Silicon Valley Young Democrats Early Endorsements: SVYD Endorses in two races and two issues

PDF Version can be found here: SVYD Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Angel Martinez
March 22, 2018
Email: Angel@svyd.org

Silicon Valley Young Democrats Early Endorsements

SVYD Endorses in two races and two issues

SAN JOSE, California — The Silicon Valley Young Democrats are proud to endorse two young democrats as well as two issues important to all bay area youth. On March 19th, the Silicon Valley Young Democrats voted to endorse Mason Fong for Sunnyvale City Council and Lucas Ramirez for Mountain View City Council. That night, they also voted to support the NO on Evergreen Senior Homes Initiative as well as the Recall Judge Aaron Persky campaign.

“As a democratic club for young dems, we look to endorse candidates and issues important to our demographic” says SVYD Political Director Angel Martinez. “Our goal is to encourage young people to take part in government affairs, increase the efficiency of popular government, and contribute to the growth and influence of youth in the political arena.”

Mason Fong is running to be the City’s youngest elected City Councilmember at the age of 27 and currently serves as an appointed Library Board Trustee for the City of Sunnyvale. He has an extensive career in public service as a current Housing & Transportation specialist to San Jose Councilman Chappie Jones, is a former Senior Congressional Aide to Congressman Ro Khanna, and a former Congressional Aide to Congressman Mike Honda.

Lucas Ramirez currently serves as a commissioner on the Environmental Planning Commission is a former two-term Chair of the Human Relations Commission, and a former appointee to the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) 2000 Measure A Citizens Watchdog Committee/Citizens Advisory Committee.

Other SVYD endorsement include Raul Peralez for District 3 Councilmember, Kalen Gallagher for District 9 Councilmember, Patrick Ahrens for Foothill-De Anza Community College Board, Tara Sreekrishnan for Cupertino City Council, and Richard Nguyen for Campbell Union School District.

For more information on the Silicon Valley Young Democrats endorsement process, or information on how to get involved with the SVYD, please contact SVYD Political Director via email at Angel@svyd.org

About SVYD: As a group of students and young professionals dedicated to spreading Democratic ideals, the Silicon Valley Young Democrats seek to embody the spirit of forward thinking that has made the region renowned. Their motto, “Innovation in Politics”, reflects their deeply held convictions that an idea holds immense power. They also believe in the Silicon Valley spirit of possibility and the democratic ideals of civil and just society.

Meet our New Political Director, Angel Martinez

The Silicon Valley Young Democrats voted to elect Angel Martinez as their new Political Director on February 19, 2018. He joins the executive board after outgoing political director, Matt Savage, announced his resignation at our annual holiday party in December.

 Born and raised in San José, Angel Martinez has always been an individual who puts community first. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School, Angel left San José to attend the University of California Davis where he earning a bachelors in Community and Regional Development with an emphasis in Public Policy. His previous experiences include working for the Public Interest Research Group as a Community Outreach Director in Sacramento, Senior Campaign Coordinator on the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument campaign, a Community Organizer for Innovate Public Schools and most recent, as a Community Relations Aide in the office of San José Councilmember Raul Peralez. Angel is fluent in both English and Spanish, and brings more than 7 years of experience working with local communities. Let’s welcome Angel as he steps into his new role as Political Director for the SVYD!

Volunteers for Citizenship Day 2016

citizenshipday2016

The Santa Clara County Citizenship Collaborative is hosting Citizenship Day 2016 to provide free citizenship application assistance to eligible lawful permanent residents. Based on the current estimated application processing time from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), applicants who apply by April 2016, should be able to vote in the November Presidential Election.

We are recruiting community members, attorneys, paralegals, translators, law students, high school students, and college students to volunteer on Citizenship Day, Saturday, April 2, 2016, and a follow up workshop on Saturday, April 16, 2016.

Both events will be at San Jose City College, General Education Building, 2100 Moorpark Avenue, San Jose, CA 95128. We will be assisting participants from 8:30 AM to 5 PM. 

We need volunteers to assist with registration, logistics, form filling, translation (mainly Spanish and Vietnamese), and attorney review.

Shift 1, we request that volunteers who will be assisting with registration and logistics arrive by 8:30 AM; and for volunteers who will be assisting with form filling and attorney review arrive by 9:30 AM.

Shift 2, we request all volunteers arrive by 12:30 PM.

