Congress will be moving forward with healthcare reform legislation in the coming weeks. The draft bill was scheduled to be released the week of June 15 and has been slowly move through different committees. We want to ensure that real reform really happens. Come and listen to some great speakers, learn more about Single Payer and take action with letter writing.

Speakers:

Al Stroberg, an Ojai resident for 17 years, with a great interest in and personal knowledge of medical care delivery systems.

Dr Rochelle Wilson, an Ojai Valley physician with a B.S is in Nutrition and Food Science from Cal State Long Beach. Medical school was the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific and residency was at University of California, Irvine. As a family physician for 25 years I continually deal with the serious dysfunction of a system that challenges, if not impairs, the quality of the doctor-patient relationship.

Dr. Bill Honigman Progressive Democrats of America, California State Coordinator

Garrett Clifford, an Ojai Valley resident with experience in the health care industry

Refreshments will be available. Small donations always welcome

For more information call 640 7340 or visit the Ojai Valley Democrats website

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced on national television today he would not be running for California governor in 2010 after flirting with a bid for higher office for months.

Elected to a second, four-year term in March, the mayor told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he wanted to devote his full attention to Los Angeles, which is facing its worst fiscal crisis in decades.

Villaraigosa’s decision adds a dash of clarity to the race for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination which, at the moment, appears will be between state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Source:  Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2009

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced on national television today he would not be running for California governor in 2010 after flirting with a bid for higher office for months.

Elected to a second, four-year term in March, the mayor told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that he wanted to devote his full attention to Los Angeles, which is facing its worst fiscal crisis in decades.

Villaraigosa’s decision adds a dash of clarity to the race for the 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nomination which, at the moment, appears will be between state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Source:  Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2009

Title: Salsa & VAN Training
Description: This first training will be open to all party members, however the seats at the
computers will be reserved for one member from each club who will be responsible for doing the Salsa and VAN work for their club – certainly can be the President of the club. There is internet access throughout the training facility so people are welcome to bring their
laptops and join us.

In Salsa we will teach:
1. Entering, or updating a member, or non-member friend listing in the
database.
2. Sorting the database for emailings on behalf of your club.
3. Sending newsletters and action alerts to our club.

In VAN we will teach:
1. Sorting data
2. Printing voter registration reports.

Cost: $15
Reservations: Sandra Kinsler skinsler@VenturaCountyDemocrats.com or 805-641-2400.
Start Time: 9:00
Date: 2009-07-25
End Time: 13:00

Title: Salsa & VAN Training
Description: This first training will be open to all party members, however the seats at the
computers will be reserved for one member from each club who will be responsible for doing the Salsa and VAN work for their club – certainly can be the President of the club. There is internet access throughout the training facility so people are welcome to bring their
laptops and join us.

In Salsa we will teach:
1. Entering, or updating a member, or non-member friend listing in the
database.
2. Sorting the database for emailings on behalf of your club.
3. Sending newsletters and action alerts to our club.

In VAN we will teach:
1. Sorting data
2. Printing voter registration reports.

Cost: $15
Reservations: Sandra Kinsler skinsler@VenturaCountyDemocrats.com or 805-641-2400.
Start Time: 9:00
Date: 2009-07-25
End Time: 13:00

Due to the Father’s Day holiday on Sunday, the meeting of the Ventura County Young Democrats has been switched from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday evening the 24th.

Title: Young Democrats
Location: Peet\’s Coffee on Moorpark Rd. in Thousand Oaks
Description: Ventura County Young Democrats meeting at 7pm.

Location:
595 Moorpark Road, Suite B
Thousand Oaks, CA, 91360
(805) 497-8366
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2009-06-24
End Time: 20:30

IN A MOVE THAT WILL SURPRISE absolutely nobody, State Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) voted in committee last week against a proposal to tack a tax on cigarettes to raise about $1.2 billion annually for the state’s ailing general fund.

He also recently voted against two measures, SB 602 and SB 603, which would make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes.

