Jun 15 2020

Welcome to the DCSMV Website

 

We hope you will find our multilingual website informational and interesting.  We strive to provide educational tools to help voters make good, informed decisions, and to become active  Democrats.  Scroll down for step-by-step tips on how to get the most out of our site.

Update and Register to VOTE

UPDATE OR REGISTER TO VOTE: CLICK HERE

 

 

 

          Visit us on Facebook (Click here)

 

                Visit us on Instagram  (Click here)

What voting Districts am I in?    CLICK HERE to look up by address

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                         OUR DEMOCRACY is at stake….  Let our Democratic values be known!

Free Shipping!   SHOP OUR CAMPAIGN STORE!  Women owned, union made in the U.S.A.!Please use our unique link to provide credit for our Democratic Club.  THANK YOU!                    Click on our secure link:   https://bit.ly/DemsOfSantaMariaValley

 

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VOLUNTEER!  Reach out to local voters with information on elections and our endorsed and elected Democrats!  We have outreach programs all year.  Meet and greet other members of our local community.  Provide useful voting information and guidance pertaining to the things that matter to our lives.  Contact North County Field Organizer, Jovany Medina at jovany@sbdems.org.  

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Let’s get started!

  – To change languages, CLICK ON THE “Select Language”  BUTTON above.  

  – “Home Page” Image posts scrolls automatically sideways,  or click on the right arrow to view the next post.  To view the entire post, click on the image.  

–  The “Home”  tab across the top will return you to the beginning.

– Click on the “Tabs”  across the top to read areas of interest, or use the search bar with “keywords”, or use the “Menu” bars (on cell phones)  at the top for a list of website content.

 There are also items of interest along the right side of the “Home” page (available if using a tablet or desktop computer. If using a cell phone, scroll down at the end of this post).

Voters can register and change information on this link    A Registration and Voting Guide    also found on the Home page tab,  and join   JOIN DCSMV  or donate   DONATE TO DCSMV     to our club using secure ActBlue with your credit card.     

Do you know who our representatives are?  For a list and contact information for federal,  state,  county and local elected officials , CLICK HERE

 The calendar of all of our monthly club meetings are also listed along with our contact information on the Tab “About Us”.   Join us and meet our members.   With health and safety exceptions, when meetings will be conducted for members only on ZOOM, meetings are conducted at the IHOP Restaurant in Santa Maria the third Thursday of every month at 6:00 pm, speaker at 7:00 pm.   The public is always welcome to hear what our informative guest speakers have to say,  and enjoy other planned programs.   We’re all in this together!  Join us and be part of the progressive support system for our community.

Please let us know if we can improve our website.  Thank you!    1(805)349-2708.

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Stay informed about local events and programs. 

Visit our Facebook and Instagram by clicking on the icons at the top corner of our Home page or here: 

                                                          Click  HERE to visit us on Facebook.

                                                       Click HERE to visit us on Instagram.

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Direct links to Register to Vote:

CA State Multi Language Register to Vote link

              or

 Bilingual – SANTA BARBARA COUNTY/
CONDADO DE SANTABARBARA  VOTER REGISTRATION/ELECTOR DE REGISTRO:
Santa Barbara County site  Register to vote here

(Note:  The Santa Maria Elections Office at 511 E. Lakeside Parkway has limited hours during off election years.  Call 1-800-722-8683 for details or to speak to an election’s office  assistant.  The County Recorder’s Office in the same building can accept registration forms and answer some election questions.)

Also, visit our tab  A Registration and Voter Guide:   Click here for Voting Information and Vote By Mail

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MONTHLY CLUB MEETINGS AND ACTIVITIES:
 Call 1-805-349-2708 for updates on meeting information.
Meetings are on the third Thursday of every month, Noon  social/menu meal – Meeting begins at 1:00  pm.
Call for office hours 1-805- 349-2708.
Email:    dcsmv@dcsmv.net.
Headquarters office:  327 E. Plaza Drive, #2, Santa Maria, CA 93454. 
 Visit our page for Past and Present Events for our Club:

Click here for club meetings, events, fundraisers

Click here for our club membership application

 

Join DCSMV and/or pay Club Dues on secure site

Join/pay dues on secure ActBlue link to pay with credit card or Paypal:      CLICK HERE

   OR   Donate to DCSMV secure ActBlue link:   CLICK HERE

  If you would prefer to fill out a membership form and mail or drop off a check,

click here to print:  Membership Form

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Know what Santa Maria District you live in?

CLICK HERE for Districts by address in Santa Maria

 

City of Santa Maria Voting Districts

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Santa Barbara County Districts have been redrawn as of December 2021.  There are graphics of the maps for the boundaries for all 5 Districts.  Santa Maria and Orcutt are in District 4 and 5.  MAPS ARE ON PAGE 15-22 of the document link:   https://drawsantabarbaracounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211213-SB-CIRC-Final-Report.pdf

Click here to look up all of your voting Districts and Precinct by address

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2020/06/15/welcome-to-the-dcsmv-website/

Dec 21 2019

House Impeached President Trump, December 18, 2019

The record will be available for future generations to understand why impeachment was necessary as the only remedy possible to hold a corrupt president accountable under our Constitution, and one step towards preserving our democracy for them.

