Daily Archives: May 3, 2007

California, Orange County

OC Young Democrats Leading the Way

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What else was I about to say regarding the convention last weekend? Oh yes, I remember now!

  Have I told you yet that Orange County Young Democrats rocked the hall at the convention last weekend? The new California Young Democrats President happens to be our very own Tim Steed. Other local young activists quickly assumed leadership roles. Basically, our young blue party is looking much more orange these days… And boy am I loving it!

Here’s what Martin Wisckol has to say in Total Buzz:

Among the many many things that happened last weekend in San Diego that I haven’t yet mentioned here is OC’s strong showing at the board elections of the California Young Democrats. Mission Viejo’s Tim Steed was elected president of the group, the first time an OC resident has held that post. Two others from Orange County were also elected to the executive board: Lindsay Hopkins was elected vice president of finance and Chris Roa was elected region director.

  “The California Young Democrats have been controlled by Los Angeles and the Bay Area forever,” said Gila Jones, Total Buzz reader on hand for the convention last weekend. “For us to wrest control is tremendous.”

So why is this so tremendous? Let me tell you why after the flip…

So why is this news so tremendous? Perhaps because these young Democrats from OC know how to get the job done. They know how to go out and recruit new Democrats on the college campuses. They know how to get young voters out to the polls. Basically, they know how to deliver Democratic victories in what’s supposed to be a “red county”. They will do a great job for CYD as they expand CYD into new territories.

And oh yes, here’s some more good news:

Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party award Melahat Rafiei, the county party’s political director, the 2007 John F. Kennedy Jr. Award — an honor that goes to young activists.

There are reasons why Democracy for America is so well organized in Orange County. One of them is Melahat. She has been so great in building up DFA-OC into a regional powerhouse, and DFA just wouldn’t be DFA without her. She totally deserved that award.

And all these fantastic young Democrats from Orange County totally deserve major kudos for leading the way in progressive activism in this state. : )

Los Angeles Area

Voter fraud? Rules committee hearing? Sworn affidavits? No, its the CDP Convention 07!

You would not believe the scandal! First region delegates are rushed into a conference room #4, credentials are reviewed by… uh.. who knows, then ballots are passed out. However when the vote is cast the delegate fails to put the ballot in the box and is hand passed to a certain participant of the scandal. That ballot belonged to Ms. Alvarez (Direct proxy for Hon. Grace Napolitano who ENDORSED Bryan Urias).  By the way, all of Napolitano’s’ staff is present, including the District Director, the Deputy District Director, and the Senior Field Representative, and all five of her delegates. Why? Because, Grace Napolitano endorsed Bryan.  Then when all ballots are counted there is a tie 37 to 37. How could that be? There were not 74 people in the room.  Instead of following appropriate CDP bylaws, the Party officials decided to do a coin toss to decide the election (I would have preferred wrestle mania but they were out numbered by SGV delegates which is unheard of)
So then the process is contested, but wait, all ballots are reviewed and compared to the credential list and what do we find? Two of NAPOLITANO’S (1-staffer & 1-proxy) voted for Legaspi!!!! HUH? Immediately Napolitano District Director  calls the Hon. Napolitano who is shocked and advised Amelia to challenge the decision (1-proxy files a sworn affidavit that she voted for Bryan and files a complaint of voter fraud.  Then Amelia looks for Napolitano staffer, who is no where to be found! Finally she is confronted ” there is a problem with you ballot, problem? No problem, I want Legaspi to win. Amelia, shocked calls for all Napolitano staff to convene in a meeting room and the confession begins. Who saw what? Well, by this time it is now 12:30 am.  Then the California Democratic Party Compliance Joint Commission and guess what!?!? There are no bylaws or anything in Roberts! No rules on a “coin toss,” they don’t exist. So the committee finally agrees there should not have been a coin toss. There should have been a second ballot but how? No one could find the second ballots.  So then at this point Legaspi is in a corner sweating, pulling his tie off. Then big daddy Caldron begins to give his version about what needs to take place he talks and talks and talks! So who was the real candidate here for Region 15? It was Chuck Calderon!

Now it is Sunday morning, every region 15 delegate must vote again. The ballots are counted then compared to the credentials. What? Now how can this be a new proxy? Wait, this proxy happens to be a convicted felon, Legaspi wins!

Wow, what a weekend in San Diego!

Uncategorized

My Convention Take

I’ve been to many a convention, but this one was the most interesting.  You’ve read about most of it by now. This is my Blog post from www.sfgate/community/blogs

To San Diego and Back: Our State Democratic Convention
Posted 5/1/2007 4:45 PM
Politics alert: This Blog contains partisan viewpoints and might not be suitable for small children or those with short attention spans or high expectations.

I’m back from the Convention, thank you for asking, yes it was exciting.  The usual suspects traipsed through to be adored or ignored, depending.  In this case, the usual suspects are presidential candidates (all except Biden, even that Alaskan guy no one ever head of, and he is a fire brand) and Party hacks, with budget reports or passing out awards to volunteers of the year in Visalia. Oh, and Gavin was there, pressing way too much flesh for a guy simply doing his job.

My personal fave is John Edwards. Hands down. He has programs, he has energy. He has hair. (Whoops, edit that out!) He’s a serious candidate who seems to really care about social programs and has the guts to say he was wrong to vote for the Iraq War. Go here for his postcard you can send to your representative.  http://johnedwards.c…  Get out of Iraq.  This was his message, and it resonated with the crowd. See the YouTube footage of his Iraq statement here: http://johnedwards.c…
All the Caucuses held meetings, so did the committees, many at the same time and it was impossible to juggle between them all, especially with mini-crises and important votes that couldn’t be missed. Some of them got missed. Some people left the building early resulting in an embarrassing lack of quorum for an important resolution: Stop funding the Iraq War now. 

You’ve read about the famous quorum call, about which Art was “shocked, shocked, I tell you!”

Aside to Party Leaders:  Please put the important business on first.  Save the awards and back patting until later.  And make the resolutions available as soon as possible, so that all know what they may be voting on and why it’s important to stay in your seats until the votes are cast.

  In other news, our Progressive Caucus rocks, in the word of one Blogger at  http://usliberals.ab…  We elected some new officers (I’m still an Officer at Large) and reported on the progress of our initiatives for the year.  We may be the largest Caucus in the Party now. Yay progressives!

Our own Marin County activist, Mayme Hubert, was elected to the unsung position of Regional Director. That means she rules the roost from Marin to the border in matters Democratic.  Really, she has to keep us all informed and log a lot of miles as she travels from meeting to meeting. 

And there were parties.  Charlie Brown, the once and future candidate against  ethically challenged John Doolittle in Congressional District 4, spurred on the crowd eating family style pasta and eggplant at the Take Back Red California Dinner (cheap eats). In the hospitality suites which took over the meeting rooms in the evening,  you could eat ice cream with Bill Lockyer or drink red wine with the progressives. I did both, but declined the photo op with Bill.

Hope to see many of you in Sacramento in July for the quarterly meeting of the Executive Board.