Local elections. They often lack the passion and frankly, media coverage of presidential races. And midterm elections, while considered a referendum on presidents and administrations, historically generate lower voter turnout than presidential elections. But like college midterms, this midpoint in our process feeds our final grades (or outcomes). If you were like me in college, you partied all semester and then spent 72 straight hours cramming for the important tests. Let’s prepare now for the coming election.
Your Vote Matters, a lot.
If you walked into the mall and asked 10 people the names of their school board members, who sits on their city council or county supervisors; how many would be able to tell you the names? But if you asked those same people the importance of school quality, policing, public safety, local laws governing everything from housing to transportation-----they would likely know what matters to them and have strong opinions. Voting connects those dots.
Read moreI’m sure each of us is asking how we can support Ukraine’s efforts to stop the Russian incursion into their country? and the devastation, death and destruction that Putin/Russia is causing. In their March issue, Fortune magazine published a provocative and eye-opening article by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tianen titled “Over 400 Companies Have Withdrawn from Russia – But Some Remain”. The Yale School of Management has created a list which shows companies that are making a difference …and those that are not. Sonnenfeld has listed companies in groups based on their actions as “withdrawal, suspension, scaling back, buying time or digging in”.
The article below is reprinted from Fortune Magazine and contains links to the list of companies within the text.
Read moreThree School Board members in San Francisco have been recalled by voters. A Republican District Supervisor was recalled because he wasn’t far enough to the Right. A local high school district in Placer County has defied Governor Newsom’s mask mandate.
A November, 2021, NPR story by Deepa Shivaram reminds us that “Book burning was a practice perpetuated in Nazi Germany”. Kristallnacht – the ‘night of broken glass’ and burned books signaled to the world the horrors that were to come in World War II. Our moment of Kristallnacht could be the increasingly strident fight over JEDI – the teaching of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) concepts to all children and Critical Race Theory.
Editor of the Cook Political Report, Amy Walter, has warned Democrats “are not listening” to the Republican message. She states their message is gathering new voters to the Republican Party, especially minority populations who are always fearful of how their children are treated in schools. She added they “feel the continued masking (of children) means we’re still not safe and they’re turning to the Republican message”.
Read moreThe current 2021-2022 Federal and State legislation sessions is in its second and final year.
Federal and California State legislation sessions have opened their second year as of January 3, 2022. In September 2021, California State legislation acted upon and passed during the first year was submitted for the Governor’s signature and finalized in October. Starting in January 2022, our California State Legislature has been actively determining which first year legislation session (2021) bills will be continued for consideration in 2022. This process has been completed and the introduction of new California State legislation is underway.
Federal legislation introduced and still active at the end of 2021 is carried over into their second-year session.
The PCDCC Legislation Committee finished its analysis process in November 2021, completing a very productive year in engineering both Federal and State legislation through our committee’s Endorsement Process. Nine Federal bills and five State bills were endorsed by the PCDCC. The Legislation Committee set a new precedent in its analysis process to consider those legislation issues our PCDCC membership should oppose.
Read moreIn previous articles, I have written about the differences between misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information—each a component of information disorder. Disinformation is the most common form of information disorder we encounter, and it is deadly. Usually we contend with it online and in social media, but it creeps into conversations and the mainstream. On just one topic, Covid-19, think of the ever more absurd claims about its origins and purported treatments and cures. The crusades against wearing masks and vaccinations have convinced formerly reasonable people that these life saving measures bring them harm. We see that rhetoric infecting our school board meetings as well. We’ll never know how many lives have been lost to Covid disinformation, nor do we know how many others are lost down the disinformation rabbit hole. But we know disinformation is all around us, even if we don’t always know how to detect it.
So, what should we look for? Disinformation comes in many forms. Sometimes it’s information that’s incomplete, distorted, reported out of context, or is outdated. It can also take the form of faulty logic or unsubstantiated conclusions. Hate speech and dog whistles are also a form of disinformation as is the escalating presence of conspiracy theories in our daily lives.
While there is no magic formula, there a few strategies you can use to detect and deflect disinformation. In a 2020 Washington Post article, Geoffrey Fowler outlined a series of steps that we can use to not only identify disinformation but stop its spread.
Read moreGovernmental redistricting is an important process with a 10-year impact, especially in areas of population growth (or loss). Overall, Placer County is increasing in population, especially in the South Placer cities of Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln.
