October 2024 Ears Newsletter
Members celebrating Birthday’s in October
Robbie Greer Oct 23rd
Erika Coday Oct 27th
Wishing you both a wonderful year filled with the love of family and friends!
Local Candidate Meet & Greet ~ October 10th at 5:30pm
Our Club is hosting a Local Candidate Meet and Greet, featuring Renee Morgan (Town of Danville, Town Council), Katherine Piccinini (CD 10) and Joe Rubay (AD 16) on October 10th from 5:30 at The Growler in downtown Danville. Please come meet your local candidates!!
2024 Election Information
Please review our website tab, Election 2024, for candidate and ballot measure information provided by our very own member, Jeanne Solnordal, who is also the CFRW Legislative Analyst. CFRW Legislative updates can be found here.
CAGOP ~ Virtual Election Integrity Training
Join the Election Integrity Team and dedicated patriots like you for our virtual election integrity training program on Zoom. With your help, we can protect the vote and make sure every legal vote is counted properly. Sign up today to join our CA Election Integrity Team.
Voter Education Training: Oct 14th 5-6pm, Oct 21st 5-6pm, and Oct 24th 10-11am
Ballot Harvesting & Curing Training: Oct 15th 5-6pm and Oct 19th 6-7pm
Poll Observer Training: In-Person Vote Locations: Oct 12th 6-7pm, Oct 17th 10-11am, Oct 23rd 10-11am, Oct 26th 6-7pm, Oct 29th 5-6pm, and Nov 1st 12-1pm
Poll Observer Training: County Elections Office: Oct 11th 12-1pm, Oct 16th 5-6pm, Oct 18th 12-1pm, Oct 22nd 5-6pm, Oct 25th 12-1pm, Oct 28th 5-6pm, and Oct 30th 12-1pm
NOVEVEMBER 19th MEMBER LUNCH
Our next General Member meeting will be held at Black Bear Diner in Danville on Tuesday, November 19th at 11:30am. Our speaker will be one of our very own members, Jean Solnordal, who will discuss Election Results and Path Forward for California Republicans. Please click here for more information and to purchase your lunch online.
Our Caring for America charity for November will be Sumaritan’s Purse, who has been diligently helping those affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
CONTINUING TO LOOK FOR OFFICERS & COMMITTEE CHAIRS FOR 2025!!!
Those of you who have been to our recent meetings have heard our plea for help from you, the members, to please consider stepping up and taking one of the several vacant offices on the Board.
Our Nominating Committee members, Erika Coday, Paula Knapp and Julie Mobley were approved at our May member meeting. They are beginning their search for members to step up and usher in a new group of leaders for the San Ramon Valley Republican Women Federated Club. We thank, Liz Summer, Dee Thompson, Elaine Kowalik and Mary Zellhart for their service in our Club and their mentorship of those willing to succeed them in their roles. Your nominating committee members will be contacting all active members and asking them to step up and take the opportunity to serve our Club by being an officer. If you are contacted please give serious thought on taking this step. We cannot continue as a Club without a full slate of officers so give this some serious thought! Our future as a Club depends on you, the members!
WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA
Please mark your calendar for Saturday, December 14th at 11am for National Wreaths Across America Day at the Alamo Cemetery in Danville. This heartfelt ceremony is followed by the placement of remembrance wreaths on the over 250 known veterans’ interned at the Alamo Cemetery. The San Ramon Valley Republican Women Federated has been the driving force behind this event since 2014. Please view our sponsorship webpage for more information and to support our goal of ensuring every veteran interned at the Alamo Cemetery receives a veteran remembrance wreath.
THERE’S NOTHING ‘SPECIAL’ ABOUT THIS SPECIAL SESSION
OCTOBER 7, 2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom has yet again forced the Legislature into special session to continue his war against the oil companies. This time, his proposal is to empower the California Energy Commission to “develop and impose requirements for refiners operating in the state to maintain minimum levels of inventories of refined transportation fuels meeting California specifications.”
The governor claims this will prevent price spikes but clearly doesn’t understand the laws of supply and demand. Even Joe Lombardo, the Republican governor of Nevada, and Katie Hobbs, the Democratic governor of Arizona, sent a letter warning that his proposal would increase prices, not lower them.
It isn’t the oil companies that are adding almost a dollar per gallon in direct taxes, indirect taxes and costly special fuel requirements. Add in the higher costs of simply doing business in California and you know why gas prices are about $1.50 over the national average. It’s California.
Gov. Newsom and the Legislature could lower prices anytime they want. The reality is, they don’t want to. They want the tax money. They just don’t want you to be mad at them when you go to the polls, so they feign outrage. That’s what the special session is about.
So, since we don’t need a special session to lower gas prices, maybe we should have one about the multitude of other issues plaguing our state. Here are some suggestions.
Let’s call a special session on California’s highest-in-the-nation homeless rate. According to the state auditor, California spent more than $24 billion on homelessness programs in the last five years and the problem has only gotten worse. The state’s most recent “point-in-time” count estimated more than 180,000 were homeless. That’s up 6 percent from the previous count.
Despite the state auditor noting that no one is tracking the impacts of this spending, the governor managed to talk the voters into throwing $6 billion more on the fire earlier this year.
Maybe we need a special session on why California has the second-lowest literacy rate in the country. According to the EdVoice Institute, 60 percent of California students are not reading at grade level by the third grade and approximately 28 percent of California adults are not literate.
Assembly Bill 2222 would have required phonics-based reading instruction that research shows is more effective but it didn’t get a hearing because the teachers’ union opposed it.
How about a special session on California’s highest-in-the-nation home prices? The median home price in California was $906,600 according to the latest numbers from the California Association of Realtors. They calculate a minimum annual income of $236,800 was needed to qualify for the purchase of a median-priced, existing single-family home.
But that might be hard to do if you can’t find a job. Might be good to have a special session on why California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, California had a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in August 2024. That puts us just ahead of Illinois, Nevada and the District of Columbia.
Meanwhile, Proposition 32 asks voters to raise the state’s minimum wage from $16 to $18 and then adjust it annually for inflation. Unfortunately, raising the hourly minimum wage often results in businesses cutting hours and laying off workers – once again proving the adage that the real minimum wage is zero.
Or what about our soaring home insurance rates? Let’s have a special session about that. Many insurers have simply stopped writing policies in California and the ones that remain are raising rates as fast as they can. State Farm has requested permission from the state’s insurance commissioner to raise rates 30 percent. Allstate is raising them 34 percent.
Now, a study from Insurify says they expect car insurance rates to increase 54 percent in California – that’s more than double the national average.
California has a lot of problems. Maybe we should talk about those instead of playing political games about gas prices.
Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
CALENDAR
OCTOBER ~ Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Oct 1st International Coffee & Homemade Cookies Day - YUMMY!!!
Oct 10th SRVRWF Local Candidate Meet & Greet Event at The Growler in Danville
Oct 14th Columbus Day
Oct 17th International Pasta Day
Oct 27th Navy Day
Oct 31st Halloween
NOVEMBER
Nov 3rd Fall Back - Daylight savings time ends
Nov 5th General Election - VOTE and then go enjoy a donut on National Donut Day
Nov 10th United States Marine Corp Birthday
Nov 11th Veteran’s Day
Nov 19th General Member meeting - Jeanne Solnordal will discuss Election Results and Path Forward for CA Republicans
Nov 28th Thanksgiving - The SRVRWF Board of Directors is thankful for everyone of our members!
Nov 30th Small Business Saturday