Meet your Placer County Democratic Central Committee….Tomas Vera
Setting The Standard
As in the wise words of the ancient Chinese “curse” – May You Live in Interesting Times - Tomas Vera manages to keep his enthusiasm for electing Democrats despite nightly news that comes at us with the confusion and force of a fire hose. He’s a realist and knows the hills to be climbed and battles to be fought, but always keeps his enthusiasm and firm beliefs that we can do it – we can ultimately turn red to blue.
As Chair of the Placer County Democratic Central Committee, Tomas focuses his goals and drive on our Placer team. He wants to identify how to make our team better to achieve more wins. He identifies with the maxim, “If it has to be someone, let it be me.” There was no “aha!” moment for Tomas, but when Obama ran, it was a seminal moment for him. He volunteered by making phone calls for the Fresno Dems Women’s Auxiliary, the primary political drivers where he lived at the time. When they realized they needed someone who could do wonders on a computer (IT work), Tomas found his niche’ - and the rest is history…
The most urgent item now on his agenda is beating back the effort to recall Governor Newsom. He urges us “to tell people the Newsom administration has done many beneficial things for California. He’s worked to ensure our place as the 5th largest economy in the world; he’s set policies and changes in place to mitigate fire threats, and continues to help those in need – assisting students needing school lunch, supporting families and elderly in need and providing CalCare for medical care and more.”
Tomas began learning the geography of California at an early age. Born in Santa Rosa (1962), his father went to work in the Northern California lumber mills. He grew up among the beauty of the forests until age 12, moving between his aunt and uncle’s home in the small coastal town of Gualala and the town of Boonville (current population 1,035) which, he points out was 45 minutes from the nearest asphalt. He attended Sonoma State University (Rohnert Park campus), graduating in 1984, with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and a Chemistry minor.
Having lived in the forests of California, Tomas next went off to see the world by joining the U.S. Navy, serving as a ship’s Surface Warfare Officer, achieving the rank of Lieutenant. His last 18 months of naval service found him on the staff of the Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division in war planning. He finished his service, leaving on December 31st, just prior to the U.S. Marine deployment for the Gulf War in January.
Tomas found a life partner in his wife Leslie, meeting her in high school, dating in college and marrying 33 years ago. Their three children, one son and two daughters, have made them grandparents twice. The entire family, Tomas reports, is vaccinated and will be getting together soon, perhaps enjoying their favorite relaxation, hiking the hills and trails near their home.
While living in Fresno following his military service, Tomas put his college studies to work, providing Environmental and Agricultural Chemistry information for private industry, helping area farmers increase their yield and their profits. After ten years in the Central Valley, he moved into the IT field which brought him to Placer County. He has worked for Placer County since 2015 providing computer solutions for many County Divisions.
As the PCDCC Chair he studies the hills he knows we have to climb and says he sees that battle … “like the question, how does one eat an elephant...one bite at a time. We in Placer can’t do much to make California “bluer,” but we need to get into local offices to turn the County blue.” His goal is to fill local offices to make the area more Progressive and to serve the people of the area. “Republicans,” he feels, “have focused on division, on ideas that don’t affect people directly. For most of our residents the promise to lower the taxes isn’t realistic for them – they don’t earn enough to make it happen for them. We should focus on local offices to make the towns and cities serve the people with services they need, like filling potholes, fire prevention, or food insecurity.” He thinks the County could have done more to get services to fight the pandemic to the people faster. “The County,” he says, “has a huge rainy-day budget, but it didn’t match the ideology of elected County officials and so the money didn’t go out to the people. They should think less about their ideology and more about the people –the citizens who elected them.”
How can we successfully challenge and win against the Republicans, we asked? He offered that “most people realize Qanon is a bunch of fools. We need to make it safe for the No Party Preference (NPP) voters and brave Republicans to say they’ve had enough, to finally realize their elected Republicans aren’t representing them. The Republican voter fears the changes we applaud asking “why do those black and brown people want to make changes”? A lot of true conservatives see things only from “me first – I don’t care about you” versus liberals/progressives who think about others. Change is frightening, and they think ‘those others’ want to take things away from them rather than see change as inclusive.”
We asked what we Democrats can do to create a future that’s fair for all. “We’ve drawn the line in the sand and we need to work to hold that line. We have to use the election process to return candidates to office who care about solving our problems and can get elected. We need to let our voters know we’re here and working on their behalf and they should join the party. We have the skills and the energy to make it happen. Instead of talking to 100 people talk to 1,000, 5,000 instead of 500 – every Dem is a member of the team. We need to continue making phone calls, sending postcards, and donating to candidates.” He urges us to “…not forget the Midwest and those states with more cows/oil wells than people. Orange County has 7 seats contested so, if you want to help make a difference, donate, make calls, send postcards to Orange County and the Central Valley.”
Chair Tomas Vera has set the standard and the goals, challenging each of us to make a difference. We just need to follow his example.
