PROGRESSIVE E-BOARD  COALITION
DNC CANDIDATE  QUESTIONNAIRE



1.         Are  you an Incumbent DNC Member?  Not an  incumbent

2.         If  you are not an incumbent, what have you done to address the
issues enumerated 
above?  
a.         Ending the US occupation of Iraq.  
Have written and called elected officials to let them know I am opposed  to
the occupation.  Have urged  others to do the same via my a-mail network. Have
met with my Congresswoman  
b.         Eliminating Poverty
Have worked on community food drives and helped serve meals on  holidays
c.         Universal Single-Payer Health Care
I have been involved in Universal Single-Payer Health Care issue  since 1997
when I joined the board of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political  Comm.  It was
prior to the time  that bills supporting this effort had been introduced by
Sheila Kuehl in  the legislature.
Universal Health care has been a passion of mine for as long as I can 
remember.  I have always felt that  all people should be able to obtain affordable
and good health care - more as a  right than a privilege.  When Jackie  Speier
introduced SB 265 in early 1999, I called her office and got involved  right
away.  This was of particular  interest to me because I retired in 1998 before
I was 60, so I was not eligible  for California Cobra and the insurance
policies for persons with a catastrophic  disease were few and very expensive.  I
was diagnosed with breast cancer in both 1991 and 1997, so this was  quite
important to me.  My COBRA  payments when I retired were $125/month for a great
policy.  When I had to buy my own policy, the  cost was $300+/month and it was
quite limited.  I testified (first time I had ever done  something like this) in
favor of the bill before the Senate Comm. on Insurance  and the Assembly
Health Comm.  The  bill passed and the rates were set in the $425 range, but by
the time I  qualified for Medicare at the end of 2005, the premiums were
$928/month and had  been that high for quite some time.
I served on our County Human Services Commission for 6 years and was 
involved in allocating monies to non-profits in our county, many of which dealt  with
heath issues.  Currently I  serve on the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Health
Grant Making Committee, where we  focus totally on allocation of funds to area
non-profits related to  health.
d.         Election Integrity
Have spoken with our Registrar of Voters on many occasions and am happy  to
report that he is quite progressive and is in favor of a “paper  trail.”
e.         Preventing a US attack on Iran
Have signed petitions and written to my elected  officials.
f.          Preserving a free and open Internet
I fully support this, but have done anything overtly to ensure  this.
g.         Impeaching or Indicting Bush and Cheney
I initially supported Impeachment, but it became clear that the White  House
would not comply to Congressional requests for records, etc., so the  Congress
would be unable to proceed.  I totally support indictments if their illegal
acts could be proved.  For those of us who watched the  Watergate Hearings
every night until 2 a.m., this episode in our history is much  worse!
h.         Redirecting California’s resources to support education, not 
incarceration.
I have long supported this, but have done anything overtly to bring it  about
i.          Protecting LGBT Rights and Promoting Marriage  Equality
I have actively campaigned all propositions and legislation aimed at 
minimizing or eliminating these rights as I have for propositions and  legislation
aimed at protecting and enhancing these  rights.
k.         Promoting public financing of elections
I feel strongly that the only way we will get away from the “swift  boating,”
and other such “weapons” used to demean candidates is to have publicly 
financed elections at all levels!  Clean money is the only way to go and I have
supported every effort.  I still can’t believe that our party  refused to back
the proposition sponsored by the Nurses to work toward clean  money - allowing
a PAC to dictate to our delegates, i.e., CTA, was  shameful!
l.          I strongly oppose the death penalty.
m.        We  definitely need to develop alternative energy sources to stop
our dependency of  foreign oil.  Our party needs to  work harder with our
elected officials to meet this goal.  

n.         One area that is not mentioned is media reform.  I have been
involved peripherally having  attended the Media Reform Conference several years
ago and again this year.  As many know, our community has been at  war with our
local newspaper over the firing of employees in an unjust  manner.
2.         If you had been in Congress, how would you have voted for the most
recent  178 billion dollar war package?
I would have voted against it.  It is absolutely a disgrace that we spend
billions of
dollars on a war that should never have been waged while the veterans who 
fought in 
it don’t get proper  medical care.  This money should be  allocated to
eliminating 
hunger and poverty in America,  improving educational facilities and other 
infrastructure, making healthcare  available to everyone, etc.  The sooner we

withdraw, the better!            




3.                  How have you used  your activism or Party involvement to
challenge the leadership’s support for war  funding.



