Cerritos Republican Club News
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January thru June 2012
Presidential Primary Election Results (as of June 22 14:06)
| U.S. Representative - 38th District (top 2 nominated) | |
| Linda Sanchez (DEM) | 32,175 (56.60%) |
| Ben Campos (REP) CRC member | 12,458 (21.92%) |
| Jorge Robles (REP) CRC member | 12,213 (21.48%) |
| State Assembly Member - 57th District (top 2 nominated) | |
| Noel Jaimes (REP) CRC member | 16,931 (43.74%) |
| Ian Calderon (DEM) | 11,051 (28.55%) |
| Rudy Bermudez (DEM) | 10,725 (27.71%) |
| State Assembly Member - 58th District (top 2 nominated) | |
| Patricia Kotze-Ramos (REP) CRC member | 8,968 (28.11%) |
| Cristina Garcia (DEM) | 8,475 (26.56%) |
| Tom Calderon (DEM) | 7,256 (22.74%) |
| Luis Marquez (DEM) | 3,930 (12.32%) |
| Daniel Crespo (DEM) | 2,085 (6.53%) |
| Sultan Ahmad (DEM) | 1,192 (3.74%) |
| Los Angeles County Supervisor of 4th District (unopposed) | |
| Don Knabe CRC member | 134,498 (100%) |
| Central Basin Water Board of Directors Division 5 (top 1 win) | |
| Phillip Hawkins CRC member | 9,854 (41.84%) |
| Tony Mendoza | 8,761 (37.20%) |
| Jay Gray | 4,939 (20.97%) |
| Member Republican Central Committee 58th District (top 7 win) | |
| Allen Wood CRC member | 4,274 (14.83%) |
| Grace Hu CRC member | 4,217 (14.63%) |
| Rick Royse CRC member | 3,645 (12.65%) |
| Matt Kauble CRC member | 3,491 (12.11%) |
| Paul Kim | 2,864 (9.94%) |
| Dan Cristea | 2,765 (9.59%) |
| Sergio Estevez | 2,707 (9.39%) |
| Jo Marie Johnson | 2,652 (9.20%) |
| Haridas Terhanian | 2,210 (7.67%) |
CRC General Meeting June 12, 2012
Professor John Eastman of Chapman University School of Law was the guest speaker. He reminded us that June 12 is the 25th anniversary of the day that President Ronald Reagan was in Berlin, Germany, when he made that speech with a simple but cogent message of "...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" That was the beginning of the thawing of the Cold War.
Dr. Eastman pondered the issue of habeas corpus for the terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Do they have that right? Since the Executive Branch declared war on terrorist, do prisoners of war have the right to writ of habeas corpus? The Bush Administration had asserted that they don't because they were detainees of a war. The Supreme Court has ruled otherwise and over two hundred cases involving Guantanamo Bay detainees will have to be heard. What a mess!
Professor Eastman then talked about the case of Affordable Care (aka Healthcare) Act which comprises over 2700 pages. He talked about the testimony of the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli who appeared to be nervous on the first day of testimony. He was asked if it were a tax, because the Supreme Court could not question the constitutionality of a tax. President Obama had already claimed that it was not a tax, which was Mr. Verrilli's response. The Executive Branch did not want it to be known as a tax.
On the second day the Solicitor General said the government was exercising its taxing power. But, wait, on the first day it was claimed that it was not a tax. One of the justices asked whether Government was limited in what it can do. Was there anything that Congress couldn't do in this case? If this were the case, then the Court could rule that this Act was constitutional. Mr. Verrilli didn't want to admit that Congress can do anything it wanted. Justice Soto said that the Federal Government can do anything it wanted to do. Justice Scalia questioned whether the Government could require that everyone have health insurance. He used an analogy that the Government might want to require everyone to have a cell phone. Did this make sense that Government can tell you what you must do? Justice Kennedy said that when Government knows better, then it is a despotic government. We would then lose our liberty.
