Gerry Gras organized
a carpool of Santa Clara County Greens to go up to Laura Wells for
Governor's campaign kickoff event. He told me "bring your camera." I
did, and these were the best of the pictures I took.
Greg Jan started the speaking portion
of the event by introducing all of the elected officials, former Green
Party Candidates, and meeting officials like Sanda, who is live
netcasting the event so people in other locations can watch live,
including at least one person in New York. Then one by one he
introduced the notables who had something to share with us. They would
come up, say a few words, and then the next one would do the same.
The first was Larry Bragman from
Fairfax, up in Marin County. He fumed about how bond rating agencies
require paperwork they can't afford to hire the staff to do to to get a
good rating. He called it a subsidy for big cities.
Then Lew Tremaine, Mayor of Fairfax
took the stage. He talked about how we need to work together to fight
PG&E's ballot initiative that will require a 66% super majority to
set up a local utility district. He also urged us all to work hard to
get Laura's message out.
Wilson Riles really gets people going.
He talked about about how the State and Federal governments are putting
the squeeze on Oakland, forcing the city to raise traffic ticket fines
just to tread water on revenue from them. By the end of his speech we
were all cheering and booing on queue. He left the stage to a very warm
hand.
This guy is running for Mayor of
Oakland. I wish I could remember his name. He had good things to say
about Laura Wells though.
Gayle McLaughlin, Mayor of Richmond
gave us an update on her battle with the Chevron refinery in her town.
That Chevron tax the voters had passed last year had been tied up in
court for a long time. The Judge had finally thrown it out on a
technicality, so Gayle is going back to the voters with new language
that handles the Judges objections this year. On top of that, they have
a ballot initiative to take the cap off the utility tax on the
refinery. As if that isn't enough, Gayle McLaughlin is also running for
re-election this year. She is looking forward to doing something with
Laura on the campaign trail.
The restaurant was full. They were
lined up at the back because there weren't any more chairs.
After it was over I met some of the
people in the crowd. Dave Heller is gathering signatures to get his
name on the ballot as a Congressional Candidate in Barbara Lee's
District.
On her way out I told Gayle McLaughlin that I feel honored to be in the
same political party as her. I just couldn't think of any higher praise
to offer her. I gave her a 2010 Native-American dollar coin hoping that
she will get a chance to look at the art on it sometime.
