Membership meeting minutes are posted to this page each month.
February 3, 2022
The meeting was called to order at 6:31
Opening Comments
President Terry Rodriguez opened the meeting with a few comments introducing the speaker, Jessica Morse, Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildfire Resilience at California Natural Resources Agency. Terry emphasized the importance of redistricting and said that Jessica would help us understand the process
Jessica Morse
Some highlights of Jessica’s talk:
The new 3rd District stretches from Orangevale to Lake Almanor to Death Valley and includes population centers along the I-80 corridor. The new district has a Republican +5 advantage, as opposed to the old district’s Republican +13 advantage. Had this been in place in 2018, Jessica would have won. Local democrats provided lots of input to the redistricting process. Thanks to all of them for the huge effort they put in. The new SD 6, which includes Roseville, Carmichael, and Folsom, is evenly split.
Off year elections are challenging, so while we work for this year’s candidates, we need to work on the long game. We need to elect Democrats to local offices and talk about local issues.
Several counties in northern California have sheriffs who support militia groups and promote white supremacy and autocracy. Trump is out, but the war is not won, and Democrats are not winning hearts and minds. We need to demonstrate good governance, show what government can deliver, and help our neighbors understand what we do.
One thing that could help is training in how to have difficult conversations. We need to mold the narrative and resist the right-wing version. We need to build communities, not divide. A political campaign is an opportunity to deliver our message. It is a platform to get our message across.
Running for office is a task of courage. Running and not winning still delivers benefits to the community. For example, Jessica focused on wildfire policy in her campaign, and is in her current position as a direct result of that effort.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00; we then Zoomed into the candidate forum.