Month: September 2021

Join us for the October meeting of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club, where we’ll meet Democratic candidates for La Mesa City Council, and talk with our favorite epidemiologist, Rebecca Fielding-Miller.

The meeting is 7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 6, on Zoom, with social time starting at 6:30 pm. Here’s the Zoom link

We’ll hear from three of the four Democratic candidates for the special election for La Mesa City Council. Patricia Dillard, Mejgan Afshan, and Kathleen Brand are vying against fellow Democrat Michelle Louden and Republicans. At stake is not just the one seat, but also the Democratic council majority, and La Mesa’s representation on the SANDAG, the San Diego Association of Governments, which serves as a forum for decision-making across the county, as well as representation on the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) to drive sensible regional transportation plans. If a Republican wins this seat, that’ll kneecap plans to mitigate climate change, and jeopardize police reform.

So this election is a big deal, with effects far beyond La Mesa borders.

Candidates who have agreed to speak at the meeting will be:

Patricia Dillard: La Mesa businesswoman, and minister’s wife, active in the Church of Christ and worker to advance women and minority owned businesses. She serves as vice chair of the Community Police Oversight Board for the City of La Mesa.

Mejgan Afshan: Civil rights advocate, community organizer, and non-profit co-founder. She co-founded Borderlands for Equity, pro-bono civil-rights nonprofit, and founder of the East County Justice Coalition, a group dedicated to addressing inequity and racial justice. She regularly conducts workshops about effective advocacy, coalition building, and dismantling misogyny.

Kathleen Brand is a senior planner for the city of San Diego who previously worked as a landscape architect, and a member of the La Mesa Community Services Commission, with a background in urban planning.

The fourth Democrat, Michelle Louden, is welcome to join us as well. She’s been invited, but we haven’t heard back from her. If you know Michelle, please put in a word—ask her to contact mitch@mitchwagner.com

Also joining is is Dr. Rebecca Fielding-Miller, to give us an update on the state of the pandemic.

Dr. Fielding-Miller is an epidemiologist working on COVID research at UCSD. She will with us about the state of the pandemic, how it’s hitting San Diego, what we are doing and should be doing, and the future outlook.

Prior to the pandemic, Dr. Fielding-Miller did interesting and important work in HIV and gender, in both the US and sub-Saharan Africa. She received her PHD in behavioral sciences and health education from Emory University in Atlanta, and a Masters of Science in Public Health in international health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

It’s going to be great meeting and the only thing missing is you. Join us!

Revolting Republican recalls: Watch the video of our September meeting

Dig under the surface on what’s happening with the Republican recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom, with a panel of political powerhouse operatives, including:

• Eva Posner, president of political consultancy Evinco Strategies, specializing in helping women win, including working on the campaign of San Diego City Council Member Monica Montgomery Steppe
• Jesus Cardenas, principal consultant at Grassroots Resources and chief of staff for San Diego City Council President Pro Tem Stephen Whitburn
• and Dan Rottenstreich, founder of Amplify Campaigns and former VP of RoseK Consulting, a legendary firm helping Democrats across the country and local labor campaigns.

We talked about what’s driving these revolting, rotten, repellent, repulsive, rancid, rank, rankling, rather ugly, reeking, regrettable, reprehensible, repugnant Republican recall drive, and where it’s likely to end up.

Topics include:

• Likely outcome? Which side appears likely to win?
• If the recall passes—if Gavin Newsom (and the people of California) lose, who’s likely to win? What will they probably do?
• What are some of the other recalls going on that effect San Diego? Republicans re leading a racist recall attempt in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, against Chardá Bell-Fontenot—are there others?
• How and why did San Diego flip from red to blue?
• What are the major elections and issues you anticipate for 2022, in the state, in San Diego and in other local communities?

We also talked about how you can volunteer to beat the recall–California needs you! Volunteer to walk a neighborhood or phonebank, for the two Saturdays and Sundays between now and the election, Sept. 14 Sign up here: sddems.link/action.