Welcome to our website

WELCOME

This website is a work in progress, but we certainly hope you will like and enjoy our efforts. In particular, please Website-Construction1-300x169[1]see who we are, where we are and what we do.

We really hope you come to one of our monthly meetings – no obligation whatsoever.

If you’re interested in what we do, we hope you’ll help the club by paying dues – our annual dues (for a calendar year) are only $20.00.

Our goals include having a lot of fun while educating and informing the citizens of Windsor, California, and the surrounding area. So no, you do not have to live within the Town of Windsor to attend a meeting, or even to become a member.

July 29th get-together

The Windsor Democrats will host a joint social event with the Wine Country Young Democrats on Thursday, July 29, 2021, at 5:00 PM on the Windsor Town Green. PizzaLeah will be providing pizza (BYOB) and we will work on post cards for the recall effort.
We’ll also try do to a bit of WDC business: a few announcements, and discussion of nominations for officer positions. If you’re interested, this is a great way to get involved and keep our club thriving!

2nd Assembly District – Election of California Democratic Party Delegates

Fourteen delegates will be elected in January to represent the 2nd Assembly District (the district of Assemblymember James Wood; Windsor is part of that district). Elected delegates will become voting members at the California Democratic Party’s statewide meetings in 2021 and 2022.

Candidates to be a delegate must file online by Tuesday, December 15, 2020 ; must have been a registered Democrat as of November 3, 2020; must live in Assembly District 2; and must pay a registration fee of $30.

Any registered Democrat living in Assembly District 2 is eligible to vote in the election, by mail. If you want to  vote, you must (a) be a registered Democrat at the time that you request a ballot, and (b) request a ballot, online, by January 11, 2021.

The Assembly District Election Meeting (ADEM) will be held at a time yet to be determined (in the second half of January), and will be a virtual meeting.

More information about the role of delegates, as well as links to apply to be a candidate, and to register to vote (no fee), are here.

Actions for the Senate races in Georgia

Winning the run-off elections in Georgia is critical to President-Elect Biden’s ability to successfully pursue the changes we want. The runoff election is January 5, 2021, and early voting starts December 14, 2020. Various actions are available to support the campaigns of Jon Ossoff and the Reverend Raphael Warnock.
Short version, courtesy of Beth Hadley, Sonoma Valley Democratic Club
Write postcards through  PostcardsToVoters.org. If you are already signed up with them, you can request addresses TODAY  by texting HELLO to (484) 275-2229. IF you are not yet a volunteer, text JOIN to (484) 275-2229 or email:  JOIN@TonyTheDemocrat.org.
Make phone calls:

Money (donations) are, of course, always welcome (https://warnockforgeorgia.com/ and https://electjon.com/ ), but winning these two races is going to come down to how many voters show up at the polls. Let’s not forget that Joe Biden won this state on November 3, 2020!

Long version, courtesy of the Oakmont Democratic Club (lots and lots of suggestions)

https://oakmontdemclub.com/the-fight-for-the-senate-majority-is-not-over-jon-ossoff-and-raphael-warnock-can-win-in-53-days-in-georgia/

 

November 2020 voter guides and endorsements

It’s October 8th, and all Sonoma County registered voters should have received a vote-by-mail ballot by now. There are a lot of statewide ballot propositions to vote on, as well as the presidential race, a Congressional race, a California legislative race, and two Windsor council races. Windsor residents will also be voting on four county ballot propositions.

Below are the recommendations of the Sonoma County Democratic Party for candidates and county ballot proposition, for those who live in WIndsor:

  • President/VP: Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris
  • U.S. House of Representatives, district CA02: Jared Huffman
  • California State Assembly District 2: Jim Wood
  • Mayor, Town of Windsor: no recommendation
  • District 3, Town of Windsor: Deb Fudge [voters in Districts 1, 2, and 4 won’t see this race on their ballot]
  • Proposition O, 1/4 cent sales tax for mental health: YES
  • Proposition P, expanded oversight of the Sheriff’s Department: YES
  • Proposition BB: sale of the Healdsburg District Hospital, to the Providence St. Joseph Health system: YES
  • Proposition DD: continuation of the 1/4 cent sales tax for county transportation: YES

For statewide ballot measures, the endorsements of the California Democratic Party are here.  [Quick summary: YES on everything except Proposition 20 (NO), Proposition 22 (NO), and Proposition 24 (Neutral).]

