by RL Miller, Calitics, Jan 23, 2012

One of the benefits of newly redrawn maps for me is the ability to vote for Fran Pavley, running for state Senate District 27. Recently, former speaker of the Assembly Bob Hertzberg has expressed interest in the race. His stated rationale: he’s a moderate, the district is moderate, he’s a Valley guy. He might be looking at a different SD27.

The one I’m living in covers some of the West Valley, but also includes east Ventura County, Malibu, and parts of Santa Clarita. Pavley was a mayor and council member of Agoura Hills, the geographic heart of the new district. Democrats at an East Ventura County women’s club who heard Pavley speak a couple of weeks ago are quite sure they don’t want to be represented by a Sherman Oaks resident – they moved to Ventura County to get away from the San Fernando Valley.

More important than carpetbagging issues is Hertzberg’s record. Hertzberg is a moderate, pro-business Democrat. Currently, he co-chairs California Forward, a Third Way/raging centrist group thinking that it has a monopoly on common sense. His wife sits on the board of Kaiser Permanente, so presumably he’s less than thrilled with healthcare reform. In 2005, he ran – and lost – for mayor of Los Angeles by espousing traditional GOP themes.

By contrast, Pavley is a champion of progressive values. In 2011, her bills signed by Governor Jerry Brown include laws banning toxic cadmium from jewelry and toxic BPA from children’s sippy cups, promoting energy conservation, and strengthening domestic violence laws. Despite Hertzberg’s being a Valley guy, it’s Pavley – not Hertzberg – who has received the unanimous endorsement of the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley, an umbrella organization of 27 Democratic clubs.

Perhaps Pavley’s greatest contribution to the California economy is AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, bringing clean energy jobs to California. The law bothers oil companies so much that they mounted an entirely unsuccessful attack on it in 2010, Proposition 23. Thanks in part to her leadership, California is on target to meet its renewable energy standards early. One in four American solar jobs is in California. As a climate hawk, she’ll keep California on track to lead the fight against global warming.

Pavley was endorsed overwhelmingly, 105-1, by party insiders at pre-endorsement caucuses this weekend. She deserves to be the party’s nominee, and to win in November.

Bill on way to Governor for Signature . . .

SACRAMENTO — A Bill authored by Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) that provides policy guidelines regarding background screening requirements for Emergency Medical Responders, passed the Senate floor today.

Assembly Bill 1245 simply states that if the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) proposes to adopt or adapt a regulation for state approval of an Emergency Medical Responder (EMS) course, the completion of the course must also include criminal background checks for those who will be acting in the capacity of an EMR.

The State Health and Safety code already requires criminal background checks for all certified or licensed EMS personnel. The bill will ensure that the existing standards are in place for all persons delivering care in the EMS system.

“These folks are often asked to do many of the same things in the line work that their certified and licensed colleagues are, such as enter an individual’s home to render lifesaving care and collect vital medical information, the public deserves the protection of the same background checks,” Williams said.

Website for Assemblymember Das Williams: http://assembly.ca.gov/Williams

Comments Due by November 22

The Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley resolved earlier this year to support the full and complete cleanup of the Santa Susan Field Lab.  Countywide help is  needed now on this critical environmental and public health issue.

The most contaminated place in Ventura County is the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, where reactors and rockets were tested.  One atomic reactor suffered a partial meltdown there in 1959; at least three other reactors had other accidents; there were thousands of rocket tests.  Radioactive and chemical contamination resulted.

For decades, the fight to get the site cleaned up has raged.  Finally, we have a breakthrough:  the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA, which operated key parts of the site, have agreed to a cleanup to background levels of contaminants.  In short, if they detect contamination from their activities, they will clean it up.  This is what the community has sought for so long.

An initial comment period resulted in over 1700 comments in favor of the agreement-in-principle—absolutely remarkable.  If you commented then, thanks!  But DOE has now asked for a second, final round of comments, on the final, legally binding Agreement.  It is frustrating to have to comment a second time, but we are near the finish line. [You can find the Agreement and related documents at http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/SiteCleanup/Santa_Susana_Field_Lab/SSFL-Cleanup.cfm and get more information about the SSFL issue  http://www.rocketdynecleanupcoalition.org.]

ACTION NEEDED:  Whether you commented before or not, PLEASE send in a comment NOW urging that the final Agreements be immediately signed.  (Comments are due no later than November 22.)

Click here to send an email comment: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5393/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4690

THIS SATURDAY – JUNE 19th

Join John Laird and friends in Santa Maria on the final weekend before the June 22nd special election to fill Senate District 15! 

We want to make sure our Democratic supporters remember to vote, and we need your help to get them to turn in those ballots or head to the polls. Winning this seat means getting within 1 vote of 2/3rds in the State Senate!

Come at 10am to hear John rally the troops, then we’ll train volunteers and head out to walk precincts and talk to voters. 

For those who cannot walk, we will also have phonebanking opportunities. 

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Bring a friend!

There will be carpools from Santa Barbara and points south, so if you need a ride, Facebook message Hillary Blackerby or email hillary@lairdforsenate.com.

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More info on the 15th District and the race:

The 15th State Senate district, located on California’s Central Coast, running from Saratoga in Santa Clara County through Santa Cruz County, Monterey County, all of San Luis Obispo County, to Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County, has a vacant seat due to the confirmation of Abel Maldonado as Lt. Governor.

