Wellstone Progressive Dems CDP Platform Meeting

Building a Progressive California Democratic Party Platform

The Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento (PDA) held a meeting on Saturday, Jan. 9th to discuss improvements to the CA Democratic Party (CDP) Platform. All area Progressive Democrats were invited by Wellstone President Tamie Dramer and Political Affairs Chair Chris Niehaus to help shape the Party's Platform. CDP Platform Committee member Christine Thomas started off with a brief overview of the committee. CDP Progressive Caucus Chair (and PDA NorCal co-coordinator) Karen Bernal spoke about the need for Progressives in California to change the Party and how we can use our numbers to improve our platform. The room overflowed with attendees that took on issues such as Health Care, the Environment, Energy, Labor, Economic Justice, Poverty Elimination, Education & Criminal Justice. In fact, the room was so full that the Education committee had to meet in the hallway! The participants were passionate and eager to get involved in making our state Democratic Party even more Progressive. Time flew by as we took apart the current platform and created improvements which will be sent to the Progressive Caucus for submission to the CDP for consideration at the April convention. World Peace, International Relations and National Security were too important to squeeze into this three hour meeting, so an upcoming meeting will be held to take on these issues. Stay tuned...