Connect! Unite! Act!
Sacramento Meetup Report
We had an awesome meetup in Sacramento last Saturday (Sep. 6th) at the home of our host, the lovely and ever gracious kestrel.
Unfortunately she was in considerable pain from ongoing back issues. So we made every attempt to make sure she only had to open her doors and hold court with her dogs.
Your hosts, tgypsy, gotmooned and I took care of everything else, or tried to. Kestrel wasn't being a very compliant patient. ;)
kestrel holding court with Gracie, Cooper and Kirby
We are proud to report we had 23 people in attendance. We were expecting Derek Cressman (see his biography at the end of this diary) as our featured guest, but unfortunately he was caught up in a house move and was unable to participate. He sent his regrets and was very apologetic for missing our event as he was really looking forward to it.
A bit of background in case you missed our invitation diary, (Sacramento Kossacks Meetup!). Derek was a candidate in the most recent California primary for the Secretary of State position. He now leads the Yes on 49 campaign which was removed from the ballot by the California Supreme Court, so we had plenty of questions about that topic.
Derek offered the following summary of what he planned to talk with us about:
The Prop 49 struggle to overturn Citizens United continues
In a move that legal scholars have called arrogant, the California Supreme Court blocked citizens from voting to instruct our congressional representatives to overturn the Citizens United v FEC ruling.
As background, a citizen movement that produced 55,000 petition signatures, 40,000 e-mails, 176,000 faxes, hundreds of personal visits, and dozens of protester arrests convinced the California legislature to passed SB 1272, by Senator Ted Lieu, which placed the following question on the ballot as Prop 49:
Shall the Congress of the United States propose, and the California legislature ratify, an amendment or amendments to the United States Constitution to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) 558 U.S. 310, and other applicable judicial precedents, to allow the full regulation or limitation of campaign contributions and spending, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of wealth, may express their views to one another, and to make clear that the rights protected by the United States Constitution are the rights of natural persons only?
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Associate didnât want to have this public debate, because they knew they would lose. So, they asked the Courts to remove Prop 49 from the ballot. Arguing both that the HJTA was likely to prevail and that it did no harm to voters to remove Prop 49 from the ballot, the Court did just that pending a full review which is scheduled for November 10.
Even legal scholars such as UC Davis Dean Vikram Amar who are skeptical of a constitutional amendment found the courtâs reasoning flawed. In fact, the California Constitution explicitly grants citizens the right to instruct our elected officials.
Interestingly, Judge Goodwin Liu who authored a condescending and uninformed concurring opinion is up for a retention election this November. Some activists who had supported Prop 49 may now divert their energies to drawing attention to Liuâs action in this case.
Derek Cressman
If money is speech, then speech is no longer free
I've asked Derek to drop in and answer any questions you might have on the points raised by Derek above. (please post a comment with your questions)
Although Derek was missed, we still had plenty to talk about regarding our local races and Sacramento area goings on. We also heard from navajo and Meteor Blades about the initiative by Daily Kos to have active Kossack groups in each of the state capitols. DK is looking for engaged Kossack's ready to roll up their sleeves and participate in many different types of activism/advocacy. For example, delivering petitions to the state capitol, participating in various protests, marches, rally's at the capitol, etc. As Meteor Blades pointed out this won't happen over night and is a long term strategy but I think if we all take the lead in our respective states we can make this dream happen sooner than DK leadership expects.
But, but... what about the photo's and food pron? Oh we have that!
All photo's courtesy of tgypsy. Feel free to share any other photo's in the comments!
All setup, waiting for our guests...
Beautiful Orange flowers from tgypsy.
Intense conversation with SmileyCreek (arm raised), Meteor Blades, navajo, aransdell, paradise50 (in orange) and aransdell's husband enjoying a bite in the background.
Yours truly, tb92 and tgypsy.
Friends from the Sacramento Stonewall Democrats club who participated, Dave, Nate and Neil
sychotic1, side pocket, Denyse (another Stonewall Dem member participating)
Meteor Blades addressing the group.
navajo addressing the group. Watching from L-R, tb92, side pocket, Denyse, gotmooned, Elaine, TrevizOlga
But you promised food pron!? I did, didn't I? Well lets eat!
Grill master! (yours truly)
Digging in! The blur is navajo helping us make sure everything was on the table and organized for optimum service!! Thanks navajo for your help!!!
Veggie burgers, hot links and brats... oh my!
Now that's a plate! Skirt steak, potato salad, coleslaw and BBQ pulled pork. Yum!
Wow! Looks good! But what about a group shot? You bet we have a group shot! Kestrel had the perfect spot with some steps to help us arrange by height. (not gender as it looks LOL)
L-R starting with the front row: sychotic1, tb92, TrevizOlga, Mrs. side pocket. Next row L-R, aransdell, Laurel in CA, kestrel, navajo, Meteor Blades. Next, Elaine, Denyse, SmileyCreek, paradise50, Dave. Back row, Cliff, Mr. aransdell, Neil, yours truly, side pocket, Left Foot Forward, gotmooned, Nate. Not pictured, tygypsy who was taking the photo.
We had a great time, made lots of new friends and I hope everyone went home as energized as I was. Thanks to all who participated.
Google Forms Example
Also... I'm working on a diary that will show you how to use Google forms in your diaries to collect data such as RSVP's or in this example asking folks what type of activism they are willing to engage in and gather info on who knows which elected officials.
Feel free to test it out and submit your choices!
So... are you in? What are you willing to do?
About Derek Cressman
For the past 19 years, Derek Cressman has been a national leader in the fight for fair elections, expanded democracy, and more transparent government. Until June of 2013, Derek Cressman served as Vice President of State Operations for Common Cause, a non-partisan government watchdog organization. He previously held the positions of Western States Regional Director and Assistant Director for Election Reform. He is a registered Democrat but is committed to administering the Secretary of Stateâs office in a non-partisan manner.
Cressman has worked professionally as a good government advocate since 1995 when he directed the Democracy Program for the Public Interest Research Groups. He has worked to pass and implement Californiaâs Independent Redistricting Commission, enact Californiaâs on-line voter registration system, and filed a successful complaint at the Fair Political Practices Commission that led to an investigation of $11 million that was secretly spent on our elections in 2012. Two organizations linked to the Koch Brothers network received a record fine as a result of Derek's work.
He has testified before the U.S. Senate, California Assembly and Senate, served as an expert in federal litigation, and authored numerous reports as well as the book, The Recallâs Broken PromiseâHow Big Money Still Runs California Politics.
In 2001, he served as an international observer for elections in northern Somalia. In 2008, he observed elections in Miami, Florida with the Election Protection network.
Cressman began his career as a community organizer working with students at UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley around environmental issues. He graduated with honors from Williams College with a degree in political science in 1990.
He lives in Sacramento with his wife and two children.
Still here? I almost forgot... side pocket was kind enough to share sliced tomatoes fresh from his garden as well as some home grown zucchini for folks to take home. I don't have a photo of either (hopefully someone does?) but I do have a photo of the lasagna I made with his zucchini!