Flagler County Democratic Party e-Newsletter e-

Volume 2, Issue 1

Happy New Year Fellow Democrats,

January 2012
Flagler Democratic Party Executive Committee ( DEC)

It's 2012 and the President has entered campaign mode. We on the Local Level must support him. The bottom line is to GET OUT THE VOTE. In order to do that we must organize our precincts and involve as many supporters as possible. It's going to be a long, nasty fight, but we must remain strong in our support. We must not become discouraged, frustrated, or complacent. We must RE-ELECT PRESIDENT OBAMA, because the alternative is unthinkable. We NEED YOUR HELP! Dan Parham Chair Flagler County Democratic Party, (DEC)

IN THIS ISSUE
*LOCATION
*Club Meetings *Contact us *State and Local *National

Dan Parham, Chairman

*Democratic Women *Flagler County Democratic Party Structure *Birthday

File photo

The Flagler County Democratic Executive Committee ( FCDEC ) is Responsible for discharging Florida Democratic Party affairs within Flagler County.

*Well Wishes
HAPPY NEW YEAR

One Hargrove Grade Building A, Suite 1D, Palm Coast, Florida, 32164

P.O. Box 350928, Palm Coast, Florida , 32135

ates and location of DEC and Club Meetings

Our Democratic Executive Committee meets the 2nd Monday of every month @ 7 pm. Meeting are held at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE ( on Clubhouse Drive between East and Westbound Palm Coast Parkway). Next scheduled meeting is January 9th, 2012. Hope to see you there, Bring a Friend

Our Democratic Club meets the fourth Tuesday of every month @ 7pm. The next meeting is scheduled for January 24th, 2012. Meetings are held At the Windsor of Palm Coast, 50 Town Court, Palm Coast Fl. 32164. Call ( 386) 586-3601 for best directions. Bring a Friend

Our Democratic Women Club meets the first Saturday of every month @ 11am. Next scheduled meeting is January 7th, 2012. Meeting are held at Democratic Headquarters, One Hargrove Grade, Bldg A. Suite1D. Contact: Courtney Chaplin at ( 386) 793-1561 ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND

FLAGLER COUNTY DEMOCRATIC WOMENS CLUB PRESIDENT, Courtney Chaplin, 386-283-4904 flaglercntydem@gmail.com http://www.flaglerdemocraticparty.com

Voter registration groups sue over new Florida election law

By Katie Sanders, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Tampa Bay Times In Print: Friday, December 16, 2011

TALLAHASSEE Florida's new election law attracted more legal attention Thursday with a lawsuit from a trio of civic groups that contend the new rules are too burdensome on their voter registration efforts. The groups League of Women Voters of Florida, Rock the Vote and Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund are plaintiffs in a lawsuit that asks a federal court in Tallahassee to block the registration restrictions in the elections overhaul, which is in effect in 62 of 67 counties. Attorneys argue the law is unconstitutional and violates the "motor voter" law by imposing burdensome regulations on volunteers and steep penalties for mistakes, such as not turning in voter registration applications within 48 hours. The window used to be 10 days. The League of Women Voters, which has registered voters in Florida since 1972, suspended its efforts in May when Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill, HB 1355, into law. Washington-based Rock the Vote, which seeks to register people ages 18 to 29 across the country, also will suspend registration efforts in Florida in 2012. The group registered nearly 90,000 voters in 2008, it said. "It's really huge and really tragic," said Heather Smith, Rock the Vote president. The groups also oppose a change that requires volunteers become registration agents within their organizations. Volunteers must sign an oath warning of prison time and fines, said Deirdre Macnab, League of Women Voters of Florida president. "You'd really have to be crazy to sign a form like that in order to do one hour of volunteer work," she said. The sponsor of the overhaul, Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, shrugged off the groups' assertion that the law is burdensome. "When you take voters' information from them, we need accountability for who has that information and what they're doing with it," he said. "They're simply going to be accountable for turning it in timely." The lawsuit names as defendants Secretary of State Kurt Browning, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Division of Elections director Gisela Salas. The groups' legal team includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Brennan Center for Justice of New York University law school. The Republican Legislature said it passed the measure to combat voter fraud. Opponents, including Democrats and voter advocacy groups, say Republicans engineered the law to reduce voter turnout in 2012, especially among African-Americans and college students. Thursday's lawsuit comes days after a major speech by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who warned his agency is "examining a number of changes that Florida has made to its electoral process, including changes governing third-party voter registration organizations." A pending federal court review will force Florida to hold its presidential primary in January under two separate sets of election laws: 62 counties under the new law, and five counties, including Hillsborough and Monroe, under the old one. The latter counties need federal clearance of four of

