Santa Claus isn't coming to town, but Pete Stark is

It's great to actally have access to your congressional representative. I remember hearing about how it was close to impossible to provide feedback to the former Congressman from our neighboring 11th District. Fortunately that has changed now.

Through all of that, though, our representative Pete Stark has made himself quite available to his constituents. You can come to a "town hall" meeting in Alameda this Saturday, May 3, from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. at the Council Chambers in Alameda City Hall.

Whether you want to praise him or complain, this is a good opportunity to do so!

Upcoming Sandré Swanson Budget "Town Hall"

Sandré Swanson, our assembly mamber, will be hosting a town hall at Encinal High School to talk about the California Budget crisis, on May 3 from 10 to noon.

RSVP here.

Wilma Chan's Campaign is Push-Polling?

I didn't take the call, but I was in the room when a "poll" phone-call came in this evening. Unlike a real poll, like the Gallup poll I participated in just a few days ago, this was almost certainly a push poll, and it was intended to make the recipient of the call have doubts about Loni Hancock and be more likely to vote for Wilma Chan.

I have had more than enough respect for Ms. Chan and her campaign up to this point, but I've just lost a huge amount of respect for them at this point. While not illegal (here at least), it's dirty.

I'm curious to hear if anybody else has taken this kind of call. I hope to bring up this issue at the Democratic Club meeting tonight, to give the campaigns a chance to embrace or disavow this technique.

Our opportunity to send good Clinton or Obama delegates to Denver

I personally haven't been able to get very excited about either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, but many Democrats in the area have been supporting these candidates either for a long time or more recently when their preferred candidates (Edwards, Richardson, etc.) dropped out.

This coming weekend, it's your opportunity to help select who will be the local delegates to the national convention who are pledged to vote for either Clinton or Obama — at least on the first ballot. If you want to help choose these people, you can attend a caucus to vote for them.

You can only attend one, since they are held at the same time. I got this information from the Alameda Democratic Club:

Obama: Updated!
Cal State East Bay Student Union
25800 Carlos Bee Parkway
Hayward

Clinton:
Walpert Center
1101 Walpert St.
Hayward

Which one you attend doesn't really relate to which candidate you most support, since the number of delegates California gets to send has already been chosen. Really, what matters is that we choose good, progressive people who will help with a progressive agenda at the national level, and not let the Democrats continue their slide towards "Republican Lite."

I think it's also important to select level-headed delegates with whom we can trust their vote in the slight chance that the Clinton/Obama deadlock is unbreakable and a compromise candidate has to be chosen. (Remember Abraham Lincoln? He was actually chosen on the third ballot at his convention due to a situation similar to today's.)

I am going to be researching just who are the candidates are from our area over the next few days, and I'll follow up later if and when I have any recommendations.

Update: "Doors open at 2:00 pm, and registration closes at 3:00 pm. The caucuses are open to all registered Democrats, and one can register the day of the caucus. An individual can only attend one caucus."