The South Bay Labor Council is hosting their campaign kick-off for the March 2024 Primary on Saturday, December 2nd at 9am. In addition to hearing from their special guests, they will be knocking on doors to help elect their endorsed candidates!

Families are welcome to attend.

Campaign Kick-Off Information

When: Saturday, December 2nd from 9am-1pm
Where: 2302 Zanker Rd. San Jose, CA 95131
Bring: A charged cell phone and comfortable walking shoes
Parking: Please make sure to park in spaces designated as “SEIU” parking spots
RSVP: https://www.southbaylabor.org/2024primarylaunch

All JDCSV Members and friends are invited to join us on Sunday, December 10, 11:30am-2:30pm, at the Historic Adobe Building, Mountain View, for our 2nd Annual Hanukkah luncheon and holiday party!

Hear our inspired elected officers speak, and join in the feeling and joy of our Hanukkah season.

Elected Guests include

Congressman Jimmy Panetta
Assembly Member Evan Low
District Attorney Jeff Rosen
Board of Equalization Member Sally Lieber
Mountain View City Council Member Margaret Abe-Koga
Foothill/De Anza School District Trustee Patrick Ahrens

Please RSVP as soon as possible and join us in this holiday event!

As we approach the holidays, I’m grateful to have the support of leaders in our community and champions of public service.

I hope you’ll join them as we get together for our next big campaign fundraising event this Monday, November 27th, from 5:30-7:00pm. We’ll enjoy good food and share our ideas for making San José a city for everyone!

WHAT: Campaign Fundraiser

WHEN: Monday, November 27, 5:30pm to 7:00pm

WHERE: Tomato Thyme, 1560 Hamilton Ave, San José, CA 95125

RSVP: Please scan the QR code on the flyer above or visit vanessaforsanjose.com

Many thanks to our co-hosts: City Councilmember Dev Davis, City Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, former Councilmember Raul Peralez, former Assemblymember Jim Cunneen, and community leader Jerry Strangis.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, and we’ll see you Monday!

P.S. If you can’t make it Monday, I would greatly appreciate a donation to support our efforts on the campaign trail!

DONATE

Our next campaign fundraiser will be a family friendly Ice Skating Party at the Ice Center in Cupertino on December 2, 1:00-3:30. The $40 donation includes admission, skate rental, 30 minutes of instruction, and a favor bag. Community centric fundraising means raising money in a way that centers and includes the communities I’m serving as well as our broader community, bringing our diverse community together for educational excellence, equity, and representation. Bring family and friends and please share this Eventbrite with anyone who might be interested

Nuestra próxima recaudación de fondos para la campaña será a una fiesta de patinaje el Sábado 2 de Diciembre de 1:00 – 3:30 en el Cupertino Ice Center. Cada entrada costará desde $40 e incluye admisión, renta del equipo, acceso a los instructores de patinaje, una bolsita de regalo y la donación a la campaña.Siguiendo con nuestros ideales de construir una comunidad que se base en valores de inclusión social, estamos creando eventos de campana que congreguen a nuestras diversas comunidades y al mismo tiempo nos ayuden a recaudar fondos desde lo mucho o poco que cada uno puede aportar. Todo suma y todo es bienvenido.

To register, follow THIS LINK.

SAVE THE DATE!

MEET THE CANDIDATES

San José City Council Districts 4 & 10

Monday, November 20 at 7:00pm

Join us to hear from District 4 candidates
Kansen Chu and David Cohen
Along with District 10 Candidate Lenka Wright

RSVP for reminders

ABOUT THE CANDIDATES

District 10 – Lenka Wright

Originally from Long Island, N.Y., Lenka Wright chose San José as her adopted home to live and raise her family. Lenka made many stops across the country because of her TV broadcasting career and marriage to a U.S. Air Force pilot before arriving in San José in December 2010.

For more than 15 years, Lenka has been a seasoned communications executive, having led citywide communications and outreach for five cities in California (Mountain View, Santa Clara, and San José) Washington (Bellevue), and Texas (Abilene). In addition, Lenka taught undergraduate and graduate classes, including crisis communications courses, as an adjunct professor for National University’s Strategic Communications program. Lenka has been actively involved in community groups and served on city and school district advisory bodies.

