November 2011 Democratic Party News

Posted on November 6, 2011 by

(from my email:  http://eepurl.com/gKngD)

Dear Friends:

As your representative on the Country Central Committee, I wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know what’s happening at the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee.
Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. In October, we had a spirited debate on the topic of medical marijuana dispensaries. The city has just passed some enhanced restrictions on the over 100 clubs in San Jose. This will likely result in many of them closing down. There is an initiative under way to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn those restrictions.

While I am always leery of restricting legally-operating businesses, and while the sales tax revenue is badly needed, there are other issues to consider. Long-time community activist and friend, Omar Torres, made a compelling case for NOT supporting the referendum, citing the problems caused by some of the dispensaries in under-priviledged communities in San Jose.

“It is not fair that this dispensaries are opening and operating in our most underserved neighborhoods in D3, 5 and 7. Already these districts suffer the burdens of poverty, crime and other negative aspects of inner-city issues. We cannot continue the heavy saturation of these clubs in these vulnerable areas.”

Many of you know of my work in northwest Nicaragua, and my committment to protecting vulnerable communities in San Jose, and Santa Clara County. For this reason, I voted against the referendum. However, the motion to support the referendum passed. See the minutes for more detail.

For Almaden/District 10(San Jose) Residents: District 10 is the *only* competitive city council race in San Jose for 2012. In addition toRobert Braunstein, Edesa Bitbadal, Brian O’Neill, a real estate appraiser and an employee of the Tax Assessor’s office has told me he will be running as well. They are all great candidates in the best spirit of the Democratic Party. The candidates will officially file in December. I’ll keep you up to date as I get more info.

If you would like to forward this email to someone, click here.

Thanks for your support, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the local Democratic Party.

Bill Roth
21st AD Member, Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee.
PS: this will also be posted at: http://www.electbillroth.com/.

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Fall 2011 Santa Clara County Democratic Endorsements

Posted on September 12, 2011 by

Friends,

As your representative on the Country Central Committee, I wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee has made its endorsements public for this election cycle. Note: these mainly affect Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Palo Alto.

For Almaden/District 10(San Jose) Residents: District 10 is the *only* competitive city council race in San Jose for 2012. I have met with one declared candidate, Robert Braunstein, and one potential candidate, Edesa Bitbadal. The are both great candidates in the best spirit of the Democratic Party. I’ll send out more info on the candidates as I get it.

Redistricting: The boundaries for our Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional districts have changed substantially, and are nearly final. To see an interactive map of proposed new districts, click here. For more information see WeDrawTheLines.CA.Gov.

Thanks for your support, and please do not hesitate to contact me.

Bill Roth
21st AD Member, Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee.

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Redistricting Notes from the 2011 California Democratic Convention

Posted on May 16, 2011 by

As your representative to the California Democratic Convention, I thought it only appropriate to bring back some notes. The most interesting panel was on redistricting. Here are my rough notes on the content of the panel.

Citizens Redistricting Commission

As you know, because of 2 ballot measures last year, the districts will be drawn by a The Citizens’ Redistricting Commission comprised of Republicans, Democrats and Decline-to-State voters. The commission is set up so that any map proposed by the commission needs to get a super-majority of votes from the commission, so it will not be possible to have an all-Democrat map, or an All Republican-map.

Information on the make up of the commission can be found here. They have tried to be geographically and ethnically  diverse, but notice that there are no representatives of any kind from San José and the South Bay. This is a worrisome development. The commission has 14 members from varied ethnic backgrounds and geographic locations in the state and includes five Democrats, five Republicans, and four Decline to State.

Key Requirements for Redistricting

In order to be fair, there are several criteria:

  • Districts must have equal population
  • Districts must comply with state and voting rights acts
  • Districts must be geographically contiguous
  • Districts must respect city and county, neighborhood, or community of interest boundaries
  • Districts must show compactness
  • Districts must show nesting, where possible, i.e. Assembly seats must roughly fit into a Senate seat
  • Must be incumbent-blind

For a full description of these requirements, see the CRC FAQ.

Communities of Interest

The most ill-defined, yet important, category is communities of interest. These will have a bearing on the final map, and the hearing and comment process is to hear which communities of interested are most interesting in being kept together.