Happily, our Congresswoman, Lois Capps, has been against the war since  the
beginning and I have supported her as she is sometimes criticized by our  local
paper. Again, I use e-mails to individuals and various list-serves to  inform
people and urge them to action.
4          Have you ever supported an insurgent primary candidate or someone
who is  challenging an incumbent on the issues?
I coordinated both the Bradley and Dean campaigns in Santa Barbara, but  have
never had the opportunity to do so on a more local level until Marcy 
Winograd ran against Jane Harmon.  I  had already been writing to Congresswoman
Harman and was delighted to support  Marcy!
5.         Why should progressives on the CDP E-Board vote for you as a DNC 
delegate?
As someone who sees herself along the lines of, “Some people see things  and
ask why, other people see things and ask why not?” I feel that I am just  what
they are looking for!   As  a member of the SB County Democratic       
Central  Committee (3 different times - as an appointed member for an elected, as 
President of Democratic Women and currently as an elected representative) I
have  always questioned the “rules which seem to come down from on high.”  As a
consequence, I have gotten into  trouble at times, one of the reasons I
decided to run as a Delegate from AD  35.  As a result of my (and others’) 
activism and speaking out on issues I believe to be unfair or not in our party’s 
interest, i.e., the manner in which caucuses were held, and the folly in 
supporting Prop. 93, etc, I see that things are changing within our party.  
As President of Democratic Women of Santa  Barbara County for 2 ½ years, I
brought the membership from 70 to 500 during my  tenure.  Dem Women became a
player  in our community once again and we took strong positions on legislation
and  propositions.  I spoke before City  Council, the Board of Supervisors and
at press conferences to state the case for  the cause we were supporting (or
opposed to).  My e-mail list has proven to be an  amazing tool to energize
folks in Santa Barbara to speak out on the issues - I  just make it easy for them.
A major challenge for me was to serve as  Program Co-Chair of the 2006 CDC
Convention, held in Santa Clara.  We totally reorganized the program,  focusing
on participatory general sessions and 24 different workshops in which 
attendees could participate.  In  addition, we provided the only live debate between
the Democratic  candidates for lt. governor.  We  also had a round table
discussion in which most of the candidates for statewide  office participated (all
were invited.)
It is really interesting.  I have always considered myself to be a  liberal
and unlike many folks as they get older, I have become even more  so!  Process
and transparency are  extremely important to me.  During  the time I have
served on our local central comm. and since I have been a member  of the CDP
Central Comm., I have seen many instances where transparency and  process have not
been present and am pleased to say that I, along with  many, many other
delegates have done a great deal to begin along the path to see  that these
philosophies are a part of the CA Dem.  Party.  I bring the same concerns to the  DNC.
When I first ran to be a  delegate from the 35th AD, I did it on the
platform of “bringing the  people to the party and bringing the party to the
people.”
  If elected to the DNC, I will certainly  work to make this happen on the
national level as well!
6.         Do your think we should have super delegates?  Why or why not?
As for super delegates, I would divide this into two parts.  For those who
have been elected to  office, both nationally and statewide, I believe that they
should definitely be  in a separate category from individuals who may wish to
involve themselves in  party activities in a meaningful way and who are
elected locally.  That is the way it is done now with  respect to the electeds.. 
What I  don’t understand is why members of Congress run to be DNC delegates
when they  could easily fall under the “super delegate” category.  Elected
officials should not take the  place of ordinary citizens.
As for “appointed” super delegates, I am  opposed to this practice.  It is 
very subjective and should not be continued.  It appears that the Chair of the
CDP  appoints people as super delegates.  What criteria is used?  Can  anyone
apply to be appointed by the Chair?  Do other “higher ups” have the ability
to appoint?  If elected to the DNC, I will work  tirelessly to change this
system so that more grassroots activists have the  opportunity to participate.



7.                  Are you running on a  slate with other candidates?
I am not running on a slate although I am supported by other progressive 
candidates - some openly and some quietly and behind the  scenes.
8.         What experience has prepared you to run as a DNC  member?
In addition to the experience stated above,  I also served on the Area Agency
Advisory Committee (Santa Barbara and SLO  Counties)  for 3 years where we 
dealt with a variety of issues involving seniors.  We tried to be very
proactive and some  of our programs were quite successful!
However, serving as a member of the State  Central Committee for almost 4
years and on the Organizational Development  Committee for almost two years has
been the best teacher!  I think I am a good listener, have been  successful in
bringing divergent views together and I look at the big picture,  rather than
just the present.  I  think that is extremely necessary if we are to move our
party along in the  21st century.
9.         On which committee(s) would you like to serve and what are your
personal  goals for each committee?
Believe it or not, I have been unable to find the various committees on  the
DNC website!  I know there is a  committee designed to work with rural areas
of our country because Chris  Stampolis is on it.  I would think  they would
have something like our organizational development committee and I  feel I could
be productive on either.  However, I know that Rules and Bylaws is not the
committee for me!  I am really committed to the 50 state  strategy and have seen
what has happened since it has been implemented.  It appears that Senator
Obama saw this  as well and that is one of the reasons we are hearing that AZ,
CO, and NM are  definitely in play for Democrats.  I  am also committed to
developing a plan that would help grassroots organizations  find potential
candidates at all levels and give them excellent training so that  they will be better
prepared for the campaign and election process.  
I believe there is a  committee that works on scheduling the primaries and if
so, I would like to  serve on it.  While this year’s  primary season was
exciting, it did much to cause our party to become  divided.  Perhaps it had to do
with  the two candidates, but more importantly I believe that the schedule
must be  changed.  I know that the party  attempted to bring in more diversity
by scheduling both SC and NV earlier, but  then putting so many primaries on
Feb. 5th, did a disservice to the  voters in our party since the candidates
really did not have time to campaign in  so many of the states.  My personal 
solution would be to have regional primaries, rotating among the regions every 
cycle.  We need to ensure that  diversity in both voters and state size be
represented in every region.  Further, I am not one who believes that  IA and NH
should be first all the time.  They certainly are not representative of the
voters who comprise the  Democratic Party.  Lastly, the rules  need to be clear:
if a state has an early primary, against the rules, what will  happen to them
so we don’t have to witness what happened last week in the Rules  Committee. 
It was great that the  meeting was open to the public and the media, but the 3
hour lunch in which the  horse trading took place, made me think of all the
back room deals in the good  old days!  We need to improve our  processes so
they are transparent!
Thank you very much for the opportunity to  share my views.
Barbie Deutsch, aka, Blue’s  Mom