San Ramon Valley Democrats

Since immigration is once again a big issue in this campaign, we are devoting our September meeting to the question of what we need to know to vote intelligently.  Our guest speaker will be Melissa Michelson, assistant professor of Political Science at the California State University East Bay. Professor Michelson received her Ph.D. from Yale in 1994 and has held teaching positions at California State University, Fresno, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Lawrence University at Appleton, Wisconsin.  She joined the faculty of California State University East Bay in 2004.  Professor Michelsen has published over sixteen articles on Ethnicity in American Politics.  Her special interest is the Latino impact on politics in the U.S.  Her most important award of $350,000 came in 2005 from the James Irvine Foundation to design an evaluation of voter mobilization activities by 10 major community organizations focusing on increasing turnout of low-propensity ethnic voters (African-American, Latino, Asian-American), and young people, in the June and November 2006 elections as well as some local elections in spring 2007.  We are lucky to have her with us in September!To RSVP, please write a check for $18 per person payable to Mudd’s, and send it to Barney Rubin, 810 El Quanito Drive, Danville, 94526.  We look forward to seeing you!