The mission of the Rural Caucus is to identify and promote rural issues and candidates who are seeking elected and appointed positions at all levels of government. To this end, the Rural Caucus will partner with the CDP, Central Committees, Clubs, Assembly Districts, Regional Directors, and Democratic grassroots organizations to raise Democratic visibility, voter registration, and support candidates and issues.

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At www.myruralamerica.org, you'll find news on the Farm Bill, Food Politics, and other "kitchen table" issues. You'll also learn that a few days ago in Iowa, John McCain said that if he were president, he would veto the Farm Bill.

McCain has always voted against the Farm Bill, so this latest statement shouldn't really be considered news.  Rather, it should be considered documention of McCain's consistent opposition to rural communities and family farmers, as well as to our nation's poorest who benefit from the nutrition aspects of the bill, including school lunch and food stamps.

Check out their blog to get more details and be sure to share this information about McCain's statements with your friends.

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Check out this website http://www.cbp.org/Impactbycounty.htm to see how the proposed budget cuts will affect your county.

Find your county and then write a letter to the editor of each of your local county papers to bring this information to the attention of everyone within your county!!

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County Committee Chairs can now request the FREE disc of registered voters in their county.

The legal notice is as follows:

"Upon written demand of the chair or vice chair of a party state central committee or of the chair of a party county central committee, the county elections official shall furnish to each committee, without charge therefore, the index of registration for the primary and general elections, for any special election at which a partisan office is to be filled, or for any statewide special election.

The index of registration shall be furnished to the committee demanding the index not less than 25 days prior to the day of the primary, general, or special election for which they are provided. Upon written demand, the county elections official shall also furnish to the committee the index of registration of voters who registered after the 54th day before the election, which shall be compiled and prepared by Assembly districts. The county elections official shall furnish either two printed copies or, if available, one copy in an electronic form of the indexes specified in this section."

Affiliated CDC clubs can also obtain free voter registration files for their areas directly from CDC.

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For those of you who might not have been able to attend this year's state convention in San Jose, here's a quick breakdown on what you missed.

At the rural caucus meeting on Friday we heard from Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, Congressman Jerry McNerney, State Senator Dean Florez, and Congressional Candidate Charlie Brown. Our chair Jamie gave an update on the 58 county strategy saying that unfortunately no funding has been received from the party but that the caucus will continue its work on implementing the plan. Take Back Red California Chair Four Waters gave an update on what that organization has been working on and training they will be providing from the blue areas into the red counties. Larry Marks spoke on Net Neutrality. Sue Broidy and Helen Conly from Vote Blue were praised for turning Ventura County Blue this past month.

On Saturday our caucus partnered with TBRC for our second annual grassroots red-to-blue dinner which was a huge success. We heard from State Senate Candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson and our guest speaker was Senator Jackie Speier.

To see photos from the weekend, click on the "Photos" link across the top of the site.

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In the March 5th issue of the Ventura County Star, an article discussed the fact that Democrats had overtaken Republican registration and our own rural caucus member Sue Broidy of Vote Blue was instrumental in helping that happen.

In the article, State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres said local activists "deserve full credit" for helping to regain the partisan advantage in the county.  He noted the organization Vote Blue had been "organizing incredibly well," and there has been a great deal of volunteer effort by activists as well.

In the parlance of 21st century politics, Ventura County has turned blue.



Read the rest ...

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As you may know, House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill have passed and select members from both chambers are now negotiating a final bill in the Conference Committee.  Most of our California legislators voted in favor of the bill.

However, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), is currently circulating a letter to members of the House in support of a strong nutrition title, in particular making sure that the improvements made to food stamps and TEFAP are permanently paid for (the Senate improvements expire after 5 years).

To read more about the McGovern bill, click here.

Please contact your Representative's Office and urge them to sign on to the McGovern Farm Bill Nutrition Letter.

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Many of our rural caucus members find this blog from Al Giordano interesting.

He's been blogging a lot about the upcoming presidential primary and offering the latest endorsements, information, etc.

If you haven't checked out the Rual Votes website, here's the address, click here.

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The PruneYard's role in American constitutional law

In the late 1970s, the PruneYard was involved in a free speech dispute with local high school students that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 9, 1980.  In American constitutional law, the PruneYard is famous for its role in establishing two important rules:

•    Under the California Constitution, individuals may peacefully exercise their right to free speech in parts of private shopping centers regularly held open to the public, subject to reasonable regulations adopted by the shopping centers

•    Under the U.S. Constitution, states can provide their citizens with broader rights in their constitutions than under the federal Constitution, so long as those rights do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights

This holding was possible because California's constitution contains an affirmative right of free speech which has been liberally construed by the Supreme Court of California, while the federal constitution's First Amendment contains only a negative command to Congress to not abridge the freedom of speech. The Supreme Court rejected the shopping center's argument that California's free speech right amounted to a "taking" of the shopping center under federal constitutional law.

The vote to uphold the California decision was unanimous, although three justices disagreed with part of the reasoning in Justice William Rehnquist's opinion for the majority. Justices Thurgood Marshall, Byron White, and Harry Blackmun filed separate concurring opinions.

Because of the Pruneyard case, people who visit shopping centers in California may regularly encounter people seeking money or attention for various causes, including charitable solicitations, qualifying petitions for amendments to the state constitution, voter registration drives, and sometimes a beggar. In turn, many shopping centers have posted signs to explain that they do not endorse the views of people exercising their right to free speech, and that if patrons do not give them money, the speakers will go away.

