Northeast Democratic Club : News

A FUNDRAISER: Art Auction & Sale

Webmaster — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:24:47 -0400

Northeast Democratic Club Presents

A FUNDRAISER: Art Auction & Sale
A 1950s themed fundraiser supporting Northeast Democratic Club in Highland Park and the Obama-Biden Re-Election Campaign

WHEN: Saturday, May 12, 2012, 4pm - 8pm
WHERE: 6027 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042

TIX $20 ONLINE NOW AT:
Eventbrite.com

INFO: (323) 254-1084

Download PDF here

Fall 2012 White House Internship Program

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:44:49 -0400

Application Now Open

The White House Internship Program’s mission is to make the "People’s House" accessible to future leaders from around the nation and cultivate and prepare those devoted to public service for future leadership opportunities.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 1, 2012

Encourage the young leaders you know to apply!

Tell them to visit www.whitehouse.gov/internship

Regional Budget Day

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:28:41 -0500

Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa in conjunction with the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates present:

Regional Budget Day

Presentation of the Budget Survey results
Regional and topical budget discussions

Saturday, March 10

8:30 AM – Registration begins
9:00 AM- Presentations begin

Board of Public Works Room
City Hall
200 N. Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Budget Representatives from the City’s 95 Neighborhood Councils and all interested community stakeholders are encouraged to attend.

To RSVP, please send an e-mail to mike.fong@lacity.org with your name, contact info, and neighborhood council affiliation (if any).

To reserve parking, include your vehicle’s make, model, & plate number. Regional Budget Day Saturday, March 10, 2012

CADEM INSIDER: CURRENT INFORMATION AND UPDATE

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:32:21 -0500

California Democrats State Convention
Battleground California
DNC Delegate Selection
DEM 2012

California Democrats State Convention

Thank you to all who attended the 2012 California Democrats State Convention in San Diego.

Many of you have reached out to let us know this was one of your favorite conventions yet and we appreciate the kind accolades.

This year, we heard from amazing speakers including Governor Jerry Brown, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Al Franken and Van Jones, to name a few. If you were unable to make it to this year’s convention or missed some of the speakers, click here to visit our blog where you will find videos and pictures from this year’s convention.

In order to help us continue to improve the convention experience for our delegates, we've set up a brief online survey that you can take by clicking here.

At this year’s convention we adopted a new Party Platform and finalized our June 2012 candidate endorsements.

Click here to view the Party Platform.

Click here to view the Rules Committee Report.

Click here to view a list of California Democratic Party Endorsed Candidates and Propositions for the June 2012 ballot.

Battleground California

At Convention, the California Democratic Party unveiled Battleground California. A website dedicated to bringing California Democrats to action this election year to stop the aggressive right wing agenda encroaching on our state.

We must stop the right wing’s national anti-labor campaign that has come to California in the form of a corporate power grab ballot initiative this November. While the initiative’s wealthy backers are deceptively touting the measure as a check on special interests, it’s actually designed to silence the voices of working families here in California.

At the top of the ticket, we’re going to work hard to ensure California re-elects President Obama and Senator Feinstein this year.

We also have to seize the unique opportunity to win the Republican-held Congressional seats that are up for grabs in California so we can deliver a Democratic House majority that will work with President Obama.

And lastly, Governor Brown has put California back onto the road to recovery, and with your help we’ll elect a true Democratic majority to help overrule the do-nothing Republicans in Sacramento.

To learn more and to sign up to help, visit www.battlegroundca.com

DNC Delegate Selection

Delegate selection sign up is now open. Click here to fill out application forms online today and to learn about upcoming key dates. The 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. will include 547 pledged delegates from California and you can be one of them!

There are three categories from which delegates can sign up to run for:

District-Level (elected by congressional district caucus)
At-Large (selected from a statewide pool of Democrats)
PLEO (selected from eligible Party Leaders & Elected Officials)

DEM 2012

Help California Democrats take back the House and win big this year by joining DEM 2012. Commit to a small monthly donation or get a friend to join the program. That small donation is a big help to the Party and Democratic candidates across the State.

