Alisa moore
The Pebblecreek Democratic club veterans were honored at the club’s November meeting with a special thank you applause from the members, and red, white, and blue decorations, military music, and cake. A reading by veteran Chuck Veltri, club vice president, of “I am a veteran,” (authored by Andrea Christensen) Brett further documented the members’ commitment to and pride in our military forces. As the accompanying slide show noted in a quote from Elmer Davis, “This will remain the land of the free only as long as it is the home of the brave.”
Our first speaker was deedra abboud, vice chair of the Arizona Democratic party and 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate. Born in Arkansas, she lives in Scottsdale. A licensed Arizona attorney, she earned her juris doctor from Summit School of Law. Deedra discussed our November 2019 election successes in Virginia and Kentucky, and noted that nearly 100 LGBTQ and 26 Muslim candidates were victorious nationally in their elections. Emphasizing the need for volunteers in the upcoming election year, she stressed the Democratic party’s commitment to inclusion and the need to build a grass-roots force to develop and support ‘down-ticket’ candidates, including those interested in serving on local school boards and running for state legislative seats.
Ryan Tait, candidate for Maricopa county attorney, also spoke, underlining the need for that office to engage fairly with those charged with crimes, focus on rehabilitation, and save the taxpayers’ money all while still protecting the community. After completing UCLA law school, he began his career as a prosecutor in the Maricopa county attorney’s office, where he prosecuted in the pretrial, juvenile, adult, and major crimes trial bureaus. As a major crimes prosecutor, Ryan took more cases to trial and boasted a higher trial success rate than any other attorney in his bureau. He noted the failure of mass incarceration without addressing poverty and addiction issues, saying he is determined “to fix our broken criminal justice system from the inside out.” Learn more about Mr. Tait at taitforcountyattorney.com.
Throughout the meeting, Irene Arango was registering voters and signing up people interested in learning how to register voters and participate in other campaign activities. Club treasurer John Moore reported that the club is just under 300 members and that the treasury is in good standing. Upcoming events reported by social chair jan race include the weekly Saturday breakfasts, the monthly men’s breakfast and women’s luncheons, the Mexican train games, and the upcoming Winter Wonderland Dinner/Dance on Dec. 8, The trip to the Herberger-Kax theater to see when Douglass met Lincoln and the Mardi Gras Dinner/Dance in February. As always, there’s a lot going on!
The final 2019 club meeting is dec. 4 At Tuscany Falls ballroom. The social hour starts at 6 p.m. And the meeting at 7 p.m. For more information and an application to join, please visit www.pcdemclub.org.