Join us for our general meeting Wednesday, Feb. 2, in the evening, when we’ll hear from Dr. Shirley Weber, California Secretary of State and former State Assembly representative for La Mesa, as well as Nathan Fletcher, chair of the San Diego Board of Supervisors and representative for the county Fourth District, which includes La Mesa.
We’ll also have a panel discussion on racial justice, featuring Kenya Taylor, a Democratic Party leader and licensed marriage and family therapist; Jim Miller, a journalist, writer and professor at San Diego City College; Rev. Shane Harris, president and founder of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates; and Katie Lais, of the University of San Diego.
Some topics for the panel: Is racial justice increasing or decreasing over recent years? Are we becoming more just as a society, or less, in our local community, San Diego, the state, and nation? What is San Diego doing to increase racial justice? What should we be doing? And more!
Join us at the usual time and place—7 pm Wednesday, Feb. 2 (and the first Wednesday of every month) on Zoom. Here’s the Zoom URL. And feel free to drop by a half-hour early, at 6:30 pm, for unstructured conversation.
Watch the video of our January, 2022 meeting to find out more about what redistricting means for Democrats on the local level, in La Mesa, surrounding communities, and San Diego. Also, learn what the $1.2 trillian Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will mean locally.
Our speakers:
Richard Merritt, campaign manager for US Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego).
Walter Bishop, Strategic Advisor for Federal Affairs for San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
Colin Parent, La Mesa City Council member and executive director and general counsel for the mobility and land use organization Circulate San Diego
Raul Campillo, San Diego City Council member representing District 7
Phil Trom, Principal Regionall Planner for the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)
Victoria Stackwick, director of government relations, SANDAG.
We started the meeting with board elections and swearing in of board members, followed by a club budget report, and call to action to stop the Cottonwood Sand Mine. Then we turned to redistricting, and what the new lines on the map need to local Democrats. On infrastructure, we heard an overview from our SANDAG representatives, asked each speaker what the new federal and county plans mean to their constituents, and learned about highlights and what’s missing, in transportation, clean water, wastewater, and more.
We concluded the meeting by hearing from local leaders on matters of importance to our community.
Join us infor our next general meeting, Feb. 2, when the topics will be appropriate to Black History Month. The meeting will be 7 pm PT on Zoom. And you can join us early for casual conversation starting at 6:30 pm.
Join us for a stellar line-up of experts to discuss the local impact of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as redistricting, which effects elective offices at the federal and local level.
First, find out more about what district you’re in for federal and local offices following the recently adopted redistricting. If you find yourself in a district with a representative you don’t like, think of this as an opportunity to make change for yourself and your neighbors.
And then we’ll talk about the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and what the plan will mean to San Diego, California, and the country.
We’re meeting on Zoom, 7 pm Wednesday, Jan. 5, with the usual informal open discussion starting 6:30 pm. We had planned to meet in person, but the Covid surge makes that unwise.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act “will rebuild America’s roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has access to high-speed Internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in communities that have too often been left behind.” The legislation also eases “inflationary pressures and strengthens supply chains by making long overdue improvements for our nation’s ports, airports, rail and roads.” (Source: “Fact Sheet: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal,” at Whitehouse.gov. This document is a great overview of what’s in the bill, and it’s a fast read too.)
The legislation “will drive the creation of good-paying union jobs and grow the economy sustainably and equitably so that everyone gets ahead for decades to come. Combined with the President’s Build Back Framework, it will add on average 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years,” according to the White House fact sheet.
California gets $45.5 billion — the largest share of any state. But that’s actually relatively small given the size of the state, just over $1,200 per Californian, one of the lowest rates of any state. States with relatively small populations, such as Alaska and Vermont, get bigger benefits on a per-resident basis. (Source: “California gets small share of infrastructure bill,” CalMatters)
Two thirds of California’s share, about $30 billion over five years, goes to road, highway, and bridge repairs. That’s a big deal because our roads are in bad shape, rating at or near the bottom of other states.
