Upcoming Meetings
By Ann Nye —
June Club Meeting
Please Note: Our June meeting will be one week later than our regular rhythm in order to avoid a conflict with Father’s Day!
Join us for our June 23 meeting. Our speaker, State Senator Ben Allen, represents the 24th Senate District, covering the Westside, Hollywood, South Bay, and Santa Monica Mountains communities of Los Angeles County. Ben was first elected in 2014 and is now serving his third term in the State Senate.
Ben chairs the Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee and co-chairs the Legislature’s Environmental Caucus, is a member of the Legislative Jewish Caucus, chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Arts, and the Senate Select Committee on Aerospace and Defense. He previously served as Chair of the Education Committee (2017-2019) and Chair of the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee (2015-2016).
Ben has thrown himself into the important work of state government, focusing on wise decision-making and pushing for reforms that address systemic inadequacies in our state. He has authored nearly 60 new laws in various areas, from environmental protection to electoral reform.
For more information, or to register for our meeting, please click here.
Presidential Debate Watch Party
Yes, that’s right, the first Presidential Debate will be held very early this year on Thursday, June 27.
Come cheer President Joe Biden on and react as you think fit when Convicted Felon Donald Trump speaks. Should be fun.
The Palos Verdes Democrats reserved the private room at Good Stuff Restaurant in the Promenade at 550 Deep Valley Drive in Rolling Hills Estates. That’s the center with Regal Cinema and the ice skating rink.
Please let us know if you plan on attending! For more info and to RSVP, please click here.
2024 Summer Picnic
Mark you calendar and Save the Date! Our 2024 PV Democrats Summer Picnic will be Sunday, July 21 at St Luke’s Presbyterian Church, 26825 Rolling Hills Rd, RHE from 5-7pm.
For more information and to RSVP, please click here.
PV Democrats May 2024 Meeting Report
By Nancie Silver —
The Palos Verdes Democrats met in person at the Peninsula Center Library and on zoom on Sunday, May 19. The theme of the meeting was How Politico is Covering the 2024 Presidential Race, featuring guest speaker Julia Marsh who was recently chosen to head up Politico’s California operation as Editorial Director for California. She is the top editor overseeing Politico’s ambitious expansion in the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fifth largest economy. Julia spoke to the club remotely via Zoom.
Julia began by speaking about California congressional races. She referenced a recent Politico article about why California races may be more difficult than expected. (House control could hinge on California. Why Dems don’t have it locked down. ) Traditionally democratic voters – Latinos, Blacks, Asian-Americans, and young voters – are now voting more along economic and gender lines than ethnic lines.
To read the full report from our meeting, see photos, and to watch the video, please click here.
Election of PV Democrats Officers for 2024-2025
By Rob Wynne —
At our May 19 meeting our members unanimously elected the 2024-2025 slate of officers put forward by our Nominating Committee and one candidate nominated by petition of five members. Thus, the officers of the Palos Verdes Democrats for 2024-2025 are:
| Rob Wynne…………… | President |
| Vacant………………….. | 1st Vice President |
| Tim Dixon…………….. | 2nd Vice President |
| Casey Crowe…………. | Recording Secretary |
| Ann Stahl……………… | Corresponding Secretary |
| Al Shadbourne………. | Treasurer |
| Carol Moeller………… | Parliamentarian |
In addition to the elected officers, the following members have volunteered to serve as chairs of standing committees:
| Caryl Schwartz………. | Activism |
| Kathy Bradford……… | Hospitality Co-chair |
| Julie Raley……………. | Hospitality Co-chair |
| Jon Munoz…………… | LACDP Associate Member |
| Larry Donahue……… | Membership |
| Stacey Stoler………… | Newsletter Editor |
| Allison Phillips……… | Publicity |
| Reggie Jue……………. | Webmaster |
And finally, Connie Sullivan will round out our board membership in the position of Immediate Past President.
From the Activism Chair
By Caryl Schwartz —
To preserve and protect American Democracy we must win a trifecta in the 2024 elections. The Supreme Court hearing on Presidential immunity has driven home the urgency that Democrats must control the Presidency, House and Senate. The conservative ideologues on the Court allowed a serious conversation about undoing a central goal of the Founders – preventing a President from becoming a King.
The mistrust in our elections that the former President has seeded requires we win and win big!
To expand the Senate, we must win Toss-Up seats in Arizona, Montana and Ohio. Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania; and Wisconsin are critical battleground states that we also must win. If you have the means to contribute financially, I suggest any of these Senatorial campaigns: Ruben Gallego, Arizona; John Tester, Montana; Sherrod Brown, Ohio; Elissa Slotkin, Michigan; Jacky Rosen, Nevada; Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin; and Rep. Colin Allred, running for Ted Cruz’s seat in Texas.
