Dear Santee and Lakeside Democrats,

Welcome to the Santee Democratic Club web site. The Santee Democratic Club was as old as Santee itself. Both were founded in 1980.
1980 was also the year that Duncan Hunter rode Ronald Reagan’s coat tails to a victory over the late great Lionel Van Deerlin for a congressional seat he held until his son replaced him three years ago.

The Santee Democratic Club was active through some very historic political times; born at the beginning of the “Reagan Revolution” Santee Democrats were on the front lines as some Democrats fell for the Reagan Campaign’s “Southern Strategy.” Through the end of the 20th Century Santee and other east county Democrats were able to maintain some representation in local government and the statehouse. Times have changed and our communities and districts have reddened. As of this writing in August 2011, the new Redistricting Commission’s districts have cemented these changes in Santee and El Cajon for another decade.

These changes are the great challenge for east county Democrats in the 21st Century. As the Santee Club members voted to at least temporarily dissolve our club, we were determined to continue our efforts in voter registration, voter outreach and Getting Out The Vote through the San Diego County Democratic Party’s Go Team. Santee’s GO-Team Community Coordinator is Barney McEntire. Barney can be reached at (619) 449-5831 or (619) 665-5831. Please give him a call if you’d like to help.

As you can see from some of the photos on this site, our collaboration with the other two east county clubs, the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club and the East County Democratic Club, have combined to book some very interesting speakers, from Jeremy Scahill to John Dean. We have also increased our presence in parades and festivals; let’s keep volunteering to walk proudly in parades and register voters at event booths.

Santee Club member and former City Council candidate Janet Enright and Barney McEntire are in discussions with the La Mesa Foothills Club to form a subcommittee for communities like Santee, possibly headed by a regional Vice President. I recommend anyone interested in Democratic politics to attend a LMFDC meeting on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 PM at the La Mesa Community Center on Memorial Drive in La Mesa. Visit lmfdc.sddem.org for more information. La Mesa is now blue for a reason; let’s follow their lead and register and turn out as many Democrats as possible in 2012.

Please stay active through the year. In 2012 we will re-visit how we organize ourselves for a very important election year.

All the best,

Patrick Hurley



 

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