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December 22, 2005

California Democrats made history in 2005. Our Democratic elected leaders and officials are making us proud by standing up to the Republicans and their culture of corruption.

Let’s take a look at some of our accomplishments over the last year:

In January, we hosted the DNC Chair Candidate Forum in Sacramento with more than 600 activists in attendance. The Democratic Party was very fortunate to have such a talented and experienced group of individuals running for National Chair, and this was the first time many California Democrats were able to hear what these candidates had to say.

In February, the Association of State Democratic Chairs formally endorsed Gov. Howard Dean and with my help, just a few weeks later he was elected to serve as DNC Chair.

Howard has spent most of the year calling for Democrats to commit to reforming our Party from the bottom up -- strengthening the State Parties and their grassroots and integrating state and national party operations by supporting Democrats organizing in local communities. Democrats also made history by electing California’s own Congressman Mike Honda as Vice Chair, the highest office in a major political party ever held by an Asian Pacific Islander American.

In March, after the DSCC reorganization was complete, I met with many DSCC members in Los Angeles and Sacramento to discuss ways to help open up year-round Democratic offices and determine a more coherent message. This exchange of ideas was immensely valuable to the Party in crafting and organizing our 2005 state convention.

Also in March Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi created the House Democrats’ Faith Working Group to work "with faith communities on common values such as fighting poverty, improving schools, speaking out against materialism and greed, providing better housing, and fighting for social and economic justice." This was another positive and well-received way for our Party to prove that the Republicans don’t own religion.

In April, we held our state convention in Los Angeles, where I was grateful for the confidence and support I received in being re-elected as your Chair. One of the highlights of the convention was DNC Chair Howard Dean speaking at our dinner and also making an impromptu appearance to open a special screening of "Outfoxed." Talk about a crowd-pleaser! For the first time, we held several different town-hall type meetings and workshops on topics such as health care, education and messaging. This new format was well received and we hope to do something similar in 2006.

In May, "The City of Angels" and Antonio Villaraigosa made history when he was elected mayor, bringing a new excitement and his wealth of experience to California’s largest city. Not since 1872 has Los Angeles had a Latino mayor, and never before has there been such an influx of new voters with such diversity, especially among African-Americans, Latinos and Asian Pacific Islanders. Reaching out to these voters has become one of our Party’s top goals.

On June 13, Arnold deepened his line in the sand when he officially called for the unnecessary and wasteful special election. But his inability to work with the legislature and his refusal for compromise, as well as his lavish fundraising, worked against him. This governor’s plan to polarize our state and push through his special interest agenda began a long slide, along with his ratings. Our California teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, correctional officers and all of Labor deserve an extra-big thanks for standing up to the governor and telling the public their story.

The summer months were also filled with events up and down the state and I had a wonderful experience visiting many of these, especially reaching out to the "Red" parts of our state. Through our efforts and the work of so many dedicated grass-roots activists, these areas are beginning to turn "Blue" – and it’s another high priority to continue this throughout 2006 and beyond.

In September Democrats celebrated two historic victories with the outright win in the primary of Councilman Ted Lieu in the 53rd Assembly District special election, winning the seat formerly held by the late Mike Gordon. And in San Jose, the highest ranking elected Vietnamese woman in our state, Madison Nguyen won her seat on the San Jose City Council.

In October, the Party met in Manhattan Beach for our Executive Board meeting, where the Party took its official positions on the propositions and the campaign season was in full swing. The Alliance for a Better California, along with California’s many labor organizations, were terrific partners in the efforts to increase voter turnout by frequent mail, phone and door-to-door voter contact. The poll numbers leading up to the November 8 special election showed that our simple and direct message was getting through. All told, the CDP special election mail totaled more than 16 million pieces and our Promote and Protect the Vote operation assisted voters throughout the state on Election Day.

November 8 ushered in a sweeping victory for Democratic values, as all of Arnold’s special interest propositions went down in defeat. Headlines such as "A Bruising Blow From the People" said it all. California voters sent a message that was loud and clear: protect our principles and the rights of our children under Proposition 98, the first amendment rights of our public employees, the rights of our teachers, the right to privacy of our teenage girls on choice, and the voters' rejection of a DeLay-like takeover of our legislature.

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, police and correctional officers, and all of Labor: who knew that these hard-working people could make such a difference in helping to "terminate" the governor’s self-serving special interest agenda? But their voices, their passion and their refusal to back down in their beliefs, led to thousands more joining them every step of the way and ultimately paved the way for victory.

2005 also saw the culture of corruption among the Republican Party and the Bush administration finally come to light and Democrats like Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi have been front and center in making sure that the cronyism and greed continues to be exposed.

Earlier this month, the Democratic Party helped to kick off the bi-partisan Yellow Ribbon America campaign to collect toys and other items for California’s deployed National Guard and Reservists and their families. This program has been a wonderful success with over 40,000 toys collected for our troops’ families. We were proud to have been a part of it, however this war must end and our troops must come home.

I want to again acknowledge and give thanks to our entire CDP staff, to the thousands of volunteers who took time out from their families and jobs to protect California's future, and to the grassroots activists for all their help throughout this past election season. I look forward to working together once more in 2006 when we will defeat Governor Schwarzenegger and bring California back to the people.