“Whether Donald Trump leaves in one month, one year or five years, this impeachment is permanent,” Rep Ted Lieu, D-Calif said. “It will follow him around for the rest of his life and history books will record it. People will know why we impeached.”

 

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/18/789020525/president-trump-impeached-by-the-house-in-historic-rebuke?fbclid=IwAR2IdPQpdvhfhXfMKbo4zhmJFgNv33oZRrq74EdtEhuVBtwj-91t9W3f-Xk

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2019/12/21/house-impeached-president-trump-december-18-2019/

Nov 03 2019

The chamber voted on October 31, 2019, to approve procedures related to the impeachment inquiry into President Trump

“What is at stake in all of this? It’s nothing less than our democracy,” Nancy Pelosi. 

News of a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump had pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate the Biden family, and military aid was being withheld from Ukraine unless the president of Ukraine cooperated, broke in September 2019, that led Pelosi to end the ambiguity about whether to proceed with impeachment steps. The speaker announced on September 24 that “the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.” Since September, over a dozen witnesses have corroborated the whistleblower’s account of events.  

Activists and voters in the party have been demanding Trump’s impeachment for some time now for a variety of reasons: from bigotry to financial corruption to his general conduct in office.

This vote can be read as a sign that Democrats are ready to move to a new phase of the inquiry: They’re winding down the closed-door depositions they’ve held in recent weeks and moving instead to hearings that will take place in public.

The resolution also makes clear who will take the lead in this phase: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Read the full Resolution:   Resolution by the House

Speech by Nancy Pelosi October 31, 2019

What House Democrats’ impeachment procedures resolution actually does

Democrats’ resolution is not a resolution to start an impeachment inquiry; the party’s position is that they’ve been conducting one for some time already. Instead, the resolution is framed as one “directing certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations” as part of an “existing House of Representative inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist” for the impeachment of President Trump. That is: The inquiry already existed and will continue.

The resolution does, however, lay out some specifics about how things will work going forward.

   FIRST, it says that open hearings will be held and, interestingly, the committee that will hold those hearings is the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Schiff. That makes sense, because the whistleblower complaint made its way to Schiff in the first place (his committee oversees the intelligence community). And it’s Schiff’s committee that has been holding closed-door depositions of Trump administration officials for the past month (though members of two other committees, Foreign Relations and Oversight, have also been invited to take part).

  SECOND, the resolution gives some details on how those hearings will be conducted. The interesting part here is that Schiff (and the intelligence committee’s ranking member Devin Nunes) will each get to question witnesses at the beginning for longer than the traditional five minutes — up to 90 minutes in total. They can also designate staff members to do this questioning. This is not typically how congressional hearings are conducted but it would allow witnesses to be questioned for lengthier periods by skilled attorneys (rather than bloviating politicians).

  THIRD, the resolution says that Nunes can ask for his own witnesses to be invited or subpoenaed to testify, but there’s a catch. Nunes must give “a detailed written justification of the relevance” of each witness’s testimony and either Schiff or a majority vote on the committee would have to approve it. This is an effort to prevent Republicans from playing political games by demanding that irrelevant witnesses appear.

 FINALLY, the resolution makes clear how this phase of the impeachment inquiry will end: After Schiff has held public hearings, he will write a report laying out his findings and recommendations. That’s when the handoff to Nadler’s Judiciary Committee will occur. The Judiciary Committee will review the report and draft impeachment articles if they deem that necessary (which they almost surely will).

What happens next

Summing up, now that this resolution has been approved by the House, this is how the impeachment inquiry will proceed going forward:

  • Schiff’s Intelligence Committee will hold public hearings and eventually write a report.
  • Nadler’s Judiciary Committee will then review that report and likely draft and vote on articles of impeachment for Trump.
  • Any articles of impeachment improved by the Judiciary Committee would then go before the full House for the actual vote on whether Trump would be impeached.
  • If Trump is impeached by the House then the Senate would hold a trial to determine whether to remove him from office.

It isn’t clear how long each of these phases will last. Democrats had at one point hoped to hold their final votes on whether to impeach Trump before Thanksgiving, but that timeline has slipped. For now, they still appear to be aiming to wrap things up in the House before the end of the year.

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2019/11/03/the-chamber-voted-on-october-31-2019-to-approve-procedures-related-to-the-impeachment-inquiry-into-president-trump/

Jul 19 2019

The facts about Trump’s policy of separating families at the border.

Obama’s guidelines prioritized the deportation of gang members, those who posed a national security risk and those who had committed felonies.

Trump’s January 2017 executive order does not include a priority list for deportations and refers only to “criminal offenses,” which is broad enough to encompass serious felonies as well as misdemeanors.

