California Democratic Party Chairman Arthur Torres told a Fort Bragg audience Friday night that a Feb. 5 primary date will allow Californians to finally make a difference in choosing a president in 2008.
“We were tired of Iowa and New Hampshire determining who our president would be. I had never worked with Arnold before but sure did on this,” Torres said.
He pointed out that $182 million had been raised in California during the last presidential primary season and promptly was spent on races in smaller states.
“Not a penny for a Mendocino Coast Democratic headquarters, not a penny spent in Calistoga, the Napa Valley,” he said. “Why? Because our primary was in March.”
The 2008 primaries and caucus season begins with Iowa on Jan. 14, followed by Nevada on Jan. 19, possibly New Hampshire on Jan. 22 and South Carolina and Florida on Jan. 29. Those contests will be followed by a massive vote Feb. 5 in California, New York and about 15 other states.
California absentee voters will be able to vote beginning Monday, Jan. 7, which is prior to the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire that usually draw all the television cameras. That may force candidates to pitch their message to more diverse larger states.
Torres encouraged local Democrats to emphasize registering absentee voters. He said many of the excuses for not voting can be overcome with the suggestion to vote absentee.
“I”ve babysat, cooked dinners and done a lot to make sure the head of a household can get out and vote ? Get them to be absentee voters,” he said.
At one time, candidates were determined as late as the summer party conventions. But the electronic news media”s intense emphasis on winners and increased polling has made the “decision” come earlier and earlier for both parties.
A crowd of nearly 100 people packed the Harbor Lite Lodge for the event. Fort Bragg City Councilmembers Meg Courtney, Dan Gjerde, Dave Turner and Mayor Doug Hammerstrom were on hand, along with county Supervisor David Colfax and county Judge Jonathan Lehan. Representatives of local Democrats in the Assembly, Senate and Congress also attended. Supervisor Kendall Smith was unable to attend.
Torres, who grew up in East Lost Angeles and is one of the state”s most influential Latinos, took one question in Spanish. He lamented the far right killing the immigration bill pushed by the unlikely duo of President Bush and Sen. Teddy Kennedy.
Torres, a long-time Kennedy supporter, said immigration problems won”t be fixed without economic solutions. He said the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had really only benefited the privileged and needs to be repealed and replaced by a hemispheric effort that would provide environmental and worker protection along with fair wages. He said the government of Mexico could help with the problem if it enforced its own laws on its northern border as it does on its southern border.
“If the United States” business community had not placed factories along the border but in Central Mexico, it could have created an economic revival, rather than having people working in a factory for 50 cents an hour, looking across the border and seeing similar jobs paying $10 per hour.”
Torres, whose accomplishments include co-authoring the Clean Water Act, is a colon cancer survivor and described from personal experience how laws he helped author aren”t working. Although he supported single-payer health insurance, he pushed a compromise plan that would regulate insurance company rate hikes as a more possible fix to the health insurance crisis.
Torres has been chairman of the California Democratic Party since February 1996. He served as a California State Senator from 1982 to 1994 and a California State Assemblyman from 1972 to 1982. He has a bachelor”s degree University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis-School of Law.
Along with a Mexican food dinner, pins from several major Democratic presidential candidates were offered, as the local club has not made an endorsement. Organizer Rachel Binah, who is a member of the Democratic National Committee along with Torres encouraged locals to get involved in politics by working for a favorite candidate.
