City Council Questionnaire Finally Answered!

All five democratic candidates have answered our 12 questions! For our club endorsements I hope everyone can start to read through then and find who you believe is best for Davis.
http://daviswiki.org/Davis_College_Democrats/City_Council_Candidates_Questionnaire%2C_2008

State Assembly Candidates Questionnaire

You can also check it out on daviswiki at: http://daviswiki.org/Davis_College_Democrats/State_Assembly_Candidates_Questionnaire%2C_2008

• Will you work to get rid of the state requirement that forces cities to grow by a certain percentage every year by county?


• California is facing a huge budget deficit. What do you think about the governor's plan to fix it and what are three specific provisions you would have in a bill aimed at fixing the state's budget shortfall?


• How have you supported students and/or Young Democrats?


• Do you support same-sex marriage?


• How do you plan to support College Affordability?


• What is your position on having lower punishment for non-violent crimes and drug possession?
  


• How will you fix the broken prison system?


• What do you think is a reasonable living wage and would you support implementing it? In your opinion, what does it mean to have a living wage?


• How do you propose to achieve the goals set forth with AB 32?


• Would you support the California High Speed Rail Initiative that is on the November ballot? How will you work to alleviate traffic concerns in this Assembly District?

Vice President of Membership Don Gibson to be a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention!

Davis College Democrats is proud to announce that one of our own, VP of Membership Don Gibson, will be the only male delegate representing Hillary Clinton from California's 1st congressional district at the Democratic Party National Convention in Denver in August (now that's one long run on sentence). Last Sunday, at a high school in Napa, one of two caucus sites in the 1st CD for people running to be Hillary delegates, when the votes from both caucus sites were finally tallied, Don Gibson won more votes than any other delegate, male or female, and more votes than all his male competitors combined. Regardless of which candidate you support, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were awarded a set number of delegates from California on Super Tuesday (oh so very long ago) and this is a huge victory for both Don and our club. We would also like to congratulate delegates throughout the state for their wins and especially CD 1's female delegate Pamela Cahill, and our young Democrat colleagues Ryan Loney and Paula Villescaz.

Davis College Democrats City Council Questionnaire

Check it out on daviswiki:

http://daviswiki.org/Davis_College_Democrats/City_Council_Candidates_Questionnaire%2C_2008

Growth Policy:

· What do you feel is an ideal growth rate in Davis?

· High housing, rental prices, and a less than 1% vacancy rate cause 8,000 UC Davis students to live outside of the City of Davis. How will you work to create affordable housing in Davis?

· Do you believe there should be separate policies relative to group housing such as differences between Greek and Cooperative housing?

Student Issues:

· Do you support the tenant bill of rights as proposed by Lamar Heystek? See link http://daviswiki.org/Tenant_Rights

· What is your position on the current Davis Model Lease? And what changes or improvements would you suggest?

· Do you believe that students and faculty living on campus, including the West Village expansion, should have the ability to vote in city elections?

· How can the City of Davis better promote a positive relationship with the university and its students?

· How will you ensure that downtown Davis continues to meet the needs of students including safe entertainment options?

Social issues:

· Would you support the protection and expansion of family planning resources in the city?

· A living wage was just discussed at a recent city council meeting. How do you feel we should best implement a living wage and how much should it be?

· How will you address homelessness in Davis?

Environment:

· What have you done or will do in Davis to ensure that our city stays at the forefront of good environmental policies including alternative energy?

· One major issue with biking is plant material that is left in the bike lanes. What will you do to ensure that we do not have waste causing bikers to crash and increase bike safety in general?

Davis City Council endorsement in process, City Council forum, and 8th AD Endorsement in process

More exciting news from the Davis College Democrats! We are currently in the process of forming and sending out questionnaires to all five Democratic city council candidates for the City of Davis, in alphabetical order by last name: Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald, Sue Greenwald, Don Saylor, Stephen Souza, and Sydney Vergis. There is also a Green Party candidate, Rob Roy, but since according to the rules of our club constitution we are not allowed to endorse anyone but a Democrat, we will not be sending him a questionnaire. BUT, all the questions, and later, the responses we receive from the candidates will be posted both on this blog and on DavisWiki.org, so comments and concerns can be posted there. We will probably endorse two, or maybe even three city council candidates for the three open spots on the council. If we are definite on endorsing two city council candidates but get hung up on choosing the third, we will only endorse two. Stay tuned for the questions and more info!

Also, all five Democratic city council candidates have agreed to a forum that will be hosted by the Davis College Democrats at 7 PM, Wednesday, April 23rd, in a room TBA in Wellman Hall. We might be in either Wellman 26 (capacity 121 w/sloping seating) or Wellman 230 (capacity 79 w/flat floor). Questions directed towards the candidates during the forum will be partly based off of their responses to our questionnaire.

Lastly, we are working on a questionnaire that we will send to both Democratic 8th Assembly District candidates, Mariko Yamada and Christopher Cabaldon. Because the California Democratic Party (CDP) gave their endorsement to Christopher, the Davis College Democrats, as an official chapter of the CDP on the UC Davis campus, is only allowed to either endorse or fail to endorse Christopher Cabaldon. If we endorsed any other candidate, we would be dropped from the CDP (not a good thing). The questionnaire is still in the early stages of drafting but we should hopefully have a more finalized version done by Sunday, with the questionnaire hopefully sent out by Wednesday, April 16th. Our club will (again hopefully) vote to endorse or fail to endorse Mayor Cabaldon by April 30th at the latest. As with the City Council questionnaire, all questions and answers will be posted both here and on daviswiki.org as soon as possible.

Oh, and of course for the 5th State Senate district race, we have already given our endorsement to current Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, who we honored as our Legislator of the Year for 2007 in February.

This is just a small sample of how our club has been working to have a real effect on elections in our area. Want to get involved? Check out our calendar at the bottom of the page for the latest updates on club events. Or, come to one of our meetings (almost) every Wednesday in Wellman 234 at 8 PM. See you soon!

-Brandon Key