These are busy times for Democrats. Voter Registration is on the front burner as we try to turn more California cities blue. Congratulations to our caucus members in Riverside and San Bernardino County on their hard work in the area of voter registration. Soon fireworks will be going off. ..red, white and blue balloons flying high above us and cheers will be the rule of the day. Why? Because… San Bernardino is on the verge of becoming a BLUE COUNTY. Wahoo.

Warmest Congratulations to two of our caucus members, Carol Robb and Betty McMillion on being elected as Chairs of their County Democratic Central Committees. Betty is now Chair of Riverside, replacing fellow caucus member Shirley Walton who served us well for numerous years and is off to new areas of Democratic activities; and Carol Robb was re-elected Chair of San Bernardino. Warmest Congrats, ladies.

Denver, Colorado will be the place where history is made on August 25 thru the 28th as we nominate our next President of the United Sates of America….Barak Obama. Caucus Vice Chair Mary Ann Andreas will be serving as member of the Credentials Committee and caucus members Robert Martin, Chair of Morongo, Betty McMillion Ron Wall and Judy Jacobs will be attending as delegates. Caucus member Henry Vandermeir will be attending as a volunteer. Caucus member Pat Lenzi will also be attending. Are any of the rest of our members going as delegates, members of committees or as volunteers? If so, please let me know.

As many of you are aware there are issues between tribes and the Riverside Sheriff's Dept and also the San Diego Sheriff's Dept. We need to be vigilant in seeing that our sovereign rights are protected and remain uncompromised. Thanks to our legislators who are willing to stand with us on these issues.

Special guest, Congresswoman Maxine Waters addressed the caucus in June and strongly supported the issue of sovereignty on the issue of the Freedman concern involving the Cherokee Nation. Thank you, Congresswoman Waters, for always being there for us.

Several of our legislators have been strong in their support of our issues. We will be filling in our Legislative Report Card at our November E-Board meeting. You will receive a copy of it prior to the meeting with the recommendations for scores from our NAC E-Board.

At the July E-Board the caucus was once again successful in working with members of the Resolution Committee and delegates to the E-Board to defeat the same old, same old resolution trying to do away with sovereignty. Special thanks to Mary Ann and Pat Lenzi for attending the Resolutions Committee in behalf of the caucus in case we needed people to speak against the resolution. The resolution was defeated without leaving the Resolution Committee.

We had guests from Bay Pac and Percy from Senator Feinstein's office and Eric Bauman speaking to the caucus about concerns the Lt.Gov had regarding incidents at Soboba, Pala and La Jolla reservations involving law enforcement officials overstepping their boundaries.

Congrats to Judy Jacobs' West End Democratic Club (12 members of their club belong to our caucus) on opening a Democratic headquarters in Ontario. We have lots of work ahead of us to elect Barack Obama because people still do not know him. Help out by registering voters in your area, working in a headquarters or at a county fair, or just talking to your neighbors about our issues. We need to elect local Democrats, too so we can build a farm team for future elections. Please get involved and help where you can.

Mary Kim Titla, Native American candidate for District 1 in Arizona, has pulled even with her opponent and is geared for the September 3rd Primary. If you have extra jingle in your jeans I know Mary Kim could use the money for the closing days. The winner of the Primary then goes directly into the General Election on November 4th against the Republican representative. If Mary Kim wins, she makes history by becoming the first ever Native American woman elected to Congress. Let's help make that happen.

I look forward to hearing about the Convention experience for those of you attending in Denver and seeing all of you the second weekend in November at the Anaheim Marriott for our E-Board meeting.

I will be communicating through our website on a monthly basis now as we gear up for the 2008 election. If you have news you wish to have shared please let me, or one of our caucus E-Board members know. I am sure all of you are busier than cat fur on a windy day and we need to keep our communication ongoing.

We are in the process of finalizing plans for our Women's Issues Forum which will be held on March 21st. In keeping with our commitment to involve as many different tribal locations as possible, this year we will be holding it at Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage. Should you wish to spend the night rooms are available to us for Friday and Saturday night for $119 plus tax. This is a very special rate and we need you to let us know asap if you intend to attend and want one of the rooms. More details about the Forum will be presented at our November E-Board meeting. Next year it is our hope to host it in the North.

We currently are also finalizing plans for legislative breakfasts in the north and in the south. This will give our caucus members a chance to explain our Legislative Report Card to our elected officials and to afford tribes the opportunity to meet with legislators and share their issues and priorities with them. One will be held in October and the other will be in November. We should have details finalized by the end of August.

Stay safe and keep in touch. Safe journey to all of you traveling on vacations, to Conventions and other destinations, too.

I very much look forward to seeing each of you in November, if not before.

Warmest regards,

Chairwoman
Native American Caucus, California Democratic Party