West Ashley Democrats Monthly Meeting (Blue Jamboree Committee meeting) July 9, 2013, 6:30 8:00 P.

.M Jewish Community Center, 1645 Wallenberg Boulevard Charleston, SC 29414

Bob Aubin and Kitt Grach, Co-Chairs, convened the July monthly meeting of the West Ashley Democrats at 6:37 P.M.. and welcomed everyone in attendance. They also welcomed candidates and representatives of Candidates for Senate Seat 42 in the Special Election Marlon Kimpson, Reggie Williams on behalf of Candidate Margaret Rush, and Herbert Fielding. Marlon Kimpson, is a plaintiff's lawyer, former chairman of the State Election Commission and former Vice Chair of the State Democratic Party. The candidate was asked about his opinion on Robert Ford, the Congressman whose position he is seeking as a candidate; how he views Mr. Ford's performance as a Congressman in District 42. Marlon said Robert Ford built his record as someone fighting for civil rights and people in his district supported him because they believe he stands up for them. Marlon said he is very concerned about issues such as the Medicaid Expansion Act situation which means 300,000 people in South Carolina are being left off the rolls on health care. We must explain the economic results of the decisions we make. The most beautiful and historic state that South Carolina is, has the poorest educated people. We need to attract the right people to be able to provide an educated population. Reggie Williams spoke on behalf of Margaret Rush. He noted most of us would know her as the Highway Commissioner and representative for many years. She was the minority outreach director for RoadWise, Charleston County's road building program. She was from Berkeley County for many years, then moved to Charleston County and for over two decades she became active here. She has been active in both counties for as long as Reggie knows her. At the North Charleston meeting, (Charleston County Executive Committee Meeting) on Thursday, July 18th, they will have more information available for everyone there. Please Note: Bob Aubin will be sending out more information to everyone on the West Ashley Democrats website following this meeting and before the Executive Committee Meeting next week. Herb Fielding spoke to the members present noting he had lived in Columbia for about 11 years and has walked Senate District 42 with his brother about a year ago in his campaign, and knows most of the people in this room because he has been in Charleston all his life. He feels his life has been all about serving. He has been working in employment services for 28 years. He would like to make some good because sometimes life is too much of a battle for people. We have an opportunity now to improve the quality of life in South Carolina. We have a port authority and it is about to become bigger if we develop our area right. When we moved taxes off of property taxes and put it on sales taxes, it made a big difference. He briefly explained the inequality in the tax system. As a Senator he would try to work with people in the center not the far left or far right. When you are a representative of the people you should be providing what all those people need. He worked as the legislative liaison for the Commission for the Blind so he knows how to work with the Legislature. Herb was asked what he would do about ethics reform. The reality is the Ethics Commission should be able to work but needs to be a separate entity with the autonomy to be able to truly investigate ethics violations and bring the necessary charges if warranted, because politics plays a major part in what is wrong. What the political parties have done is create a situation where we have 19 Democrats and 27 Republicans and this has all come about in the last few years. Gerrymandering has created districts that are so one-sided the incumbent can't be challenged and cannot be touched. You are serving only one part of the public in a District like this. You have to take back the system. It has been like this so long but at some point in time the voters must decide if they are tired of the way things are not happening and vote for change.