Rep. Perry Thurston ( D Plantation) file photo

[Last modified: Dec 15, 2011 06:20 PM]

St. Petersburg Times TAMPA BAY.com

A Times Editorial

Religion amendment still misleads

In Print: Friday, December 16, 2011

A circuit court judge in Tallahassee didn't go far enough this week when he temporarily removed a misleading constitutional amendment from the November 2012 ballot. Amendment 7, deceptively titled "Religious Freedom," is the Legislature's attempt to get voters to open state coffers to religious institutions. The amendment would essentially force taxpayers to support religious views they oppose the opposite of religious freedom. By not requiring a complete rewrite of the title and summary, the court abrogated its duty to ensure that voters are given fair notice of the effect of constitutional changes. During the 2011 session, the Florida Legislature passed an amendment to go before voters that would repeal the state Constitution's "no-aid" provision. For 125 years this provision has prevented government from using tax money to support religion. It is more muscular than the federal Constitution's church-state separation in that it explicitly bars taxpayer money from "directly or indirectly" aiding religion or religious institutions. But Amendment 7 would do more than just repeal the "no-aid" provision. It would prevent the state from denying taxpayer funding to a group or individual based on their religious identity or beliefs. The amendment changes the posture of Florida from a state that thoroughly protects the conscience of taxpayers, to one that is required to make funds available to religious institutions in many circumstances. Florida taxpayers could be forced to underwrite religious indoctrination and highly discriminatory employment practices, such as requirements that schools only hire Muslim teachers (or Catholics or Jews or Scientologists). This sweeping change to church-state separation isn't obvious from the amendment's title or summary. The title "Religious Freedom" inverts the true meaning. It is a denial of religious freedom to be forced to support another's religious beliefs. "Aid to Religion" or "Religious Funding" would better alert voters to the true intent of the measure. Likewise, the summary doesn't clue voters in to the main effect of the amendment, which is to demand that the state fund religious institutions even when the U.S. Constitution doesn't require it. Too bad Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis didn't agree. Lewis' ruling found only one aspect of the summary to be ambiguous: a statement that suggests the amendment would bring the state Constitution into conformance with the U.S. Constitution. Since Amendment 7 requires more state funding of religion than the U.S. Constitution does, the judge suggested a slight rewording that would cure that defect. Lewis also upheld a law that allows the state attorney general to alter the title or summary of challenged amendments without requiring legislative approval. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been given a road map by Lewis to salvage the amendment. But even with that change, the title and summary are highly misleading. A higher court should find that they should be completely rewritten or come off the ballot for good.

The Crossroads of Flagler County ( 386) 437-7500

The city of Bunnell

A picturesque town rich in history, Bunnell is the county seat for Flagler and one of the oldest communities on the east coast of Florida. Officially, incorporated as a town in 1913, and as a city in 1924. Bunnells history dates back to the 1880s. For more information visit www.bunnellcity.us or call 437-7500

The Commission meets every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month, at 7:00pm, in the Flagler County Government Services Building, Board Chambers Room.

FLORIDA CENTER FOR FISCAL AND ECONOMIC POLICY

WWW.FCFEP.ORG The State of the State of Florida March 2011

Foreclosures and Delinquent Mortgages

* Highest in the nation, total of delinquent mortgages and mortgages in foreclosure, 23.4 %

Per Capita Income Growth * 46th in the Nation,

2.2 % growth between 2009 and 2010

Food Stamp Clients

* 3,092,459, February 2011, up 530,000 since February 2010

Medicaid Clients
* 2,553,766, February 2011, up 240,000 since February 2010

Teacher Salaries
* 37th in 2009-10, 47th ( estimated ) in 2010-11

State Tax Revenue

* 43rd among the states in state tax revenue per capita. * 46th in state tax revenue as a percentage of personal income. * State taxes in Florida constitute a lower share of Floridians personal income than at any time in the last 40 years. * Hundreds of exemptions, exclusions, credits, and deductions to Floridas sales and corporate income taxes go unreviewed year after year. * The state has forgone billions of dollars in potential revenue in the last decade through the elimination of the intangibles tax paid almost entirely by the wealthy, and continues to lose hundreds of millions in intangibles tax revenue year after year.

