I feel like I’m back at the scene of the crime. Nearly 4 months to the day, we were back where it all started at LA Trade Tech in downtown Los Angeles, where we attended our first Camp Obama and learned how to change the world.

Myself, my co-RFO Mike Bonin, team members Marc Saltzberg, Mary Jack, Warren Bowman, Dave Dayen, Jan Popiden, Julie Priess, Julie Soller and over 400 other Camp Obama graduates, campaign alumni, community organizers, and would-be community organizers have gathered here on a cold, rainy Saturday morning all hoping to have the same question answered.

Now what?

The simple answer is that Change Is Coming To California. And that Change is Us.  

The post-election Obama organization (what we jokingly refer to Obama 2.0), like the Obama administration, is in transition. A lot of very smart people at Obama 2.0 are trying to figure out the best way for us to utilize our talents and to keep our spirit of community activism alive and growing.

They’ve come up with a four important goals:

Organize To Support Legislation:  To turn Obama’s promise of change into reality, we will need to support the administration’s agenda by lobbying our local officials, and by reaching out to our neighbors and educating our communities – just like we did in the election.

Electoral Organizing: Grow the next generation of elected officials. Identify and support progressive candidates running for state and local offices.

Promote Two-Way Communication Between The Administration And The Grassroots: We will become our own lobbyists! Research the issues facing your community on a local, state, and federal level. Know your elected official’s contact information and backgrounds.

Civic Engagement: We will make our communities better places by working with existing community groups and service organizations (or even creating our own!) to bring about change in our states, our cities, our schools and our neighborhood.

Fortunately for us, the Obama organizers in California aren’t waiting for  Obama 2.0 to give us marching orders. They’ve already come up with the organizing tools that will enable us to organize ourselves right now!

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

SIGN UP WITH COMMUNITY ORGANIZE ( http://communityorganize.ning…. ) A  new network of California activists made up of Obama campaign alumni and other community organizers from all over the state, this site it will be an important tool for communication and outreach.

JOIN YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT GROUP ( http://communityorganize.ning…. )

ORGANIZE A COMMUNITY “DAY OF SERVICE” BETWEEN NOW AND THE INAUGURATION

BECOME A DELEGATE TO THE CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY

With all our work on the national campaign, it was easy to forget the problems we have right here at home. California faces a budget deficit of over 40 Billion dollars, and our state Democratic Party leadership just isn’t responding to our community needs. This will be our first opportunity to achieve our goal of Electoral Organizing. What better way to bring Change to California than from the inside?

How to Run for a Delegate Seat in the California Democratic Party

If you are interested in bringing Change to the California Democratic Party (CDP) see the information below on how to run for a delegate position in your assembly district. Elections will be the weekend of Jan. 10 and 11th.

From www.cadem.org:

“California Democrats who were all integral to our historic 2008 campaign victories are invited to help select delegates for the California Democratic Party’s Convention, which will be held April 24-26, 2009 in Sacramento. The California Democratic Party is convening delegate election meetings in each of the state’s 80 Assembly Districts on January 10 or 11, 2009. These 12 people will represent their Assembly District for both the 2009 and 2010 State Conventions. They will elect one person to represent the AD on the State Party’s Executive Board.

To learn more, go to: http://www.cadem.org/site/c.jr…

To view the time and location for your AD Election Meeting, go to: http://www.cadem.org/site/c.jr…

To file online to run for Assembly District Delegate, go to: http://www.cadem.org/site/c.jr…

If you decide to run as delegate,  please let the folks at Community Organize know! We can help you! Send us an email with your name and your Assembly District to: [email protected]

Pat Meagher, Progressive Democratic Candidate for the 41st Congressional District, has received endorsements from multiple Union and Democratic Clubs.  A Forest Falls resident and Principle of Fontana Adult School he has gathered the support of the Mojave Desert Democratic Club, East Valley Democratic Club, Stonewall Democratic Club,

Greater Rialto Dual Endorsement, Desert Hot Springs Democratic Club and The Democratic Club of Big Bear Valley. His Union endorsements include IBEW Local 440, UAW Region 5 Western United States CAP Council, California Labor Federation’s Committee on Political Education (COPE), San Bernardino/Riverside Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, San Bernardino/Riverside Building and Trades Council, and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 12.

