La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club

The ADEMS elections are coming—we need you to register by Saturday to vote and have your say in the direction for the state Democratic Party.

The Assembly District Assembly Meetings (ADEMs) represent their Assembly District to the state party organization, and set the direction of the party. It’s important that you vote in these elections—and fortunately, it’s not hard.

You need to register by Saturday, Dec. 31. Do it here:

https://ademelections.com/register/mail

ADEMs elections are held each odd-numbered year, to elect seven “self-identified female” and seven “other than self-identified female” people as Assembly District Delegates (ADDs) for each district. The elections are open to all California Democrats.

Most of our members live in the 79th Assembly District. Of the 26 candidates running, five are members of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club: Patricia Dillard, Brenda Miller, Mejgan Afshan, Chris Pearson, and Scott Shaffer. We also have one member running in the 75th Assembly District: Steve Jesionka.

Please register by Saturday. It only takes a minute.

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And then join us Wednesday, Jan. 4, in the evening, for the first general meeting of 2023. The topic: Local Democratic Leaders’ Vision for 2023. Speakers so far: La Mesa City Council member Colin Parent, San Diego City Council member Raul Campillo, and Helix Water Board members Mark Gracyk and Andrea Beth Damsky.

As usual, the meeting starts at 7 pm, with informal social networking (of the face-to-face variety) at 6:30 pm, at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Dr. Join us!

The La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club cordially invites you, your friends, and family to our annual Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 7^th, 6:30 PM at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive, to celebrate the holidays and a very good year for local Democrats.  You will enjoy delicious food, drinks, music by the Joseph Luna Band, and great conversations with fellow Democrats and friends—all for the low price of $10.  Be sure to come and kick up your heels!!

We’re asking members to contribute side items for dinner, things such as side dishes, salads, small entrees, and desserts. The LMFDC Board is providing turkey and ham along with the usual foods provided for meetings. Last names A-H please bring a side dish; I-P please bring salad or small entrees; Q-Z please contribute a dessert.  

Please RSVP to Merrill Perry at (619) 820-2199 or mynylacat@gmail.com. We need a head count! And contact Merrill directly with questions or concerns.

Our holiday theme is “MAKE IT A WARM SEASON FOR ALL”, so we are asking for donations of new/gently used warm coats, jackets, sweaters, sneakers, boots for the La Mesa Methodist Church to distribute to those in need of assistance. There is a real need for men’s items.  We will happily accept food donations for the church as well.

Don’t miss a great time with fellow Democrats!

For our next monthly meeting, Wednesday, we’re putting you to work. By then, elections will be nearly a week out, and plenty of people still will not have voted. So we’ll use that time to get out the vote for local Democratic candidates.

Join us for a night of postcard writing, phone-banking, and text-messaging to get out the vote and get a blue wave sweeping over East County, washing in good government and washing out the MAGA grifters and haters. We’ve asked local candidates to send us their lists and we’ll get to work on their behalf.

We’ll also hear from La Mesa Mayor Mark Arapostathis, incumbent running for re-election and endorsed Democratic Party candidate.

Join us Wednesday Nov. 2—that’s next week—at 7 pm at the usual place, the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Dr. And come a half-hour early for social time with your fellow Democrats.

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Saturday is a day of action. Well, a morning of action at least.

Join your fellow Democrats Saturday at 10 am at Collier Park, 4401 Palm Avenue, La Mesa, to walk on behalf of local candidates. We’ll knock on doors, leave literature, and ask people to vote. We’ll be joined by California Assemblymember Dr. Akilah Weber, who represents La Mesa and surrounding communities. Dr. Weber is a former La Mesa City Council member, and former member of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club board.

All you need to do it show up ready to walk. You’ll get a list of houses to ring doorbells, door-hangers, and everything else you need. The lists are short, so you should expect the walk to take about two hours.

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Are we asking you for money AGAIN? Yes, I’m afraid we are.

Please donate to help Democrats win! We’ve got La Mesa Republicans running scared, and they’re carpet-bombing La Mesa and surrounding communities with lies. We need your financial support to get the truth out.

La Mesa Dems have recruited a full slate to run for office this cycle in La Mesa. Republicans are so freaked out by this that they sent out mailers claiming that THEIR candidates are Democrats. Seriously, that’s what the Republicans are doing.

To counter these lies, we’re sending out our own mailers, as well as texts and Google ads.

The Google ads in particular have been very effective—but we are running out of money. We need another $2500-$5k to pay for ads the next couple of weeks.

Democrats tend to wait until the week before the election to mail in their ballots. The Political Data Inc. (PDI) tracker for the City of La Mesa confirms this: as of October 25th, only 8% of La Mesa voters have turned in their ballots.