To learn more about DEM 2012 or to join click here.

LACDP Election Information and JFK Awards "Save the Date"

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:38:14 -0500

The membership election for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (also known as the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee) will be held on the Primary Election ballot on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, and will be conducted by the LA County Registrar of Voters.

LACDP is the official governing body of the Democratic Party in the County of Los Angeles and is the largest local Democratic Party entity in the United States, representing over 2.23 million registered Democrats in the 88 cities and the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County - a population larger than 42 other states.

Candidate filing for the LACDP election is currently underway. Democrats in each Assembly District will elect seven (7) members to the LACDP from each of the 24 Assembly Districts in Los Angeles County.

The candidate filing period began last week and will end on Friday, March 9, at 5:00 PM. In order to run to be a member of LACDP, you must:

Be a registered Democrat at the time nomination papers are issued;
Be a resident of the Assembly District in which you are running and be registered to vote in that district;
Pick up your nomination papers at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office: 12400 Imperial Highway, Second Floor, Norwalk, CA;
Collect 20 to 40 nomination signatures from Democrats registered in your Assembly District; and
Return to Norwalk to file your nomination papers and signatures by Friday, March 9, at 5:00 PM with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office: 12400 Imperial Highway, Second Floor, Norwalk, CA.

You can expedite picking up your nomination paperwork by applying to run online at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's website by clicking here. However, you will still need to pick up your nomination papers and petition in person, in order to collect nomination signatures.

For more information regarding candidate filing and registration requirements, click here to view the Party Central Committee Qualifications and Nomination Filing Schedule, or contact the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Election Planning and Coordination Section at 562-462-2317.

If you have any questions regarding the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, please contact our office at 213-382-0063 or info@lacdp.org.

Sincerely,

Eric C. Bauman
Chair, Los Angeles County Democratic Party

P.S. Save the Date - Thursday, April 26, 2012. Mark your calendars for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party's JFK Awards. Further details coming soon!

Jimmy Gomez Thanks the Northeast Dems

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:12:21 -0500

Dear Northeast Democrats:

I’m very proud to have earned your club’s endorsement at the last membership meeting on January 18th. It was great to meet and talk with the almost 100 members who attended. Your support and endorsement means a great deal to me.
I’m running to represent you, the residents of the new 51st district because I want our families and kids to have the same opportunities I had growing up. As I mentioned at the January 18th meeting, I am the youngest of 6 children of an immigrant family and I did what many people do after graduating from high school – found a job. I was lucky to get hired at Subway and Target. After several months, I realized I had to due more to support my family.

I worked my way through community college, UCLA and Harvard graduate school to become an educator and a Director for the United Nurses Associations of California, and advocate for nurses, health care professionals, and patients.

Although my story is not unique, I recognize that it is a lot harder to achieve and out of reach for far too many people because of the struggling economy and the state budget deficit. This is unacceptable and our families deserve better.

I will work hard to turn our state around by creating good paying jobs with benefits, reinvesting in our schools, communities colleges, Cal States & UCs, and making sure patients are always put before profits in our health care system.

Change is not easy and it is not accomplished on one’s own. I will always work hard and never take your support for granted. I look forward to working with your over the next several months to win this election and then get to the business of turning our state around.

Thank you again for your support. I am available to you. Please contact me at info@jimmygomezforassembly.com or 213-375-8010 with any questions or ideas.

Your Friend,

Jimmy Gomez
Candidate, 51st Assembly District

Gomez wins official Democratic Party endorsement

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:08:59 -0500

Gomez wins official Democratic Party endorsement
Dominates with 76% vote at convention

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike Shimpock, Mike@SGACamp.com

Jimmy Gomez earned the endorsement of the California Democratic Party this weekend, becoming their official candidate for the 51st Assembly District on the June 5th Primary ballot.
The Democratic Party endorsement gives Gomez a critical edge on Election Day: he will be identified as the official Democratic candidate on the new non-partisan ballot, a huge boost in this overwhelmingly Democratic district.