If you are interested in volunteering, please do the following:

Sign up by registering here; and
Attend one of three volunteer trainings at 6 PM on either March 16, 23, or 30 at the ALA office, 991 W. Hedding Street, Suite 202, San Jose, CA 95126. However, if you previously attended citizenship training or you are an immigration attorney, you do not need to attend a volunteer training session.
Thank you and we hope to see you on April 2 and/or April 16!

For any questions, please contact Judy Hinh Wong at ALAVolunteerCoordinator@gmail.com.

Bylaws Amendment

SVYD’s Participation in State Party Endorsements. As a chartered Democratic club, SVYD is entitled to participate in pre-endorsing conferences conducted by the California Democratic Party (“CDP”) at the regional level, as part of the CDP’s multi-step process for endorsing candidates and ballot propositions and initiatives. SVYD’s participation is governed by Article VIII, Section 3g(5)(c) the CDP Central Committee’s Bylaws (as amended November 2014), certain elements of which are described below.

1. In the year prior to the pre-endorsing process, a roster of SVYD members in good standing and duly registered as members of the Democratic Party of California as of July 1 of said year shall be submitted to specified county and state party representatives in accordance with applicable party requirements. A “member in good standing”, and the status of such members included in the roster shall be certified by a President, Vice-President of Membership or Treasurer of SVYD.

2. SVYD’s member representative(s) to a particular pre-endorsing conference shall be from a roster described above. As to those Assembly Districts in which SVYD members reside (e.g., AD 24, AD 25, AD 27, AD 28), SVYD may designate one representative who is a resident of such Assembly District for each full (not a fraction thereof) 20 members in good standing registered to vote in the Assembly District who were listed on the roster.

The SVYD President shall select the representative(s) to the pre-endorsing conference, subject to agreement of the member and approval by the membership by majority of the vote at a general membership meeting, with the objective of equally apportioning representatives between men and women to the extent possible. As SVYD members who are also members of other club(s) may only be counted for representation once, the applicable Central Committee Regional Director will assign such members to SVYD or another club’s roster in accordance with the Central Committee Bylaws.

ADEMs 2015

The Assembly District Delegates (ADDs) and Assembly District Executive Board representatives (“EBd Reps”) are elected at Assembly District Election Meetings (ADEMs) held in each of the 80 Assembly Districts. The California Democratic Party is convening ADEMs on January 10 and 11, 2014, where 14 people (7 men / 7 women) from each Assembly District will be elected to represent their district for both the 2015 and 2016 State Conventions.

We have many young dems and former young dem members running to be a delegate this year. If you are a registered democrat in any of these districts, please consider voting for them.

AD 22
Saturday, Jan. 10
Registration begins: 10am

Noveed Safipour

AD 24
Sunday, Jan. 11
Registration begins: 11:30am

Ellen Kamei
Abigail (Abby) Longcor
Andrew Heaton
Lucas Ramirez
Matt Savage
Mehdi Alhassani

AD 25
Sunday, Jan. 11
Registration begins: 12pm

Andrae Macapinlac
Aref Aziz
Alex Hilke
Emily Ramos
Cassandra Langer
Lenine Umali
Karina Dominguez
Noelani Sallings

AD 27
Saturday, Jan. 10
Registration begins: 10am

Christina Ramos
Aimee Escobar
Alex Wara
Angela Nguyen
Melinda Chacon Romayor
Darcie Green
Anna Ko
Kathy Tran
Anthony Phan
Omar Torres
Jeremy Barousse
Peter Ortiz
Thanh Tran
Ian Crueldad
Jonathan Padilla
Joshua Barousse
Andres Quintero
Diego Barragan
Jesus Gomez

AD 28
Saturday, Jan. 10
Registration begins: 10am

Shaian Mohammadi
Colleen Haley

 

Please note that only the general membership can vote to endorse. This is simply a list of Young Dem members, but we encourage you to support them.

SVYD Holiday Party

December 15 at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets: $20 for non-members (includes membership if eligible).

Bring an unwrapped toy gift to enter our raffle. Raffle tickets will also be available for purchase.