A community of interest is defined as:

A community of interest is a contiguous population which shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation. Examples of such shared interests are those common to an urban area, a rural area, an industrial area, or an agricultural area, and those common to areas in which the people share similar living standards, use the same transportation facilities, have similar work opportunities, or have access to the same media of communication relevant to the election process. Communities of interest shall not include relationships with political parties, incumbents, or political candidates.

– From Article XXI of the California Constitution.

So a district could be made up of a community based on race, income level, shared culture. It could also be based on geography, so the people of the northern coast could be a community of interest, as could the folks in the Central Valley. This is likely to be the hottest topic at the hearings. If you believe you need to fight for your “community of interest”(COI), time is running out, and you need to act now.

Hearings

One of the best ways to make your COI visible to the commission is at the hearings. Hearings have started across California. San José has its hearing on May 23rd (!). For information about the hearing, see the CRC web site. The notice for San José is here.

All meetings are webcast, and can be viewed state-wide.

Redistricting Timeline

  • The First map will be available on June 10 (NOTE:  I am fact-checking this, could be July. Need to see my notes).
  • Hearings will continue until July 27
  • July 28 the final draft map will be available
  • Commissioners must approve a map on August 15, 2011

If the commissioners can not agree, the courts will appoint 3 Special Masters to draw the lines.

Suggestions for Testifying Before the Commission

  • Do not mention party affiliation in front of panel when testifying
  • Show up early to speak first
  • Keep you testimony to 3 minutes
  • Focus on who you are, and what your community of interest is, and why it should be kept together.
  • Do not be rude to the commission
  • Send any complaints to crc.ca.gov
  • Consider sending written comments, as those will be considered without the pressures of listening to people at a public sessions, and it is suggested that they might be given more weight
  • Groups in some locations have worked together to do to multiple slides across multiple people so that a longer presentation could be done. There is no guarantee that this will be allowed at the session you attend.

Video from Greenlining Institute

I have included this excellent video on why this process is important:

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My Elections Picks For November 2010

Posted on September 30, 2010 by

My picks for the 2010 Mid-Term elections

This is going to be a great season, but not as good as 2008. There are a lot of serious issues on the ballot and a lot of reason for folks to get involved.

Local Races

Berryessa School Board

Milpitas City Council

  • Bill Ferguson — He’s fighting a dirty system, and that takes courage.

Mayor of Santa Clara

Congress

  • Zoe Lofgren(CA-16)
  • Mike Honda(CA-15)
  • Anna Eshoo(CA-14) – She has supported the Catholic Democrats PAC, which I run, so she has my undying loyalty.

Senate

  • Barbara Boxer (but just barely…due to her stance on bringing the As to San Jose. And because she was mean to Rebecca).
  • Russ Feingold: I volunteered for his first 1992 campaign, and I think is an asset to the senate and to America.

Governor

  • Jerry Brown

Secretary of State

  • Deborah Bowen – She seems to be doing a good job. Could she be the Doug LaFollette of California? (Obscure Wisconsin politician reference).

State Assembly, 21st AD

State Superintendent of  Schools

  • Tom Torlakson: A good guy. I met him once. He’s a triathalete, and good with people.

Santa Clara County Supervisor

  • Forrest Williams — A good hardworking public servant, and one of my favorite people in public life.

City of San Jose

State Propositions

  • Prop 19:Yes: Legalize Marijuana:  — Only so we can tax a regulate it.
  • Prop 20: No: Remove elected officials from Re-Districting process. Not a fan of having someone not responsible to the voters taking over the process. Seems dangerous.
  • Prop 21: Yes: Vehicle License Fee to fund parks and wildlife programs
  • Prop 22:Yes: Prohibits the State for taking county and municipal money
  • Prop 23: No: Suspends AB32 Climate Change Law; Funded by Oil Companies
  • Prop 24: Yes: We have to pay more to close the budget gap without hurting schools and essential services.
  • Prop 25: Yes: Change the vote to pass a budget to a majority, not super-majority.
  • Prop 26: No: Requires state and local fees to be passed by two-thirds vote
  • Prop 27: Yes: Eliminate Citizens Redistricting Commission. See prop 20 for why.

