On Tuesday, more than 30 members of a coalition of Northern California Indivisible groups (including Indivisible East Bay) met with Senator Padilla’s Deputy State Director, Daniel Chen, and Field Representative, Theresa Nevins.
The virtual meeting lasted a bit over 30 minutes. It was led by Tom Benthin (of Indivisible Sonoma County), Mary Morgan (of Indivisible West Marin) and Liliana Soroceanu (of Indivisible San Francisco). Ted Landau was the lead representative from Indivisible East Bay.
During the meeting, Indivisible members (primarily Tom and Mary) outlined our concerns and presented Daniel with a list of asks. The central theme was that we want the Senator to “fight back, without regard to cost or obstacle; to demonstrate, in his actions, intensity of purpose; and to oppose all Republican efforts without compromise.” We want the Senator to use all procedural methods available to delay or disrupt the Senate. And we would like him to take a leadership role in speaking out to the public — sending a clear message about the threat to democracy we now face.
Daniel’s response to all of this was to be supportive of our efforts and to assure us that our concerns and asks would be delivered to the Senator.
Beyond that, however, Daniel offered very little that was concrete. He could not even tell us with certainty whether or not Padilla would vote no on the upcoming CR — hoping to use a filibuster to prevent passage of the bill. [The good news here is that, the day after the meeting, the press reported that Padilla does indeed intend to vote no.] Overall, it was a disappointing and sometimes frustrating meeting — but with signs of encouragement that better meetings are yet to come. In the end, Senator Padilla is clearly an ally and has repeatedly denounced Trump and the actions of his administration.
If you would like to take a deeper dive into what took place at the meeting, click here to read the detailed notes.