Location
Mosaic Restaraunt
211 S 1st St
San Jose, CA 95113

Join us for our annual toy drive, raffle, food, drinks, and great company!
RSVP on Facebook

 


Sponsorship Levels




$100 – One Young Democrat Associate Membership and single entry
$250 – Pay for one dinner at SVYD membership meeting, Associate Membership, and single entry
$500 – Send one Young Democrat to the State Democratic Convention, Associate Membership, and five entries
$1000 – Send two Young Democrats to the State Democratic Convention, Associate Membership, five entries, and name featured on SVYD social media sites

Or donate a custom amount:





Written Notice of Bylaws Amendment Vote

According to the bylaws, the board must provide 2 weeks written noticed for any amendments to the bylaws (Article VIII.section 1).

Article VII – Section 2.ii – Amendment
SVYD may endorse a current member of SVYD and CYD or a past member of SVYD or CYD as a favored candidate at any time after the candidate has informed the Executive Board his or her intent to run with a three-fourths majority vote of the General Membership. The General Membership may at any time refer these candidates to the regular endorsement process.

We will vote on the amendment at our next general membership meeting October 20, 2014.

Please email Emily Ramos or Jeff Cardenas, if you have any questions about the amendment.

Minutes – SVYD April Membership Meeting – Endorsements

April 21, 2014

Location: UFCW Local 5, 240 S. Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113

 

Called to order by SVYD President Joshua Barousse at 7:29 p.m.

I. Welcome and Introductions

II. Guest Speakers- Teresa Cox, Mike Honda via Google Hangout, Ro Khanna via proxy, Bob Wiecowski via proxy Andres Macapano, Sam Liccardo via proxy, Dave Cortese via proxy Ash Kalra, Paul Fong via proxy Patrick Ahens, Susan Marsland via statement read by Joan Huitt, Bob Levy via proxy, Cathy Sutherland, Raul Peralez, Xavier Campos, Buu Thai, Maya Esparza, Don Rocha via proxy Ann Grabowski

III. Officer Reports

A. President- Joshua Barousse

i. SVYD Film Screening: Cesar Chavez – A special thanks to Ash Kalra and Xavier Campos for each donating $100 for more tickets for Young Dems.

B. Vice President of Membership- Brandon Li

i. Membership Confirmed – Must have a card to vote and speak for this process. 60% vote needed to endorse

ii. Women’s Leadership Committee update- New board chair, Alex Wara – Congrats

C. Secretary- Emily Ramos

i. Endorsement questionnaires have been sent out to confirmed members. Please contact Emily, if you had any issues accessing them.

D. Treasurer- Amanda Montez

i. Finance update

ii. Fundraiser after party – May 9

E. Political Director- Eric Director

i. Overview of endorsement process

ii. Code of Conduct

iii. List recommendation on consent calendar

iv. The SVYD bylaws takes precedence over Robert’s Rules

IV. Old Business

V. New Business

i. Endorsements – Eric Hernandez chairs

– Amendments to consent calendar

— Patrick Aherns pulls San Jose City Council District 1 endorsement.

— Mia White pulls San Jose City Council District 3 endorsemrent.

— Leah pulls Congressional District 17 endorsement.

— Matthew Quevon pull San Jose Mayor endorsement.

 

– Eric moves to pass consent calendar of endorsement with amendments.

42 votes needed to pass. At the discretion of the chair Motion carries. The following candidates are endorsed through this meeting’s consent canlendar:

— Bob Wiecowski for State Senate District 10

— Kansen Chu for State Assembly District 25

— Darcie Green for Santa Clara County Board of Education

— Xavier Campos for San Jose City Council District 5

— Buu Thai and Maya Esparza (DUAL) for San Jose City Council District 7

— Peter Leroe-Muñoz for Gilroy City Council

– Leah moved to endorse Ro Khanna for Congressional District 17. Andy seconds. 42 votes needed to pass. 27 votes in favor. Motion fails.

– Andres moves to endorse Mike Honda for Congressional District 17. Eric Stoker seconds. Leah proposes to amend the original motion to a dual endorsement for MIke Honda and Ro Khanna. Andres does not accept. 44 votes needed to pass. 48 votes in favor. Motion carries. SVYD endorsed Mike Honda for Congressional District 17.

– Neesha Tambe motions to endorse Dave Cortese for Mayor. Star Dormash seconds. 40 votes needed to pass. 41 votes in favor. Motion carries. SVYD endorses Dave Cortese for San Jose Mayor.

– Emily Ramos moves to endorse Susan Marsland for San Jose City Council District 1. Angelica Ramos seconds. Alex Shoor proposes to amend the original motion to a dual for Susan Marsland and Paul Fong. Emily Ramos accepts amendment. 29 votes needed to pass. 10 votes in favor. Motion fails.

