League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
San Mateo, Santa Clara County, CA June 3, 2008 Election
	Carolyn L. Curtis Answers Questions Candidate for Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of Santa Clara; State Assembly District 21

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What would you do to increase the number of voters registered in your party?

I've been registering voters for the past 35 years, most intensively since 2003 when the Dean campaign registered 1000-2000 in Santa Clara County. The county party put me in charge of voter registration, & I personally registered voters virtually every weekend May-Nov 2004-6, plus I organized and trained other volunteers for this. Last year the state party appointed me co-lead of the Voter Registration subcommittee of the Voter Services committee, which I served on starting 2005; I edited & wrote large parts of a Best Practices, given out to county parties & chartered organizations statewide. It's a living document, constantly updated & improved.

2. What would you do to help the campaigns of candidates of your party?

What I've been doing since 1968: get in there & work. I cut my teeth as an organizer in a congressional campaign in the northwest corner of the state in 1979-80, & have been on the county committee when I lived in Napa (1970s) & in San Mateo counties (1980s), where I participated in the campaigns those committees concentrated on. In 2003 I put aside work for a year & gave full-time energy to the Dean campaign in this county, leading meetings, recruiting & training volunteers for voter reg & precincting, giving fundraisers. Since 2004 I've been deeply involved in the county party, especially, designing and executing the precincting effort in 2004, 2005, 2006. The 2004 effort was instrumental in getting Ira Ruskin elected to the Assembly. I've also participated in fundraising for the county party, e.g. working the past 2 years on the annual fundraising dinner, plus getting a monthly donation program off the ground. I was an early (April 2004) supporter of Jerry McNerney, knocking on doors for him & holding fundraisers with other members of the Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley. I've also given or helped with fundraisers for Charlie Brown, Ira Ruskin, Debra Bowen, John Kerry, Barack Obama. I'm particularly proud that our club is an activist club, in the tradition of Democracy for America. We knock on doors, we phone, we write letters, we raise funds.

3. Why did you become a member of this political party?

No other party comes close to standing for what I believe in. The Democrats are the people who brought us Social Security, Medicare, and so many other programs that actually improve people's lives. I'm especially proud of it now that Howard Dean has opened the national party to the grassroots: 50-state strategy, Democracy Bonds, more.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: May 5, 2008 16:25
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