Gomez continues to dominate in this race: he has more than a $100,000 edge in cash on hand over both his opponents combined, is racking up important endorsements, and has an active voter contact campaign already in the field.

In addition to a considerable warchest, Gomez has assembled a strong team with a history of winning in the area: SG&A Campaigns as lead consultants (Parke Skelton, Steve Barkan, and Mike Shimpock), Groundworks Campaigns on field (Tracy Zeluff, Lea Grundy, and Joanna Riccardi), and Stephanie Daily on fundraising.

Gomez is also rapidly consolidating the most important endorsements in the district, from labor, community leaders, and local elected officials. A partial list includes L.A. Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Ed Reyes, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Assemblymember Mike Gatto, State Senator Sheila Kuehl (ret.), Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, Controller John Chiang, the Northeast Democratic Club, the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV), the California Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers local 1521, IATSE, Teamsters, and over a dozen other organizations. A full list can be found at his website.

Jimmy Gomez is currently the political director for United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, AFL-CIO and an instructor at Los Angeles Trade Tech. He lives in Echo Park with his wife Mary.

2012 California Democrats State Convention

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:23:04 -0500

We're still hearing from so many of you about the 2012 California Democrats State Convention that we just wrapped up in San Diego.

Many of you were able to connect or re-connect with activists from across the state, listen to some of your favorite elected officials speak, and begin planning for this year’s campaigns.

But I have to tell you, if you didn't see Senator Al Franken (D-MN) speak at this year's Saturday night dinner, you missed out.
That's why we've uploaded video of Senator Franken's speech on our You Tube channel. Click here to view the speech.

You can check out our convention home page www.cademconvention.org where we've uploaded other speeches and additional video content from throughout the weekend. We’re not done uploading video so please check back later this week for more.

Thank you for making this an amazing State Democratic Convention.

Peace and friendship,

John

Republicans to Veterans: No Thanks

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:22:43 -0500

Posted on The Huffington Post: 12/ 2/11 02:31 PM ET
Voting Hurdles Hurt Seniors, Disabled, Those Who Fought for Voting Rights
by Hans Johnson

For more than two years, the far-right Tea Party and its cast of Republican admirers have wrapped themselves in the trappings of patriotism. Along with eagles and flags, conservatives have made liberal use of the image of Uncle Sam.
But an aggressive, nationwide push by right-wing lawmakers to change the very procedures by which Americans exercise our right to vote is inviting comparisons with a different name from history: Jim Crow.

“I was raised in Mississippi. I saw water fountains labeled by race,” says Charlie E. Hubbert, an Army veteran from Milwaukee. “I saw places that said ‘Whites Only’ and stores with separate entrances. For people like me and my 86-year-old mother, this new policy is a terrible reminder of that era.”

The policy Hubbert refers to is Wisconsin’s new voter ID law. It requires all voters in the state to present a photo identification card with a signature and a period of validity of two years or less, in order to cast a ballot.

Despite the public’s demand for action on job creation, new Republican majorities in both chambers of the state legislature made the bill a priority last spring. Republican governor Scott Walker, now facing a recall drive, signed it in May. It took effect July 1.

Critics contend that obstacles the law throws in front of ordinary voters will limit or deny a voice to thousands of Wisconsinites. Some liken its restrictions to white segregationists’ tactics thwarting black voters in the south for several generations before the breakthroughs of the civil rights movement, federal legal protections, and their enforcement by the Justice Department.

The Brennan Center for Justice, in a landmark 2006 analysis, found that insistence on photo IDs discriminates against many groups of Americans. Women, often lack documentation in their current name, as do seniors, low-income whites, immigrants, and people of color. While 11 percent of the overall population has no government-issued photo ID, 16 percent of Hispanics, 18 percent of seniors, and 25 percent of African Americans lack photo IDs.