– Mia White moves to endorse Paul Fong for San Jose City Council District 1. Andrea Hyde seconds. 30 votes needed to pass. 25 votes in favor. Motion fails.

Meeting is adjourned at 9:33 p.m.

 

Next meeting: May 19, 2014

Location: UFCW Local 5, 240 S. Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113

 

Minutes – SVYD March Membership Meeting

March 17, 2014

Location: UFCW Local 5, 240 S. Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113

 

Called to order by SVYD President Joshua Barousse at 7:29 p.m.

I. Welcome and Introductions

II. Guest Speaker- Esau Herrera, Parliamentary Procedure Training

III. Officer Reports

A. President- Joshua Barousse

i. CYD update

ii. SVYD Film Screening: Chavez Sun 3/30 – We want to support the film on it’s opening weekend. SVYD will be providing 10 tickets.

iii. CDP Campaign staff recruitment and resume drop 3/22

B. Vice President of Membership- Brandon Li

i. Membership update

ii. Women’s Leadership Committee update- Samantha Pedrosa’s last meeting as chair. She recently got hired for Sandra Fluke’s campaign! Congratulations!

C. Secretary- Emily Ramos

D. Treasurer- Amanda Montez

i. Finance update

ii. Emerge California South Bay Reception 3/22

E. Political Director- Eric Director

i. Endorsement Committee update – Endorsements for candidates with opponents will take place next meeting. Questionnaire has been sent out.

IV. Old Business

V. New Business

i. Endorsements – Eric Hernandez chairs

– Eric moves to pass consent calendar of endorsements for candidates who do not have any democratic opposition. 16 votes needed to pass. 22 votes in favor. Motion carries. The following candidates are endorsed:

— Rep. Zoe Lofgren

— Rep. Anna Eshoo

— Asm. Rich Gordon

— Asm. Nora Campos

— Asm. Mark Stone

— Asm. Luis Alejo

— Supervisor Ken Yeager

– Kalen Gallagher moved to early endorse Noelani Sallings for the Santa Clara School Board. Anthony Phan seconds. 16 votes needed to pass. 22 votes in favor. Motion carries. SVYD early endorsed Noelani Sallings for Santa Clara School Board.

– Shahab Mohadam moved to early endorse Anthony Pham for East Side Union High School District Trustee. Melinda Chacon seconds. 16 votes needed to pass. 18 votes in favor. Motion carries. SVYD early endorsed Anthony Pham for East Side Union High School District Trustee.

– 19 votes in favor to early endorse Andres Quintero for Alum Rock Union Elementary School Board. 16 votes needed. Motion carries. SVYD early endorsed Andres Quintero for Alum Rock Union Elementary School Board.

Meeting is adjourned at 9:12 p.m.

 

Next meeting: April 21, 2014

Location: UFCW Local 5, 240 S. Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113

Response to SJ Merc article

By Angelica Ramos

This letter is in response to an article by the San Jose Mercury News titled “San Jose mayor and council race money pouring in — what did everyone raise?

Dear Editor: What About the Women?

I was disappointed that Mr. Rosenberg’s article on San José campaign finance (Feb. 2) failed to discuss the significant fundraising totals of the only female candidates in two City Council races. In a city of almost one million people, where women make up half the electorate, residents deserve a chance to learn about all viable and qualified candidates. An article heralding the achievements of mostly male candidates is dismissive of female ones who raised impressive amounts of money – in fact, more money than other candidates – while loaning little or nothing to their campaigns. Big congratulations to Kathy Sutherland in District 3 and Susan Marsland in District 1 for doing this, respectively, in the first fundraising period.  Considering the obstacles grassroots female candidates are known to face, these accomplishments should be celebrated – without apology.


The Women’s Media Center says it best, “[w]e’re counting on the media to remain a public trust, watchdog, and accurate and fair arbiter in the age of spin…And the females that make up 51 percent of the U.S. population want their voices heard and to be portrayed accurately and without stereotype.”  The media has a responsibility to provide complete and accurate information so that voters can make educated decisions; in the future, I sincerely hope the San Jose Mercury News/Bay Area News Group will report journalistic content through a gender educated lens.

Angelica Ramos, President
National Women’s Political Caucus of Silicon Valley
PO Box 6953
San Jose, CA 95150
408.597.4946