Lenka’s top priorities are increasing public safety, addressing homelessness by getting individuals, couples and families off the streets and into stable housing, and enhancing quality of life through well-maintained parks, litter-free streets and youth/family/senior programming including more library hours. She also backs efforts to bring more quality jobs with living wages to our area. Lenka is running for City Council to stand up for our future. By working together with city leaders on a common goal, she strives to restore the middle class and keep the American dream alive in San José.

District 10 – Arjun Batra

Arjun Batra is the councilmember of the San José City Council for District 10. He holds an MBA degree and has extensive international background knowledge gained from working and managing in the technology industry, which enables him to better understand the concerns and issues of his residents and neighbors. He worked at IBM and Intel before retiring and joining former Mayor Sam Liccardo’s Technology and Innovation office as an Encore Fellow. Batra has served the City of San José in various pro-bono roles, including the Smart City Advisory Board and the San José Information Technology Advisory Committee.

His goal is to make San José the greenest, safest, and most convenient city to live, work, and raise a family in by advocating to find necessary solutions to address homelessness and housing issues that are prominent in the city today. Batra is the first Indian-American on the council since Ash Kalra. Batra and his family have lived in District 10 for over 40 years. His wife, an environmental engineer, is an ESL Instructor at MetroEd Adult Education Center, while his two sons are alumni of Leland High School, University of California – Berkeley, Columbia, and Harvard Law Schools.

District 4 – David Cohen

David Cohen’s parents were his advocates, ensuring that he would have a fair shot at success. They instilled in David a desire to make his community a better place. David spent 14 years serving the families and students of the Berryessa School District. There, he focused on creating relationships with local families and students, listening to the needs of neighborhoods, and taking action to create opportunities for every student. Together, they safeguarded small class sizes, preserved music and science programs, and secured additional funding for local schools.

In 2020, David saw the need to bring that community-centered approach to the City Council. District 4 residents needed an advocate in City Hall. As a member of Council, his primary focus has been to be accessible to all the residents of the district. He has focused on the unique needs of District 4, including addressing long-neglected needs of Alviso, partnering with neighborhoods and schools in North San Jose and River Oaks, investing in parks, improving pedestrian safety, and holding community events.

David Cohen has led the way on policies that matter to San Jose, such as building more affordable housing, addressing homelessness, keeping our community clean, and ensuring a clean and carbon-free future for our children.

District 4 – Kansen Chu

Kansen Chu currently serves on the California State Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education Advisory Committee. Kansen emigrated to the United Stated from Taiwan in 1976. After finishing his graduate school in Electronics Engineering in 1978, he moved to San Jose and worked at IBM Corporation as a micro-diagnostic programmer. In 1989, Kansen and his wife, Daisy, started Ocean Harbor Chinese restaurant in San Jose. They operated the small business until 2006.

Kansen started his public services in early 1990. He first served on the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Board and later served on the Santa Clara County Mental Health Board. Kansen was first elected to the Berryessa School Board in 2002. From 2007 to 2014, he served as the San Jose City councilmember representing Alviso, Berryessa and North San Jose. Kansen was elected in November 2014 to represent California’s 25th Assembly District, which serves the Alameda County communities of Fremont and Newark, and the Santa Clara County communities of Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara. Kansen was appointed to the Berryessa School Board in 2020.

In the State Assembly, Kansen served as the chairperson of the Human Services Committee and later appointed to chair the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee. During his 6 years in the Assembly, he has served on the Assembly Transportation Committee, Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee, Insurance Committee, Revenue and Taxation Committee, Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy Committee, and, Labor and Employment Committee. In addition to the Assembly Standing Committee mentioned above, Chu created and chaired the Select Committee on Hate Crimes for 4 years.

