SUTTER COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE

100 Days Celebration

Karen and Arlene are terrific greaters!!!

Many local Democrats gather in celebration of Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office.    Harkey House provided a perfect setting on a beautiful spring evening.  Good food, great wine and lots of friendly conversation made this a memorable occasion.

Jant & Arlene look over some of Obama's accomplishments


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Democratic State Convention

April 24 – 26

Sacramento

 

I had the honor of being a delegate by proxy to the State Democratic Convention last weekend.  I am a member of the Sutter Country Democratic Central Committee and was one of six SC-DCC delegates to represent my area.  After registration, several Caucuses were held throughout the day on Friday.  During the afternoon, I attended 3 different caucuses, the Veterans Caucus, the Rural Caucus, and the Progressive Caucus. 

I thought I would be bored and leave the Veterans Caucus early, but to my surprise, this turned out to be, for me, one of the most interesting caucuses that day!  I thought the Veterans Caucus might be too conservative, and I was only there to hear about medical issues with past and returning veterans and employment problems for returning vets.  I was surprised and delighted when the Chair of the Veterans Caucus, who was in his 60's with white hair, spoke passionately about 2 resolutions that were near and dear to the Veterans.  The resolutions he hoped would be adopted by the Resolutions Committee and voted on by the delegates were:

1.  To thank President Obama’s administration for his stance on torture and for releasing information of the torture of prisoners under the Bush administration.  To further demand that the US Congress investigate, and Atty. General Eric Holder prosecute to the fullest extent any one involved in the Bush administration who had knowledge of and/or knowingly participated in the torture of prisoners.   

2.  To immediately abolish the death penalty in California.

Several high-profile state Democrats came into this caucus to introduce themselves, among them Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown, John Garamendi, John Burton, and Darrell Steinberg. 

The Rural Caucus was very crowded.  The Rural Caucus and one of its groups, Take Back Red California (TBRC), seem to be a primary focus of the State Democratic Party before 2010.  TBRC is "grassroots Democrats from red and blue counties working together to increase the number and participation of Democratic voters in Northern and Central California".  Almost every guest speaker on Saturday mentioned Take Back Red California and how important this group will be in upcoming elections.

The Progressive Caucus was very large, crowded and somewhat disorganized.  All Caucuses elected officers for the next 2 years.  Several members of the Progressive Caucus executive board are also on the Resolutions Committee.

Saturday was hell day!  It was also exciting and fun because it was General Session day where several VIPs spoke in the morning and the CDP Statewide Office Candidates spoke in the afternoon.  Among the VIP speakers were U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Mayor Kevin Johnson, Doris Matsui (Congress), Xavier Becerra (Congress), Senator Barbara Boxer, Barbara Lee (Congress), U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, John Garamendi, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Darrell Steinberg, Bill Lockyer, and other mayors and city supervisors

After lunch, the people running for CDP Statewide Offices had a chance to speak to the delegates before we voted.  Running for Chair to succeed Art Torres was Chris Finnie and John Burton.  Burton had about 50 Young Democrats behind him with signs.  He won the election by a huge margin.  Alex Rooker was elected at Female Vice-Chair and Eric Bauman ran uncontested as Male Vice-Chair.  Hilary Crosby defeated incumbent Eric Bradley for CDP Controller. 

Saturday was also the night of 2 important dinners, one for Art Torres, who is retiring as Chairman of the California Democratic Party.  All the important VIPs went to Art Torres' dinner, which included a video tribute from President Obama.  The second dinner was hosted by Take Back Red California and the featured speaker was Howard Dean.  My DCC group chaired a membership sign-up table for TBRC, so this is the dinner we attended.  Howard Dean actually attended both dinners that evening.

The Crew
Anthony - Jo - Neva - Arlene - Janet - John

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BOK KAI 2009

Mark Weinstein leads the way in his vintage 1968 VW!  No doubt about it everyone knows that the Sutter County Democrats are here and on the move.  A real thumbs upC...