Another $9.45 billion over five years goes to improving public transportation statewide.
The remainder of California’s share would mostly be spent on improvements to water systems ($3.5 billion), airports ($1.5 billion), aid for high-speed Internet to Californians ($100 million for 545,000+ Californians), and more. (Source: “The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will Deliver for California,” at Whitehouse.gov provides a more detailed overview of California spending. )
This is legislation Democrats can be proud of. Despite the current struggles getting Build Back Better passed, the infrastructure bill demonstrates Democrats are working hard to make lives better for Americans, while Republicans are making America worse. Indeed, all of San Diego’s Congressional representatives save the lone Republican voted for the bill.
Watch a star-studded panel of local leaders discussing why some Latinos are leaving the Democratic Party, and what do we need to do about that. The panel features some of the best political minds in San Diego County, who are also leading representatives of the Latino community:
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party
San Diego City Council member Sean Elo-Rivera
Rafael Castellanos, business and real estate attorney, chair of the Port of San Diego, and member of several community organizations
Jesus Cardenas, chief of staff to San Diego City Council member Stephen Whitburn, and longtime top consultant to winning Democratic Party campaigns.
But first: Get analysis of results from this month’s local election at the La Mesa City Council, where two Democrats were defeated by the Republican. This was previously a Democratic seat, vacated by Akilah Weber when she joined the State Assembly. Colin Parent, the senior Democrat on the city council, takes a couple of minutes to talk about what happened there, and what we should learn.
Additionally, the panel provides perspective on the nationwide elections. It was a bad day for Democrats across the country.
Following the panel discussion, we tend to some club business, welcoming new members to the board. And then the usual open mic time, when county leaders speak to the club.
And join us for our next meeting Dec. 1, at the La Mesa Community Center, for a holiday party with live entertainment, and our first in-person meetup since early March 2020. We hope to see you there—really see you!
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.
Join us for our next meeting, Wednesday evening, Sept. 1, on Zoom (again. sigh). The topic is the recalls—the Republican recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, and recall elections of local officials, including the racist attempt to remove Chardá Bell-Fontenot from the La Mesa-Spring Valley School board.
Our speakers will be 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 Attorney Mara Elliott;
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’ll discuss how we arrived at the proliferation of recall elections and what’s next, how the GOP is using the recall process and voter suppression to further the goals they can’t achieve through honest elections, how we can reach voters and achieve high turnout, if and when the GOP will dump the part of its base that embraces white supremacy and insurrection, and more.
The meeting will be particularly timely as the state recall election will be Sept. 14, just two weeks away from our meeting date.
The meeting starts at 6:30 pm for a social half-hour. Programming starts at 7 pm.
We had hoped to meet together in person but the coronavirus surge has pushed us back to Zoom, out of an abundance of caution (there’s a phrase we don’t want to use anymore—”abundance of caution”). And that relates to the recall election: While California’s covid rates are better than average, Republican states have hospitals over capacity and refrigerated trucks to pile up the corpses. That could be our future in a few months, if Republicans win. Which could happen—it’s a very close race, in a very unfair election that’s tilted away from Democrats.
However, you can help stop the recall. Volunteer to walk a neighborhood or phonebank, every Saturday and Sunday between now and the election, Sept. 14. Sign up here: sddems.link/action—look for the La Mesa event. Or go to another event if you don’t like the La Mesa location. Just get out and walk, or work the phones!
And we’re looking for volunteers to staff the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club booth for Oktoberfest. It’s a great way to have fun, meet your neighbors, and help get the word out about progressive candidates and causes. Contact Steve Jesionka for details: sjesionka@cox.net.
It’s time to get to work to stop the terrible recall election!
We’re hosting a No on the Recall walk this Sunday, August 15 at 1:00 p.m., and we need you to join us.
