April 2003 Newsletter

SILICON VALLEY REPUBLICAN WOMEN FEDERATED NEWSLETTER

Diamond Award Club

June 2004

President: Laura Ann Riffle 263-0990

1st V.P & Program: Doris Whitney 997-0581

2nd V.P. Alice Story 733-3248

Shirley. Harvey Newsletter Editor (408) 253-1591

It will be summer soon and we won’t be meeting until September. That doesn’t mean, however, that the important work of our club stops. Voter registration is our number 1 priority!

Voter registration is key to Republican victories in November. It is possible that George W. Bush could take California… but only if we get more Republicans registered! Wouldn’t it be great if we took some Senate and Assembly seats in the Bay Area? It’s only possible with increased Republican registrations.

This election season is particularly good for registrations. The higher bounties being offered in targeted districts in our area will help with raising funds for our club.

Registering Republicans can be fun! You meet some great people and can get a real feeling of satisfaction when you get a new voter or a Democrat or DTS re-registering in the GOP. Besides, the mall is well air-conditioned and shopping before or after your shift can also be rewarding.

We need volunteers. Our club has been assigned to Valley Fair Shopping Center. We will be covering it June through October. The specific dates are in the calendar in this newsletter.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer filled with relaxation and fun. Keep safe and happy and we look forward to seeing you in September.

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William Whitney will speak on key issues facing the Republicans and our country today.

Professionally, William Whitney worked with the California State Legislature, was the Los Angeles County Area Director for the Republican Party, and served as campaign coordinator for congressional and legislative campaigns. Currently William is a full time American Government professor at West Valley College, Saratoga.

At the conclusion of his speech, there will be a voluntary poll for or all of those in attendance (members, associates, guests and potential members), This will be your opportunity to participate in a poll! Since this is a night meeting, bring your friends, spouses, and potential members for an interesting speech and a poll.

Please tell your friends and acquaintances about our group and encourage them to join us. We now have 7 Patron Members, 56 Regular Members, and 22 Associates.

Thanks to all members who have paid your 2004 dues. If you have not yet paid, please send your check to:

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The end of season couples part at the Reed’s home was an evening of Bridge, fun and food! Thank you to Jane and Bill Reed for again hosting this nice event.

The season winners were 1^st Jim and Shirley Harvey and 2^nd John and Dorothy Mark.

The Mark’s announced they are moving to the San Diego area. We will all surely miss them.

A luncheon and Bridge day at the Forum, thanks to Helen White, was great fun with lots of visiting, bridge and a delicious Luncheon.

The winners for Group I 1^st are Flinda Prevost and Lynn Wilcox, 2^nd are Michel Postas and Marie Quinn.

The winners are 1^st Marge Gamble and Jan Papenhausen, 2^nd Maggie Naughten and Karen Fvensen.,

In September the groups will begin playing again. This is an exceptional way to have fun, make new friends, and support SVRWF. All of your Bridge playing friend and neighbors are invited to join the groups.

SVRWF has been given the opportunity to register voters at Valley Fair Mall.

Valley Fair is the most centrally located, largest and highest traffic Mall in “Silicon Valley”.

SVRWF will be doing Registrations on the first and third Saturdays each month. There are just 6 months before the election SVRWF will be at a prime location to make a great contribution by adding to Republican Voter numbers.

We need four volunteers for each day. Please contact Laura Riffle at (408) 263-0990 to arrange a time.

NFRW Newsletter: The Week of May 3, 2004

You have to be a citizen of this country in order to vote, right? Not necessarily. When I became a citizen, I believed that voting was a privilege of becoming an American. I still believe that with all my heart.

However, there is a movement to grant the vote to legal immigrants in New York, Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts and several other states nationwide. The U.S. Constitution does not ban non-citizens from voting. Those decisions are made by the states, and some allow it. This “alien suffrage” is an issue that will not draw much support in the southwestern states because of the large number of illegal

Immigrants living in those regions, but in New York City, a change of state law would add approximately one million legal immigrants to the voting rolls, a potentially powerful voting bloc.

A few suburban towns in Maryland allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, and the Washington D.C. mayor would like to extend the vote to legal immigrants in his city’s elections. Immigrant groups in San Francisco are researching how to change state and local laws to allow non-citizen parents to vote in local school board elections. Several groups in Arizona are lobbying to allow legal immigrants who are not United States citizens to vote in Arizona legislative, city and school board elections.

In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau conducted a population survey of non-citizens, with the following results: New York and New Jersey, 3.8 million; Illinois, 1.9 million; Florida and Texas, 4.8 million; and, California, 7.3 million. Imagine the impact these non-citizens would have in our elections if we allowed them to vote.

When I took my oath to become a citizen of the United States of America, I denounced the country of my birth. We cannot allow anyone but Americans to pave the future for our children and their children. Our forefathers expected us to maintain the integrity upon which this land was founded.

We are the caretakers who must keep America free. We must protect the right to vote as a privilege of being an American citizen.