State Tax System

* most regressive in the nation.
Cont.

FLORIDA CENTER FOR FISCAL AND ECONOMIC POLICY

WWW.FCFEP.ORG The State of the State of Florida March 2011

Number of State Employees

* 2nd -lowest in the nation in the number of state employees per 10,000 population * Lowest in the nation in state government employee payroll per resident

Education Expenditures
* 50th in per capita state government expenditures for all education * 50th in state government expenditures for all education per $ 1,000 of personal income * 47th in per capita state and local government expenditures for all education * 47th in state and local government expenditures for all education per $ 1,000 of personal Income.

Higher Education Expenditures

* 46th worst in the change in higher education appropriations per full-time equivalent student, 2005 2010 * 41st. in state and local government funding for higher education *40th in state and local government funding for higher education per $ 1,000 of personal

Income

THE MORE YOU KNOW ..

Iowa GOP Borrowing Cheneys Undisclosed Location for Caucus Ballot-Counting

Concerned about a nonexistent threat to the integrity of the caucuses, the Iowa Republican Party will move their ballot-counting operation to an undisclosed location. The state party has not yet told the campaigns exactly where the returns will be added up, only that it will be off-site from the Iowa GOPs Des Moines headquarters. The 2008 caucus results were tabulated at the state party offices, which sit just a few blocks from the state capitol. Activist groups including the Occupy movement have indicated that theyll attempt to interrupt rallies in the closing days before next Tuesdays caucuses. The AP reported today that Occupy is making plans to even attend some caucuses and vote no preference, but not disturb the voting process.

I get the press releases and have talked to a couple of the folks running the Occupy the Iowa Caucuses movement, and the idea that they have a nefarious plan to disrupt the caucuses and tamper with the votecounting process is completely misguided. What you believe about the Iowa GOPs decision can range from interpreting it as pants-wetting fear of scary hippies all the way to control of the votes to ensure no mistakes like, say, Ron Paul winning. But whatever it is, its not a legitimate response to what is planned to be peaceful protests with no bearing on the outcome. Meanwhile, the same Republicans who spent all year fretting about voter fraud, and who are shrouding their vote tabulation activities in secrecy, do not require a photo ID to vote in the caucuses they run. Despite onerous polling place Photo ID requirements now passed into law in about a dozen states where the GOP controls both the legislative and executive branches, voters will be able to cast their ballot in next Tuesdays First-in-the-Nation Republican Iowa Caucuses without bothering to show a Photo ID even though the Republican Party itself sets their own rules for voting there. Unlike most primary elections where an official state election board or agency sets the rules and runs the registration and balloting processes, the Iowa Republican Party runs its own state caucuses, determines the rules, tabulates all the votes and announces the results to the public and media themselves. They have complete control over the entire process, and yet they dont bother to ask their own voters to show a state-issued Photo ID before casting their ballot. I wonder why that would be ?

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EDUCATION

Tampa Bay Times

Look deeper than schools' letters grades
In Print: Friday, January 6, 2012

A Times Editorial

Florida's grades for public high schools are finally out this week and generating plenty of attention. But there is a lot more to school quality than the letter grade issued by the state. In this season of shopping for schools for the 2012-13 school year, parents and students would do well to look beyond the blunt instrument of a school's grade to more specific and meaningful indicators of achievement. In fact, the school grade, particularly for high schools, may give a false sense of a school's actual success. Rather than relying on a school grade as a benchmark, it's far better to drill down into the actual numbers on graduation rates, FCAT and Advanced Placement test results and the like that make up the letter grade. Those are all available at the Florida Department of Education's website. In addition, because the rules are changing from year to year, the same performance by a school may well yield different grades last year, this year and next year. The pitfall of looking just at grades is illustrated by the example of St. Petersburg's Gibbs High School. It has laudably risen from an F to B in three years because of myriad changes at the school that re-focused everyone on student achievement. Indeed, it would be easy for a casual observer to believe that a B school no longer has serious performance issues. Yet peel back a few layers of test results, and the raw statistics show that among non-magnet students last year at Gibbs, fewer than one in 10 were reading at or above grade level. That should remain cause for alarm and action, B school or no. Pinellas superintendent John Stewart correctly perceives that the public puts great stock in school grades even as he understands that it is the various statistics behind the grade, not the grade itself, that really matter. To that end, he notes the need to improve stagnant high school reading scores, which actually are a measure of student achievement. Get students reading earlier and more proficiently, and the letter grades are more likely to take care of themselves.

