Susan Jordan is running for the office Pedro Nava will vacate in 2010 and launched her campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 35th Assembly District a year ago. Jordan is director of the nonprofit environmental advocacy group, the California Coastal Protection Network, and was formerly associated with the organization Vote the Coast. She has been active in environmental issues for years, and was a leading opponent of the BHP Billiton LNG proposal off the Ventura County coast.
After earning her Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Susan worked as a community health educator as the Director of Community Relations for the Women’s Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She served as the Chair of the Barrier Methods Committee and spearheaded a seven-year campaign to gain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a barrier method of birth control still in use today. Susan’s interest and commitment to public policy analysis and reform grew during the 14 years she spent as Senior Partner in the research arm of a large national strategic business development and consulting firm. She left her business career to devote herself to environmental protection issues and served as Chair and Member of the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission from 2002-2005. She is an award-winning environmental leader, business woman and health advocate with 15 years of experience working to protect California’s coastline as an economic, environmental and recreational resource. Susan brings a lifetime of experience meeting payroll, managing a business, and raising a child  (she is the wife of Assemblyman Pedro Nava ) while dedicating her life to the betterment of her community.

Das Williams has served 4 years as legislative aide, 5 years teaching, 6 years on the Santa Barbara City Council, and working in over 26 elections for progressive candidates and causes. He grew up locally, attended local schools in Ventura and Santa Barbara and attended Santa Barbara City College before transferring to U.C. Berkeley, where he earned his degree in Political Science. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science & Management from UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science, with a focus in water pollution, planning processes, and land-use law.
In addition to his service on the Santa Barbara City Council, Das has been active as a community organizer for CAUSE, a Ventura based non-profit, presently heading the group’s efforts to stop a proposed Wal-Mart development in Ventura. Currently he teaches at Antioch University in Santa Barbara, serves as a Trustee of Peabody Charter School and on the national board of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
On the Santa Barbara City Council, he spearheaded the successful effort to pass some of the toughest energy efficiency standards in the state that require that 30% of Santa Barbara’s energy comes from renewable sources by 2011. He has been a leader in the effort to stop off-shore oil drilling, protecting the coast and local water supplies by working to restore local creeks and wetlands, and fighting to preserve open space. He led the push to expand the city’s public transit system – reducing traffic and pollution. While the state’s school system has come under increasing stress, Das helped craft a plan to avoid layoffs at local schools and expand critical after-school programs. Recently, he helped balance the city budget without cutting vital city services.

Debate moderator:   Edward Castillo

At the November 16, 2009, Executive Board Meeting, Mario Quintana, age 29, was invited to join the board as member-at-large. At the subsequent Executive Board meeting, December 14th, he was appointed the GOOD Club’s new Communications chair. “2010 is upon us and we must do all that we can to make a positive impact here in the city of Oxnard,” says Quintana.  “I am very excited and inspired to be a part of this organization.”
Mario’s commitment to his hometown was born of the challenges that he faced growing up in the projects of La Colonia. He recalls, how life in the projects was difficult and dangerous. The presence of gangs posed a threat to youngsters like Mario.  He saw their influence win over countless lives once filled with potential and possibility. With his mother’s encouragement, Mario focused his free time and energy on sports.  As a young boy, he played little league baseball, flag football, and basketball.  He concentrated on baseball in high school and college.  Today his passion is coaching little league baseball and flag football.  “I love to volunteer in my old neighborhood of Colonia,” he said.
Mario credits his mother for the positive choices he made. “I made it out of that neighborhood because of the values that my mother instilled in me,” he reflects.  Gloria Rivas Quintana, Mario’s mother, suffered kidney failure when Mario was just a toddler.  She spent the next twenty-five years going through endless hospital visits and medical procedures until—sadly— she passed away two years ago.
Mario graduated from Oxnard High School in 1998.  He went on to earn an A.A. degree in criminal justice from Ventura College and a B.A. degree in political science from CSU Northridge and is employed by AT&T.
The GOOD Club welcomes this dynamic young leader to our ranks.
Dori Maria Jones