To collect additional funding to keep getting the word out, we’re using the campaign website of Matt Strabone, who’s running for La Mesa Treasure:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/strabone-for-city-treasurer-2022-1

Please donate what you can as soon as you can.

We’re meeting Thursday evening, Oct. 6, when we’ll hear from local candidates for East County offices, as well as get refresher training on GO Team.

Candidates we’re expecting to hear from include; 
– U.S. Rep Sara Jacobs, incumbent running for re-election in the 53d district. 
– Barbara Bry for San Diego County Assessor
– Greg Hodosevich for San Diego County Treasurer/Tax Assessor
– Jennifer Mendoza and Alysson Snow, for Lemon Grove City Council
and more!

We’ll also get refresher training on GO Team, getting up to speed on how to go door-to-door in the community to drum up support for candidates. If you need complete training, contact club President Tina Rynberg, treehugger1309@yahoo.com

The meeting starts at 7 pm–but do come early, at 6:30 pm, for the usual casual conversation with fellow Democrats. As usual, the meeting is at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive.

Important: We’re moving the meeting to a new day for October only, to avoid conflict with Yom Kippur. Beginning in November, we’ll be back to our normal meeting day, first Wednesday of the month.

For our next general meeting, Sept. 7—next week—we’re going to get you started canvassing neighbors for vote, and help you get to know your local candidates a little better.

The best way to get people elected is to go door-to-door, neighbor-to-neighbor, and convince folks to vote in one-on-one conversations. We’ll help you get going with that with GO Team training. As part of that, we’ll show you how to use the MiniVAN mobile app, which is your guide to canvassing the neighborhood.

We’ll also hear from local candidates for office in La Mesa and the surrounding communities, including City Council, school boards, and more.

The meeting is at the usual time and place—the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive. Programming starts at 7 pm, but come at 6:30 for informal conversation with your fellow Democrats.

Important: Our October monthly meeting is a special day and time. Mark your calendars for Thursday evening, October 6—we’re having it on Thursday rather than Wednesday out of respect for the Yom Kippur holiday. We’ll return to our usual schedule in November, first Wednesday of the month.

Monopoly is a thread—and threat—running through many of society’s fundamental problems, according to Cory Doctorow, an activist, journalist, blogger, science fiction writer, and long-time anti-monopoly champion, who spoke to the club at this month’s general meeting.

Watch the video:

Or listen to the podcast — and subscribe here.

Topics covered include:

• Why we’re in a “seminal moment” for anti-monopoly.
• How monopolies came to pervade the economy, limiting business and creating adverse social conditions.
• How monopoly drives wealth concentration, grinding down the young and working class, and exacerbating homelessness.
• How President Biden has championed anti-monopoly, delivering the sweeping Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, and appointing key antitrust watchdogs.
• Why Biden’s appointing Lena Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission is ”the most salient political appointment of any president in at least 20 years.”

And more!

Cory comes up from the technology industry. He’s worked with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, for many years; he’s now a special consultant for that organization.

Tech industry monopolies—primarily Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon—are highly controversial. But it’s not just tech. Monopolies dominate every industry. From healthcare and finance to professional wrestling, every industry is dominated by an extremely limited number of companies, which control what consumers can buy, and limit job choices for people who work in that industry. Monopoly power allows companies to exert unhealthy influence on the government agencies that are supposed to regulate them.

Cory is the author of books including science fiction for adults, such as “Radicalized” and “Walkaway,” nonfiction about monopoly and conspiracy, “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism;” “In Real Life,” a graphic novel; and the picture book “Poesy the Monster Slayer.” His latest book is “Attack Surface,” a standalone adult sequel to “Little Brother;” his next nonfiction book is “Chokepoint Capitalism,” with Rebecca Giblin, about monopoly, monopsony and fairness in the creative arts labor market.

Cory blogs about monopoly, digital rights, and shares whimsical links at Pluralistic.net. He previously was co-editor of the blog Boing Boing for 19 years. Born in Toronto, Canada, Cory and his family now live in Los Angeles.

And mark your calendar for our next meeting, Wednesday, Sept. 7, at 7 pm, at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Memorial Drive, where we’ll get training in GO Team—you’ll learn what you need to know to go door-to-door to convince your neighbors to vote local candidates. And we’ll also hear hear from candidates for local office and find other ways you can support them. Come early at 6:30 pm for informal conversation with your fellow Democrats.

Read the July issue of our monthly newsletter, the Progressive Voice. Articles include: 

• Weber, Gonzalez, Parent celebrate Democratic achievements
• Why don’t Republicans value Americans’ lives after they’re born?
• How to overcome Trumpery.

And more!

Read it online here:

The print newsletter is distributed free for club members. If you’re not already a member, sign up here.