Are we a part of anti-union here. A lot of the benefits that we enjoy has come from the work of organized labor. Organized labor has been a part of my life all my life. Sociology and politics is how Herb grew up, in a household where political action for over 20 years was a part of his life constituency. He is the son of former Senator Herbert U. Fielding who served from 1984 thru 1992. and he understands why it is important for us to get more Democrats elected. Carol Bullock , Treasurer, reported no real activity since our last meeting. The balance in our treasury is $1,680.36 after having paid for our meeting space; the Blue Jamboree deposit and some small amounts for website expenses involving PayPal for the Blue Jamboree website. Leslie Hayes asked if membership dues are up for members to update, and brief discussion followed indicating most people are kept informed and are current on their membership dues. Patti Brassington, Secretary's report of Minutes emailed to members, also hard copies here at the meeting, motion to approve Treasurer's and Secretary's Reports made, seconded and approved. Kitt Grach talked about the League of Women Voters Charleston Area, LWVCA, having a forum, a film screening on climate change entitled 'Do the Math' on Sunday, July 28th, with Blan Holman of the Southern Environmental Law Center with a legal update, and Brady Quirk-Garvin of Natural Investments who will speak about fossil fuel divestment, from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M at the Cinebarre Theater, Mt. Pleasant.. Dinner, wine and beer will be available for purchase. Tickets are just $5 but must be purchased in advance. All Charleston County Democrats and/or West Ashley Democrats are invited to attend, and maybe this is something we can do as a group since we are aware we are experiencing some weird weather changes lately. Bob and Kitt will put some further/additional information on the West Ashley Democrats website as well. We will look into whether we can sign up as a group. Also, the CCDP Newsletter for July 4th addressed this event in full detail. On Saturday, September 14th, , Lt. Dan Band and Gary Sinise will perform at the Citadel's Johnson Hagood Stadium in an event for injured vets expected to draw more than 250 severely injured veterans and caregivers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Lt. Dan Band is a cover band founded by Kimo Williams and Sinise, named after the character Lt. Dan Taylor whom Sinise portrayed in the movie Forrest Gump. At $20 per ticket it would be a good venue for us as a group or the entire Charleston County Democratic Party as a group. Normally we don't see too many Democratic events at the Citadel, but these two events might be important for us to be a part of and maybe participate in as a group. Lynn Meffert spoke about and invited everyone to the Gay Pride Celebration which will take place July 29th thru August 4th. Saturday, August 3rd is the parade and the Charleston County Democratic Party wants to be a presence at the parade. We will also be trying to have a voter registration booth to talk about what Democrats have accomplished on behalf of the LGBT community. We are encouraging everyone to come. The parade is going to be from 9:00 to 11:00 A.M. Saturday, August 3rd, ending at Brittlebank Park. Reggie Williams announced that Loreen Myerson from Mt. Pleasant does phone banking at her home for updating VoteBuilder on the phone numbers, addresses, etc. only once a week on Tuesdays between 6:00 and 9:00 P.M. On Thursday, August 8th, there will be a Welcome Home event by the Veterans Affairs at the North Charleston Coliseum. This year it is being run by Hire Our Heroes and if you know someone who would like to be involved, please tell them about it. Leslie Hayes announced there will be a Shred 360 Event over by the radio station where she works, where people can bring any kind of documents by, and shred them, on Friday, July 12th .. Blue Jamboree Paul Tinkler and Mitch McCoin, Co-Chairs for the 2013 Blue Jamboree, are here and Mitch noted he was hopeful that anyone interested had gone to the site of the Jenkins Institute to see where we will hold this year's Blue Jamboree. He also noted that as individual items, we still need volunteers as over the past month enthusiasm has ebbed, so please think about how you would like to participate as a volunteer to make the Blue Jamboree a huge success. Mitch has sent out a Excel