For those looking for thoughtful evaluations  by others, we suggest:

Meet the candidates! Windsor Town Council candidates to speak to the club

On Tuesday, August 25th, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the club will welcome (via Zoom) candidates running for two Windsor Town Council seats in November. At this virtual meeting, the candidates will make brief presentations and then answer audience questions. We’ll only hear from candidates who are registered Democrats, but of course we welcome everyone to come to our (virtual) meeting and ask questions.

Three registered Democrats are running for the Windsor At-Large Mayor position, which has a two-year term: Dominic Foppoli, Rosa Reynoza, and Sam Salmon. Dominic and Sam are currently on the Town Council, both elected in 2018 to four-year at-large terms. If one of the two is elected as Mayor, there will be a Council vacancy for the remaining two years of their four-year at-large term.

Only one registered Democrat has filed for the District 3 Councilmember position, which has a four-year term: Debora Fudge. She is currently on the Town Council; her current term expires in January 2021.

Zoom information: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88688893698
Meeting ID: 886 8889 3698
One tap mobile:
+16699006833,,88688893698# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,88688893698# US (Tacoma)

(The Zoom meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. with 30 minutes of “social time”.)

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Update, August 11: The date of the meeting was moved; it was originally August 20.

SCUIC and critical issues for Sonoma County’s workers and residents – meeting of 7/23/2020

On Thursday, July 23, from 6 to 7:30 pm, Omar Paz, Jr., will speak to the Windsor Democratic Club, via Zoom, concerning critically important issues facing Sonoma County’s workers and residents.

His organization, North Bay Jobs with Justice, is one of the founders of a new organization, Sonoma County United in Crisis (SCUIC). SCUIC’s website ( http://socounitedincrisis.org/ ) opens with this: :

Just as our fires brought the vast inequalities in Sonoma County to the surface, so too has the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than corporate bailouts and commitments to simply not evict families ‘for now’ we need a real community bailout. One in five Sonoma County residents are living in poverty and hundreds of thousands are now out of work. Members of our community need to know they will not lose work permanently and come out of this pandemic owing thousands of dollars to landlords and banks.

Paz and SCUIC are advocating that local governments adopt several new policies to become more responsible for caring for the whole community, and to prioritize these policies, and that if we do this right, we will not just survive but thrive. But they argue that our communities cannot wait – every day in which bold action is not taken is another day that families, tenants, seniors, immigrants, workers, and our unhoused community struggle to survive.

The Sonoma County Democratic Party endorsed the SCUIC platform on Tuesday, July 14, at their central committee meeting.At the July 23rd meeting, Paz will describe these policies and answer questions about how they can be implemented.

To attend the meeting, join the Zoom call at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89711402154 . Or you can connect by phone, with or without video, by calling a Zoom number (two of these are 669-900-6833 and 253-215-8782*) the meeting ID is 897 1140 2154 .

Note: the Zoom meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. with thirty minutes of (optional) “social time”.

For further information, call Rick Massell at 707-696-9364, or email him at rickm@sonic.net

 

 

* There is no charge for these phone calls unless your phone carrier charges you for long-distance calls within the United States.

Voting: Sonoma County gets it right. Why can’t the rest of America?

On Tuesday, June 16th, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., the Windsor Democratic Club  will host a virtual meeting to discuss voting processes in Sonoma County and the rest of the U.S.  The meeting will feature:

  • Pat Sabo, the Chair of the Sonoma County Democratic Party, who will introduce the topic of voting processes and how Democrats are addressing it
  • Deva Marie Proto, the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters,  who will explain how the voting system in Sonoma County has changed
  • Dale Axelrod, a member of the National Voting Rights Task Force, who will talk about how U.S. voters can become prepared to recognize and overcome obstacles placed in their way in the upcoming November Presidential election.

After the presentations, the meeting will be open for questions from those who have joined the meeting.

To join the Zoom meeting, any time after 5:30 p.m. on the 16th (the speaker presentation begins promptly at 6 p.m.), via computer, tablet, or smartphone (browser or app), go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86897554660 .

Or, if connecting via phone, call any of these numbers to join the meeting:

+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

and then enter the meeting ID:  868 9755 4660 .

We look forward to having a great meeting! Please join in!

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• You can connect into this meeting as 5:30 p.m., for up to 30 minutes of socializing and/or testing Zoom.
• We’ll start the meeting promptly at 6 p.m., with everyone muted except the three speakers. The last part of the meeting will be questions for the speakers.
• Please keep questions relatively brief. This is only a one-hour meeting.

