Twin Falls Democrats

September 2011

 

Redistricting hearings

The Commission did not adopt a map. The matter went to the Idaho Supreme Court who said start again and there is an opportunity to defend the 2002 map. A new commission is in the works, and the state party is assembling a team to discuss the 2002 map.  The Republicans have already come out and said that the redistricting system is broken and should go back to the legislature. It is interesting to note that all attempts to redistrict have gone to court since the 1960s-including  three that the legislature drew up.

Three of ten voters in Twin Falls county vote for Democrats.  State wide, thirty-seven percent of Idaho voters voted for President Obama. Yet, only 20% of legislative seats are Democrats.  That is why we are grateful to have a commission and have the opportunity to defend Democratic communities of interest.

-  Here is a link to a Idaho redistricting history by Gary Moncrief of Boise State University.

http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/redistricting/meetings/redistricting_0607_moncrief.pdf

 

The Twin Falls County Fair was a great success. 

Thanks to all of you who worked in the booth.  The CSI and BSU Democrats covered Friday night and all day Saturday.  Thanks to Bob and Linda Sojka for going above and beyond. The response was very positive, more so than any year I have worked. And we have many more people who have signed up to be on our mailing list. Thanks to Bob and Barb Powers who have put a beautiful booth together for us.  We had a lot of compliments on the appearance of the booth.

Twin Falls County Democrats central committee meeting is September 15^th, River Rock Café at 7:00. Shawn Barigar will be with us after the business meeting.

This is a general business meeting. We will be discussing the city council candidates, and the recruiting of legislative candidates. You are welcome to attend if you support the Democratic Party. Come and meet like minded people. At 8:00, Shawn Barigar, candidate for city council, will be available for meet and greet.

 

 Tell us why you are a Democrat, and win a great prize (to be determined).  Twenty-seven words, 9 seconds, 3 ideas.  Bob Sojka has the lead in entries.

October 5^th is a wine tasting for Twin Falls Democrats at the Rock Creek Restaurant.  

 

October 28-30^th in Sun Valley.

Blaine County will be hosting a training and regional Democratic meeting.  Please mark your calendar now!!!

Presidential caucus is April 14^th, 2012.

 At the caucus, we elect representatives to go to the state convention, from the state convention we elect representatives to go to the national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina  the week of September 3, 2012.

Outrageinidaho.com links to the news stories about education.

Twin Falls County Democrats are funded by donations from local Democrats. If you are able to make a monthly donation to Twin Falls Democrats, please contact Etha Carruthers at  eccharliebrown@hotmail.com.

 

First Wednesday of each month, Liberally Living meets at 7:00 pm at the Rock Creek Restaurant.

 

Idaho

 

Bill Referendums-
Under Senate Bill 1108, your child's teacher can be fired at any time, for any reason, without a fair hearing. If enrollment declines in the fall, teachers can be laid off weeks after a school year starts. Idaho educators no longer have a say over such issues as class sizes, lesson planning, and classroom health and safety issues.  Senate Bill 1108 ends four decades of productive collaboration between teachers and their school districts.

Senate Bill 1110 gives teachers bonus pay for test scores (and for taking hard-to-fill jobs and assuming leadership roles).  The Idaho Education Association has agreed to merit pay. Unfortunately, it is a mandate with no funding, amid the third straight year of budget cuts to our schools, and at the same time Tom Luna ordered new spending on classroom technology and online classes. This bill could ultimately mean that one in four Idaho teaching jobs will be lost over the next few years as Tom Luna continues to push his online course and "mobile computing device" mandates.

Senate Bill 1184 essentially trades teachers for technology-computing devices for every 9^th grader. It ties the hands of local school boards, forcing trustees to fund these mandates by increasing class sizes, cutting pay for teachers and other school employees, shortening the school year, eliminating extracurricular activities, or all of the above. And while lawmakers say they're holding the line on taxes, they're really just forcing local school boards to ask Idaho families to dig deeper for our schools.

 

In 2012 these laws will be on the ballot. A majority of no votes would repeal the bills. 

_______________________________________

 

Deborah Silver

Twin Falls County Democratic Chairwoman

2188 Addison Ave. East

Twin Falls, ID 83301

phone 208-420-1663

 

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