Here’s a brief recap and analysis of two local jurisdictions’ approach to the mandated boundary realignments after the 2020 census. Each governing body took a legally available option. The Placer County Board of Supervisors chose an Advisory Redistricting Commission to create the new boundaries for the 5 supervisorial districts. The Roseville City Charter requires an Independent Redistricting Commission due to voter approval in its latest charter review process. Both Redistricting Commissions had to adjust boundaries due to growing populations.
The City
The city of Roseville began its initial process when the City Council determined that, to comply with the Voter Rights Act, it was necessary to establish 5 districts, each electing a council member living within their district. The adopted map was based, as legally required, on the 2010 census.
Read moreWe are tired-- sometimes disappointed, frustrated, and discouraged. Since the dark days of 2017, we have been calling, texting, writing letters and postcards, posting on social media, canvassing, protesting, and reaching out to voters to get them to the polls. We helped build the Blue Wave in the 2018 midterms. We did it all again in 2020 under unexpectedly challenging circumstances only to see the election results questioned and used as a rallying cry for domestic terrorism. We thought we’d get a respite in 2021, but that wasn’t meant to be. Now here we are in 2022 with another demanding election season ahead of us, where losing the majority in Congress could imperil democracy as we know it.
But there have been moments of intense joy and satisfaction. Watching Nancy Pelosi again assume the speakership of the House, surrounded by the many young, diverse newly elected members of Congress was gratifying in a way I can’t explain. Listening to Amanda Gorman’s poem during the Inauguration filled my heart with joy and gave me much needed hope. Beating back a partisan recall with numbers that mirrored Newsom’s 2018 victory gives me confidence that we can keep our state blue. Closer to home, the astonishing 79% success rate of our 2020 first time voter texting project provides a solid base upon which to build. And if we needed a reminder that activism works, the collaborative effort resulting in the approval of the citizen-drawn maps for redistricting in Placer County has given us a much needed boost. None of these accomplishments happened in a vacuum. They happened because of YOU.
Read moreWhen you look at any social media site (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, even LinkedIn and Tik Tok) their number one goal is to KEEP you on their platforms. This means, a post that interacted with a lot is bumped up by the social media platform and shown to more people.
For example, if a news story post has a lot of reactions on it (reactions including likes, hearts, or even angry emojis), has lots of comments, and/or is shared a higher number of times - the social media platforms decide this is a high value piece of content and will show it to more people.
Read moreOn 12/20/21, the Roseville Independent Redistricting Commission met to select a handful of maps to move forward and present to the public over the month of January.
The six maps moving forward are maps 1, 6, 8, 14, 15, & 25. These are the maps that received public comment at the last meeting, so it’s really important for people to turn out in the month of January and/or to submit your public comment via web-form or email.
Read moreThanks to some great media coverage and letters to the editor, on December 7th, the public turned out to let the Board of Supervisors know how they felt about them picking their own Staff Map A over the highly supported collaborative public submitted maps (3 different hybrid alternative maps).
The meeting started with Supervisor Suzanne Jones of District 4 making a motion to rescind the Map A selection and revisit the public supported maps. Bonnie Gore seconded that motion and Holmes also voted yes, so MAP A was rescinded for the time being.
Read moreWhile the details of AB1400 spell out the goals of providing “universal insurance”, it’s still an abstract concept and the challenges of survival often leave other devastating choices. Many of us, or someone we know, has faced medical circumstances with little or no way to pay for their care. The choices can become few and frightening. PCDCC Member Terry Brady recalls the following story involving his nephew Evan:
Read moreWhen Barbara Smith picks up a pen or makes a phone call, she influences people and their actions. As the Placer County Democratic Committee Community Engagement Chair, she has very effectively shown us how we, as volunteers, can each increase our visibility, recruit volunteers, activate people and resources for political campaigns. Her goals are to refine the message we send to the public - to reframe our Democratic image so we define ourselves and our message rather than letting our opposition define us.
Activating all these arenas, through the efforts of Barbara and the volunteers she has enlisted, were pivotal in the recent Newsom recall election and redistricting process. She states she wanted to “harness the enthusiasm and interest of members, encouraging them to spread their wings”. And they did…resulting in outreach to Dems and independents, organizing more volunteers, publicizing our message and gathering volunteers. Each post card sent to local Dems, each Social Media post, each Letter to the Editor, each door knocked, each phone call brought us results.
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