As Professor Eastman sees it, the whole case will depend on how Justice Kennedy goes. He is the one who hasn't revealed which way he will vote.
John then talked about the Immigration bill SB1070 in Arizona. He pointed out that Congress has power over immigration. In fact, federal law says that an immigrant must carry his/her immigration paper. The Federal government is challenging the Arizona law because it believes that the Federal government has sole responsibility to check on immigration status of immigrants. However, Arizona sees that the Federal government doesn't carry out this responsibility. Therefore Arizona has to do it in order to protect its citizens from illegal immigrants who are committing crimes in Arizona.
In the Q&A section, Professor Eastman, who had clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, was asked why Justice Thomas didn't seem to speak much? His response was that there are two unspoken rules. One is that junior Justices usually speak after the senior Justices. Another is that no one should be interrupted. The latter seems to have been broken more often lately. Anyway, even though Justice Thomas is no longer a junior Justice, by the time his turn comes around, he usually observes that everything that needed to be discussed has already been discussed. On rare occasions, he does bring out a point that was missed by the other Justices. John has a high regard for Justice Thomas.
When asked whether Congress would be covered by the Healthcare Act, Professor Eastman replied that he thought that Congress would find a way out of it.
All in all, Dr. Eastman was a very engaging and entertaining speaker. The audience really appreciated his talk.
Janice Dawson announced the upcoming Let Freedom Ring celebration on July 4 and that the Club was going to run a food booth. Offerings will be hot dogs, chips, sodas, and ice cream. She asked for more volunteers to man the booth from 4 to 9 p.m.
She also announced the annual barbecue meeting on July 10 at Cerritos Park East Shelter #1. The guest speaker will be newly re-elected Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. He is always informative about what is happening in our county.
Memorial Day Celebration May 28, 2012
At the Memorial Day Celebration, four CRC members were on the stage. Mayor Jim Edwards, Mayor pro tem Bruce Barrows, Council Member Carol Chen, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. The Ceremony was concluded with the honoring of Alex Martinez, a 1st CEB who was killed in action in Afghanistan on April 5.
CRC General Meeting May 8, 2012
After Matt Kauble called the May General Meeting to order, a prayer was said, and the pledge of allegiance was made. Matt then invited Ben Campos to speak about his candidacy for U.S. Representative in the 38th District. Ben related how hard the campaign has been, that he needed more financial support, and that he had yard signs available for anyone who could help by displaying one.
Ben was followed by Phil Hawkins who talked about his campaign for re-election to the Central Basin Municipal Water District. There was a campaign ad in the Los Cerritos Community News smearing him with false accusations. Phil also mentioned that on May 24 at the "Coffee with Jerry (Bernstein)" event, the Central Basin Municipal Water District candidates have been invited for a candidates forum. He asked that supporters attend that meeting at the Off Street Cafe across from Gahr High School.
Then the guest speaker Lynn Haeuter, Chairperson of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County (RPLAC), took the podium. She talked about her early interest in Republican ideals, involvement in George Bush's campaign, being a member of the College Republicans at Baylor University where Lynn was interested in Austrian economics, and her activities with Republican groups in the Santa Clarita Valley which led to her being asked to step up to the Chair of RPLAC. She works for 19th District State Senator Tony Strickland and, just like all other members of RPLAC, is a volunteer in that organization.
Lynn then talked about her dream "Paint It Red" campaign. Although Los Angeles County has over a million Republicans, there are over two million Democrats. We are literally outnumbered two to one. How did this come about? Democrats have been pouring money into voter registration while Republicans have been supporting candidates financially. Because Republicans think independently, our resources are spread out, sometimes for opposing candidates. We need to concentrate on voter registration. If we had increased our registration by a mere three percent in Los Angeles County, Republicans could have won several close elections that were lost in the last election. Then we could have painted LA County red!
