Compiled by RADC Members - Tracy Wise and Jeff Poggi

#GetInvolvedGetInformedTakeAction

#RedlandsDemsAct

Welcome to this week’s Call to Action, where you can find some of the latest events and news to help you take part in the issues that matter to our communities. 

If you have a call to action that you would like us to highlight, email us at: [email protected] 

ACTION ITEM

For Wednesday, June 22, 2022

 

1. Pass the California Racial Justice Act for All—AB 256 (League of Women Voters-CA)

Commemorate Juneteenth by taking action to support the Racial Justice Act for All (AB 256, Kalra) and confront racism for Californians impacted by racist convictions and sentencing. 

Discrimination, both past and present, cannot be tolerated in our criminal courts. The Racial Justice Act for All will extend the protections of the California Racial Justice Act of 2020 (AB 2542, Kalra) to those who have already been harmed by convictions or sentences tainted by bias related to race, ethnicity, or national origin.

California is one of the worst states in the U.S. for racial disparities in mass incarceration. In California, a Black man is over eight times more likely to be incarcerated than a white man. This is worse than former confederate states like Mississippi, which has a disparity of three to one, or Louisiana, which has a disparity of four to one. This is no accident. Since the end of slavery, our criminal legal system has evolved into systemic over-policing and over-incarceration of Black people. Now we must confront our racist history by passing the Racial Justice Act for All - tell your state senator to vote YES on the Racial Justice Act for All! 

CONTACT:

State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (SD23), 10350 Commerce Center Drive, Suite A-220, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730, or call (909) 919-7731

 

2. Watch the January 6th Committee Hearings!

Don’t forget: the public hearings of the January 6th Committee are ongoing!  Let us pay attention to these hearings, learn the facts about what happened, and watch our Representatives (including Rep. Pete Aguilar) lay out their case for not only the planning and execution of the attempted January 6, 2021, coup, but also naming the planners who brought it to fruition.

After the Tuesday, June 21, 2022  and the Thursday, June 23, 2022 hearings, additional hearings will be scheduled in mid-July and beyond. We will continue to share hearing information on social media. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram.  Further information can also be found at: https://january6th.house.gov/ .


3. Protect Our Presidential Election in 2024

Richard L. Hasen, the Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California at Irvine, recently provided some vital steps which need to be taken in DC before the November midterms to protect the 2024 presidential election: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/08/january-6-commitee-election-risks/

They include addressing “holes and ambiguities in the arcane rules for counting electoral college votes set forth in the Constitution and in a poorly written 1887 law, the Electoral Count Act.”

Congress can take the following actions, so please write to our two senators and our representative ASAP:

  • “revise the Electoral Count Act to create a more robust role for federal courts in making sure that states follow their own rules for picking the winner of their electoral college votes.”
  • “mandate that voting machines produce paper ballots that could be recounted in the event of an election dispute, provide adequate funding for fair elections, increase protection of election workers and officials against harassment and violence, and stiffen criminal penalties for interfering with official election proceedings. (Some of these provisions, like the paper-ballot requirement, were in the Freedom to Vote Act, which Democrats failed to get through the Senate this year.)”
  • clarify the role of federal courts with “new legislative language…judges could intervene to determine that Biden actually won the state and that there was no fraud that rendered the election results suspect.”
  • “A new set of rules could state definitively that the vice president, who presides over the Jan. 6 counting of electoral college votes, has no power to deprive Congress of lawfully submitted slates of electors.” 
  • “The Electoral Count Act says a challenge to electors can proceed if one member from each chamber (House and Senate) agrees. That threshold should be raised significantly. Congress can clarify, too, that challenges to electors must focus on such constitutional issues as the eligibility of candidates, not on disagreement over vote totals. Moreover, Congress can specify that a “failed” election — language used in the current act to specify an instance when state legislatures might need to step in — refers to elections thwarted by, for example, a natural disaster, not by false claims of voter fraud or irregularities.”

Sample Text:

Dear Senators Feinstein / Padilla / Representative Aguilar:

Congress needs to work with lightning speed to pass legislation prior to the November midterms which reinforces and strengthens our democracy. That includes addressing “holes and ambiguities in the arcane rules for counting electoral college votes set forth in the Constitution and in a poorly written 1887 law, the Electoral Count Act,” as summarized by Professor Richard Hasen in a June 10, 2022 OpEd in the Washington Post. 

As the January 6 Select Committee Hearings demonstrate, these are vital steps to protect our democratic republic.

NAME

ZIP CODE

CONTACT:

Senator Dianne Feinstein, 11111 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 915, Los Angeles, CA 90025 - (310) 914-7300 or [https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me]—and please thank her for her past efforts!

Senator Alex Padilla, 11845 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 1250W, Los Angeles, CA 90064 - (310) 231-4494  [https://www.padilla.senate.gov/]

Representative Pete Aguilar, https://aguilar.house.gov/email-me/ or 685 E. Carnegie Drive, Suite 100, San Bernardino, CA 92408 - (909) 890-4445

 

STICK A PIN IN THIS

  • Advocating for a vibrant downtown Redlands with a re-use of the site of the current derelict Redlands Mall:  The Planning Commission and the City Council held a joint meeting on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.  Lasting over 5 hours, the result was a unanimous vote by the City Council in favor of the developers’ design for the Redlands Mall project. This is an important step forward in building a sustainable and resilient downtown Redlands for the future.

The City Council is continuing to work on this project along with the University of Redlands project.

  • Learn about the City Council Candidate Running in the New District 3: Mario Saucedo! Go to https://mariosaucedo.com/ to learn more about this native Redlander and community activist and the issues he is prioritizing in his campaign. We will be sharing future events for Redlands Dems to attend!
  • Ensuring California is a Sanctuary State for those seeking abortions: On May 2, 2022, the following press release came out of Sacramento from our state leaders:

SACRAMENTO – Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego), Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) and Governor Gavin Newsom released the below statement following news reports detailing a preliminary U.S. Supreme Court majority draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal constitutional protections for the right to abortion:

“California will not stand idly by as women across America are stripped of their rights and the progress so many have fought for gets erased. We will fight. California is proposing an amendment to enshrine the right to choose in our state constitution so that there is no doubt as to the right to abortion in this state. We know we can’t trust the Supreme Court to protect reproductive rights, so California will build a firewall around this right in our state constitution. Women will remain protected here.”

CONTACT: 
[email protected] (for Pro Tem Atkins)
[email protected] (for Speaker Rendon)
[email protected] (for Governor Newsom)

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/05/02/following-draft-scotus-opinion-legislative-leaders-and-governor-newsom-announce-constitutional-amendment-to-enshrine-the-right-to-choose-in-california/ 

If you have not already done so, send a message to the Governor, Speaker Rendon in the Assembly, Pro Tem Atkins in the Senate (emails are above), as well as your own assemblymember and state senator to tell them you support this action.

Suggested Text:

Dear [NAME]:

I fully support the proposal of an amendment to the California state constitution to enshrine the right to choose, so that there is no doubt at all regarding the right to abortion in our state.  Women must be protected here, and California must take whatever steps it can to protect this basic civil liberty which gives women the right to manage their own bodies.

NAME

CITY

ZIP

For Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (SD23): 10350 Commerce Center Drive, Suite A-220, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 or call (909) 919-7731 

For Assemblymember James Ramos (AD40): https://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.php?district=AD40