A reader says his son wanted to volunteer to help the Obama campaign, but the local Democratic office was closed and showed no signs of activity. He reflects:
Well, to be fair, there's a lot of gray hair at the GOP Headquarters too, isn't there?
I wasn't cognizant of local politics enough in the 90s to remember what it was like with Roberta Gillis, other than the fact that she stirred the pot quite a bit. Was she all sizzle and no steak, or did she have the local liberals organized well?
But, yes, since then, local Democrats have been hampered by poor organization skills and infighting.
However there are some bright stars on the horizon: not just Gutzeit, but Krissy Smith, Dianne Trautman, and a few others who escape me now.
Long term, you have to wonder where the Korean and Asian migrants to the SCV will fall. Their population jumped quite a bit between 2000 and 2010 as the Census figures revealed. The generation of SCV residents who moved here in the 80s and 90s is retiring and moving on; will the newcomers be different?
Update: Another reader chimes in:
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SCV Democrats
So in Coach Hayes American Government class at Valencia students can get out of one of five examinations by volunteering for a political campaign for three hours. Our son and his friend attempted to do something with the Dems, specifically the Obama campaign, but all the local email links on that are dead. For the "local" Democratic party one has to drive down to the San Fernando Valley office (all the local web links lead to that website and calendar), where there is admittedly a lot going on, but the local Newhall office is seldom open and there is hardly anything going on there.
So the alternative, which all of the students are taking, is to go over to local Repub HQ in Center Pointe which is always open and where they welcome you and just let you hang out, even if there isn't much going on at the time. Nice outreach. Not to be a "hater" but other than Maria Gutzeit and Michael Cruz, the local Democratic activists are all these 70's retreads like the Lutenesses who are distinctly unattractive to young folks, so there seems to be nearly no youth participation in local Dem politics..
Well, to be fair, there's a lot of gray hair at the GOP Headquarters too, isn't there?
I wasn't cognizant of local politics enough in the 90s to remember what it was like with Roberta Gillis, other than the fact that she stirred the pot quite a bit. Was she all sizzle and no steak, or did she have the local liberals organized well?
But, yes, since then, local Democrats have been hampered by poor organization skills and infighting.
However there are some bright stars on the horizon: not just Gutzeit, but Krissy Smith, Dianne Trautman, and a few others who escape me now.
Long term, you have to wonder where the Korean and Asian migrants to the SCV will fall. Their population jumped quite a bit between 2000 and 2010 as the Census figures revealed. The generation of SCV residents who moved here in the 80s and 90s is retiring and moving on; will the newcomers be different?
Update: Another reader chimes in:
SCV Democrats were a quickly growing group until we stopped building new houses in Santa Clarita. A purple SCV seemed just around the corner. New neighborhoods in SCV, however wealthy, vote less like Santa Claritans and more like the rest of Los Angeles County.
But since 2007 (or so), the political makeup (and population) of the SCV is more or less frozen. People move in far less frequently, and people are moving less, period. There are very few new homes being built, and it's always been the culture around here that a lot of kids skip town after college.
But it's a pretty sizable, if unorganized crowd. As you like to mention, the SCV went for Obama in 2008. The keys for the future for SCV Dems are these: more new homes, a way for under-55 Dems to talk to one another, and a viable candidate (or three) to believe in.
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