She encourages Republicans to switch to become Permanent Absentee Voters (PAVs) to facilitate voting in all elections. In the last election about 89 percent of PAVs voted! She advocates telling independents, undecideds, and on-the-fence Democrats about Republican ideals and goals. Republican Abraham Lincoln was President when slavery ended. Republican Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement. We have to convey to them these long standing Republican ideals and goals. We need to target potential Asian and Hispanic voters to register them as Republicans, especially the new citizens (3,000 to 12,000 new citizens at each naturalization ceremony). Along this line, she listed four parts of the mission:
- Identify Republican leaning citizens
- Communicate with these people about Republican ideals and goals
- Register them, preferably as PAVs
- Turn them out to vote
After Lynn's talk, there was a question and answer period.
CRC General Meeting April 10, 2012
At the April General Meeting the guest speaker was Kanna Vancheswaran who is the Assistant City Engineer who manages the Engineering Division of the Cerritos Public Works Department. His talk on the "Cerritos Public Works Department - Providing Services in Challenging Times" began with a description of the four divisions of the Department:
- Engineering Division which performs utility research, monitors and oversees public rights of way, performs surveys and inspections, provides traffic engineering and development engineering services, reviews ADA requirements, and manages capital improvement programs.
- Environmental Services Division which manages custodial services, solid waste collection (recycling, source reduction, and household hazardous waste), street sweeping, and storm water drainage.
- Parks/Trees Division which is responsible for the landscaping of 205 acres of parks and facilities, care of over 30 thousand trees, and care of 80 acres of medians, parkways, and freeway buffers.
- General Maintenance Division which maintains 137 miles of streets, 240 miles of sidewalks, the curbs and gutters of all City facilities, over 2 thousand street name signs, and the City's fleet vehicles.
Next Kanna spoke about the challenges facing the Public Works Department. The economic downturn has already reduced the funding available. The recent elimination of the Redevelopment Agency will cause another major loss of funds. Unfunded mandates will impact the future; he mentioned new requirements on reflective signs in 2014. Environmental legislation to keep ocean water clean will impose new requirements on our drainage runoff. Deferred maintenance will eventually have to be faced.
So what has been and will be done to meet these challenges?
- The City is pursuing more grant funding for operations and maintenance activities.
- We have been and are continuing to explore new technologies such as solar and compressed natural gas (CNG). With matching federal funding, the installation of solar photovoltaic systems on the roofs of the two reservoirs at the City Corporate yard was completed in January 2012. The electricity generated will power not only the Corporate facilities but also a water pump.
- The City is creating partnerships to maximize benefits. For example, with ABCUSD.
- The City continues to seek legislation that will benefit City interests.
- We are targeting funding opportunities for Capital Investment projects. He mentioned the $17 million Tiger project for improving the Del Amo Boulevard bridge, the Safe Route to School Program which can be tapped for installing traffic control devices at crosswalks and improving bikeways, and the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy for preserving urban open space and habitat in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Then Mr. Vancheswaran opened the floor for questions. There were a number of questions about photo enforced intersections, school safety, tree maintenance, signage at specific locations, street maintenance, and CNG vs gasoline powered vehicles.
CRC General Meeting March 13, 2012
At the March General Meeting the guest speaker was Gary Aminoff who is the First Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. He spoke about how Republicans have allowed the Democrats to "control the narrative." Democrats are devious, manipulative, and disruptive. They always try to get us off focus from the topic. They distract us. They provoke us. Democrats are uniform and think alike. They follow the leader. They are not civil, will not engage in debate, and are emotional. Democrats have been defining who we are for years. They put us on the defensive. Whereas Republicans are pensive and willing to debate the pros and cons of issues. This leads to divisiveness among the GOP. Democrats also attack our beliefs and lead us to question those beliefs.
What can we do? We have to set the narrative. Don't allow them to get us out of focus. We must study the issues, be firm in our beliefs, and stay focussed. We must find leaders who will stand on integrity and principle. They must be willing to stand up for Republican beliefs. Republicans are for liberty. We are for free enterprise and limited government. In the last election 60% of registered Republicans in Los Angeles County did not vote. We must wake up the registered Republicans by meeting them and showing them that they are not alone. We can get the word out through talk radio hosts, blogs, and Facebook.