Because of Trump’s executive order, DHS can deport people for misdemeanors more easily, because the government no longer prioritizes the removal of dangerous criminals, gang members or national-security threats. (A DHS fact sheet says, “Any individual processed for removal, including those who are criminally prosecuted for illegal entry, may seek asylum or other protection available under law.”)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/06/19/the-facts-about-trumps-policy-of-separating-families-at-the-border/?utm_term=.00610c418f4a&wpisrc=nl_fact&wpmm=1

Where are the children coming from?

  1. This rural town, is among the poorest in a nation.

2) Guatemala’s capital is plagued with gang violence.

3) Rival gangs are responsible for most of the murders in El Salvador’s capital.

More than three-quarters of the children minors are from mostly poor and violent towns in three countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Children from Mexico, once the largest group, now make up less than a quarter of the total. A small number come from 43 other countries.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/15/us/questions-about-the-border-kids.html

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2019/07/19/the-facts-about-trumps-policy-of-separating-families-at-the-border/

Jan 29

Why do the wealthy run the country? People living in poverty are registered, but don’t vote.

Study: Polarization and Gridlock Work Well for Rich Americans

Data collected by the Pew Research Center in 2014 found that only half of the least financially secure Americans are registered to vote, and only one-fifth planned to cast a ballot in that year’s midterm election. These voters also didn’t follow politics very closely — only a quarter knew which party controlled Congress, and only 14 percent had gotten in touch with an elected official in the last two years.

“Most people are registered to vote but you’ll find that they’re not turning out to vote,” says Alexandra Gallo, an organizer with West Virginia Citizen Action Group who participated in a panel on rural organizing. “They don’t feel that it matters or that it’s going to make a difference, or they don’t want to vote for the lesser of two evils.”

“You don’t just show up and knock on people’s doors,” she continues. “You have to develop trust. They want to know why you’re there. How long you plan to stay. And usually, when people are showing up, they assume that they have some money associated with their being there that probably will never get to the community.”

http://billmoyers.com/story/poor-people-arent-involved-in-politics/#.WU3KOExq96w.facebook

 

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2018/01/29/people-living-in-poverty-are-registered-but-dont-vote/

Jan 27 2018

The environment isn’t a political issue. It is a survival issue.

Planet Earth is planet “A.”  

There is no planet “B.”

We live on the Mother Ship.  If we humans, as caretakers, protect our planet, it will continue to give and sustain life. If we don’t, it will take life.

To deny that we humans have no effect, or that we can’t make changes that will limit damage, is to contribute to a destiny for humanity that will be catastrophic.

There are no “do overs” when it comes to extinction.

Our leaders say things to appease our comfort level, but are enacting laws and changes that are destructive and irreversible to our planet.  If we don’t come together to prevent this, nothing else will matter.  

What they vote into law, is what we, and future generations, will live or die with.  Don’t expect someone else to step up on your behalf.  It’s everyone’s turn to be present.

What can an individual do?

Continued on our tab ‘POSTS CONTINUED” –

Click here –  https://santamariademocrats.info/posts-continued/climate-change-is-a-survival-issue/

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2018/01/27/3374/

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Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2017/09/04/3653/

Democratic Club of Santa Maria Valley

 

CALL TO ACTION websites:  https://santamariademocrats.info/resist-call-to-action/

WRITE LETTERS to our local  newspaper Editors:  https://santamariademocrats.info/letters-to-media/

KNOW OUR  ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES:  https://santamariademocrats.info/your-reps-and-maps/

INDIVISBLE:   https://www.indivisible.org

LISTS OF CAMPAIGN DONORS:   https://www.opensecrets.org

FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM:  Get Local Events and Political News at our Democratic Club of Santa Maria Valley social media pages:

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Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2017/09/03/3720/

Jun 02

Trump ignores the world, withdraws the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement

The main goal of the Paris deal was to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. Beyond that point, scientists worry that catastrophic impacts of warming become irreversible.

Trump at the White House:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/01/530748899/watch-live-trump-announces-decision-on-paris-climate-agreement

 

INDIVISIBLE.  WHAT YOU CAN DO NEXT.

Trump Against the Planet: Defending the Climate with Local Action

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2017/06/02/trump-ignores-the-world-withdraws-the-united-states-from-the-paris-climate-agreement/

Apr 04

The Democratic Party wants YOU to run for political office.

WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER! LEAVE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION ON OUR POST OR A PHONE MESSAGE AT (805) 349-2708, or email at dcsmv@dcsmv.net, attention Connie Ford.  If you think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and you are willing to get involved as a game changer, then now is the time to come forward and begin the process.  We would like to hear from you.Are you interested in shaping the future of the organized Democratic Club?
Would you like to help make North Santa Barbara County as blue as South Santa Barbara County? Are you able to give your time to make a true differenceIf you answered yes to ANY of these questions, we need you!! To sign up/volunteer: 805-349-2708 or email dcsmv@dcsmv.net.

Permanent link to this article: https://santamariademocrats.info/2017/04/04/the-democratic-party-wants-you-to-run-for-local-state-and-federal-office/

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