El Cerrito Democratic Club

If you want to carry the El Cerrito Democratic Club endorsement flyer to your neighbors, or call your neighbors to make sure they have either mailed in their absentee ballot or will go to the polls on November 4, the El Cerrito Democratic Club, partnering with the California Democratic Party (CDP) needs your help.

You can get a phone or walk list one of two ways:

1. Sign up as a CDP Neighborhood Leader and print your own phone or walk list, To sign up as a Neighborhood Leader, go to www.cadem.org and click on the Neighborhood Leader icon on the right hand side of the page. Follow the instructions from there, and within 24 hours you will have an access code that will give you a way to print phone or walk lists from your precinct, or
2. Call or e-mail Hilary Crosby, ECDC president and she’ll set up a user account for you, and she or you can print your lists.

Either way, you would then go to Hilary’s house and get a bundle of material, and start your walk or phone calls.

If you are interested in going to another part of West Contra Costa County, you can go the West County United Democratic Campaign (WCUDC) office at 11760 San Pablo and sign up for walking or phoning there. They are also running phone banks to Nevada for the Obama/Biden campaign.

If you would like to head out one of Northern California’s beautiful eastern counties and combine a weekend outing with electing more Democrats to the California Assembly or to Congress, contact Take Back Red California (takebackredcalifornia.org) to get information about canvass opportunities in races outside of our Bay Area bubble.

This is a year with many options – you can be a phoning Democrat, a walking Democrat, or a vacationing Democrat! And on November 5, we will wake up to a brand new day. Our state and our country will be back!

Your action is needed NOW on Assemblymember Loni Hancock's AB 583, an initiative for a pilot publicly funded election for California Secretary of State in 2014. It is before the state Senate, which will act on it by Tuesday. If it succeeds there and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs it, Californians would vote on the initiative in November 2010.

The following blog expires on August 19, 2008.

By Dale F. Mead

The California Clean Money Campaign, coordinating grassroots support statewide for the desperately needed campaign finance reform, is urging advocates to call Senate President pro Tem Don Perata’s office at (916) 651-4009. CCMC also is asking supporters to sign a petition through its Web site.

When you call, tell the person who answers the phone thanks to Senator Perata for being a co-author of AB 583, the Fair Elections bill, and that you hope he’ll do everything he can to help it pass because it’s so important to Californians. If you call when the office is closed, leave a message.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the bill Aug. 7 to the full Senate on a 9-6 vote after a massive turnout of nearly 80 supporters to the committee hearing Aug. 4.

Its chance of adoption jumped in July when the appropriations problem was solved. Funding would come from a hike in lobbyist fees to $350/year—$50 for non-profit organizations—and from voluntary tax contributions on state income tax forms.

The lobbyist fee hike is reasonable; lobbyists pay $350 per year in Minnesota.Currently California lobbyists pay far less than in most states, $25 for two years.

The Secretary of State regulates lobbyists, so having lobbyists substantially fund campaigns through impartial fees instead of sponsoring candidates would be essential to restore electoral integrity.

The Califorrnia Clean Money Campaign roused supporters from all over the state to pack the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. CCMC Leaders organizes carpools to Sacramento from as far away as Orange County and reimbursed drivers for gasoline for the trip.

Appropriations Chairman Tom Torlakson was quoted as saying that that CCMC "definitely won the prize" for the most supporters for any bill this year, and that there were so many people that "it looked like people were circling out one door and coming in another to testify again."

ECDC endorsed AB 583 shortly after Hancock introduced it. The bill passed the Assembly last year. In June it passed in the Senate Elections Committee. Please contact your state senator to urge passage. California Clean Money Campaign has a full report on AB583 at its web site.

Just before heading to Texas on June 16 to raise funds from energy industry executives, John McCain announced his solution to high gas prices: Let the oil executives drill for oil off our beaches, including California's. Two weeks later it was clear that oil and gas industry executives and employees had picked their candidate -- they had donated $1.1 million to McCain's presidential bid, three-quarters of which came after his June 16 "solution" to lessening our dependence on oil. According to the Washington Post:

"Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling." Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling By Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Sunday, July 27, 2008; Page A10

But the biggest news is, this isn't big news. It's standard operating politics in America. And it's legal bribery. With stories like this, why wouldn't the "reasonable person" believe that the oil industry has been running the country from the White House for eight years? Years of rule by:

• a Failed oil man -Bush
• a former oil industry service conglomerate CEO who holds secret energy industry meetings his first year in office - Cheney; and
• a former Chevron director who had a Chevron oil tanker named after her - Rice

Make no mistake, big oil has chosen their man - McCain.