October 13, 1999

Truman to Clinton, it's been a Pacifica institution

The Pacifica Democrats, a club which is eight years older than the city, on October 23rd will be celebrating an event that is unique in San Mateo County history and may be unique in northern California political history. Very few political clubs survive to fifty years of age. The Pacifica Democrats are still going strong, fifty years after its founding as the Coastside Democratic Forum in 1949 by Edna Laurel Calhan. Mrs. Calhan died, well into her nineties, during the late 1970's. She was a forceful woman, a word that understates her character. I always thought that if she had competed on a fair and even basis for the position of Empress of India with the woman who actually held that position, Queen Victoria, Edna would have won out hands down.

She was, nevertheless, a true democrat with a small d as well as large, and a great asset to the area that became Pacifica from the day she moved into a house on Pacific Manor's Dolphin drive in 1949. She was a take-charge person by nature, whether it was politics, unions, seniors groups, or Christmas tree lighting competitions.

Eugene Payne was the club's second president. He took over in the mid-fifties, when Mrs. Calhan lost out in a power struggle within the organization. Names of some other early presidents are a bit vague. Such things tend to get lost to memory as time passes. We do know Ken Strom was president in October 1963, when he knocked on my door in Linda Mar, searching out voters to register. My Pacifica voter registration has been continuous from that date, as has been membership by Lydia and I in the Pacifica Democrats.

I was elected president in early 1966. Joe Fulford drove me to the California Democratic Council convention in Bakersfield, where I met Mark Sullivan, whose losing campaign for Congress against Republican J. Arthur Younger paved the way for later Democratic successes by Leo Ryan and Tom Lantos.

From its very earliest days Pacifica has been a Democratic stronghold. Republican registration has never been above 25 percent.

Martyred congressman Leo Ryan spoke to the club more than once before he and his legal counsel, Jackie Speier, were shot in Guyana. She survived. He did not. County supervisors have come by often to share their views and opinions. One of the proudest moments of club history was in August 1978, when the Sanchez Library was saved from oblivion as a direct result of a dialogue with Supervisor Fred Lyon, who came to town to talk to some Democrats and listened instead, as club members gave him an earful on the decision to close their library. Proposition 13, which almost killed this local institution, has continued to damage infrastructure all over California.

Pacifica Democrats rallied around Supervisor Jackie Speier in the mid-eighties. She received a plurality of more than 1000 votes in Pacifica, and won a tight race for the California Assembly with fewer than 600 votes. Club members proudly welcome her back to speak from time to time, now as our State Senator.

The Pacifica Democrats will celebrate its first 50 years with a buffet brunch at Nick's Restaurant Saturday morning, Oct. 23. Advance tickets are available for $17. Call 355 5545, 355 0698 or359 6874 for information and tickets.