On May 9, 2012 President Obama became the first sitting president to voice support for marriage equality. It’s a historic moment years in the making, especially for California families who are currently barred from marrying the person they love as a result of the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008.

The Palm Springs area in Riverside County is home to over 2,621 same-sex couples. Their representative in Congress is Mary Bono Mack (R – #CA36). While leaders and allies of the LGBT community in California and across the country praised the President for speaking with conviction and taking a courageous stance, Bono Mack remained silent.

For some, like Elle Kurpiewski, president of Democrats of the Desert, it comes as no surprise: “For years Bono Mack has cultivated an image as someone who is a friend to the LGBT community, while at the same time being a member of a political party that is actively hostile to members of that same community. I think this is the year that balancing act falls apart for her. With the President coming out in strong support of marriage equality, and Bono Mack serving as one of the top surrogates here in California for Mitt Romney’s political campaign, its clear she’s not only chosen a side, she’s chosen the wrong side. “

The President chose to be on the right side of history, for Bono Mack and apparently for a fair number of the constituents she currently represents, it appears history will have to wait.

Many California Democrats might not be able to point out Tehama County on a map but it’s a hard place to forget once you learn about Sue Gallagher and the Tehama County Democratic Central Committee (DCC). This 24-member committee has shaken things up in rural California and they have no plans of stopping anytime soon.

Sue Gallagher has served as Chair of the Tehama DCC for almost two years now and you can bet, that being chair of a mostly red rural county is as daunting as you imagine it would be. For Sue the task at hand didn’t scare her away and she was ready to step up to the plate.  “Prior to me becoming chair, we had really started to expand and I ran for chair to continue the expansion of our committee’s activities in recent years,” said Sue.

Tehama DCC’s expansion efforts all started a few years ago at the fair. After years and years of being placed in a bad spot with low visibility, a few members decided that they were going to change things. As Sue explains, “ we had been there for years and finally we approached the people who were running the fair and with some negotiation, we got a better spot and really spruced up our booth. We were finally visible to all in Tehama.”

Since the bold move at the fair, the folks at Tehama DCC have been moving full steam ahead. Last election cycle they organized and participated in their very own campaign effort. As Sue describes, “we opened up a headquarters and we tried a little bit of everything.  With some training support and outreach materials from the California Democratic Party we were able to try different campaign techniques, from phone banking to precinct walking, we learned what worked and what didn’t for Tehama.”

Now as Battleground California kicks off in 2012, Sue and the Tehama DCC are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Sue says, “We’ve learned a lot and grown a lot in the last few years. After last cycle we know more about how to be helpful and how to make better use of state Party resources like the Motivate Organize Elect (MOE) voter contact system, door hangers, and fundraising trainings like Learn to Fish which helped in the success of our 2^nd annual ‘Salute the American Worker’ dinner. We know that this time around we are going to do a lot more phone banking, precinct targeting and host more events at our headquarters. We have great Democratic candidates in Congressional District 1 and Assembly District 3 that we’re going to be helping out. We’re ready for Battleground California.”

It’s clear that the Tehama DCC has a surplus of heart and great people that are ready to put in some hard work in the coming months to turn things around in rural California. We are happy to have the folks of Tehama DCC in our corner and we can’t wait to lean more about their efforts!

Visit www.battlegroundcalifornia.com and sign up to help.

Rep. Jeff Denham has spent considerable time reveling in his oversight role of the General Services Administration’s wasteful spending scandal; Denham regularly appears on cable news shows and earned plaudits for his “aggressive questioning” of witnesses coming before his committee.

What isn’t widely known is that Denham, a member of the GOP freshman Tea Party class of 2010, has been just as aggressive in pursuing pork barrel spending – the very type of spending that was derided as excessive and characterized as “government waste” by the freshmen Tea Party class to which Denham belongs – going so far as to sign his name to a letter begging Republican leaders to go back on their pledge to root out pork, also known as “earmarks.”

It’s a curious role and one that Denham will undoubtedly attempt to pull of this election cycle: anti-government waste crusader and Tea Party darling by day, pork grabbing, big money spending Republican representative by night.

But Rep. Denham has another thing coming if he thinks he’s going to pull one over the eyes of the voters of his #CA-10 Congressional District.

California Democrats are watching and we’ll be hearing plenty more about Denham as www.battlegroundcalifornia.com heats up this year.

Don Gibson was a Delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. At the time he was a young college student, ecstatic at the prospect of becoming a Delegate and attending his first Democratic National Convention.

Not many college students are eager to give up a bit of their social life to run for a delegate spot to the Convention but for Don it was the opportunity of a lifetime, and with some encouragement from local political activists he decided to run.

As Don describes, “I ran to be a district delegate from California’s first congressional district. The caucus site was in Napa, which was over an hour drive from Davis where I went to college. With a little bit of encouragement I rallied up two carloads of my friends and fliers to drive to Napa in the hopes that I could work the room enough to win. The site was busy, I tried to shake everyone’s hands as they walked in the door asking for their vote while my friends handed them fliers so they would remember my name. After a short speech and being completely out of breath I was exhausted, and waited for the results. But it was all worth it when I heard I won.”

Running for and winning a Delegate spot is one thing. Being able to attend the National Convention is the grand prize.  As Don explains, “The National Convention has thousands of people from all over the entire country who all have incredible stories. Walking down the hallway I ran into people I would only see on TV. The Convention had a ton of reporters, Congress members, Senators, and young activists like myself all rushing to see the next big speaker about to hit the floor.”