Gary then addressed how education in our schools is destroying the American way of life. Our children are being taught that equality is good. Free enterprise is bad. Wealthy people are selfish. Capitalism is bad. This is coming down from government at the federal and state level. Government should be out of our schools. Parents and teachers should control the curriculum at the local level. Republicans must be at the forefront of education. We need to complain to local elected officials, such as school board members.
Gary then concluded with a question and answer period which elicited several pertinent questions and comments from the membership.
After the Q&A, Lisa Ebiner Gavit, a USC freshman, spoke about her support of and beliefs in Rick Santorum in his quest for the Republican nomination for Presidency. Bill Christenson spoke on behalf of Long Beach City Councilman Gary DeLong who is a candidate for Congressional District 47. CRC member Ben Campos spoke about his candidacy for Congressional District 38 and Noel Jaimes spoke about his candidacy for State Assembly District 57. Matt Kauble spoke on behalf of Patricia Kotze-Ramos in her bid for State Assembly District 58. Finally long-time Cerritos resident and business owner George Ray spoke about his early announcement for Cerritos City Council member and how he has given to his employees a stake in his very successful company.
Voter Registration Booth February 25, 2012
On February 25 we had a voter registration booth at the Los Cerritos Mall. Thanks to Janice Dawson, Candy Yee, Jim Yee, Louise Griffith, Randy Carson, Matt Kauble, and Joan Pylman for volunteering for this important event.
We hope to have your help so that we can do this again in April, if not sooner.
CRC General Meeting February 14, 2012
At the February General Meeting Bruce Barrows talked about the 2012-2035 Regional Transportation Plan of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). Because the population in the SCAG counties of Ventura, Los Angeles, 
Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Imperial is still expected to grow from 2008 to 2035, the Plan is that $525 billion must be invested in transportation to assure that people and goods can be moved at an acceptable speed.
Many potential transportation projects have been envisioned, and, because funding will not be available for all of them, the public will have to help decide which transportation projects are more important to proceed with. We should be aware of what is coming down the line.
CRC General Meeting January 10, 2012
At the January General Meeting we had two guest speakers: Central Basin Municipal Water District (CBMWD) Director Phil Hawkins and Cerritos Mayor Carol Chen.
Phil Hawkins talked about various water facts and issues. The CBMWD serves over 2 million people in 24 cities. Colorado River water which comes to the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California from Parker Dam near Lake Havasu, Arizona, via the Colorado Aqueduct is a major source of our water. The California State Water Project created theCalifornia Aqueduct which brings water from the Feather River north of the Bay area to the MWD, but our allotment may be reduced in favor of the increasing water needs of the Bay area. Currently, there is adequate water stored in reservoirs and snow packs to get us through a drought this summer. A reduction from the State Water Project to meet the needs of northern California will become a major problem if we don't have a good rainy season later this year.
CBMWD has initiated efforts to harness sunlight to produce electricity in the deserts of California. However, Southern California Edison has not approved the connection of the photovoltaic power plants to the electrical grid, thus losing the capability of producing vast quantities of electricity. CBMWD is striving to get that approval.
Carol Chen talked about the disappointing California Supreme Court decision in December to uphold State law that was passed last summer to abolish redevelopment agencies. Cerritos, like over 400 other cities, used redevelopment to fund projects such as the Cerritos Sheriff's Station/Community Safety Center; the Cerritos Senior Center; gyms at Cerritos High School, Gahr High School, and Whitney High School; Heritage Park Play Island; Liberty Park; the Cerritos Park East Community Center; and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. 
These projects created jobs and vitalized the local economy. Abolishing redevelopment agencies would produce a catastrophic financial impact on Cerritos.
Ms. Chen pointed out that Cerritos had joined nine other cities to challenge the constitutionality of the decision. (Editor's note: the California Supreme Court ruled against this challenge on January 27.)