The disparity, and potential for disenfranchisement, appears to be especially acute in Milwaukee. A 2005 University of Wisconsin report showed that 59 percent of Hispanic women and 55 percent of African American in the city did not possess a current state-issued photo ID.

Barriers to voting for people with disabilities are numerous and notorious. Census data show that people with disabilities are 20 times more likely than nondisabled Americans to cite a permanent physical condition as a reason for being unregistered. When registered, people with disabilities are 4 times more likely not to vote because of transportation difficulties. On top of this obstacle course, the voter ID law places an added set of hurdles for the disabled.

More may be riding on this one state law than any other statute in the nation. Wisconsin’s history of close statewide outcomes—a few hundred votes in this year’s race for a pivotal state supreme court seat, and a fraction of 1 percent in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential contests—make it conceivable the law could swing a possible recall election of Governor Walker or even next year’s outcome in President Obama’s reelection. With 6 other states set to implement similar laws on Jan. 1, and 15 now enforcing photo ID laws, millions of Americans stand to face frustrating and perhaps insurmountable barriers to casting a ballot that will count in 2012.

Veterans are among those who may be cut off. Hubbert, whose duties in an Army cavalry division took him to Vietnam, is senior vice commander of his local chapter of Disabled American Veterans. He underscores the perverse impact on those who served overseas in defense of America’s democratic principles. “This law imposes a hardship on older people and many veterans. It’s going to be real painful.”

Some veterans with disabilities, he notes, lack driver’s licenses for obvious reasons, and some are not involved in veterans’ programs that might provide them a state-issued ID.
Wisconsin now offers a free voter ID card that complies with the new law. But the Walker administration has sought to close off even that option by issuing instructions to all motor vehicles departments insisting that people pay $28 for the non-driver’s photo ID unless they explicitly ask for it to be produced for them free.

After a Reuters report in September unmasked the suppression of the free voter ID—itself a workaround from the state voter ID mandate widely labeled a scheme to suppress voters—state officials scrambled to save face. The Government Accountability Board is now traveling to state campuses explaining how students can comply with the ID requirement, whose terms disqualified their student IDs.

Amidst growing anger over the law, the state election board responded to pressure from students and some higher-ed faculty and administrators by granting permission Nov. 22 to the University of Wisconsin system to print new secondary ID cards that comply with the new law.

Notably missing from conservatives’ damage-control effort has been the GOP moderate who heads the state department of transportation, Mark Gottlieb. A Milwaukee native and Vietnam-era veteran himself, Gottlieb lost a power struggle among Republicans to lead the legislature following last fall’s electoral gains for their party. He later accepted Walker’s appointment to head the agency.

As resistance to conservative policies begins to mount in Wisconsin and other states, Republicans who do not march in lockstep with the anti-tax, anti-labor, anti-gay, anti-abortion, or anti-government goals of Republican lawmakers play an increasingly pivotal role in American politics. So do seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, three groups of voters whose political allegiances are mixed, but who are bearing the brunt of cutbacks in public services and are now being stung by new restrictions on voting access.

Voters are not rolling over. On Nov. 8, as Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected an anti-union law undercutting collective bargaining. And Mainers effectively vetoed conservatives’ state policy ending election-day voter registration. Nine GOP lawmakers and the governor had actually availed themselves of its terms in years past.

Swept into office by voter anger in 2010, state Republican lawmakers are beginning to face a backlash that could define the 2012 election. Provoking some of that anger is the tone of callousness toward people of color, women, and the sacrifice of veterans who voice frustration at the toll of cuts and barriers in the democratic process itself. Whether Republican measures defining who can cast ballots actually shrink the electorate or cause outraged voters to outmaneuver the barriers will determine the duration of Republican’s grip on power.
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Follow Hans Johnson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HansPJohnson