For Don running as a Delegate and attending the National Convention were both wonderful experiences.  He has some great words advice on the process, “Run, it is a truly unique experience. When running, shake everyone’s hands, meet everyone there and get all of your friends and family to show up and vote for you.”

The deadline to apply to be a District Level DNC 2012 Delegate is closing Wednesday, April 11. To learn more about how to become a delegate visit www.cadem.org/delegate2012

While the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee (Fresno DCC) has been incorporated for years Chair Michael Evans points out, it wasn’t until recently that they became a viable player in elections and local politics. The Central Committee has a total of 40 members, most of which volunteer their time and effort to local, statewide and federal elections. Their activism is what has accounted for the impressive resurgence of the Fresno County Democrats.

In just a couple of years, Fresno has gone from a Red County to a Blue County where Democrats outnumber Republicans. Local activists have developed strong ties with local clubs, elected officials and issue based advocacy groups in Fresno County. They have also worked tirelessly to increase fundraising efforts and are very close to opening a permanent office as a result of their efforts.

In what’s shaping up to be a unique and exciting election year for Fresno Democrats, there are two battleground races in the area.

As Michael Evans tells us, “Congressional District 21 is an open seat and we are putting in a lot of effort to ensure that we win. There is also Assembly District 32, which is south of us, and we are confident we can win that seat as well. We’ve partnered up with Kings County because there is overlap in these races and we are hoping to develop synergies to ensure we all work efficiently together.”

Winning and ensuring that Democrats have a registration advantage in Fresno is always easier said than done. In the Fresno DCC’s case, they have developed a unique Precinct Leader Program to ensure that they reach and maintain their goals.

The Precinct Leader Program is a 3-stage program dedicated to voter outreach. As Evans describes, “What we do is target as many precincts as possible and identify a key person for each precinct. In the first stage the leader targets frequent Democratic voters to see if they would like to volunteer. The second stage involves door-to-door registration and voter education. The third stage is all about get out the vote efforts and making sure our supporters get to the polls on Election Day.”

In addition, the Fresno DCC is actively registering new voters in the area and they hold voter registration drives at new citizen naturalization ceremonies multiple times a month.

With this election year already in motion Michael Evans and the team are in full swing. As he expressed, “we have lot of energy, people are very positive about where we are, where we are going, and we feel good about 2012.”

With Battleground California in full motion we are thrilled to have a Democratic Central Committee like Fresno in our corner. To learn how you can help this election year and to find your local DCC, sign up at www.battlegroundca.com

To commemorate International Women’s Day, our Women’s Caucus Chair Christine Pelosi talks about the importance of getting women elected and supporting women leaders.

We had a chance to catch up with Dr. Ami Bera at this year’s convention. He is a physician, an educator, and now a Congressional candidate for his home district in the Sacramento area (CA-07). Bera is running to rebuild middle class values, rebuild the public education system, and to get back to an economy that rewards work and rewards the middle class.

The 2012 California Democrats State Convention takes place in San Diego on the weekend of February 10-12, and it’s going to be one to remember.

Next weekend, Democrats from across California will be finalizing Primary Endorsements for Assembly, State Senate and Congressional races, as well as adopting a new State Party Platform.

Today, we are excited to announce this year’s Convention lineup and list of elected officials and grassroots leaders that will be speaking at this year’s Convention. We hope to see you in San Diego.

Friday night

Chairman Burton and Van Jones will kick things off with the Chair’s Reception at 6:00 p.m.

Saturday
Welcome to San Diego by Congressman Bob Filner
CDP Chair John Burton
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
State Controller John Chiang
Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Speaker of the Assembly John Perez
Governor Jerry Brown
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
Treasurer Bill Lockyer
DNC Secretary Alice Germond
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom
Attorney General Kamala Harris
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones
Secretary of State Debra Bowen
SPI Tom Torlakson
The Honorable Hilda Solis
Senator Dianne Feinstein (luncheon speaker)
Senator Al Franken (dinner speaker)

Sunday
BOE member Betty Yee
BOE member Jerome Horton
CDP Vice-Chair Alex Rooker
CDP Vice-Chair Eric Bauman
C
DP Secretary Reggie Jones-Sawyer
CDP Controller Hilary Crosby

This is not going to be one to miss.

And, if you’re looking for a great time Saturday night with like-minded activists from San Diego and from across the state, you’re going to want to check out our DEM 2012 concert featuring soul singer and recording artist Eli “Paperboy” Reed.

Remember: You can get into the concert free if you sign up for our Donate Every Month (DEM) 2012 program.

To join Donate Every Month (DEM) 2012 program, and get your free concert ticket, click here.

San Diego will definitely be the place to be for California Democrats this year.
We are already making preparations for what will be a historic effort to take back the House, protect our U.S. Senate seat and re-elect President Obama in 2012, and we look forward to seeing you in San Diego.

Tonight President Obama will deliver the State of the Union. Democrats across the state will be watching President Obama address a joint session of Congress.

Connect with you fellow California Democrats before, during and after the address. Like us on facebook and participate in real time discussion with your fellow Democrats across the state. Follow us on twitter and use #cadem #sotu to let us, and fellow Democrats know what you think about tonight’s State of the Union.