Progressive Democrats Sonoma County: Join Progressive Democrats in Sacramento this Weekend! -- CDP Executive Board Meeting

Stand Up! Take Action! Vote!

Posted on 13 July 2007, by Anna

Join Progressive Democrats in Sacramento this Weekend! -- CDP Executive Board Meeting

Progressive Democrats Sonoma County will be traveling to Sacramento this weekend for the CA Democratic Party Executive Board meeting. Lynn Hamilton, PDSC Chair and CDP Executive Board member, will be among us — and the many PDA members from up and down the state in attendance. Tonight at 8:00 pm is the Progressive Caucus meeting … All Are Welcome!! (details below) ...

Here is a note from the Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles – ____________

Dear Progressives:

Please join PDA’s Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles this weekend, July 13-15, when we attend the California Democratic Party’s Executive Board meeting at the Radisson Hotel in Sacramento. Though non-delegates cannot vote in the party’s General Session, they are more than welcome to engage in dialogue at the various caucuses and attend committee meetings to show support for progressive resolutions and proposed bylaw changes. (See agenda below for caucus and committee meeting schedule)

The Progressive Caucus, which draws hundreds of grassroots activists, will meet Friday night at 8 PM to discuss urgent resolutions: support of a free and open Internet (net neutrality), preservation of pre-primary presidential caucuses to mobilize grassroots support for diverse candidates; transparent web site posting of Central Committee and E-Board members; opposition to the War on Drugs; support for parole and sentencing reform to reduce overcrowding in California prisons. (To view copies of PDLA’s resolutions pertaining to pre-primary caucuses and prison reform, please scroll to the end of this email.)

For those of you who like fireworks, join us Saturday morning at 8:30 AM when Brad Parker, Vice President of PDLA, debates Labor Caucus Chair, Jim Gordon (Communication Workers of America) on net neutrality. We will also need progressives to join us at the Saturday 1:30 PM meeting when Party consultants present their plan to dissolve pre-primary caucuses, as well as at the Saturday 3 PM resolutions committee meeting when we hope to address the need to reinvent parole and sentencing, not build 53,000 new prison and jail beds, as mandated under the recently passed AB900 . See the CDP agenda and two PDLA resolutions below. If you can’t join us in Sacramento this weekend, please circulate this email to progressive friends in Northern California. Thanks, Marcy

____________

EXECUTIVE BOARD AGENDA
July 13-15, 2007
Radisson Hotel, Sacramento
6/29/07 Tentative

Friday, July 13, 2007

5:00-6:00PM
Credentials Committee

6:00-9:00PM
Registration

6:30-8:00PM
Executive Board Social

8:00-9:30PM
Caucus Meetings
African-American
Computer & Internet
Disabilities (election counting)
LGBT
Progressive
Senior’s
Veteran’s

California Young Dems.

Saturday, July 14, 2007 8:00AM-12:30PM Registration

8:30-10:00AM
Labor Caucus

10:00-12:00 noon
General Session

12:00PM-1:15PM
Luncheon

1:30-3:00 PM
Delegate Selection & Affirmative Action Committee
Workshop: Get Organized: Voter Tactics for 2007

3:00-5:00PM
Standing Committees
Finance
Legislative Action & Equal Opportunity
Voter Services
Organizational Development
Platform

3:00-6:30PM
Standing Committees
Resolutions
Rules

5:00-6:30PM
Caucus Meetings
Arab-American
Asian/Pacific Islander
Chicano/Latino
Environmental
Native-American
Rural & Irish-American

California Democratic Council

6:30-8:00PM
Caucus Meetings Business & Professional Children’s Disabilities (business meeting) Filipino American Federation of County DSCC Members

8:00-9:30PM Caucus Meeting Women’s Caucus

Sunday July 15, 2007

8-9:30AM
Registration

9:30AM-12 Noon
General Session

___________
Resolution to Continue Grassroots Pre-Primary Delegate Caucuses for Presidential Candidates

Whereas we, the members of the LACDP, value the importance of grassroots activism, particularly in organizing DNC delegate caucuses to mobilize the electorate in diverse campaigns prior to a Presidential primary …

Whereas California has traditionally held caucuses to elect DNC delegates before, not after, a Presidential primary to maximize grassroots organizing prior to the primary …

Whereas we, the delegates to the LACDP, are concerned that holding post-primary caucuses will result in the collapsing of caucuses, the dilution of issues, and the consolidation of DNC delegates behind one frontrunner candidate …

Therefore, be it resolved the LACDP opposes abolishing pre-primary caucuses in the Presidential race.

Therefore, be it further resolved, the LACDP urges all CDP Executive Board members to reject a proposed rule change that would abolish pre-primary caucuses, thereby diminishing the power and input of the grassroots in California.

Authored by: Marcy Winograd

Submitted & Endorsed by:

Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles

Julie Dad-Lopez, 41st AD Delegate, LACDP, Santa Monica Dem Club, Pres.

Leah Herzberg, 41st AD Delegate, LACDP, Valley Dems United, VP

Margie Murray, 41st AD Delegate, LACDP

Thom O’Shaughnessy, CDP Exec. Board Member (appt.) – 43rd AD, LACDP Chair, Irish-American Caucus

Susie Shannon, CDP Exec. Board Member – 42nd AD, LACDP

Marcy Winograd , CDP Exec. Board Member – 41st AD, LACDP

Palisades Democratic Club, Board Member

RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT PAROLE & SENTENCING
REFORM TO ADDRESS OVERCROWDED PRISONS

WHEREAS Governor Schwarzengger and California legislators decided to build 53,000 new prison and jail beds at a 25-year cost of $15-billion dollars in construction and debt service funds;

WHEREAS this legislative decision was made without a single public hearing in a state that, according to the California Legislative Analyst, currently incarcerates 240,000 inmates in prisons and jails, almost 70% of whom are people of color, 29% African American, even though African Americans constitute only 6% of the Adult population;

WHEREAS the current plan to build new prison and jail beds ignores the Governor’s Independent Review Panel and the Little Hoover Commission recommendations for parole and sentencing reform that would immediately and drastically reduce California’s prison population and address the problem of overcrowding in a state that, according to the California Legislative Analyst, spends $43,000 each year to incarcerate but only $8,000 to educate a student in our public schools;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED the California Democratic Party supports implementation of the state’s Independent Review Panel and the Little Hoover Commission’s parole and sentencing reforms: releasing selected non-violent offenders without parole; moving parolees off parole automatically after 12 clean months; providing community alternatives, not prison, for technical violations of parole; creating a sentencing commission that would recommend changes to penalties.

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the California Democratic Party, recognizing a disproportionate percentage of minorities is behind bars, supports implementation of these reforms to address overcrowding in prisons and jails before any new funds are appropriated for construction of additional prisons or jails in California.

Authored by: Marcy Winograd

Submitted by:

Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles

Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains

Valley Democrats United

East Lake Bonita Democratic Club

Marcy Winograd, 41st AD Elected CDP Executive Board Delegate

Karen Bernal – 5th AD Elected CDP Executive Board Elected Delegate

Dave Dayen, 41st AD Delegate

Doug Dilge – 41st AD Delegate

Matt Gerbasi – 45th AD Delegate

Kathy Green – 40th AD Delegate