spreadsheet indicating some of the outstanding items we might need volunteers for and would like to touch base with people who volunteered to see if they need some assistance. Kaye Koonce emailed Bob Aubin yesterday and she will talk to our (potential) speakers to get them committed. Right now our list is Jim Clyburn, Vincent Sheheen, Bakari Sellers, Senator Clementa Pinckney, and as possible major speakers we have indicated a real interest in Tulsi Gabbard, Congresswoman from Hawaii, also Howard Dean, former Governor and DNC Chair as keynote speakers. Mimi Dias noted that, at a previous BlueJamboree, it happened that Nancy Pelosi was in Charleston and was a speaker for a big event the day of the Blue Jamboree, so we want to be careful on choosing a keynote speaker not to create an opportunity for Republicans to beat up Democrats; to be careful how we approach speakers. On behalf of West Ashley Democrats, Bob Aubin asked if Vic Rawl will be a speaker at our 2013 Blue Jamboree. Vic accepted the invitation, and reminded people that first we are looking at this Special Election for Senate Seat 42 and noted that a primary election is different than a general election, and we need to be prepared for how much work will be needed to win, and the winner of Senate Seat 42 should be a speaker at the Blue Jamboree as well. The general timeframe for the day of the BlueJamboree was suggested as 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. Susan Hartry has spoken with an insurance agent and has the application we need whenever we have the specifics ready to complete it. Everything is ready to go once we have determined our specific needs for the 2013 Blue Jambree, Saturday, October 26, 2013. Discussion on whether liquor would be included in our insurance coverage or covered by food caterers. At the second Blue Jamboree the caterer covered the liquor liability. Susan has a list of food trucks who are participating at the Rodeo, and the Blue Jamboree Committee will get into more specifics about the food trucks and catering our event shortly. Discussion on supporting candidates, explaining that we as West Ashley Democrats cannot endorse any particular candidate in this Special Election Primary, but Bob noted in our open discussion that the West Ashley Democrats have a Facebook page and we are an open group and will support equally our Democratic candidates. Leslie asked how many candidates are running and the answer is 10 people. Susan Hartry spoke about Vincent Sheheen's book, The Right Way, Getting the Palmetto State Back on the Right Track and offered that people might also be interested in getting together with others to discuss the book as well as reading it. We have the opportunity to get more copies of the book if you need them. Carole Benson of the East Cooper Democrats can get more copies for us. If you contact the West Ashley Democrats website Bob will get your information and we will follow up. The books are technically free of charge, but we are asking people to go to Vincent Sheheen's website and make a donation to the Sheheen Campaign for Governor. Looking toward the 2014 Elections, there was discussion on Charleston County Democratic Party (CCDP) Officers. Richard Hricik has said he would not seek the County Chairmanship another term. Technically the County Chairmanship and Officers are selected before the South Carolina State Convention which would be late February 2014. Vic Rawl suggested, especially with this Special Election ongoing now, it is not too early to start thinking about who might be available and willing to serve as Chairman of the Charleston County Democrats people qualified to serve in that capacity. Some suggestions were Elizabeth Colbert Busch, and Bobbie Rose. You need a Chairman who has to be savvy on Facebook, email use, all the other technology enhancements as well as having the ability to organize and the ability to delegate and follow up, and to be able to get people to delegate to. Vic said he has no clerical background nor help in that manner, whereas George and Carol Tempel worked together as a team when George was County Chair, and that was a tremendous asset to him as Chair. Vic also noted that we as the Charleston County Democratic Party are in mourning over the Elizabeth Colbert Busch Campaign loss, when we were all so highly motivated and excited for her candidacy. Vic noted, having been around many years and many elections, he had never seen such huge enthusiasm and all out effort made by so many people working on Elizabeth's behalf. We need to find a way to have the kind of capacity to capture that and we need to think about it clearly. James Island/Folly

Beach and Mt. Pleasant (East Cooper) Democrats in addition to the West Ashley Democrats, are the most functional groups in the County and we need to think about that. It is possible to redefine how you want your group to function going forward. Sometimes groups redefine how they want their various tasks to be handled. The Chairman can name a press person and commissions of various types to do the work. We don't need to change the basics but the way we think about our work. We do not need to change bylaws in any way. We need to look at our structure and see how we can have a cohesiveness of success building success. In order to get there from here we have got to recapture that success. How about Elizabeth Colbert Busch as CCDP Chair; the Chair has the means to ask her. She would be phenomenal to get as Chair. Bobbie Rose as well. We promote and support our people as candidates and come close and then our candidates disappear. The Tinkler campaign showed us how to work for our candidate and came close to winning. Instead of having that upward roller coaster with our candidate then dropping off the face of the earth, we need to move forward rebuilding our Party and the idea that Peter Tecklenburg can and did win in Charleston County says we need to get on that track. We need to rebuild our Party by, all of us together, just like we worked so hard for Elizabeth Colbert Busch's Campaign because we believed she, and we, could win. Important Reminder The Special Primary Election is Tuesday, August 13, 2013. We need you to become involved and remind you how important it is that YOU VOTE on that date. Voter turnout in special elections can be very low. Please do not let that happen with our West Ashley Democrats. We have supported our candidates in the past and they deserve our votes. And you know...Every vote counts! Meeting adjourned at 7:57 P.M. The next Monthly Meeting of the West Ashley Democrats will be Tuesday, August 13, 2013, at the Charleston Jewish Community Center. Respectfully submitted: _______________________ Patti Brassington, Secretary