Upcoming Meeting
Join us for our February meeting. Our speaker, Congresswoman Nanette Barragán, will address the
question Can Comprehensive Immigration Legislation Solve Our Border and Citizenship
Problems?
Congresswoman Barragán was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2016,
serving CA’s 44th Congressional district. She serves as the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus (CHC), to address issues such as family separation and comprehensive immigration
reform. She was also appointed to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2019, which
legislates on health care, environmental protection, renewable energy, and other issues.
To register for this meeting, click here.
PV Democrats January 2024 Meeting Report
By Nancie Silver —
The Palos Verdes Democrats kicked off 2024 on January 21 with Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, author, commentator, and long-time Republican political operative. About 40 people attended in person at the Peninsula Center Library, and 72 attended via Zoom. It was no surprise that the attendance was the biggest in years.
Rick Wilson is a heavy hitter who knows what he’s talking about. He delivered the good, bad, and ugly truth about what Democrats have to do to win the Presidency this year and talked about all the ways Democrats could lose.
Many of you have already viewed the video from January 21, but if you haven’t, TODAY is the day to watch it. Rick is a dynamic speaker and he laid it all out there for us in black and white. What we Democrats do with this information is up to us.
To see the complete report and to watch a video of our meeting, please click here.
Have you ever wondered how someone becomes a delegate to the Democratic National Convention?
By Connie Sullivan —
There are several ways to become a delegate, and delegate selection will take place in the next few months.
You can find detailed information on how to become a delegate at the California Democratic Party’s website, CADEM.org.
Briefly, there are three ways:
1) Run to be a district-level delegate at a caucus on April 21, 2024
2) Apply to be appointed as a Party Leader/Elected Official (PLEO) Delegate, or
3) Apply to be appointed as an At-Large Delegate
Applicants to 2) and 3) will be appointed at the May 18, 2024 Executive Board meeting of the California Democratic Party.
The filing period for the district-level delegate election opened on January 16 and will close on March 21, 2024. The filing form (Form A) can be found on CADEM.org. Congressional district 36 (Ted Lieu) will send 3 men and 3 women delegates, and one woman alternate to the convention. Nonbinary people may also run and if they garner enough votes, they will be included among the 6 delegates plus one alternate.
It is common for candidates to form slates with other candidates to increase their chances of winning. It’s also common for candidates to rent buses to take their friends and family to the caucus so they can vote for the candidate. Another tactic candidates employ is to provide goodies to the voters as they stream in to vote. A district-level caucus can be a lot of fun, especially for the winners.
If you think you have a better chance of being appointed, either as a PLEO or an At-Large Delegate, you will need to complete Form B (PLEO) or Form C (At-Large). The filing period for these applications opens February 12 and closes April 24, 2024.
Every registered Democrat in California is eligible to run or be appointed as a delegate. If you think you’d like to try to snag a delegate spot, I encourage you to give it a try by going to CADEM.org and following the filing instructions. Good luck!
Nominating Committee Formed
In January the Board approved the appointment of the three members of our Nominating Committee. Per our bylaws, one member can be from our Board of Directors and the other two should be members. This year our board member who has agreed to serve in this capacity is Rob Wynne (rob@wynnepr.com), first vice president and president-elect of our club.
The other two Nominating Committee members are Fraser Perkins (flperkins@gmail.com) and Mehran Moshfeghi (m_moshfeghi@yahoo.com).
Over the next few months these three will contact club members to see if they would be interested in joining our board. If you would like to indicate your interest in serving on the board, please contact one of these folks.
Our election of board members will take place at our May meeting.
From the Activism Chair
By Caryl Schwartz —
“Action is the antidote to anxiety. The harder we work, the less anxious we will be. And our action will make Joe Biden’s re-election in 2024 more likely! A win-win!” ~Robert Hubbell
This is my first newsletter since returning from Budapest and witnessing firsthand the impact authoritarianism has on a society. We have work to do!
Most Critical: Let’s Flip a Congressional District BLUE. Special election in NY 3rd Congressional District to replace George Santos. Election is Feb. 13th. This race is a toss-up. Daily Virtual Phone Banks 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM in support of Former Congressman Tom Suozzi. You can join on Zoom or feel free to join me and other phone bankers at my home on Mondays at 3:00 PM. RSVP to me at pvcaryl@verizon.net. Flipping this seat BLUE reduces the Republican’s thin majority. https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/596030/
Local Elections Matter – Torrance City Council Elections, March 5th
Please join PV Dems: Volunteers needed to walk District 2 and District 6 on behalf of Bridgett Lewis and Jeremy Gerson
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- Jeremy Gerson, teacher and current School Board Member, is running for Torrance City Council District 6. https://www.Jeremygerson.com
- Bridgett Lewis, Democrat up for reelection to District 4. Bridgett is Manager of Homeland Security, Port of Long Beach. https://www.Lewisfortorrance.com
California is the roadmap to winning back control of Congress so think about volunteering or donating to CA Congressional District Elections.