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Dear Rural Caucus Members,

The Rural Caucus has been instrumental in actually changing the entire focus of the CDP from supporting safe "blue"seats to now supporting every county in the state. In return they are asking something from all of us. Below is what the CDP is expecting our central committees to do, and can be used as a guide for our counties.

Here are the guidelines set out by the CDP for the Central Committees:

Party Business
• Regular monthly meetings, Executive Board meetings, and Standing Committee Meetings
• Full membership (either through election or appointment), alternate selection and associate memberships encouraged.
• Regular communications to members, Regional Directors and the CDP
• Formalized endorsement process
• Chartering and re-chartering process for clubs and encouraging club participation in the formal local party structure

Finance/Budget
• Year round budget for all activities
• Establish fundraising goals with diverse methods of sustaining funding

Electoral Strategies/Voter Contact
• Short and long term field plans: voter registration goals and targets, walk programs, key races, coordinated campaign development
• Using the CDP's Online Campaign Center voter file to maintain and build data from cycle-to-cycle

Volunteer Recruitment and Management
• Use of the Volunteer Management Database -- to track, monitor and manage volunteers from within their county
• Trainings -- Campaign Skills, Treasurer's and others, as needed

Visibility and Outreach
• Advertising events
• Sponsoring and speaking at affiliated events
• Earned media/Rapid Response team development
• Current and viable websites for each central committee
• Commitment to notify the CDP in a timely manner of changes in local party officers and chartered clubs

Candidate Recruitment
• Candidate training for Congressional, Senate and Assembly races
• Candidate training for down-ticket, non-partisan races
• Working with labor and other allied groups for non-partisan seats
• Elected official outreach; incumbent relations

Now, of all these guidelines, apparently only two will be optional: the use of the CDP's Online Campaign Center voter file and the use of the Volunteer Management Database. Our Central Committees will be expected to fulfill all of the other duties listed above. Maybe, just maybe, these new and improved connectors will be just the shot-in-the-arm the grassroots has been hoping for
It became obvious that there was not a framework set up to help local parties succeed in fully implementing the 58-County Strategy or to hold the local party structures accountable. Since the E-Board meeting in July 2007, a number of steps have been taken to rectify this problem.

• A Political Director has been hired – filling a vacancy that has existed since last January.

• A 58-County Funding Strategy has been developed – to ensure the success of the program.

• A 58-County Fund Raiser has been hired – and is charged with finding ways to fund this program

• Staff resources have been re-allocated to assume responsibility for all counties in the state.

Also discussed in detail were ways in which the CDP could and would communicate more effectively – whether through the CDP website, on-line communications, or at Regional Meetings and E-Board meetings. There is no question that the state party (as acknowledged by Chairman Torres) needs to do a better job about communicating information to the party membership -- and in creating a dialog with them.

The CDP recently held an intensive working retreat for the Political Department where we were charged with developing the various component programs that constitute the 58-County Strategy.

The most focused and significant discussions were on formalizing the process for the Political Department to work with every County Central Committee on to develop unique strategic plans for each county. Components of the strategic plans were established, timelines and benchmarks were set, accountability processes identified – all in an effort to help local parties become successful – so that they can deliver all of the services to their particular communities.

To that end, a member of the Political Department will meet with each central committee. County specific voter registration and demographic data will be provided and discussed. Each committee will be asked to commit to various activities – but each county sets their own targets and goals. The process was centered on making reciprocal, partnership agreements with each county. Each county commits to specific goals – and the CDP commits to providing the necessary tools and assistance to help them meet these goals.

Remember – every registered Democrat in California is a member of the CDP. I encourage you to continue to make your voices heard. You are the demonstrated “do-ers” – as evidenced by your attendance at this convention -- and your participation in this process is critical to the future of the party here in California.

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The California Democratic Party Platform Committee is beginning our work putting together the 2008 Platform. In order to start the process, the Committee crafted a draft Blueprint for the Golden State and encourages all to participate in sending testimony. They invite all Democrats to help shape the Blueprint for 2008. Please share your values and priorities at -email-.

We at the rural caucus are encouraging our members to let the committee know how important Net Neutrality is and that we want it to be included in the state party's platform.


Here's a letter sent by one of our rural caucus members to the platform committee chair (Christine Pelosi):

Dear Christine,

I am a Democrat, member of the Siskiyou County DCC, the SDCC and the Rural Caucus. I strongly support net neutrality. I believe it should be a Democratic issue.

The phone companies have consistently taken advantage of California citizens. The citizens of California provided the phone companies with tariffs that guaranteed to pay for their network as they built it and also to guarantee them a generous fixed profit margin.  GUARANTEED!

In 1996, the phone companies promised us that if we deregulated digital services on the networks that WE paid for, they would take care of the so-called "last mile" problem - getting fiber optics from the street into the home so that we could all get high speed Internet access. Not 2 or 4 megabits, but at least 100 megabits as citizens of most industrialized European and Asian countries already have.

The phone companies not only failed to deliver on their promise stemming from 1996, but now they are asking to have complete censorship over the Internet. Their primary intent is to force subscribers to use Internet facilities provided by the telephone company by disadvantaging their competitors. But they reserve the right to permit access only to Republican Party approved Web sites if they want to.

Of course, they continually say that they don't want to exercise such a right, but then why are they asking for it? As a computer security  specialist, I know and I am sure you realize that if there is an opportunity for mischief, then there will be mischief. There will be censorship.

The Internet is our most rapidly growing and exciting mass medium. To allow the phone companies or anyone else to control content of this medium is unacceptable. California must go on record for net neutrality. King George III will not allow re-regulation of his buddies in the telecomm industry, so our voices must be very loud.

Larry Marks

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