Zoom meeting processes and tips [computer/smartphone]

• If you see “Speaker view” in the upper right corner of your Zoom screen, clicking on that will give you a full-screen view of whoever is speaking.
• If you have a question, a good way to ask it is to type it into the chat panel. One of the club officers will be monitoring the chat panel for questions, and can ask the question on your behalf.
• You can also enter comments into the chat panel.
• During the questions period, the way to get recognized, to ask a question, is to “raise your hand”. You do this by clicking on “Participants”, at the bottom of your Zoom screen, and then clicking on “Raise your hand”, at the bottom of the Participants panel. (You’ll see a small blue hand appear in the Zoom window.) When the moderator calls on you, you’ll see a dialog box that allows you to unmute yourself.

 

Getting to Health Care for All – February 2020 Meeting

“Before I discuss a treatment plan with my patients I check their chart to see what insurance they have,” said Toni Ramirez, a family practice physician speaking at a forum called “Getting to Health Care for All”, at the Windsor Democratic Club meeting on February 27.

“I never withhold information”, she emphasized, “but I am forced to shape my discussion around what patients have access to or can afford.”

Also speaking was Terry Winter, a retired nurse. Getting to Health Care for All is a project of Health Professionals for Equality and Community Empowerment (HPEACE) and North Bay Jobs with Justice.

Health care in the United States is paid for by a mix of private for-profit insurance and government-funded insurance. Most private insurance is tied to employment.

With little regulation, medical providers can and do charge wildly different amounts for the same treatment or procedure, depending on the type of insurance or specific policy a patient has. Access to health care is rationed by an individual’s ability to pay.

Although the US spends nearly twice as much per capita on healthcare as do other developed countries, US residents are actually less likely to see a doctor when they are sick.

“This is incredibly stressful for primary care physicians,” Ramirez said. “We are trying to provide our patients with the treatment they need, while working in a system that values profit over health.”

Although more people became insured under the Affordable Health Care Act, primarily through the expansion of Medicaid, up to 40 million remain without insurance. And even those with insurance may not be able to afford care.

Without regulation, premiums, co-pays, and deductibles have skyrocketed, forcing people to switch to very-high deductible policies. If they get sick they may be as badly off as if they had no insurance at all. 600,000 personal bankruptcies a year are due to medical costs. Most of these people had insurance.

The United States is the only major country in the world that does not have some form of government-mandated, tax-supported, universal health care, either directly government-run, or a single-payer system where the government is the insurer.

Medicare for All is a proposed single-payer system. Health care remains private. People can keep their doctors. The government pays the bills. Medicare for All covers vision, hearing, dental, mental health and long-term care, services not currently covered under Medicare.

Public Option, or Medicare for All Who Want It, simply adds Medicare or Medicaid to existing insurance options. It does little to address underlying problems.

Medicare for All would cost about $3 trillion per year. The government already spends roughly $2 trillion on health care. To pay for the rest, two presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, propose some form of wealth tax. Sanders also proposes a 7.5% payroll tax on employers, excluding the first $2 million of payroll, and a 4% tax on individual income over $29,000. Warren’s “employer health care contribution,” would be 98% of what companies currently pay for health insurance.

Healthcare currently costs about $3.8 trillion per year. Under either proposal almost everyone would pay less than they do now for far better care. Even those who pay more would benefit from living in a healthier, more equitable society.

“Our current system is over-priced, under-performing, inequitable and unsustainable,” Ramirez concluded. “We simply need the political will to change it.”

–Shirley Johnston

Club meetings cancelled – March and April 2020

The club’s regular monthly fourth-Thursday meetings for March and April are now cancelled. Part of “flattening the curve” of coronavirus cases is to reduce the number of opportunities to be infected. Our club is doing its part to help this effort by cancelling meetings.

Our next meeting is scheduled for May 28th. As it gets closer to that date, we’ll know more about whether to hold that meeting or cancel it.

Stay healthy!

Treasurer’s Report – Calendar year 2019

2019 Windsor Democratic Club
Financial Report

Beginning balance:   $836.12

Income:

— Dues:  $460.00
— Bank fee adjustment: $12.00
— Bank dividend:  $0.16

     Total income: $472.16

Expenses:

— Bank fees:  $6.00
— Sonoma County Democratic Club Crab Feed (table sponsorship): $370.00
— Annual membership, Windsor Chamber of Commerce: $199.00

   Total expenses: $575.00

Ending balance: $733.28

Submitted by: Rosa Reynoza, Treasurer