This father of nine, seven of whom are adopted, has also gotten the attention of Progressive Democrats of America Dr. Bill Honigman, So CA State Organizer, who was the Keynote speaker at Pat Meagher’s fundraising event held at University of Redlands. Ahjamu Makalani evoked Meagher’s name and sloganas an inspiration to a standing room only crowd at the State Democratic Convention PDA Caucus.  Meagher embraces the entire PDA platform including their current campaign for Healthcare Not Warfare.

The war is real for the Meagher family.  Their newly married son will be returning to Iraq this summer for a second tour, as well as a daughter whose first tour was in Afghanistan.  To thunderous applause at Arlington West Santa Monica following Col. Ann Wright (Ret), Meagher declared “Don’t tell me I don’t support the troops.  Those are my kids. It is time to bring our glorious and victorious troops home!”

Col. Ann Wright, 29 year Army Veteran, 13 year United States Diplomat, was so impressed after meeting with Meagher that she adjusted her schedule in order to share the podium with him when he announced his candidacy to a crowd of community leaders and peace and justice activists from the Inland Empire at the Carriage House in Redlands.

Pat Meagher is proud that his campaign is funded through grassroots supporters who believe he is the best man to represent their concerns in Washington DC.  

   

XPosted 5/23/2008 1:14 AM PDT on MyDesert.com in Blog by BluePalmSpringsBoyz

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 440 has endorsed Pettis in his race to replace Bonnie Garcia.  IBEW Local 440 has long been active in Coachella Valley politics and Progressive Democratic circles.

Chuck McDaniel, an IBEW Local 440 leader and activist, had previously endorsed Pettis for the 80th AD.  McDaniel is also Vice-President of the newly formed Desert Hot Springs Democratic Club and is a member of the Riverside County Democratic Central Committee.

Garcia is termed out and cannot run for re-election.

More below the flip…

The good news for Proud Progressive Democrats is that the Coachella Valley is trending blue with last year’s wins by Steve Pougnet for Mayor of Palm Springs, by Rick Hutcheson in the Palm Springs City Council, by Karl Baker in the Desert Hot Springs City Council, by Greg Pettis in the Cathedral City City Council, by Craig Ewing in the Desert Water Agency, and No on C.  Garcia barely won re-election in the last race against a little-known candidate and poorly-funded, Steve Clute, who did not have the backing of all of the Democratic clubs because of his opposition to Marriage Equality.

In addition, Democrats now out-register Republicans by more than 15,000 voters!  The voter registration figures are also trending Democratic across the district from Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, and Cathedral City in the West Valley to Indio, Coachella, and even Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, and Palm Desert in Down Valley.  Add to this the fact that Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Coachella, and Indio all went for Kerry/Edwards in 2004 makes the 80th AD ripe for the pickings of an experienced Progressive Democratic candidate with the credentials of Pettis.

Pettis has a well-funded, well-oiled candidacy and has already outraised and outspent all of his competitors combined in FundRace 2008!  in the last reporting period, Pettis also outraised his presumptive Republican opponent, Gary Jeandron.  In addition, Pettis already has endorsements from all of the local Democratic clubs who have endorsed, including the Pass Democratic Club, the Desert Hot Springs Democratic Club, the Desert Stonewall Democrats, Inland Stonewall Democrats, the Palm Springs Democratic Club, the San Diego Democratic Club, and the San Diego Democratic Women’s Club.

Other labor organizations already endorsing Pettis include the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Building Trades of California, California AFL-CIO, Cathedral City Professional Firefighters, San Bernardino/Riverside Counties Central Labor Council, San Diego/Imperial Counties Central Labor Council, and Teamsters Joint Council 42.