Disappointment in progressive quarters spreads as Obama’s proposals wend through the Washington policy and legislative mill, especially the dysfunctional Senate whose rule by minority veto too closely resembles the California legislature. Obama is certainly subject to criticism for not using public pressure more aggressively in matters such  as health care and financial regulatory reform, but  attacks on him  that arm  the Party of No to regain control of Congress in 2010 are  self-defeating.
Some of the disappointment stems from inappropriate comparison between Obama and FDR, both of whom faced eerily similar legacies from their predecessors.  But their timing was different.  FDR’s inauguration followed the collapse of the economy and the banks.  He could safely pillory “malefactors of great wealth” to mobilize  public pressure.  A frightened electorate gave him reliable majorities in both houses of Congress.  Obama came on the scene just as Wall Street collapsed.  His own campaign ranks included many Wall Streeters who, fearing that the GOP had become a sinking ship, moved money and people to Obama and conservative Democrats running in swing districts.  Obama drew unprecedented individual contributions via the internet, but Goldman Sachs was his biggest single contributor. Wall Street  cooperation in using New Deal tools such as the stimulus, FDIC, unemployment insurance, and Social Security drew oxygen away from  implementing more aggressive relief measures reminiscent of the 1930s.  Deepening distress will likely put them on the urgent action agenda again.
Like other new presidents, Obama inherited the ongoing machinery of state and swore to uphold the constitution. As he reiterated repeatedly, turning the ship of state is not like navigating a rowboat or a yacht.  It will take time, more time than many supporters may be prone to give him.  He clearly understands the necessity of mobilizing grassroots support. That was what Organizing for America was all about.  But could he win in an open confrontation with his former colleagues in the Senate and continue to get the concurrence of 60 of them in a long series of pressing matters? For better or for worse, Obama rejected that gamble, for flat out confrontation certainly risks repetition of the rout the Senate handed another Nobel Laureate in 1919 and 1920, Woodrow Wilson.  Events on the ground may yet force an all out confrontation before the election of 2010.
Then, and above all then, mobilization of mass public support will be required to produce  many of Obama’s promised changes. He has compiled significant numbers of progressive changes by executive action, but  this sphere of action is limited. If impatience prevails and progressives desert the hopes of 2008, we had better conjure up  what life will be like, what the Supreme Court would look like, in 2013.  In the meantime, pour all the heat you can muster on Congress and the president to wring everything possible out of Congress.  Just crying sour grapes is full of peril.
Al Dirrim.

Please join the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley as we welcome the Honorable Henry Waxman of the 30th Congressional District.  Representative Waxman is the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.  He will speak to club members and constituents about his role on the committee and other important issues and legislation. 

Congressman Waxman has asked us to locate the meeting so that his constituents from the West San Fernando Valley may attend as well.  Priority seating for Dem club members. 

Agoura Hills / Calabasas Community Center
27040 Malibu Hills Road, Calabasas 
Sunday, January 3, 2010, 10 AM to Noon

j_kapitz@yahool.com.  818-889-1039.  

We  look forward to seeing you!!

Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and the presidents of both the Oxnard and Ventura school boards have thrown their support behind Susan Jordan’s 35th District Assembly run.

Ventura Unified School District Board of Trustees President Mary Haffner and Oxnard School District Board of Trustees President Denis O’Leary join a growing group of local education leaders and others who are passionate about public education and are looking for someone who can best represent the interests of the students and teaching professionals in the state.

“I am supporting Susan because she will be a tireless advocate for our children and our students from preschool to graduate school,” said Eastin. “Too many candidates are fainthearted and weak in the knees. Susan will not be confused or deluded into going along to get along if the price is compromising education. Let us elect someone with a brass backbone. Let us elect Susan Jordan.”

“Susan Jordan courageously fights for what she believes in — starting with quality public education. The children of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties — and throughout California — will be served well when Susan is elected to the State Assembly,” said Ventura Board President Haffner.

“Susan Jordan is an advocate for the people — not a typical politician. She does her homework and makes decisions because they are the right thing to do, not to please the special interests,” Haffner added.

“Susan Jordan has been a strong advocate of a better education for our children and adults. I appreciate Susan’s work to improve our educational system and her knowledgeable advice,” said Oxnard Board President Denis O’Leary.

And Nancy Harter, former president of the Santa Barbara School Board had this to say, “In a time of dwindling resources for our K-12 students, nothing is more important than having legislators who understand the difficulties our schools face and can work to come up with the innovative solutions these challenging times demand. Susan is a listener and a problem solver and stands up for what is right. She has my support.”

As the parent of a college student, Jordan also understands the issues facing our higher education institutions. “At a time when more people than ever need re-training efforts to compete, class sections are being closed and popular programs have long waitlists. There is no greater investment in our future than higher education,” Jordan said.