We will have a short training, then send you out with a list that the party has prepared of a targeted walkable neighborhood. You’ll walk (with social distancing & mask), with either a paper list or with the MiniVan vote builder phone app.
To sign up, go to sddems.link/action, find the La Mesa walk, and sign up there.
The message we’re giving to everyone is “Vote No on the recall”. Question 2 doesn’t need to be answered—you can just answer NO on question 1 and you’re done.
After you’ve finished your walk, if you’re using a paper list, please return the list when you’e finished to the same location you picked up the list. If you use MiniVan, your data will link automatically.
You will also have door hangers to give to voters.
Those that would prefer to make phone calls, go to the link above, and you can find the information you need to start.
This will NOT be the only chance to walk and talk to voters. We will do this every weekend until the election.
Also, we will have yard signs available, for a small donation.
Join us for our next general meeting, Wednesday, Aug. 4, to hear about what you can do to stop the Republican campaign to recall Governor Gavin Newsom, as well as learn about how you can protect yourself against scammers who prey on seniors.
We’ll hear from Ryan Hurd, executive director of the San Diego Democratic Party, to learn what the party is doing to keep Gov. Newsom in office, and how you can—and should—help.
The recall is unpopular, but the unfair nature of this election means it’s going to be tough to defeat the recall anyway. The Republican backers of the recall are taking a leaf from the national playbook; they can’t win fair elections so they find loopholes in the law and exploit those cheat codes. But we can stop them. Find out how.
And we’ll also hear from a couple of experts on how confidence artists rip off older Americans, and what you can do to protect yourselves and your loved ones. Our speakers are Kevin Durawa, of the California Contractors State License Board, and Jackie Wiley, from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. Scammers claim to be building contractors, or the IRS, they promise too-good-to-be-true deals or make dire threats of criminal prosecution. Find out what you can do.
Join us on Zoom Wednesday, Aug. 4. Programming starts at 7 pm, with unstructured conversation starting 6:30 pm. Zoom link.
Hopefully this will be our last Zoom meeting—we’re planning a triumphant return to regular meetings at the La Mesa Community Center, 4975 Community Drive, La Mesa, Wednesday, Sept. 1. Mark your calendars!
ALSO: Here’s what you can do starting now to stop the recall:
Even though California is strongly Democratic, we cannot be complacent about the recall. Republicans are strongly in favor of it; Dems seem less motivated. Unless the NO vote on the recall is over 50%, the Republican with the most votes will become Governor.
You can help contacting voters via phone banking, texting or canvassing on Days of Action in selected areas. You can also create your own initiatives such as tabling at community events, having a house party, calling friends, etc.
Phone banking: Thursday nights from 6-8 pm. Sign up at sddems.link/norecall
Ransomware and other computer crimes are big business, with cybercrooks attacking our oil infrastructure and healthcare facilities. At the July meeting of the La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club, we heard from two experts about the threats — and how you can protect yourself.
Seth Hall, who leads techLEAD, a San Diego organization of technologists listening, engaging, advocating and defending on the technology issues of our time. .
Antonio Adams, senior advisor at Southern California Edison, responsible for developing security solutions helping to ensure reliability of electricity to more than 15 million users. Additionally, Adams serves in the US Navy Reserves, and previously served as the Senior Intelligence Officer for Cyber in Asia and Critical Infrastructure at the Director of National Intelligence. He holds a Bachelors Degree in International Security from San Diego State University, a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity from Norfolk State University, and is currently completing his Executive MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Seth and Antonio talked about the overall threat of cybercrime and ransomware. This type of crime is becoming more dangerous, following multimillion dollar attacks on the Colonial Oil pipeline that triggered gas shortages on the East Coast, and – close to home — a ransomware attack on Scripps Health that threatened lives. How big is the threat, and what can and should we be doing about it?
They also discussed how can we protect ourselves and individuals.
And Seth talked about the importance of digital rights, particularly regarding privacy and surveillance, broadband access, net neutrality, and more.
La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club 