Candidate for
Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of San Mateo; Supervisorial District 2

As an elected member of the San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee, I consistently have tried to explain the issues there as well as to various local and national politicians, usually to no avail as we have lost the Presidency, House, and Senate while having all the issues on our side.

A good example is my comment on 2/12/03 (before the invasion of Iraq) to William Burns, Asst. Sec'y of State.

"The Bush ABC (Anything But Clinton) policy including unilateralism, pre-emption, and hubris having antagonized most of the world, can he continue to cow the Democrats and fool the people with "It's the war, stupid" and a supposed compassionate conservative moderation that in fact has been stubborn, unyielding extremism where even Afghanistan's success has evaporated - not a formula for success in Iraq where increased terrorism will result."

That, in summary, should be the basic Democratic agenda. However while a majority of the public appears to be against bush's conduct of the war and the economy, they still like him as a person - one of the reasons he won in 2000 was because people thought he was "the kind of person you would want to have a beer with" - and when Gephardt says on "Face the Nation" that Bush is a "nice man", that is a recipe for defeat.

While Bush constantly says he wants to work with the Congress and the Democrats, he has compromised on absolutely nothing - still wanting to privatize Social Security, make permanent tax cuts for the rich, cut down our national forest, despoil the environment, etc. He is not in tune with the needs of the ordinary people but he has not effectively been held responsible by the Democrats.

The current annual federal budget deficit is said to be at a historic high of $475 billion is really over $600 billion if you don't offset the Social Security and other trust fund surpluses which Gore and Bush said in 2000 that they would never do. If Bush's tax cuts for the rich are made permanent and since the effects are much greater in subsequent years, I contend that the annual deficit will reach $1 trillion.

While Bush keeps saying he is fighting terrorism, he in fact has exaacerbated that threat. Various reports have stated that we have done little to enhance our homeland security. We should be hiring, training, and equipping the police, fire, hospitals, and health workers but while Bush has given the states about $20 billion, his two economic policies have devastated the cities, counties, and states to bring about the hiring of such local personnel.

If the Republicans were to retain in November 2004 the Presidency, the Senate (with 60 votes to eliminate the filibusters that sometimes restrained them), and the House of Representatives, we would be at risk of economic disaster and loss of our liberties with right using Supreme Court appointees.

I would appreciate your support so that i might continue to fight for the issues that benefit our country. In addition, we need to spur on our Democratic politicians to achieve the objectives we believe in.