Since elected to the State Assembly, Chu has focused on mental health, public safety, education, environmental protection and justice, and good governance in the legislature. From 2018 to 2019, Kansen secured more than $60 million to support training and recruitment of mental health professionals, fight against auto break-ins and property theft, senior services, arts education and emergency preparedness. In addition to successful funding requests, Chu has passed bills to increase school bus safety, expand access to mental health services, secure more funding for public transportation, improve state’s recycling efforts, expand access to clean drinking water for disadvantaged communities, protect domestic abuse survivors, and move the State away from outdated practice of switching the clock twice a year.

Chu has worked to hold utility companies accountable for the power shut offs that affect millions of people each time. Chu also has worked tirelessly to break down mental health stigma through AB 8 and AB 1838, to put a mental health professional in every single school in California and ensure that our children are able to take time off from school to address mental health crisis.

During Chu’s time on the San José City Council, he served on San Jose City Public Safety Committee, Park and Recreation Committee, VTA Board, Santa Clara County Water Commission, Waste Reduction and Recycling Commission and represented San José on the League of California Cities and the Association of Bay Area Governments. He made public health, transportation, and environmental issues top priorities- passing initiatives to require citywide green building standards and championed a ban on single-use plastic bags. Kansen also spearheaded the installation of automatic heart defibrillators across San José as a way to save lives.

While serving on the City Council, Chu worked with community members to create the North San José Neighborhood Plan, bring BART to San Jose, established the Berryessa Business Association, helped start the Berryessa Farmers Market, renovated the Educational Park Library, and moved the long-awaited Commodore Park project forward.

As a school board member, Kansen advocated equitable education for all students and improved parent participation in schools.

During Covid-19 pandemic, Kansen has dedicated his time working with many community members and raised more than 130,000 pieces of PPE’s for the County Hospital, Regional Hospital, Community Health Clinics, farm workers, Santa Clara County Sheriff Department, Milpitas public safety staff, and general publics.

Kansen has a long history of community services. He has served on YMCA, VIVO, Self Help for the Elderly, Restorative of Justice Board, Berryessa Neighborhood Accountability Board, San Jose East/Evergreen Rotary Club, First VP of Milpitas Lions Clubs; just to name a few.

Kansen and Daisy have been married for 47 years. They have two adult children, Ann and Walt, a son-in-law Steve, and grandchildren, Kimberly and Connor.

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Best regards,
Silicon Valley Democratic Club

In the Struggle: The Land, Water and People of the Central Valley CVM Talk & Fundraiser – December 6 at 5pm PST

To register, follow THIS LINK.

Join us before the holidays for an informational gathering and fundraiser to support Central Valley Matters’ grassroots groups! Significant change takes time, money, and perseverance and that is why our Central Valley Matters work continues.

Did you know that in this “breadbasket of the nation,” tens of thousands of CD22 residents don’t have access to clean drinking water? And they have the worst air quality and highest asthma rates for children in the nation? This situation continues because of the existing power structure in the Central Valley.

Come hear Daniel O’Connell and Janaki Anagha, our guest speakers, tell us about the forces making the Central Valley as underprivileged as some of the worst areas of Southern States and Appalachia.

Dan is the author of “In the Struggle: Scholars and the Fight against Industrial Agribusiness in California.” His work explores the causes and cures for the deep social, racial, environmental, and economic inequities in the Central Valley. Dan is also the policy and research director of the Central Valley Partnership (CVP), a nonprofit progressive network of labor unions, environmental organizations, and community groups spanning the Central Valley. (He previously was the executive director of CVP.) Dan is a passionate activist and politically engaged scholar with a MS in International Agricultural Development from University of California, Davis, and a PhD in Education from Cornell University.”

Janaki Anagha is CWC’s Director of Community Advocacy. Previously, she worked in the San Joaquin Valley advancing agricultural and environmental policy towards justice for communities bearing the burden of California’s food system. She has worked at California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. in Fresno enforcing environmental justice and worker protections such as access to clean drinking water for unincorporated communities. Janaki holds a J.D. from UC Davis School of Law and a B.S. in International Agricultural Development from UC Davis.

We look forward to seeing you there as we support the local grassroots groups organizing in CD 22. Who has the power? We have the power!

To register, follow THIS LINK.