ACTION ITEM: The NFRW urges you to be aware of such a movement in your community and state, and to express your opposition to allowing non-citizens to vote by writing letters to your local media, lobbying your elected officials and speaking out in your communities.

1. The Unit Achievement Awards form for 2004-05 has been updated and overhauled by the Achievement Awards Committee, as has the Betty Heitman Award for State Excellence. The Campaign Committee has revised the Campaign Awards forms for both state Federations and local units. Download the Forms: www.nfrw.org/membersonly/publications.htm

3. The official web sight for the Republican National Convention in New York City is www.2004nycgop.org

SANTA CLARA COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY

Presents

Annual Barbeque & Picnic July 10, 2004

11:00am until ???

Almaden Lake Park

South Park Picnic Area

Winfield Blvd Entrance

BRING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

COST: $15 per person

Cost $35 per family

Parking $6.00/Seniors $3.00???

Contact: Jack Davis for information

Phone: (408) 224-5552 or (408) 264-8737 evenings (answer machine)

Please make checks payable to: SCCRP and send to:

522 N. Monroe St. San Jose, CA 95128

Subject: John Kerry, man of the common folk.... he understands your pain, really... trust him, yeah - right The many homes of Democrat Presidential Candidate, John F. Kerry. Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania (Assessed value: $3.7 million) Ketchum, Idaho ski getaway/vacation home (Assessed value: $4.916 million) Washington, D.C - Georgetown area (assessment: $4.7 million) Nantucket, Massachusetts waterfront retreat on Brant Point (Assessed value: $9.18 million) Boston, Massachusetts - Beacon Hill home (Assessed value: $6.9) oh, and he sold this estate in Italy to activist actor George Clooney, just before announcing his running for president. I guess he thought it might not sit well with the common man. ($7.8 million) other foreign property ownership by John Kerry is unknown... because he denied repeated requests for this information. Please E-mail this information to all your friends, family and contacts. Class warfare is not right, but neither is being a hypocrite. This man wants to be our president, while claiming that he relates to Joe-6-pack and the common man. He wants to raise income taxes on the rich, well, guess what? He won't pay those taxes because he is already rich! He wants to make it harder for you to get rich by raising taxes on your income! Talk about snobbery and protecting his "class."

SACRAMENTO - Politics-as-usual rears its ugly head in Sacramento today, as legislation by Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R - Bakersfield) to protect kids from classroom cuts was defeated by a partisan vote in the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security Committee.

"By rejecting my common-sense measure to allow local school districts to operate in the most efficient manner possible, local school districts are once again paying the price for the fiscal mismanagement of the majority party," McCarthy said. "Unfortunately, special interests prevailed at the expense of our children."

Assembly Bill 2992, sponsored by Governor Schwarzenegger, will repeal Senate Bill (SB) 1419. According to School Services of California, Inc., SB 1419 makes it virtually impossible for school and community college districts to save money through public-private partnerships. Governor Schwarzenegger called for the repeal of this bill in his 2004 State of the State address.

"Legislators must work together to solve the pressing issues facing the state," McCarthy continued. "Not allowing Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal to move forward denies a voice to hard-working taxpayers who want the best possible education for their children."

According to Senator Alarcon, the author of SB 1419, the law “was written to prevent school workers’ jobs from being replaced by jobs that pay low wages and have poor benefit packages”.

According to Jeannine Martineau, Schwarzenegger’s appointee to the state Board of Education and chairwoman of the coalition to repeal SB 1419, this bill will give more flexibility to school officials in how they spend their general fund money, which includes teacher salaries and day-to-day operations.

For the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security Committee vote, visit here. If one of the “No” voters was your representative, call up their office and tell them you would have wanted them to vote for AB 2992.

AB 2460 by Assemblyman Campbell (R-Irvine) would have reduced the number of paid holidays for California’s 200,000 state workers from 14 to 12. Each state department and agency would decide for itself which holidays to cut. This bill could have saved more than $20 million in overtime pay for staffing essential health and safety programs on holidays. The Assembly Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security Committee rejected the bill 1-8.

SB 1606 by Senator Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) would allow a person who is 14 years of age or older at the time of the next election to register and vote. The vote of persons 14-15 years of age would count as a quarter of a vote. The vote of persons 16-17 years of age would count as one-half of a vote. According to Senator Vasconcellos, “This proposal will inspire and enlighten and excite young people to come and vote”. However, granting only fractions of votes may violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Both Democrats and Republicans criticized the bill. However, the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee passed SB 1606 on a vote of 3-2. Although Senator Murray criticized the bill for the fractionalized votes, he agreed to vote for the bill so Vasconcellos can try to refine the proposal in the coming weeks.

The Committee’s Chair Senator Perata (D-Oakland) warned the teenagers testifying for the bill they faced a tough fight, but “if you stick with it, this is an idea that’s time will one day come”.

SB 1606 will become law only if its companion SCA 19 (Vasconcellos) is adopted by the Legislature and is approved by California voters.