PV Dems will be focusing on CA 27: Look for sign-ups for phone banks soon. George Whitesides is running to defeat Incumbent Mike Garcia. https://www.georgewhitesides.com/
Other Volunteer Opportunities:
Interested in registering new voters?
Visit Field Team 6 https://www.fieldteam6.org/volunteer-ops
Sign-up for: In-person voter registration, phone banking, post carding, texting
Visit Grassroots Democrats HQ https://grassrootsdems.org/
Opportunities to work on electing Democrats throughout the country
Sign-up for: In-person canvassing, voter registration, phone banking, post carding, texting
Other Activism and volunteer opportunities, visit Indivisible South Bay LA https://indivisiblesouthbay.com/
Write Letters to Voters from home: Vote Forward https://votefwd.org/
LACDP Report
By Jon Munoz —
Recent LACDP meetings were held in December 2023 and January 2024. The primary focus of both was endorsements for the upcoming March primary. Of special note was the race for LA County District Attorney. LACDP voting members voted by a margin of 66% to endorse current DA George Gascon for a second term.
In another high-profile race – for LA City Council District 4, which stretches from Los Feliz to Sherman Oaks – LACDP members voted to endorse Nithya Raman for a second term. In her speech Councilperson Raman touted her work on the largest expansion of renter protections in 40 years and a massive reduction in street homelessness.
All candidate endorsements in AD 66 were approved. These included Bridgett Lewis (District 2) and Jeremy Gerson (District 6) for Torrance City Council. Gardena City Council races (AD 61 & 66) endorsements for Mark Henderson and Paulette Francis were also approved.
Lastly, it was noted that the Chairman’s Holiday Party, held at BMO Stadium, was an enormous success with over four hundred attendees.
February 2024 Climate Corner
By Fraser Perkins —
Report Card Time!
As 2024 dawns, it’s appropriate to issue a climate report card on how each state is doing – which states have low carbon footprints per capita and which states are pumping out CO2 like there’s no tomorrow (which may actually turn out to be the case, if we don’t change). In the spirit of a lazy, tardy Santa Claus, I’ll look at which states are naughty, which are nice, which deserve brickbats, and which deserve kudos. This is easy – it’s the calculation of CO2 emitted per capita for each state.
As of 2020 praise and kudos go to…
| State | Rank | Metric Tons (MT) of CO2 per capita per year |
| NY | 1 | 7.1 |
| MA | 2 | 7.4 |
| CA | 3 | 7.7 |
| MD | 4 | 7.8 |
| VT | 5 | 8.4 |
To see the complete Climate Corner post, please click here.
February 2024 Color Me A Democrat
By Fraser Perkins —
A Donald Trump Photo Essay
Forward
A new year, an election year, and time for a new project. I decided to make a YouTube channel entitled “The Trump Follies” dealing with the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump, using facts and photos sprinkled with occasional humor. I’ve finished four episodes with more to follow…to see Click; comments welcome…
Episode 1 President Trump and Hunter Biden. A guide for discussing Hunter Biden.
Episode 2 A Photo Essay on Donald Trump. The article below covers some of this episode.
Episode 3 Trump and the Military. Trump has denigrated our military in a way most of us abhor.
Episode 4 Climate Change. Quite a bit longer, this episode shows how Climate Change threatens each state.
Going forward I want Episode 5 to be along the lines of “Trump and Women” documenting the misogynistic behavior of Donald Trump, culminating in the SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v Wade.
But to do this I need your help!
Please send me, flperkins@gmail.com, relevant historical material, facts, articles, links, and insights documenting Donald Trump and women. Once I have a first draft, I will send it out to everyone who participates for editing. I also need appropriate royalty-free background music to run during the episode. To state the obvious, this has relevancy beyond the confines of the South Bay Area, but I believe, as Rick Wilson emphasized at our January Meeting, we must all pool our resources to ensure 45 ≠ 47.
(As an aside this is one of my favs for potential bumper stickers.)
Thanks in advance to all of you who participate in this episode.
A Photo Essay
It appears that as of this writing, in January 2024, Donald Trump will indeed be the Republican nominee for president. Many have written of the anticipated horrors of a second Trump Presidency, but I highly recommend the January – February edition of The Atlantic for an in-depth dissection of the consequences of a Trump victory. Rather than a written essay, this month I submit “A Donald Trump Photo Essay”.
To see the complete editorial, please click here.
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