Joan Buchanan, our representative in the California State Assembly, will speak on the current budget situation in Sacramento. We have all been hearing the multitude of deep cuts the Governor has proposed. Now is your chance to hear the Assembly’s response.
This month we are introducing a new pricing policy for dinner. For club members and their invited guests the price remains $24, a bargain given the quality of the food served at the Country Club. For non-members the price is now $30. We are doing this to encourage more people to join the club. In four dinners, you will save the price of one year’s membership.
Please email Jim Donnelly or call him at 925.570.9289 to let us know you can attend. Please send checks to Jim Donnelly at 373 Century Circle, Danville, CA 94526. You may also pay at the door. If you change your mind about attending the dinner, please let us know by Monday, June 22 so that we do not pay for unnecessary meals.
We look forward to seeing you, your friends and neighbors on Thursday, June 25!
The San Ramon Valley Democratic Club, the Lamorinda Democratic Club, the Democrats of Rossmoor, and the Diablo Valley Democratic Club are hosting a forum featuring the Democrats who have announced their intention to seek the 10th Congressional District seat should it become vacant.
Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security. Her confirmation hearing is set to begin June 9. Upon her expected confirmation, she will have to resign from the House, requiring a special election to fill her seat.
The candidates’ forum will be held at the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center, 2071 Tice Valley Blvd, in Walnut Creek on Friday, June 19. The forum will begin at 7 p.m., with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. for people to collect information from the campaigns. Admission is $5 per person.
The candidates who have been invited to attend include (listed in alphabetical order):
Attorney Tony Bothwell, Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan; State Senator Mark
DeSaulnier; Lt. Governor John Garamendi; San Francisco District Attorney’s Office
Investigator Adriel Hampton, and Iraq War Veteran Anthony Woods.
Newell Arnerich, Danville mayor will be the speaker at our May meeting at the Crow Canyon Country Club. He will address the California budget situation and the impact on Danville and surrounding communities.
Dinner is $24 per person. Please make your checks payable to Ray Link, and send them to Barney Rubin at 810 El Quanito Drive, Danville CA 94526, by May 22 to reserve your space for the dinner and program. For questions email barubin@aol.com, or call Barney or Peggy Rubin at 838-7238.
Fred La Cosse will speak at the March meeting on our American Freedoms. He interviews John & Abigail Adams, George Washington, Ben Franklin and others from the founding days of our nation. Together, they tell the amazing story of how our democratic republic was born, the checks and balances built into our government that protect us from tyranny, and how our unique values and individual rights give hope to mankind. This is a very entertaining presentation and you may even learn something!
Fred challenges all Americans and shows them how to protect our freedoms so that we and our children don’t lose them. He encourages young people to attend, so bring your teens and tweens.
Dinner is $24 per person. Please make your checks payable to Ray Link, and send them to Barney Rubin at 810 El Quanito Drive, Danville CA 94526 by March 21 to reserve your space for the dinner and program. For questions email barubin@aol.com, or call Barney or Peggy Rubin at 838-7238.
Social hour is at 6 pm, dinner at 6:30, and the speaker starts at 7:30 pm.
Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Political Editor at the Contra Costa Times, will be our guest speaker at our next club meeting. Lisa has had many years experience in Contra Costa County politics, and always does an excellent job of helping us better understand the political landscape. She will share with us significant insights on the implications of the November elections.
Because electoral votes are apportioned by state on a winner-take-all basis the general election is very different from the primary election. Barack Obama will receive all 55 of California’s electoral votes whether he wins California by one million votes or by two million votes. In California he is ahead of John McCain by a very wide margin. Widening the margin of victory in California doesn’t help us achieve our goal of 270 electoral votes.
In order to capture those electoral votes, the Obama campaign has assigned each solidly democratic state to assist one of the critical battleground states during the general election campaign. Here in California we have been assigned to help Nevada. New York has been assigned Pennsylvania. New Jersey has been assigned Ohio, Illinois has been assigned Iowa, D.C. has been assigned Virginia and so on down the line.
It gets even more specific than that. Each Congressional District in California has been assigned an Assembly District in Nevada. In the past two elections Nevada voted for Bush, but Democrats now have a 60,000 person voter registration advantage in the SilverState and we want those 5 electoral votes back!
In order to help Barack win in November we Californians need to contact voters in Nevada to identify Obama supporters and then to make sure that they get to the polls on Election Day. We will do that both by phone banking from San Ramon, Alamo, and surrounding communities and by making weekend trips to Nevada. For those reading this email who do not live in these areas, you can make the calls from your own home at anytime convenient to you by logging on to http://california.barackobama.com/page/content/cahome. Your help is very much needed either on the phones or traveling to Nevada. Please contact the campaign and let us know how you would like to participate:
Phone banking schedule:
San Ramon – Saturdays from 9am to 6pm
Alamo – Monday evenings from 630pm to 830pm
Contact the campaign to sign up for these opportunities and get the locations at:
If you want to host a house party, help in the office, walk precincts, volunteer at phone banks, display a lawn sign, help atevents, or volunteer in many other ways, please sign up on Joan’s website or contact her Volunteer Coordinator Stephanie McFarland at 806-0560 or stephanie@joanbuchanan.comto let us know how you can help.Be sure to sign up for our email list to be among the first to know about campaign events and activities.
You are invited to a Family Picnic with the Democratic Party of Contra Costa County, from 11 to 3 pm on Sunday, July 27th at Rankin Park in Martinez. Please visit
http://contracostadems.org/
for more details. Call Ray Link at 820-5009 to purchase tickets!
Our June 26th meeting will focus on campaign activities and how club members can participate and make a difference in the outcomes.
The evening begins at 6 pm with a no host bar at the Crow Canyon Country Club. A full dinner will be served at 6:30. Dinner includes meat/chicken, vegetable, starch, salad, dessert and coffee/tea at $24 per person. We will hold a short meeting on club business at 7 pm, and the program begins at 7:30 pm.