She also has the support of Ventura County Community College District Trustees Cheryl Heitmann, Stephen Blum and Larry O. Miller.

“We need someone in Sacramento with Susan Jordan’s principled strength and determination to fight for our students. As a parent of a college student, she knows the great promise this generation holds. Cutting back on support to our students is like cutting off our future. Susan knows this and I support her,” Heitmann said.

In addition, Jordan has secured the endorsements of Arthur Joe Lopèz, Trustee, Oxnard School District; Dick Jaquez, Trustee, Oxnard Union High School District; Laura Malakoff, Former President, Santa Barbara School Board; and Marie Lakin, co-chair of Save Our Schools, and immediate past co-president of the Ventura Education Partnership.

Susan Jordan is an award-winning environmental leader, businesswoman, health advocate, mother and former chair of the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission.

Please join us for our last meeting of the year. 

December 9, 6:30 PM — our usual Wednesday
 

General Meeting at the Thousand Oaks Main Library

Our December meeting is our traditional potluck holiday party and officer election. 

Please plan on coming and using your vote to make your voice heard in the

      club.   Potluck dishes should be based on the following last name initials:

       A-E  Appetizers

       F-J   Salads

       K-O  Main Courses

       P-T   Desserts

       U-Z  Drinks

       Or whatever you feel like bringing

We  look forward to seeing you!!

The Democratic Club of Ventura will hold its annual holiday Party on Friday evening 12/18/09. Members and non-member friends are invited for our cocktail and light supper party. RSVP must be given by 12/1/6/09 and sent to SKinsler @ VenturaCountyDemocrats.com.

[This is a copy of the blog containing the acceptance speech of the City of Ventura's new Mayor, Bill Fulton. Mayor Fulton maintains a blog at fulton4ventura.blogspot.com.]

Last night, our new City Council was seated. Congratulations to Mike Tracy, who was seated as a new councilmember and selected as Deputy Mayor. Thanks to Christy Weir, who stepped down as mayor, and Ed Summers, who stepped off the council after four years of excellent service!

The council selected me as mayor for the next two years. I am very grateful for their support. Here’s what I said at the meeting:

It’s long-standing custom to make this moment about the new mayor, who spends a lot of time thanking people and talk all about themselves. Don’t worry. I’ll get to that in a minute.

But I just want to take a second to step back to acknowledge what this moment is really about. What we have just witnessed is something that, in most parts of the world, would be considered nothing less than a miracle. The people seated up here will be responsible for governing this city for the next two years, and they were selected by you, the voters. And the Deputy Mayor and I are sitting in these chairs because, as our city charter calls for, the seven members of the city council have selected us.

In most parts of the world, you don’t elect the people who govern your community — and even if there is an election, there’s no guarantee that the people elected will survive to serve.

I know it may be kind of silly to point all this out. After all, we’re at zero risk for a coup d’etat. But it really is kind of a miracle. So the first thing we should be thankful for is that … in our nation and in our community … the democratic process and the rule of law prevail.

As voters, you may not always agree with what we do. But at least you know how we got here. You know where to find us. And you know that we are ultimately accountable to you.

The first thing I’d like to do is thank my six fellow councilmembers for selecting me as mayor for the next two years.

Being the mayor in Ventura is a tricky job. You have to be simultaneously a leader and a servant of the council; and, of course, a leader and a servant of the community as well. This is a job that has to be approached with a lot of humility. We’re a bunch of independent thinkers. But in these tough times, we will all have to pull together. I will do my best to herd the cats and still be responsive to the cats as well.

I’d especially like to thank Mayor Weir for her leadership over the last two years. Christy, I don’t think you knew what you were getting into when you took this gavel in December of 2007. You have had to deal with far more difficulty and financial hardship than anyone would have expected. And you’ve managed to face with two remarkable traits that don’t usually go together: You’ve stayed upbeat and positive about the future of our community; and at the same time you’ve been steadfast and held your ground when you needed to. Anybody sitting in this chair would do well to emulate your approach to this job.

There are so many people I would like to thank, including those who are here tonight and those who are elsewhere, but I will single out only a few.

I miss my mother, Fran, every day. Many of you remember her. Although she lived to see me first elected in 2003, I still wish she were here today to both inspire me and pester me. I miss my father too. Dad’s been gone for many years, but he was my mentor on political and civic affairs almost from the time we could hold a conversation. I know he’d be proud. He was a stubborn guy – back in our hometown, he ran as a renegade school board candidate in 1947 and almost won, but redeemed himself in 1948 by running again and getting creamed.