For better or worse, Florida has adopted the simplistic shorthand of school letter grades to draw attention to student performance. But parents and students should keep those grades in perspective. There are other more specific measures that reveal far more about how well each school is educat-

[Last modified: Jan 05, 2012 05:10 PM]

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Flagler Home & Lifestyle Show

Saturday, January 28, 2012 and Sunday, January 29, 2012 Flagler Palm Coast High School Campus 9a.m. to 4 p.m. Free Parking and Free Admission

This is a fun and exciting OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE

The Flagler County Democratic Party, (DEC) will have a booth at the Flagler Home & Lifestyle Show. The date is Saturday, January 28, 2012 and Sunday, January 29, 2012. Flagler Palm Coast High School Campus, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. We need people to man the booth. Please contact us if you can volunteer some time. Dan Parham Chair FCDEC (386) 283 - 4904

Flagler County Democratic Party Booth number _____TBA_________

Sign up to Volunteer : flaglercntydem@gmail.com Flaglerdemocraticparty.com ( 386 ) 871-0303 cell

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Flagler Democrats Celebrate

HOLIDAY PHOTOS - December 12, 2011

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FLAGLER COUNTY, DEC One Hargrove Grade, Suite 1D Palm Coast, Florida, 32164 Phone: ( 386) 283-4904 flaglercntydem@gmail.com
http://www.flaglerdemocraticparty.com

Democratic Executive Committee Dan Parham, Chairman Konnie Rea, Vice chair Connie Parham, Secretary Melba McCarty, Treasurer Melba McCarty, State Committeewoman

Working together AS ONE

CLUBS AND CAUCUS

Democratic Club
Douglas Beaven President Aynne McAvoy 1st Vice President Merrill Shapiro 2nd Vice President Roxanne Convery Recording Secretary Konnie Rea Correspondence Secretary Young Dems Veterans Caucus Ivory Johnson Treasurer Donald Hoskins, Parliamentarian

Democratic Women s Club

Courtney Chaplin President Connie Parham Secretary

NEWSLETTER STAFF
Mamie Godfrey, Editor Andrea Levy, Associate Editor Connie Parham, Associate Editor
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Your Service is Requested VOLUNTEER Your Support is Requested DONATE

The office located at One Hargrove Grade is for Fellow Democrats to keep abreast of all the political happenings within the County, State, and Federal Government. It is the intent of the Democratic Executive Committee to ensure that all information regarding the Flagler County Democratic Party is enlightening and useful to voters. We will need your help to continue advocating for all voters in Flagler County. Below are ways you can be a part of the GET OUT THE VOTE process here in Flagler County.

Yes : I will Donate : $25.00 Per Mo.

$45.00 Per Mo.

$35.00 Per Mo.

Other_______________

Yes: I will Volunteer: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Office hours are 11am to 2 pm daily. Contact the office to indicate the hours you are available. Other________________________________

We are grateful for your support. Contact : Andrea, Mamie, or Connie to discuss your participation. ( 386) 283-4904 or flaglercntydem@gmail.com
We welcome your views / comments. All stories/comments will be posted at the discretion of the Chairman and/ or Staff. This information is being sent to those parties who have requested newsletter, meeting dates and information from the Flagler County Democratic Party. Paid for by and authorized by Flagler County Democratic Party

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY / WELL WISHES January, 2012 My Friend, May you soar through life, May every sunrise and sunset, and every wind blows bring good things your way. Have a terrific birthday !
May the sun warm you and the moon restore you and may the stars light your path to feeling better soon. Have a safe and Healthy Year, 2012

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