SCCDP Blog

First elected in 2008 in the historic wave that swept President Obama into office, City Councilman Ash Kalra made history that year himself, becoming the first Indian-American elected to the city council of a major city. Now in his second term, Kalra is known primarily as a fighter for working families and an advocate for the under-served -- his recent push for predatory payday lending regulations is a case in point. He also serves as the Chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the vice-chair of the VTA and is on CalTrain’s board.

Kalra was born in Toronto and moved to San Jose when he was just six years old. Today, he represents the same neighborhood he grew up in, just around the corner from Hayes Elementary and close to Oak Grove, both schools he attended. He was drawn to public service early on, though running for political office never crossed his mind. Instead, inspired by the fact that many of the great civil rights leaders – including Mahatma Ghandi – were lawyers, Kalra headed to east to earn his law degree from Georgetown University after his graduation from U.C. Santa Barbara.  There, he found his calling in clinical work that allowed him to teach in D.C. high schools or represent tenants in landlord-tenant disputes.  Returning home, he worked for 11 years as a public defender, which gave him a keen understanding of the critical role social services play in keeping neighborhoods livable and families healthy.

It was while he was waiting to pass the bar that Kalra first volunteered for the Democratic Party, which offered him a job (and an education in grassroots politics) running a satellite office for the party in East San Jose.  While he worked as an attorney, he threw himself into a seemingly unending stream of volunteer opportunities, including Fresh Lifelines for Youth, Asian Law Alliance, and Somos Mayfair, to name a few. He also served on the San Jose Human Rights Commission, as well as the Planning Commission, and helped launch the Hayes Neighborhood Association.  Throughout, he remained a fixture in the local Democratic Party, working on behalf of candidates and issues that embodied Democratic values.

“I fight for a system that allows everyone to have an opportunity to pursue the American Dream,” says Kalra. “Of course we should be rewarded for our personal effort, but we should never forget that we’re all in this together – our neighbors’ health and well-being matters to all of us.” Kalra is a big believer in grassroots action. “Ultimately, it is up to us to push for financial reform, access to healthcare for all, marriage equality, renewable energy, and campaign finance reform.”  He adds, “Democrats are on the right track on all of these matters, but we still have some distance to go against a conservative tide that is hell-bent on stopping us.”

Find out more about what City Councilman – and great local Democrat – Ash Kalra is doing for his constituents and our community by visiting his website here.

A great way to get involved as a local Democrat is to join one of our great clubs – there are more than a dozen to choose from, covering a variety of interests, ages and geographic areas within Santa Clara County. View them all on our club page here.  Last month, we profiled the Dean Club.  Today's focus: DAWN.

It is fitting that we should profile DAWN in March, which is Women’s History Month. DAWN’s acronym is, after all, Democratic Activists for Women Now.  Its mission:  to elect progressive, pro-choice women (and like-minded men).

DAWN traces its origins to Barbara Boxer’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1992. A group of women (and a few men), many of whom had never volunteered with a political campaign before, worked shoulder to shoulder around kitchen tables prepping mailers, phoning voters, and raising funds to elect a progressive, pro-choice, woman.  DAWN was founded the following January, the first and only chartered club of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party whose sole focus was to elect progressive, pro-choice Democratic women. 

Twenty years later, DAWN is one of the SCCDP’s most active clubs. In honor of its anniversary, DAWN has launched a campaign to reclaim Santa Clara County’s title as Feminist Capital of the Nation – earned in the early 1980s for its female majorities on major boards and councils throughout the area. Today, however, though we live in one of the most progressive, Democratic areas in the nation, we have a larger wage gap in Silicon Valley than the national average. Though citizens here strongly support abortion rights, those rights are under vicious and sustained attack across the nation. Clearly, DAWN’s members have plenty of work to do.

While DAWN is proud to endorse the best candidates of both genders, the club only donates to female candidates. This year, we’ve identified a three-pronged approach to achieving our goals: increasing the pipeline of qualified, progressive women to run for office (from school board to the White House and every seat in between), increasing and engaging our membership, and holding our elected officials accountable.  In fact, one of our most exciting ventures is our Women’s Wake Up Calls to inform the very talented pool of women in our valley about the very basics of running for office,  from which seats are open between now and 2016 to filing deadlines, getting the endorsements that matter, and what it takes to run a successful campaign.

 If you’re ready to take action to support women’s rights and help elect proud, progressive women to every level of government, join DAWN today. The DAWN Board meets the fourth Wednesday of the month, 6pm at Local 521 (3202 Zanker Rd, San Jose). Membership dues are $35.00 per year, and there are discounts for families, students and seniors. Visit our website to learn more and become a Fan on Facebook.

It's time for citizens to take back our democracy. The notorious Citizens United ruling not only unleashed a flood of corporate money into the electoral process -- it allowed that money to effectively flow in secret, hiding behind super PACs with innocuous-sounding names like "Californians Against Unfair Taxes." Such money impacts elections in all 50 states, but it is especially damaging in California, where voters must often sort through long lists of initiatives that they may only be familiar with though political advertising.

And it's difficult to tell who sponsors those ads. Vast sums of money are spent each cycle simply educating voters about exactly who is behind the bland names -- letting them know, for example that the "California Jobs Initiative Committee" supporting Prop. 23, which would have rolled back California's historic climate change law, was  funded entirely by out-of-state oil companies.  If we're lucky, media scrutiny and legal action will shine a light on secret money, as it did in tracing $11 million in covert last-minute funds that poured in to support the labor-killing Proposition 32.

But Californians deserve more: Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending on Elections. DISCLOSE. It is time for full transparency in our elections. The California DISCLOSE Act begins that process by ensuring that all political advertisements clearly list their top three donors. The DISCLOSE Act was introduced last year, but failed to pass before the end of the legislative session.

Let's make sure it passes this year.  State Senators Jerry Hill and Mark Leno have reintroduced the DISCLOSE Act, and grassroots activists are working to give it plenty of momentum.  The campaign kick-off is this Saturday, March 9, at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Palo Alto (click here for details).  In addition, the California Clean Money Campaign, dedicated to bringing public financing to all levels of government, meets the third Thursday of every month here at Democratic Party Headquarters. As corporate profits soar, and workers' wages stagnate, the time to act is now -- let's take back our democracy before it's too late.

Democrats make a difference when our voices are heard, and it's possible to reach thousands of people with a simple letter-to-the-editor. (Plus, it's always a thrill to see your name or the name of someone you know in print!)

This week, our own Marcene Van Dierendonck, Democratic activist and member of the Dean Club, had her letter published in the San Jose Mercury News on the critical topic of CEQA:

Environmental law should be protected

With climate change we face alterations of epic proportions. The melting ice caps and record-setting storms (as the East Coast can testify), and droughts are ample evidence that we need to do what we can to limit the effect of carbon burning. Now is not the time to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act when it is most needed not only to protect our beautiful California but also to protect our world and our neighbors. CEQA provides for an environmental impact report that takes into account local and regional concerns. For example, when we talk about the effects on our water and our air of a development that will contribute to urban sprawl, we need an impact report with a comprehensive scope. When we read (Page A1, Feb. 12) about local childhood asthma on dramatic rise, we see clean air is a vital right for a healthy life. Californians value clean air, clean water and nature's beauty. CEQA allows citizen input if public agencies fail to conduct an adequate environmental review. It has worked well for decades allowing tremendous growth but requiring responsible stewardship. Our Legislature needs to protect a law that Californians are proud to claim.

(Congratulations, Marcene!)