Wishing you and yours, Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year.

You many contact Chairman Torres at chairman@cadem.org.

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December 20, 2005

Some things never change…I was fighting this issue back in 1975:

“California drivers are charged substantially more for auto insurance if they live in mostly Latino or African-American areas compared with white areas, according to a report released Monday by Consumers Union.”

« November 2005 | Archives | January 2006 »

December 13, 2005

I wanted to let you all know about one of the projects that I have been working on since our win in the November Special Election. I am a member of the Democratic National Committee's Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling. It is the Commission’s job to study every aspect of our Party's presidential nominating schedule to develop a 2008 primary and caucus calendar that best reflects our Party’s values.

On Saturday, we held our last meeting in Washington, D.C. The Commission concluded that we should recommend that more states be involved in early voting alongside Iowa and New Hampshire, but before the calendar opens up on February 5th. Our official recommendation reflects the Commission’s view that we need to add states to the early process of selecting a presidential nominee to better reflect the ethnic diversity of our nation. The two states will be determined at a later date, but they will be caucus states.

The Commission is made up of a mix of elected officials, DNC members, representatives of State Parties, academics, organized labor officials, grassroots activists and other Party leaders.

Here are our recommendations:
"a. That the first caucus be held in Iowa and the first primary be held in New Hampshire.
b. That there be an additional one or two first-tier caucuses between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
c. That following the New Hampshire primary, and prior to the opening of the regular window on February 5, 2008, there be one or two presidential preference primaries.
d. That the Rules and Bylaws Committee select the appropriate date on which the pre-window period shall begin, which date shall under no circumstances be earlier than January 14, 2008.
e. That the Rules and Bylaws Committee determine that (other than Iowa and New Hampshire) whose contests may occur during the pre-window period, applying the following criteria: racial and ethnic diversity; regional diversity; and economic diversity including union density.

The Commission desires to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that the inclusion of additional contests in the pre-window period not exacerbate the problem of front-loading. … The Commission urges the Rules and Bylaws Committee, in selecting the states (in addition to Iowa and New Hampshire), whose contests will be allowed to occur in the pre-window period, to consider an appropriate means to limit the aggregate number of delegates allocated through pre-window contests.”

Regarding the timing of the stages of the primaries, “the Commission proposes that:
The calendar be divided into the following five time stages:
Stage I: March 4 through March 17, inclusive
Stage II: March 18 through April 7, inclusive
Stage III: April 8 through April 28, inclusive
Stage IV: April 29 through June 10, inclusive”

As a result, California will receive 40 percent more delegates under this plan. This would result in California having approximately 140 more delegates to our National Convention in 2008.

In addition, I offered an amendment to the Commission’s final report, which was adopted unanimously, that the DNC seriously consider the American Plan for implementation in the 2012 presidential election cycle. The American Plan is an innovative approach to scheduling primaries. It spreads the nomination calendar across ten intervals of time and randomly selects the order of the states one presidential cycle to the next. Any given state would have an opportunity to be earlier or later in the calendar. This would expand retail politicking to other smaller states. The American Plan is designed to solve the problem of “front-loading.” Over the last twenty years, more and more states have scheduled their primaries increasingly earlier in attempts to capture more political power, but the result has been presidential races driven more by money than retail politicking.

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December 06, 2005

I participated in a great bipartisan event yesterday at the state capitol to kick off the Yellow Ribbon America and National Guard Association of California’s holiday toy drive for military families. We held a press conference to publicize the program and the drop off locations throughout our state. You can drop toys and DVDs off at our Sacramento office, located at 1401 21st Street, Suite 200, in Sacramento, or you can click here to find a drop off location near you. For some pictures of the event yesterday, click here. This is a great cause and we all should make an effort to help the families of those that are sacrificing so much for our nation.

« November 2005 | Archives | January 2006 »

December 02, 2005

It was my pleasure to make the motion at today’s DNC meeting in Phoenix to elect our own Aleita Huguenin to serve as Chair of the Western States Caucus. The more than 70 members of the caucus in attendance unanimously agreed that Aleita is the right person for the job and elected her Chair.

Aleita is the manager for CTA’s governmental relations department and was instrumental in helping to defeat Arnold’s propositions in last month’s special election.

Congratulations Aleita!

« November 2005 | Archives | January 2006 »

December 01, 2005

Today, all Americans stand with our global community in honoring the more than 20 million lives this pandemic has taken. More than 15,000 people become infected everyday with HIV/AIDS. This disease continues to devastate our nation and our world.

Today, let us recommit to fighting and ultimately discovering a cure for this disease. Third world nations need our assistance in fighting AIDS now more than ever. We call on President Bush to provide all the $15 billion he pledged in 2003 to fight AIDS and HIV. So far, he has under-funded our nation’s commitment every year. We also call on the Bush administration to stop protecting the pharmaceutical industry in its delay of the introduction of generic medicines to poor and developing countries.

The stakes are too high in this fight to allow anything but a full commitment of our resources to fight this disease in every way possible.

Read More on World AIDS Day From Democratic Leaders

House Leader Nancy Pelosi

DNC Chairman Howard Dean

Senator Barbara Boxer