I’d especially like to thank my daughter Sara, who came down from college in Northern California to be here today. Sara kind of grew up here at city Hall during her middle and high school years and everybody around this building misses her. Sara inspires me every day. Just by the way she lives her life, she reminds me that the most important thing you can do every single day is wake up determined to make a difference in the world. Sara, I hope my service as mayor helps make your world a better place decades from now.

There are so many other people who have inspired and helped me here, but in the interest of getting on with it I think I will have to thank them individually.

Over the next few weeks the council will work out our agenda for the next two years. This won’t be an easy task. As a community, Ventura has taken a lot of blows in the last year or two. And I hate saying it, but I expect we’ll take a few more before the hard times are done. It is not a time to nurture resentment and assign blame. It is a time to pull together for the good of our community.

I can’t predict what direction the council will likely take, or how we will decide to get there. But I do know two things. First, we’re going to have to reinvent the way we do a lot of things – both here at City Hall and in the community at large. And second, we’re going to have to work together as a community more aggressively than we ever have before.

Ventura is a terrific place to live – so much so that sometimes we become a little complacent and often take it for granted that somehow or other things will work out fine in the end. But in this time of financial crisis, we can’t take anything for granted. We must devote ourselves to reshaping the way we do things in order to lay the foundation for a future that is both prosperous and sustainable.

We must be prosperous as a community , because without prosperity we cannot achieve anything else we want. But our prosperity must be enduring, based on achieving long-term economic goals, not short-term profits. Ventura has reinvented its economy many times on the past, and we are well-positioned to reinvent our economy again in order to ensure generations of prosperity.

We must be financially sustainable as a city government, because unless we are financial sustainable we will not be able to provide our constituents with the things they want and need. This will require not just increasing revenues, but reinventing how we do things, sharing community resources and helping each other, so that we will never again be faced with the difficult choices we are confronting right now.

And finally we must also be an ecologically sustainable community as well. As the Copenhagen conference begins today, climate change to most people in the world is an abstraction. To us it is not. The sea level will rise. It will rise in this city. It will rise in this neighborhood. And it will rise in our lifetimes. You can’t prosper when you are drowning.

If we make progress on all these things – enduring prosperity, a financially sustainable city government, and an ecologically sustainable community – then we will go a long way toward achieving our most important goal, which is to maintain and improve the quality of life of the people who live in Ventura, both today and in the future.

These are big challenges. But I look forward to working with the council and the community to lay the foundation for a better future. For the next two years I will do my best to be a leader and a servant to my colleagues on the council and the community at large.

CA Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez and Assembly Candidate Ernest Morrell

On November 12, Senator Dean Florez, State Senate Majority Leader and candidate for Lieutenant Governor, spent an afternoon with faculty, students and invited guests at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies to discuss education and pressing concerns in California. After a brief introduction by Dr. Ernest Morrell, Senator Florez discussed his educational experiences growing up in Shafter, Kern County. He then shared details of his educational journey from community college, to UCLA and finally Harvard Business School. As a student at UCLA, Senator Florez became involved in politics and as he spoke, compared the concerns while he was a college student to challenges facing students today.

A significant amount of time was set aside for questions for Senator Florez that ranged from topics related to education, prison and the media to passing legislation in Sacramento. Senator Florez offered candid responses and suggestions for how individuals can become involved in politics to make a difference. He elaborated on many of the intricacies of politics and reminded the group of his motto, “Hard Work Matters”.

The informal discussion was arranged by Morrell, UCLA Associate Professor, Associate Director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA), and candidate for the 37th State Assembly district. Florez and Morrell felt the forum was important to discuss serious concerns about the direction in which California is headed. They share a commitment to equitable access to education for all students, care for the environment, and improving the quality of life for Californians.

The Democratic Club of Camarillo will hold its Annual Installation Luncheon Saturday December 5th at 12:00 noon. Ottavio’s Restaurant will be the place to be for the annual celebration in which the Club thanks the outgoing officers and Executive Board and welcomes the team who will lead us into the next election year.

Ventura County Democratic Party Chair Jill Martinez will be our guest and will perform the ceremonial swearing in of the new Executive Board.  Cost for one of four fine menu selections plus dessert is only $20 per person. Contact Mahmood Boloorchi at 377-2988 for reservations.