in Hollywood. Read the rest ... West Covina Leadership Training a Big HIt  On a hot sunny Saturday in Covina, 30 dedicated activists spent a beautiful day indoors soaking in one workshop after another!From 8 til 6, attendees endured a long day of intense training from speakers representing a variety of organizations. The morning started out with LACDP Chair Eric Bauman providing an overview of the party structure and an explanation of convention delegates and superdelegates. After a short break, SDCDP Chair Jess Durfee took the activists through a vigorous training in Roberts Rules followed by Lori Vandermeir (Southern VP, Rural Caucus) talking about how to get and keep volunteers and members. Breakfast and lunch were provided by the California Democratic Council and once lunch was over, attendees went straight to work with a variety of topics:
And finally, Dr. Bill Honigman (State Coordinator, Progressive Democrats of America) rounded out the day with the Progressive Challenge! Although it was full day, everyone had a good time and learned a lot. Keep your calendars open as CDC continues to bring this jam-packed training session across the state! —Henry Read the rest ... CDC Starts New Club in Orange County! On Saturday, January 19, over 40 people attended the initial kickoff for the new Anaheim Democratic Club. Attendees heard from a variety of high-powered local officials including Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, California Senator Lou Correa, Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, Regional Directors John Smith and Jim Moreno, DPOC Executive Director Melahat Rafiei, and DPOC Political Director Lindsay Hopkins.  Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez giving the crowd an update on what's going on in Washington.  State Senator Lou Correa filling us in on the latest Sacramento news.  When Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez graciously offered to match donations for the club up to $1000, a frenzy of pledges ensued and we quickly raised the $1000! Thanks go out to all the donors that made this possible. To top it off, Ron Shepston, Candidate for U.S. Congress District 42, also matched the $1000 to bring the total starting funds for this fledgling club to $3000. What a terrific way to start off a new club! Attendees heard from several candidates running for local offices who understand that this new club will be a great resource for ensuring Democrats win big in Anaheim. The next meeting will include the adoption of bylaws, election of officers and other required business. Thanks to everyone who came to support the club. This was a perfect example of how we benefit by helping each other out. As we continue the networking process, we will see each of our clubs prosper! CDC Endorsement Vote Shows Surprising Contest Despite the short notice and heavy workload during this election cycle, over 150 delegates from across California participated in CDC's first ever online endorsement vote. Although no candidate received the official 60% needed for an endorsement, the mix of grassroots participants shows a different story than most polls have typically indicated. With 59 votes, Hillary Clinton barely squeaked past John Edwards' 55 votes. Surprisingly, Barack Obama came in at a distant third with only 26 votes followed by Dennis Kucinich with 13.  While we obviously cannot draw any definite conclusions from this small sample of voters, it does seem to indicate that among California party regulars, there is a different type of battle going on when independents and not so 'active' voters aren't added to the mix.For those of you who may not be pleased with the results, all I can say is - the next time we announce something like this - join in! Every Democratic club in the state is eligible to participate. Thanks to all the clubs who did take the time to get their delegates in and participate. (Click on the chart for a larger view) Ventura Training a Great Success! Over 50 Democrats from Ventura and surrounding counties came together on Saturday, January 12 to participate in some extraordinary leadership training.  Workshops included topics about CDP structure, how to run a meeting, get new club members, finance training, using technology, engaging young Democrats, and progressive issues.  Eric Bauman started out the day with a discussion on how the Democratic party is organized and where each entity fits into the structure.  Garry Shay provide much needed instruction on how to properly run a meeting using Robert's Rules of Order!  Assembly member Loyd Levine gave an inspiring talk during the lunch recess.  Kinde Durkee gave attendees a lot to ponder during her finance workshop! Despite the long day, attendees held out to the very end, ensuring that each workshop was well attended. Of course it helped that we had plenty of food and drinks to nourish them! We'd like to thank everyone involved in helping us put this together: Bill Gallaher and the Ventura County Democratic Party Ventura Democratic Club Vote Blue CDC: New Services for Clubs/DCCs by Henry Vandermeir, President  "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat." - Will RogersIf this weren't so damn true, it'd be funny! (Ok, I admit I've snickered at this before) But if this was coined so long ago (1930s), why hasn't our party done something about it by now!?! Well, it's time we get our act together - at least here in California. This year we have three elections to deal with. Despite all the nasty and underhanded things the opposition has done to this country, Democrats cannot take winning for granted. If the Iowa caucus taught us anything, it's that Democrats win when we are organized and get our voters to the polls. Assuming the initial statistics are correct, Democratic organizing efforts resulted in approximately 130k more Democratic voters than Republicans. Granted, organizing was somewhat easier with only having to deal with one state on one day, but the basic concept is still there. This is the kind of voter turnout we will need in June and November to help overcome any voter fraud the opposition might attempt. Because both the state and county parties in California rely heavily on their clubs for support, we need to make sure that our clubs are flourishing and ready to answer the call. Since the CDC convention in August, we have been working to revamp the products and services offered to Democratic clubs and committees to assist your organizing efforts... Read the rest ... All in the Family: Blue Dog/Yellow Dog/Donkey/Jackass  by Jery LacayoCDC Central Area South Vice President I am an idealist. I have deep-seated beliefs. I know how the world should operate. I know that everyone should: respect others’ beliefs, be kind and generous, refrain from judging those different than themselves, and always look out for the less fortunate. I am a political activist. Though I have not abandoned my ideals, I have learned that not everyone shares the same philosophy. I live in a democracy with a representative government that has forced me to learn some very hard lessons about what it means to win. In my youth I sometimes abandoned the Democratic Party and voted outside the Party (though NEVER for a Republican). I told myself that I had remained true to my beliefs, and fortunately the Democrats won without me. That was long ago, and the stakes were not as high then as they are now. That was before the Republican Party was so very extreme. Read the rest ... |
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