Dear Torrey Pines Dems & Friends,
REMINDER: TPDC Club Zoom Meeting, Thursday, August 27 at 6pm
Our E-Board encourages you to attend this week’s meeting as it’s an important endorsement meeting. It will be an opportunity to hear from candidates and ask them questions. You will still have time to vote after the meeting as the voting closes at 9 p.m.
The monthly meeting is scheduled for this Thursday, August 27 at 6 PM. Please plan on joining at 5:45 pm in order to start the meeting promptly. Our goal is to finish the meeting at 8 p.m.
Our meeting will focus on endorsements and for the first time we will be using the secure Democratic Voting Server for online voting.
Each club member in good standing will receive a unique link, via email, the morning of the 27th. You will be able to vote anonymously before, during or up to one hour after our meeting (9 p.m.).
The required quorum calculation for endorsement will be based on the number of members that complete the voting process.
For each race there will be candidate names and a “no endorsement” choice. For the races that have 3 or more candidates, we will use rank choice voting, like we normally do (AKA, Instant Runoff). You will receive a graphic example of a sample ballot in a TPDC email on August 27. It will demonstrate the importance of the “no endorsement” choice.
All candidates have been notified of the endorsement and/or friendly incumbent endorsement and have been invited to the meeting. They will have 5 minutes to speak and 5 minutes for Q&A. We will have the chat feature turned off during the zoom meeting to minimize distractions. The meeting will begin promptly at 6:05 p.m. Only members in good standing will be able to comment for or against any of the candidates.
Please note only members in good standing are able to vote and keep a lookout for an email from torreypinesdems@gmail.com for your electronic ballot.
When: Thursday Aug 27, 2020 06:00 PM Pacific Time
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtd-6qrz8sG9corCEHgBr9vhTD5xcS41q6
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Meeting Agenda (subject to changes)
6:00 pm – Meeting called to order. Announcements, candidates (not on the endorsement calendar) to speak.
6:10 pm – Endorsement Director – Jim Smith review the endorsement process.
6:15 pm – Del Mar City Council, Democrats
- Bob Gans
- Dave Druker
- Glenn Warren
- Tracy Martinez
Phil Blair, is a NPP candidate. We’ll discuss whether to designate him as Qualified or Not Qualified
6:45 pm – Solana Beach Mayor
- Lesa Heebner
6:55 pm – Solana Beach City Council D1
- Dave Zito
7:05 pm – Solana Beach City Council D3
- Jewel Edson
7:15 pm – San Dieguito Union High School Trustee – Area 4
- Amy Caterina
- Jane Lea Smith
7:30 pm – Oceanside Mayor
- Esther Sanchez
- Rob Howard
- Ruben Major
7:50 pm – Adjourn meeting
Complete listing of San Diego County candidates
Endorsement Chair: Jim Smith
Please note Jim will not be managing the San Dieguito High School Board D4 endorsement due to a conflict of interest.
Send us an email at torreypinesdems@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding the process.
Ranked Choice Voting
The Torrey Pines Democratic Club requires a 2/3 Super-Majority for the club to endorse a candidate for office. In most races where the Club is voting to endorse, there are several people running. It has always been our practice to count the votes, eliminate candidates receiving the fewest votes, then have a runoff among the remainder. Voters whose first choice candidate has been eliminated vote for their second choice in the runoff balloting. We continue this process until someone receives at least 2/3 vote, or it is mathematically impossible to have a winner. Casting multiple ballots is a long, tedious process.
For several years, our Club has used an “Instant Runoff” process, to significantly shorten the balloting time. (Instant Runoff is also know as Ranked Choice Voting.) The Instant Runoff ballot shows all of the candidates, and the voters indicate their first, second, third, etc. choices on their ballot. In the first round of paper voting, the ballot-counters create stacks of first choices for each candidate. Then the stack (candidate) with the fewest votes is redistributed based on the second choice for those ballots. If there is still no winner, then the stack with the fewest in the new piles is redistributed. And so on. This runoff method is quite quick.
It is important to note that one of the candidate choices is No Endorsement. If a person only approves of one candidate, and their choice is eliminated, then they may abstain from the runoff by selecting No Endorsement.In our online voting, you create a list of candidates in descending order. That is to say, your first choice is at the top of your list. If at any time in your list you enter No Endorsement, you will stop adding names to your list.
A computer does the arithmetic and redistribution to determine if any candidate won the election. We use a secure voting server that is provided by the CA Democratic Party. Every TPDC Member in Good Standing is sent an email with a unique one-time access code that is validated when they vote on that server. Once a voter clicks on the button to signal they are finished, that ballot cannot be changed, and the access code cannot be used again.
The voting is anonymous so far as our endorsement committee is concerned. The computer compiles and randomizes the voting results and provides those data only after the voting time is completed.
Roosevelt Honors Coming Aug. 29 – Get Your Tickets Now!
Kamala Harris is set as the keynote speaker at this year’s Roosevelt Honors event on August 29th. And our very own, Wayne Dernetz, E-Board Member, will be honored as the volunteer of the year. Two great reasons to attend this year!
Democrats throughout San Diego County come together every year to celebrate our elected officials, candidates, volunteers, and activists — as well as raise funds for our County Party’s candidate support and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Our 40th Annual Roosevelt Honors will be held online on Saturday, August 29. We’ll present awards, enjoy some entertainment, and hear from local, state, and national Democratic luminaries, including California’s Secretary of State, Alex Padilla.
Now we can announce another amazing leader who will be joining us as a featured speaker at the event: United States Senator Kamala Harris.