The senator joined two other Republicans in voting no on SB 600, despite the fact that polls, such as one conducted after the May vote and another done in April by Field Research Inc. say an overwhelming majority of state residents favor an increase in tobacco taxes and don’t want to see drastic cuts to health-care programs for low-income and disabled residents and children.

In the last 10 years, tobacco companies have spent millions in California to keep taxes on tobacco products here among the lowest in the nation. Strickland alone has been the recipient of a whopping $91,550 in tobacco contributions since he entered politics.

According to tobacco-facts.net, California’s tobacco tax rate of 87 cents per pack is 32nd in the nation. Rhode Island is No. 1 with $3.46 a pack. Some city governments in other areas of the U.S. have imposed their own taxes as well.

The bill, co authored by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has earmarked the revenue to go toward the general fund, lung cancer research, tobacco cessation and control, school-based anti-smoking programs and tobacco enforcement efforts.  SB 600 is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.

Besides generating much-needed revenue, the bill is expected to discourage smoking among youth, according to a press release issued by Padilla.

“California needs to do more to keep tobacco away from kids,” Padilla said.  “With every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, youth smoking is reduced by about seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by about four percent. Raising the tobacco tax reduces youth smoking,” he added.

The bill’s co-sponsor, the American Cancer Society, argues that the increase is long overdue and since California’s last tobacco tax increase, 44 states have increased their tobacco taxes. The American Heart Association, also a co-sponsor, argues that this bill will help reduce heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer in the United States.

Assemblymember Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) has introduced a similar bill, AB 89.

STRICKLAND HAS A LONG HISTORY of siding with Big Tobacco on legislation, especially when it comes to sales of tobacco products to minors. Beyond the recent votes against bills to curb youth smoking, while in the Assembly he voted against allowing the Department of Health Services to conduct stings on businesses selling tobacco to minors. It passed into law anyway. He also voted against restricting non face-to-face sales of cigarettes. The measure was signed into law by Schwarzenegger.

In May, he voted against SB 4 which prohibits smoking on any state coastal beach or state park unit, except in adjacent parking lots.

The Ventura County Republican Party has been well funded by tobacco dollars as well, with $50,000 deposited into its account in May of 2008 by Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris.

Other county tobacco donations include $28,650 for Assembly member Audra Strickland (R-Moorpark), $20,900 for Assembly member Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita), and $18,900 for Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster). None of the current Democratic legislators have accepted tobacco money.

Watch to see how all these politicians vote when the bills come before them.

SB 600 is opposed by California Chamber of Commerce, California Black Chamber of Commerce, the Black Chamber of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the California Taxpayers Assn. and the Neighborhood Market Assn. All these groups have received tobacco contributions, according to tobacco-facts.net.

Of the two senators who sided with Strickland in the Senate Health Committee, both have also accepted tobacco money. Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) accepted $26,800 and Sen. Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) took $10,100.

An email went out a few hours ago from LACDP Chair and Male Vice-Chair of the California Democratic Party Eric Bauman, indicating his endorsement of AD-35 Assemblymember Pedro Nava for Attorney General. From the email:

I’m Eric Bauman, California Democratic Party Vice-Chair. I Endorse Pedro Nava for Attorney General.

Click here to watch video

Pedro Nava understands your dreams. He knows what it takes to support a family. That’s why he is the only candidate for Attorney General with a 100% Labor Fed voting record. That’s why as Attorney General, he will fight for California’s working families.

He is an environmental champion. You deserve clean air, clean water. Your children should not be poisoned by toxic chemicals when they go to school. That’s why he’s a 100% Natural Resource Defense Council vote and why Pedro earned the highest voting record as a member of the California Coastal Commission from the Sierra Club.

CALPRIG has recognized him for consumer protection. He has a 100% voting record from Equality CA and Planned Parenthood.