City Measures

  • Measure A: Yes: $29 parcel tax for Children’s Health in Santa Clara County
  • Measure B: Yes: Raise Vehicle licensing fees to support road maintenance, re-pavement, fixing potholes.
  • Measure C: No: Term limits for Water District. I am not a believer  in term limits. They only serve to through good people out (and sometimes bad ones).
  • Measure G: Yes: $268M Bond for improvement of Evergreen Community College District, with no money for administrative salaries and all staying local.
  • Measure U: Yes: Marijuana Business Tax. This is the whole point of prop 19.
  • Measure V: Yes: Its a fairness issue across all unions.
  • Measure W: Yes: Pension Reform. The Pension overhangs that some municipalities have will get force them into bankruptcy. We need this to stave off the possibility

National Races

Congress

Posted in Democratic Party, Issues, Voter Information | 2 Comments »

Help Tom Perriello

Posted on September 26, 2010 by

Help Tom Perriello in 2010

Dear Friends and Supporters:

I am writing you to let you know that a member of congress I greatly respect, needs your help urgently. Tom Perriello is in a tight race in the 5th District of Virginia with Robert Hurt, a Tea Party backed candidate who would make every attempt to erase hard-won gains in health care and stimulating the economy.

To be clear, this is an ASK letter. Even though my Wisconsin upbringing makes it hard for me to talk about money, I am personally asking you to donate whatever you an afford through our ActBlue Campaign for Tom Perriello Page. You can find that page here. (No donation is too  small).

Why Tom, Why Now?

Why am I supporting Tom Perriello? Simple: He makes me proud to be an American. If this is the caliber of our public servants, then Amierica is indeed in good hands. All of Tom’s work has been to make the world a better place. This includes his time in Congress and his time before Congress. Before he was elected in 2008, Tom has:

  • Worked in Africa to end atrocities in the West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, which had suffered long civil wars fueled by blood diamonds.
  • Worked as a National Security Consultant
  • Worked inside Darfur and twice in Afghanistan.
  • Helped to launch a political and social movement in this country, based on the Common Good,  that is credited with shifting the national debate about America’s moral priorities.
  • Helped found FaithfulAmerica.org and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which bring together faith communities to fight for children’s health care, supporting a higher minimum wage, environmental stewardship, and responsible solutions in Iraq.

(For more information, see his website here.)

Since he has been in Congress, Tom has:

  • Helped Push for Health Care reform
  • Fought to ensure that all hard-working Americans are guaranteed a living wage and secure retirement
  • Pushed for independence from foreign oil
  • Supported family farming, and the production of second-generation bio-fuels
  • Supported Small Business by co-sponsoring the Small Business Credit Card Act of 2009, which would give small businesses the same protections that individuals received under the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009

(These are just a few of his accomplishments. For more information on his stands on the issue, see his Issues web page.)

Please Help Tom in 2010

Friends, Tom needs your help, and I am asking you to give what you can to support him. He is exactly the kind of leadership we need at this crucial time in our history. If you would like more info, feel free to email me, or call me directly, 408-414-7433.

Thank you so much for all you do,

Bill Roth

PS: Note: We’re doing this though ActBlue so the money goes straight to Tom. Please give what you can.

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Thank you All!

Posted on June 12, 2010 by

A big Thank You to all my supporters. Please read my Thank You Email: http://eepurl.com/Cx3J

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Questions from Voters: Contraception

Posted on May 25, 2010 by

A questions came in from Sharon Snyder(reprinted with permission):

Greetings.
Thank you for providing information on Smart Voter. I am very likely to vote for you. Your web site states that you believe that abortion is one of the most divisive issues. Would you support contraception? Would you support education in the public schools about contraception besides “Just say no?”
Thank you in advance for your reply.
Sharon M. Snyder

While I generally shy away from “pelvic” politics, its an important issue I have not called out in the past. Here is my response.

Thanks for your question. In general, I try not do dwell on issues such as these, since they divert us from pressing issues that we have in our county like poverty, access to health care, and some serious budget problems. That said, here goes:

As a matter of public health in a pluralistic society, I believe contraception should be an option that is discussed as a matter of public health education. Moreover, I have no qualms about allowing contraception that is funded by government money, whether that money comes from local, state or federal sources. However, I also support the right of people with moral reservations to abstain from the practice.

My position on contraception, as it is on abortion, is this: We should not be throwing women or doctors in jail. This is a deeply personal issue, and is best solved by health care providers, families, and their faith communities.

