By Tim Wendler, Chair, United Democratic Headquarters

We had a great Democratic wave this year and our United Democratic Headquarters in Pasadena did its part to support our Democratic victory. During the course of the campaign, we were visited by Senator Barbara Boxer, Treasurer Phil Angelides, Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, Board of Equalization Member and Controller-elect John Chiang, Assemblymember and Board of Equalization Member-elect Judy Chu, State Party Chair Art Torres, and County Party Chair Eric Bauman. We reelected Congressman Adam Schiff, elected our new Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, elected our new Board of Equalization Member Judy Chu, as well as six of eight statewide officeholders. Several people who were familiar with many of the headquarters throughout the state complemented us as having one of the strongest operations they had seen.

The United Democratic Headquarters brings eight Democratic Clubs together in the effort raise the necessary funds, rent a space, engage staff, identify and get out the vote: the Arroyo Democratic Club, the Democratic Club of Pasadena Foothills, the Foothill Community Democrats, the La Canada Flintridge Democratic Club, the Northeast Democratic Club, the Pasadena Young Democrats, San Gabriel Valley Democratic Women’s Club, and the South Pasadena Democratic Club. Thanks go to Karen Wingard for starting us on this path of unity in 1992.

Facility: This year, thanks to the efforts of Bill Hacket, our facility chair, with the strong support of Sally Beer, we identified a large, reasonably priced space in Old Pasadena, immediately south of our 2004 headquarters. Our soon to be new Assemblymember, Anthony Portantino, agreed to share the space and rent, and station his Campaign Manager, Catherine Blue, with us. Catherine, who was our 2004 UDH campaign coordinator, was a great resource for our headquarters. A special thanks goes to Joe Pardee who developed and posted much of our signage, and was the glue that held our headquarters together. We were open seven days a week from August 10 to November 10.

Personnel: Led by our hardworking Personnel Chair, the Rev. Inman Moore, we identified two top-notch staff members, Ben Escobedo (Campaign Coordinator) and Ben Klein (Volunteer Coordinator). Ben Escobedo brought his extensive campaign experience to bear in keeping us on track with our voter identification goals. Ben Klein made a tremendous effort in the task of volunteer recruitment, always a special challenge during a non-Presidential year. Not only were the Bens able to activate numerous star volunteers, they were able to activate La Canada (led by Elaine and Bill Hurd and Celina Lew) and South Pasadena (led by Clarice Knapp and Ellin Lieberman) precinct programs. The two Bens were supported by the positive energy of the Judy Boggs Memorial Intern, Mark Gonzalez. Mark showed special talents in supporting Oktoberfest and recruiting top name talent to our events.

Strategy: Peter Wong accepted the reins from Fred Register to lead strategy development for this year’s headquarters. We focused on contacting Democrats who are occasional voters - those that need an extra push to make sure they turnout. During the course of the UDH phoning and walking efforts, we made 7,680 live contacts of which 5,576 committed to support the Democratic ticket. During GOTV, we reconnected with those 'Yes' contacts, plus some additional likely supporters, through a mix of door hangers and phone calls. We are also running an experiment to evaluate the real impact of the Headquarters efforts on voter turnout. We also supported Congressman Adam Schiff’s efforts to win back the House by phoning into key districts in Arizona and New Mexico.

Finance/Fundraising: Of course, it takes money to make all this happen. This year, we raised close to $51,000 and spent nearly $54,000 (fundraising in 2005 allows us to finish with money remaining in the bank as a seed for 2008). The highlight in our fundraising efforts was our annual Oktoberfest which netted over $12,000, chaired by Bobbie McGowan with key support from Judy Johnson, Clarice Knapp, and Barbara Paul. And of course, we are in great debt to our Treasurer, Varouj Jinbachian, our Assistant Treasurer, George Van Alstine, and our Finance Chair, Jeanette Mann, for keeping track of our funds and filing the appropriate, complicated federal and state campaign finance reports.

Database/Technology: Increasingly, today’s campaigns rely extensively on technology and your United Democratic Headquarters was at the leading edge. Our technology chair, Asa Hopkins, has developed a new software that not only tracks our volunteers and contributors, but allows us to prepare campaign finance reports without the double and triple entry of data that we experienced during the 2004 campaign. This should soon be spreading to headquarters throughout the state. Thanks to our database chair, Megan Jones, we kept careful track of our volunteers and contributors to continue to strengthen the foundation of our UDH. Elaine Hurd keeps us in touch with our occasional email newsletters.

George W. Bush has given us an opportunity by redefining the Republican party as ineffectual on national defense, fiscally irresponsible (if not corrupt), reckless with the global environment and heedless of our civil rights. It is now up to us to define a new approach, one that will educate our children and keep them safe and healthy for the future.