A lifelong champion for public safety and civil rights, Kamala Harris is the second African-American woman in history to be elected to the U.S. Senate, and the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s Attorney General. Her groundbreaking campaign for the presidency last year helped put her at the top of Joe Biden’s short list to serve as his 2020 running mate.
Reserve your spot at the Roosevelt Honors today! Tickets start at $75 per person and will include an “SD Dems” swag kit mailed to all guests just in time for election season.
All proceeds from this event will support our County Party’s work to make gains on city councils and school boards across the region, flip our County Board of Supervisors, build our majority in the House of Representatives — and, of course, defeat Donald Trump.
Sign up now to (virtually) join hundreds of fellow San Diego Democrats at our most important event of the year. You can click here to download a flyer listing award winners and here for information about sponsorship opportunities. We hope to see you on August 29!
TPDC Endorsed Candidates
Scott Peters – Congress District 52
Mike Levin – Congress District 49
Joe La Cava – San Diego City Council
Terra Lawson-Remer – San Diego County Board of Supervisors D3
Meet and Greet with Joe LaCava
When: Wednesday, August 26th from 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: The comfort of your own home!
Please click HERE to register for the event
We have a short 69 days until the election on November 3rd.
President Trump is attempting to suppress the vote through corrupting the United States Postal Service, which is guaranteed to the people through Article I of the Constitution. We need to increase turnout as much as we can in order to defeat Republicans up and down the ballot.
California Democrats have already shown that we can come together over the past few months – thousands of calls and contacts were made just in North County, and millions of calls were done all over the state. We know that if we work together, we can win and take our country back from oppression, voter suppression, and the dictatorial leanings of our president. If we can get just 10 people calling fellow voters on each of these nights, we will make a major impact!
How will YOU get involved to save our Democracy?
We will have several options during the week, every week, until November 3rd. Sign up for any of them by clicking on the links below:
Tuesday and Friday: Keep North County Blue! Phone Bank to re-elect Tasha Boerner Horvath for Assembly and Mike Levin for Congress!
Wednesday: Keep the Blue Wave Going! Phone bank to Elect Kate Schwartz and Ammar Campa-Najjar!
Thursday: Statewide Props : Join this weekly phone bank to call voters and tell them about Prop 15 (Schools & Communities First) and Prop 16 (Opportunity for All). Millions of dollars in school funding and the future of racial justice are at stake, and most voters don’t even know it.
Saturday: Elect Terra Lawson-Remer to County Supervisor – The seat for County Board of Supervisors for San Diego in District 3 is up, and we need all the help we can get to flip it. Terra’s opponent is a Trump-endorsed, Trump-assisting Republican and we need them replaced!
Swing State Sundays – Excited about being within striking distance of flipping the Senate? Over the moon about the possibility of a Blue trifecta of House-Senate-Presidency? This is a great way to get that done! Call into Swing State Senate races to make it happen!
This has been a great year so far for organizing. You all have done amazing work during the primary and doing census calls since then, and now it’s really time to get back to work. Thank you so much! I look forward to working with you to take our country back!
Monday, August 24
Arkansas Virtual Reception with Mayor Pete Buttigieg
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0824-arkansas?attr=102566292
Fireside Chat on the Future of U.S.
Transportation and Infrastructure with Ben Harris, Former Chief Economist to VP Joe Biden
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0824-fireside-chat?attr=102566292
Virtual Conversation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar & Rep. David Cicilline
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0811-conversation?attr=102566292
Virtual Conversation on the Rule of Law with Dana Remus, BFP General Counsel
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0824-conversation?attr=102566292Tuesday, August 25
Virtual Meeting with Tony Blinken, BFP Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, & Mayor Eric Garcetti
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0825-meeting?attr=102566292
Virtual Conversation on Latin American Policy with Amb. Mari Carmen Aponte, Amb. Liliana Ayalde, Amb. Roberta Jacobson, Hon. Maria Otero, & Amb. Julissa Reynoso
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0825-conversation?attr=102566292
Wednesday, August 26
Virtual Conversation on the Value of Women Voters and Leaders with Rep. Abby Finkenauer, Rep. Lucy McBath, & Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Moderated by Debra Messing & Eric McCormack
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0826-women-voters?attr=102566292
Thursday, August 27
Virtual Conversation with Jill Biden
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/082720-virtual-conversation?attr=102566292
Virtual Conversation with Tony Blinken, BFP Senior Foreign Policy Advisor,
& Neal Wolin, Former Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0827-conversation?attr=102566292
Virtual Conversation on the Future of Energy in the Built Environment
with Bruce Reed, BFP Senior Advisor
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0827-energy?attr=102566292
Virtual Conversation on Organizing on the Ground, Creating Policy on Capitol Hill, and the Importance of Leadership in the White House
with Sen. Cory Booker, Filmmaker & Activist Etienne Maurice, Moderated by Karine Jean-Pierre
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/082720-conversation?attr=102566292Tuesday, September 1
Virtual Discussion on Rebuilding the Global Order and Implications for Asia with Secretary Madeleine Albright
https://secure.joebiden.com/a/0901-discussion?attr=102566292
Help the Biden campaign with letter/postcard writing. Join several organizations that have set up opportunities to do so.
Vote Forward is a program to write postcards now and then send them all Oct. 27th
https://votefwd.org/
Grassroots Democrats HQ has a number of options
https://grassrootsdems.org/volunteer/
Sierra Club is writing letters
https://www.sierraclubindependentaction.org/writing-climate-voters-letters
September Zoom Meeting
When: Thursday September 24, 2020 06:00 PM Pacific Time