MAGA extremism in Arizona and North Carolina may present opportunities for Democrats. In North Carolina, Democrat Josh Stein, current AG, versus Mark Robinson, Lt. Governor. This race is critical because a Democrat Governor is the last line of defense against a Republican state legislature on steroids. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/politics/north-carolina-governor-race/index.html
Canvassing and phone banking are the most effective means to increase voter turnout. Statistically voter turnout escalates by 4% with voter-to-voter contact. PV Dems phone banking and canvassing efforts for Congressional races will begin in the upcoming months. When we phone bank and canvass, we call on Democrats and Independents, not MAGA Republicans. Phone banking opportunities available now include:
- Call for Change: https://www.mobilize.us/call4change/
- Field Team 6: https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/?q=phone%20banks&tag_ids=20038
- Grassroots Democrats: https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/event/549753/
- DCCC: https://volunteer.dccc.org/
Interested in Registering voters in person:
- Grassroots Democrats: https://www.mobilize.us/grassrootsdemocratslahq/?tag_ids=134
- Field Team 6: https://www.fieldteam6.org/volunteer-ops
See a list with lots of volunteer opportunities:
- Mobilize.us: https://www.mobilize.us/
PV Dems will be canvassing in two districts in Orange County. CA 45 for Derek Tran and CA 47 for David Min, Katie Porter’s old district.
Please feel free to reach out to me for other resources. Let us know how you want to get involved by clicking on the button below and filling out our Volunteer Interest Form and we will keep you informed of opportunities to make a difference!
Thank you,
Caryl Schwartz
pvcaryl@verizon.net
PV Dem Activism Chair
PV Dems Upcoming Outreach Activities
By Connie Sullivan —
On the weekend of June 8-9, the PV Dems will have a booth at the PVP Chamber of Commerce’s PV Street Fair & Music Festival. Additionally, we’ll have a booth at the RPV 4th of July Celebration. Please stop by either of these booths and say hello. We’d love to talk to you.
If you’d like to volunteer for a two-hour shift at one or both of our booths, please contact Connie Sullivan at: pvedems@gmail.com.
California Democratic Party – May Executive Board Meeting
By Connie Sullivan —
The CDP Executive Board met May 17 – 19 in San Diego. Every four years at this spring meeting the E-Board members elect 20 California Democrats to represent us at the Democratic National Committee. This election is hotly contested and always brings surprises as some incumbents don’t succeed and new members take their places. This year was no exception, with two women and one man who were not re-elected. Also, one woman and one man did not seek re-election.
The resultant contingent now has five new DNC members who will join 15 incumbents. These 2024-2028 DNC members will begin their terms after the August DNC convention. Here are the results of this election: https://cadem.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/DNC-Member-2024-2028-Results.pdf.
The other highlights of the meeting were passage of a compromise resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and taking a position of “support” for ACA 1, Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval. This measure may appear on your ballot in the fall.
According to the author’s summary: “ACA 1 will lower the constitutional vote threshold to 55 percent for both general obligation (GO) bonds and special taxes, when proposed specifically for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of public infrastructure, affordable housing, or supportive housing.” You can bet the Prop 13 folks will be fighting this measure.
LACDP May Report
By Jon Munoz —
The May LACDP meeting was held in person on Tuesday, May 14. This was the first meeting at which interim LACDP Chair Mark Ramos spoke. In his speech he stressed the importance of the November election and urged members against sitting out the election. The JFK Awards at SoFi Stadium were deemed a success with over five hundred attendees. In election-related news, there were speeches given by a number of the nominees to be delegates to the DNC. The elections were held online on May 15. Also, Ben Seinfeld was elected to be interim LACDP Controller, replacing Jacob Haik. All the items on the legislative front were approved. These included support of SB1422, a travel disclosure bill sponsored by State Senator Ben Allen. Another bill that was supported was the bipartisan Retail Crime and Theft package.
June 2024–Climate Corner
By Fraser Perkins —
Climate Change/Ocean Warming/So What?
Last spring something occurred that didn’t get much press coverage: ocean surface temperatures surged. Though oceans have heated up by an average 0.14° F per decade since the 1960s, last spring marked a tipping point. We are now in uncharted waters.
Water absorbs more heat than the equivalent volume of air, about four times as much. This profoundly modulates our weather – summers are cooler and winters warmer because of the oceans’ ability to absorb heat in the summer and release it during winter months. There are at least four consequences of the spike in ocean warming – all threatening.
To see full opinion piece, please click here.
June 2024–Color Me A Democrat
By Fraser Perkins —
Color Me A Democrat: I Love Wyoming, but…
I love Wyoming, but when it comes to presidential voting, I believe all votes should count equally. A vote in California should have the same impact as a vote in Wyoming. I’d even go so far as to say that a vote in Texas should count the same as a vote in both California and the Cowboy State. As things stand now, this is not the situation; voters in lower population states have outsized power due to the vagaries of the Electoral College. On average California has 721,000 people for each of its electoral votes, and Texas has even more, 762,000 people per electoral vote. This stands in stark contrast to Wyoming with only 195,000 people per electoral vote. In essence when it comes to presidential voting, it takes 3.7 Californians to equal 1 Wyomingite.
To see full opinion piece, please click here.
Leave a Reply