Category Archives: California Democratic Party

Choosing our Assembly District 14 Democratic Party delegates

YOU can help vote for a PROGRESSIVE SLATE to represent us! Details and HOW to vote…

WHAT DELEGATES DO: The Delegates we elect will vote for the officers of the California Democratic Party, as well as endorsements for legislative and statewide offices and ballot propositions.  In even numbered years the Delegates establish the party platform and weigh in each year on state resolutions.

The PDB Steering Committee recognizes that there has been a division within the Party between Progressives and Labor/corporate interests. In Solano County, the labor slate includes an offshoot of the Working Families PAC which spent nearly $300,000 in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Steve Young in the race for Benicia Mayor.

This year, due to the Pandemic, the Democratic party is doing an all-mail ballot to elect delegates representing Assembly District 14 (Grayson).  We are urging you to go to the link [https://ademelections.com/?isCandidate=False] to request a ballot be mailed to you, and then consider supporting the Progressive slate, as listed below.

Your Steering Committee supports this group of Democratic Progressive Candidates who want to change the Democratic Party from the corporate and divisive politics of the past. The AD 14 Progressives for Change slate is asking for your vote in January 2021 to take the party into a more transparent, accountable, and inclusive future.

How to get a Party Ballot and VOTE…

Due to the pandemic, the California Democratic Party (CADEM) has implemented a vote by mail for the 2021 Assembly District 14 Elections.

  • Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Monday January 11, 2021.
  • All voters must request a vote-by-mail ballot for this election at   https://ademelections.com/?isCandidate=False
  • All ballots must be received before Wednesday, January 27, 2021.

THE PROGRESSIVE SLATE

Please remember these names and vote for these 10 PROGRESSIVE candidates, AD 14 Progressives for Change:
Thomas Bilbo https://www.facebook.com/ElectTomBilbo/
Kari Birdseye https://www.facebook.com/kari.birdseye
Ruscal Cayangyang https://www.facebook.com/ruscalcayangyang/
Brenda Crawford https://www.facebook.com/ElectBrendaC/
Susannah Delano https://www.facebook.com/SDforADEM
Matthew Finkelstein facebook.com/MatthewFinkelstein4AD14/
Susan George https://www.facebook.com/SusanGeorge4AD14/
Leilani Quesada https://www.facebook.com/electleilaniquesada/
Steve Sillen https://www.facebook.com/stevesillenad14/
Phillip (Maui) Wilson https://www.facebook.com/MauiForAD14/

AD 14 Progressives 4 Change: https://www.facebook.com/AD14Progressives4Change

Watch the video
: https://fb.watch/2sZ7qkFilC/

AND… please tell and email this information to your Democratic friends in District 14 (Benicia, Vallejo, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, Pittsburg [western portion], Pleasant Hill, Rodeo, and the northern part of Walnut Creek).

Progressive Democrats endorse YES on Benicia Measure D, Cannabis – also weigh in on State Props

The votes are in!!!

PDB members cast their votes last week on Benicia’s non-binding referendum, Measure D, as well as several of the State Propositions, all of which will appear on our November 3 ballot.

Following an informative meeting on September 8, members voted on our digital poll here on the PDB website.  The overall position of our members is very evident, with Benicia Measure D and several of the state propositions receiving nearly 100% of the votes. Here’s how the voting went:

PDB Member – Measure D and State Propositions
LOCAL BENICIA MEASURE D – Cannabis State Proposition 15 – Taxes State Proposition 16 – Affirmative Action State Proposition 17 – Suffrage State Proposition 18 – Suffrage
% YES 92.0% 100.0% 92.0% 100.0% 92.0%
% NO 8.0% 0.0% 8.0% 0.0% 8.0%
State Proposition 20 – Law Enforcement State Proposition 24 – Business State Proposition 25 – Trials
% YES 20.8% 50.0% 100.0%
% NO 79.2% 50.0% 0.0%

Note that our PDB vote on state propositions is only advisory.  Local Democratic clubs must follow the positions taken by our California Democratic Party on state propositions.  NONETHELESS and interestingly, Progressive Democrats of Benicia voted entirely in sync with our California Dem Party: YES on 15, 16, 17, 18, and 25, NO on 20, and NEUTRAL on 24.  (PDB took no position on propositions 14, 19, 21, 22, and 23, and we refer you to the Party’s positions.)

For more background and detailed information, see:

Benicia’s Kari Birdseye quoted in coverage of California Democratic Party convention

By By Julia Prodis Sulek, The Mercury News, June 1, 2019

Hickenlooper who? California Democratic Convention delegates anxious to winnow field of candidates

[1 of 36 photos] SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 1: Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) acknowledges the crowd as she speaks during Day 2 of the California Democratic Party Convention at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, June 1, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — Some of the 15 presidential contenders schmoozing delegates Saturday at the California Democratic Convention are so popular, they need no introduction but their first names: Bernie, Kamala and Beto.

Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (if you can pronounce it), are right up there on the name recognition scale, too.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 1: Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during Day 2 of the California Democratic Party Convention at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, June 1, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

“When you get below that, who the heck are they?” asked Orange County delegate Doug Harding, outside the main hall Saturday afternoon.

“We love ‘em, but they need to leave.”

Some delegates clearly subscribe to “the more the merrier” mantra and scrambled for selfies Saturday with any candidates who passed through the Moscone Center. But others are anxious to winnow the huge field of serious presidential contenders — 24 by most counts — hoping to earn the Democratic nomination to take on President Trump in 2020.

“I can identify up to about five,” said Becky Curry, 64, a delegate from Lake County who felt lucky to see the likes of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts make speeches Saturday. “When I get down to Bennet, Hickenlooper and some of the other Bs, they fall into the same category — I don’t know them.”

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 1: Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke speaks during Day 2 of the California Democratic Party Convention at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, June 1, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Marianne Williamson? John Delaney? Michael Bennet? While the author, the former Maryland congressman and Colorado’s U.S. senator have their acolytes, the enthusiasm on Saturday among California’s 3,400 Democratic delegates, based on the applause scale alone, seemed reserved mostly for the household names.

It wasn’t for lack of enthusiastic speeches by the candidates.

US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addresses a rally at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

“Our president is a coward,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in a speech from the main convention hall Saturday. “That’s not what we deserve.”

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii criticized Washington politics as “of, by and for self-serving politicians and the rich and powerful. This must end.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s voice was already hoarse when she took the stage, saying, “I don’t have money, but I have grit” and received an ovation when she left the stage.

But when Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said he woke up next to his husband Saturday morning thanks to a single vote on the U.S. Supreme Court, the San Francisco crowd let out a prolonged cheer.

“The riskiest thing we could do is try too hard to play it safe,” he said.

The unfortunate task of following him fell to Rep. Eric Swalwell from Dublin, who has been a frequent pundit on CNN but still struggles to gain name recognition. And when former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said “socialism is not the answer,” the extended booing nearly drowned him out.

Delegate Gail Cain from Orange County called the large field of candidates “crazy,” especially since “they all have the same thing to say.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner, was a no-show, opting out of the California convention — a decision that didn’t sit well with some of the delegates.

“To ignore us like this is a big mistake,” said Kari Birdseye, a delegate from Benicia. “He should have showed up.”

She also held disdain for candidates who didn’t seem to be in it for the right reasons: those she believes are angling to raise their profiles or be tapped for cabinet posts.

Still, “what’s important is that we’re going to be unified behind our candidate no matter what,” she said. Alluding to Trump’s 2016 win, she added, “we learned that the hard way.”