As a student in public schools, he learned the value of public education, teachers and hard work. Like you, nobody handed him anything. He worked his way through school. While attending community college and CSU, he worked as a grocery clerk, a member of the Retail Clerks International Association Local 1167. Without union help, he never would have graduated from college.

Democrats are proud to support Pedro Nava. He will fight for us.

Requests for donations follow, as usual. The race for Attorney General will be among the more interesting to watch during the upcoming election cycle, with multiple big names in the fray. Bauman’s endorsement should give Mr. Nava a boost among Southern California and Los Angeles insiders and activists, though it’s still very early in this important race.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former two term governor, all but announced his candidacy for governor today with a fund raising appeal sent to his supporters. The email included what will likely be his theme. “This state is desperately in need of creativity and new ideas. The state also needs…the know-how and experience to get this impossible job done.”  In these tough times, calling for know-how and experience in the state’s top executive spot is smart — and is certainly nothing that any of the others interested can claim.

Editor Dennis Wyatt says, “Jerry Brown was right. Thirty-one years ago when Brown ended his second term as governor of California he not only had reduced taxes but had built up the largest state surplus ever. On his watch, California created 1 out of every 4 new jobs in the nation. He also was the trailblazer for building and energy appliance standards as well as solar and alternative energy. How did Brown do it? Simple. He refused to spend money like a fleet of sailors on a 48-hour leave after two years on the high seas. If California had continued to move forward at the end of Brown’s first go around as governor using his discipline and out-of-the-box thinking it is doubtful we’d be going through much of the pain that we are today.”

As another writer recently put it, “All you need to know about who California Democrats really are can be found on Jerry Brown’s Wikipedia page. He is us. His values are the sort I grew up with — and, boy, the similarities are uncanny. You see, what we have here is the curious mix of seasoned spirituality, environmentalism, brains and quirkiness — plus that ROGUE fighting spirit that Californians are known for… This is a Californian who could be Steinbeck’s Tom Joad when it comes to agriculture in our state — and believe me he is going to care about water. Jerry Brown is the kind of Californian who would be as comfortable camping in the Sur’s forests as he would be at the swankiest Nob Hill soiree… He’s the real California NEW DEAL.”

For more info:
http://www.jerrybrown.org
http://www.facebook.com/jerrybrown
http://www.twitter.com/jerrybrown2010

State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former two term governor, all but announced his candidacy for governor today with a fund raising appeal sent to his supporters. The email included what will likely be his theme. “This state is desperately in need of creativity and new ideas. The state also needs…the know-how and experience to get this impossible job done.”  In these tough times, calling for know-how and experience in the state’s top executive spot is smart — and is certainly nothing that any of the others interested can claim.

Editor Dennis Wyatt says, “Jerry Brown was right. Thirty-one years ago when Brown ended his second term as governor of California he not only had reduced taxes but had built up the largest state surplus ever. On his watch, California created 1 out of every 4 new jobs in the nation. He also was the trailblazer for building and energy appliance standards as well as solar and alternative energy. How did Brown do it? Simple. He refused to spend money like a fleet of sailors on a 48-hour leave after two years on the high seas. If California had continued to move forward at the end of Brown’s first go around as governor using his discipline and out-of-the-box thinking it is doubtful we’d be going through much of the pain that we are today.”

As another writer recently put it, “All you need to know about who California Democrats really are can be found on Jerry Brown’s Wikipedia page. He is us. His values are the sort I grew up with — and, boy, the similarities are uncanny. You see, what we have here is the curious mix of seasoned spirituality, environmentalism, brains and quirkiness — plus that ROGUE fighting spirit that Californians are known for… This is a Californian who could be Steinbeck’s Tom Joad when it comes to agriculture in our state — and believe me he is going to care about water. Jerry Brown is the kind of Californian who would be as comfortable camping in the Sur’s forests as he would be at the swankiest Nob Hill soiree… He’s the real California NEW DEAL.”

For more info:
http://www.jerrybrown.org
http://www.facebook.com/jerrybrown
http://www.twitter.com/jerrybrown2010