(If you are going to the CDP E-board, check out this counter-protest to support marriage equality. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Today at NOON the Mormons are holding an urgent Prop 8 Press Conference in the main ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Ana, at 201 E. Macarthur Blvd. We MUST be there in front of the hotel to greet them peacefully and get our own press coverage.



This is very near the location of the CDP e-board meeting. If you’ll be there early, please find your way over to the Doubletree! The Doubletree Hotel is located 0.2 miles along Macarthur Blvd. NW of the 55 freeway, and 300 feet from S. Main St., near Imperial Promenade. Map here

They are asking their “Yes” supporters to bring their “Yes on Prop 8” signs and want to have 250 people in attendance with signs of any kind. We MUST have equivalent press coverage, so it is ESSENTIAL that we be in front of the hotel with our signs, representing the righteous.

Their pitch will most likely be their right to pass whatever laws they want as well as their First Amendment Rights. They want all nationalities and faith groups represented (even the Tongan Mormons!) They are upset over the display of intolerance they have been experiencing the past week and want the media to know that.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about how open House seats in special elections had been going to Democrats in the reddest of red areas.

In March we had Hastert’s Illinois seat going to Democrat Bill Foster. In April Democrat Travis Childers forced a Republican into a runoff in Mississippi, and earlier this month Democrat Don Cazayoux took a deep red seat in Louisiana.

Last night Travis Childers won his Mississippi runoff.

This is huge. My Democratic friends in Idaho sometimes call their state “the Mississippi of the north,” but Mississippi is, well, the Mississippi of the south. I’ve been there, and it’s a beautiful place with friendly folks and tremendous charm, but liberal it ain’t.

This is an R+10 district. The seat was vacated when the Republican governor appointed the previous tenant to the Senate, and Haley Barbour wouldn’t have allowed the seat into play if he believed it was, you know, like … in play.

Childers won by 8 points. I’m telling you: this is huge.

As Crooks and Liars says, “It’s like a Democrat losing Brooklyn.” Let’s bring it a little closer: it’s like a Democrat losing San Francisco.

Something is happening. Let me share a couple of personal stories:

I was with Ron Shepston last night and he said he’s starting to see Gary Miller signs in his district. Those who don’t live in Orange County probably have no idea why that’s remarkable, but I asked the folks from the district if they had ever seen Miller campaign in this “safe” district in the past. They were almost speechless, but I did manage to get a “No!” out of them. (Miller is unopposed in the primary.)

In the last week I’ve had complete strangers come up to me twice and ask whether I support Obama or Clinton. Complete strangers, I’m telling you, and not when I was at some sort of Democratic Party function. Once was at a movie theater and once was outside a restaurant. Middle aged “white folks.” In Orange County. The Mississippi of California. Complete strangers.

I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned it or not, but This. Is. Huge.

[Crossposted from The Liberal OC]

March: Democrat Bill Foster wins the seat that Illinois Republican Dennis Hastert has held for 20 years. Since the district’s creation in 1959 it has continuously been in Republican hands.

April: In Mississippi’s 1st District, in which Bush received 62% of the vote in 2004, Democrat Travis Childers forces Republican Greg Davis into a runoff election. Childers took a majority of the votes, shocking political observers, but no candidate won a simple majority in the six-person race. On May 13, it will be down to two.

May: Democrat Don Cazayoux wins election to the 6th Louisiana Congressional District, the first Democrat to hold this seat in 33 years.

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

CTA is out in force trying to prevent the CDP from endorsing Prop 92, just as they did with the Clean Money proposition last year. The reason they’re against it is that most community college faculty are AFT members rather than CTA. The California Labor Association is in favor of Prop 92.

If you’re an eboard member, please join me this Sunday in voting to endorse Prop 92. A letter from Senator Jack Scott follows.

Dear Fellow Democrat:

According to a statewide survey recently released by the Public Policy Institute of California, over 70 percent of Californians say that the state’s economy will need a higher percentage of college-educated workers in 20 years.  In addition, over 75 percent say the state’s college system is “very important” to California’s future.

Unfortunately, a strong majority (65 percent) also say that many residents who are qualified don’t have the opportunity to attend college.  Two-thirds of adults think that the cost of college prevents qualified, motivated students from pursuing higher education.

P.S. The California State Labor Federation recently endorsed Proposition 92.

UPDATE: by Brian, I changed the title of this thread based on Christine’s comment.

This email, originally from Christine Pelosi, was forwarded to me yesterday.

From: Christine Pelosi

Dear Everyone,

It’s Veterans Day and here we are with the freedom to debate the future of our democracy thanks to the sacrifice of our service members.  Thanks to all of them past and present.

On the issue of Prop 93, I have been reading the posts with great interest (and respect). FWIW, here are my thoughts:

We CA Democrats rightly opposed the term limits initiative – it was anti-progressive, pro-privatization – and in part it worked.  It entrenched top-level insiders and lobbyists, and made incumbents more reliant on these entrenched interests to learn their way around the Capitol and get things done.  We can’t change this “imbalance of power” in our state government unless we remove artificial term limits and promote competitive election and ethics reform.

ARTIFICIAL TERM LIMITS break the pipeline of new people coming forth to serve and remove the people from the decision – if I want my legislator to serve 2 or 20 years that should be my choice as a voter.
 

continued after the flip

COMPETITIVE ELECTIONS require a strategy to run candidates across CA so that even people in deeply red or blue communities debate both sides of complex CA issues such as jobs, education, water and land use or immigration that we send legislators to Sacramento to address. That builds consensus – a 60% solution not a 51% position.

ETHICS REFORM is crucial to restoring open government from the anti-progressive pro-privatization forces. Even if 93 passes we still have those entrenched interests giving money through campaigns, nonprofits, charities and other venues – and ordinary people just can’t compete. I am a reasonably competent follower of state government and yet I can’t inventory all the ways I’d have to give money or counter the money someone else gave in order to be heard on an issue – and I shouldn’t have to learn. That’s not the democracy the veterans in my family or your families have been fighting for.

Our pro-93 legislators have ethics reform ideas sitting in committees right now – let’s hear how they will do their jobs better before we give them job extensions.

All the best (and warm wishes to all the veterans and military families for Veterans Day),

Christine Pelosi
Author, Campaign Boot Camp:
Basic Training for Future Leaders
Visit me online at www.PelosiBootCamp.com
OR text “bootcamp” (one word) to “35328”

At the upcoming CDP e-board meeting, e-board members will be asked whether we want to endorse/oppose any of the 3 propositions that will be on the February ballot —

Prop 91 (Transportation Funding)

Prop 92 (Community Colleges Funding, Governance, and Fees)

Prop 93 (Limits on Legislators’ Terms in Office)

Four other props will also be on the ballot if signature verification goes as expected, and we’re going to be asked to endorse/oppose them as well. These four props each concern Native American Gambling.

I’m not one of those people who decides how to vote while I’m standing in the polling place, but I’m also not accustomed to making my voting decisions 3 months in advance. What do the rest of you, e-board members and others, think about these 7 measures? I have an idea how the e-board will vote on most of these, and I do have a few thoughts of my own, but I’m interested in hearing from others. Hit me.