Governor Schwarzenegger called the special election for June 22, hoping to confuse voters into not showing up to vote and helping a right-wing Republican win a seat that has a majority Democratic registration, a seat that went to Barack Obama in 2008 by 20 points.

We need to elect John Laird to this seat. John Laird is a Democrat who represented a large portion of the 15th District in the State Assembly, and has a record of standing up for his principles. During my time there, he fought for fair budgets, protection for our environment, investment in education and equality for all Californians.

Al is the son of a Hoosier Republican farmer/teacher who damned FDR all the way to the bank to cash his AAA check, Al arrived on planet earth just before the crash of 1929 and, at only ten years old, he helped his family to weather the depression by working as a farm laborer. Near the end of WW II, he acquired a Railroad Retirement Board social security number by doing what his grandfather had done, working on the railroad. Jobs in bridge building, food service, insurance fraud investigations, and classroom teaching provided means for higher and higher education, as did a tour in naval intelligence during the Korean War. He completed his Ph.D. degree using the GI Bill, scholarships, and teaching positions to support the wife and family that came while he was attached to the Fifth Naval District command in Norfolk.

In 1959, degree in hand, he followed Horace Greeley’s advice to go west to join the faculty of San Fernando Valley State College, now CSUN, where he taught until his retirement in 1995. At Northridge he combined teaching, research, and textbook writing with activism in Democratic politics. He became president of the Northridge Democratic Club in 1963, an elector in the Electoral College in 1964, a regional officer in the CDC, and an intermittent delegate to the California State Democratic convention. His outspoken stand against escalation of the Vietnam War temporarily alienated him from mainstream politics and led to a long-term avocation in Renaissance and Baroque recorder music. Fully back in the swing of things by the 1980s, he combined political activism with political database building , maintaining the data base for the Nuclear Freeze in Southern California. He was also involved in many local and congressional elections in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1987 he became a commuter professor and (temporarily) absentee landlord, moving, with much political baggage, to Oxnard. GOOD Club officers quickly snagged him at the county fair, and he was appointed by Mayor Lopez to the Oxnard Public Library Board. Then it was the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition and CAUSE, the County Democratic Central Committee, and the California Clean Money Campaign. In the 1990s he served two terms as president of the GOOD Club. As a member of the Ventura Country Democratic Central Committee he worked on the executive board to provide inexpensive electronic voter data to clubs and candidates. In 2001 he was named Volunteer of the Year for Region 10 of the party for coordinating county voter registration. From 2004 to 2006 he served as precinct coordinator of the GOOD Club, receiving major recognition from labor, the party, and legislative bodies. Then, recovered from an illness, he again became president of the GOOD Club and resumed activity in the County Democratic Central Committee and the Fair Elections Campaign.

Behind this activism has been the conviction that the social contract that mitigated the economic collapse of the 1930s, the (con)federalist vision that U.S. provided the world and especially Europe at the end of WW II, and the domestic programs that treat all Americans as stake holders have been indispensable to our achievement of a “more perfect union,” domestic tranquility, and national security. Successful capitalism must provide incentives to more than a few winners who commandeer the rest. Our social fabric has been systematically undermined by the Friedmans and the Reagans whose deeds contradict their creeds.

Responsible parenthood and custody of our natural endowment are likewise indispensable perquisites for a rule of law that recognizes real persons, not corporate collectives, as participants in our polity. Activism is a commitment without end. Some dedicated band must fight for equity lest civilized society wither. As a professional historian, Al is all too aware of the historical record of imperial adventurers whose waste of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness constitute boundless marches of folly commonly celebrated as national epics.

Married for 28 years to Susan, Al has two sons and a grandson in Sacramento and a daughter in Oakland. Marriage added three stepsons and two granddaughters, who now reside in Palo Alto.

Allen Dirrim with editorial help from Dori Maria Jones.

Dear Region 10 Delegates and Central Committee members;

Today, June 8th, the California Primary is exactly one year away. This is surely the time to concentrate on setting up Candidates Committees, Voter Registration Task Forces and Field Operations so that everything is in place and leadership designated to take advantage of the trainings on offer. I have been putting together an inventory of training materials, so please contact me for specific manuals and materials.

Foremost is the great weekend ahead for San Luis Obispo County with the Progressive Caucus meeting on Saturday June 27th and the long-awaited CDC Leadership training for Sunday June 28th.

Also, not to be missed are the two Region 10 meetings on June 13th and 14th when you have an opportunity to introduce Resolutions in time for consideration by the E-Board meeting in Burlingame on July 17th and 18th. (I apologise for the short notice – I was trying to schedule a meeting in Santa Maria, but it was not to be.)

I continue to enjoy meeting with other clubs and attending events – most recently, the Santa Maria club meeting and the 41st AD meeting as well as Central Committee meetings and the very successful Ventura County Spring Fling, with speeches from Attorney General candidates Pedro Nava, Ted Lieu and Alberto Torrico as well as Congresswoman Lois Capps, State Senator Fran Pavley and former Assemblymember Hannah-Beth Jackson. And a very special visit Sunday was to the Atascadero Democrats’ event in a winery in perfect weather in glorious countryside. Well worth the long drive!

Sincerely,
Sue Broidy
Director, Region 10