As a practicing Roman Catholic, this is a very difficult issue for me, and one that I continue to wrestle with  to this day. My faith tradition has a very clear position on contraception; it also has nearly 1000 years of debate on the issue. As a Roman Catholic, and as a father of a teenage girl, this issue is not as abstract as it is to most voters. I struggle with the personal choices I have to make with my family. If I have to struggle with an issue like this in my personal life, how could I make a policy decision that affects the 1.6 million people in Santa Clara County?

Comments welcome.

Posted in Issues | 1 Comment »
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What I Believe

Posted on February 28, 2010 by

Some time ago, my father asked me, in effect, what I believed. Politically. In the same conversation, he asked when, if anything the government has done well.

My answer back then was inadequate, over time, I have developed this list of elements of my political beliefs.

This is my credo: what I believe.

Thoughts on Government

I believe that our form of government is unique and represents nothing short of a new step in human evolution.

I believe the only legitimate form of government is one based on the consent of the governed.

I believe in balanced government, where the people are protected against the tyranny of the monarchical executive and the tyranny of the majority.

I believe in an independent judiciary which can be buffeted by neither by the whims of the executive or the passions of the people.

I believe that the balance of power between our executive and legislative branches is as close to perfect as is possible.

I believe that devolution of power to the states is inherently dangerous.

I believe that citizens have the right to be free of unnecessary governmental interference.

I believe that in exchange for self-government, the people must contribute to it.

I believe that government, because of its size and position, is the proper solution for some problems.

I believe that we as a people can not let those who are most helpless fend for themselves, and government is the best instrument to assist in this.

I believe that the abortion issue is the single most divisive issue in american politics.

I believe that government should not play any role with regard to abortion, either for or against. It is a moral issue.

I believe that unbridled capitalism is ultimately a threat to society.

I believe that regulation of business must be done with extreme caution.

I believe that government can be an instrument of good.

I believe that government is the right and proper location for certain societal functions. For example:

  • The Bureau of Economic Analysis
  • The Consumer Products Safety comission
  • The Interstate Highway system
  • The Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health
  • The National Weather Service
  • The Federal Emergency Management Agency
  • The Cooperative Extension Service

(Admittedly, some of these were suggested by James Carville in one of his books).

I believe the government has done great things that have improved the lives of the public

  • The Clean Air Act
  • The Clean Water Act
  • The Voting Rights Act
  • Head Start
  • The Social Security Act
  • Medicare
  • Food labelling
  • The School Lunch Program
  • WIC
  • AFDC
  • Ban on leaded gasoline
  • Ban on DDT and PCBs

I believe this government has, in the past, done terrible harm.

  • The Alien and Sedition Act (1800)
  • The Dred Scott Decision
  • Prohibition
  • My Lai/Abu Gurhaib
  • Executive Order 9066, the internment of Japanese Americans
  • Treatment of Native Americans

I believe we are a nation of heros:

I believe that creating new laws should be done with extreme care, as some laws necessarily diminish our liberty.

I believe government should be an instrument of wealth redistribution, in order to avoid concentration of wealth into too few hands.

I believe that if too much wealth falls into too few hands, revolution will occur.

I believe that the flat tax is regressive, ultimately favoring the wealthy and should be avoided.

I believe that people who do not vote get the government they deserve.

I believe that government has an obligation to support but not select the Arts

I believe the United States was founded as a theistic nation.

I believe in the separation of Church and State.

I believe in our manifest destiny as a nation.

I believe in the essential goodness of this nation.

I believe that without the unifying influence of a common language, our nation is at risk.

I believe our system of government is the future for the human race.

SPECIFIC POLICIES

I believe that encryption should not be treated as a munition

I believe that the burden of current export laws are too extreme, and should be loosened, especially with respect to computers and encryption.

I believe that patent law is broken and most software patents should be rescinded and are an hindrance to the development of technology.

I believe that business process patents are an abuse of the patent system and should be outlawed.

I believe that the Green Line in San Jose should be defended, and its term extended.

I believe that new transit corridors should be developed in Santa Clara county.

I believe that planning codes should be modified to focus on developing multi-story high-density housing, similar to San Francisco.

I believe that the focus of new development should be target near transit corridors.

I believe that the city of San Jose should work to support the San Jose symphony.

I believe that the city of San Jose should support the formation of a public radio station in San Jose.

Posted in About Bill Roth, Issues | 10 Comments »

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