This party was conveniently located a ten minute walk from the end of the CalTrain line. Arriving there the first thing I saw was a row of TV trucks with huge antennas on their roofs parked right outside the event. I went inside and saw a big room arrayed along the back wall were half a dozen TV cameras pointed at the stage. There were at least a couple of dozen tables with every seat filled. Around the edges of the room were a lot more people, most of whom were watching the stage intently. I missed what the early speakers like Medea Benjamin had to say. The first speaker I heard introduced was Dave Laughing Horse Robinson.

   

Dave Robinson was one of the other Candidates for Governor. He explained that he was the first California Native American to run for Statewide office, and that he had run on a platform of single payer health care and making our society more inclusive. I talked to him later in one of the breaks and he told me he expected to come in something like 10th in terms of the number of votes cast by his name. He also mentioned that Yuba County, California has more oil and natural gas pulled out of it on an annual basis than any other County on the planet.

Ed Rosenthal is a major name right now because he is a test case in the battle over legalizing Medical Marijuana. He talked about how great it is to be working with such a progressive Party.

Dan Hamburg, who had run for Governor of California in 1998 called in to congratulate Peter for his excellent Campaigns.

   

Greg Jan came up to let us know that it looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to win the Governor's seat, both of the propositions would be defeated, and Peter Camejo was likely to come in fourth. Click on his picture to see how it all worked out.

Ron Dicks is the VP for Political & Legislative Action of Local 21 of IFPTE/AFL-CIO (Professional and Technical Engineers). He said that yes we have made major strides as the Green Party, but we need to turn it up a notch or two. The Bush Administration is leading an attack on Civil Rights for which the disenfranchisement of Florida's Black Voters was only one salvo. With the Terminator running the show in Sacramento, the need for everybody to work together is greater than ever! Every one of us needs to make ongoing involvement a priority.

   

Tyler Snortum-Phelps, Peter Camejo's Campaign Manager, read a long list of names who needed to be thanked for all the work they did on behalf of the campaign. Among them were Jeanne Marie Rosenmeyer, the Campaigns treasurer and Kevin McKeown who spearheaded the Los Angeles effort. Then he introduced the current President of San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, and the city's next mayor, Green Party member Matt Gonzalez.

Matt talked about how there has been too much focus on making San Francisco into a comfortable place for the rich. He explained that we need to find ways to keep the space that the other members of our diverse community have occupied for generations from evaportating. There was much enthusiasm in the audience when he finished speaking.

   

Susan King is a Co-Coordinator of the GPCA's Campaigns and Candidates Working Group and is working on Matt Gonzalez campaign for Mayor. She explained that everybody needs to help with Matt's campaign to keep Gavin Newsom, from being crowned and sweeping everybody who makes less than a million dollars a year out of the city. Phone banking, precinct walking, and other volunteer opportunities are all available at the Green Party office she urged everybody to sign up now. Click her picture to visit the San Francisco Green Party website for more information. Susan finished by introducing Ralph Nader who joined us by phone.

Ralph Nader congratulated Peter Camejo for getting into the debates and reaching a much larger audience with the Green Party message than he had been able to with his own campaign for President as our Candidate in 2000.

[???] talked about how the federal government has build no low income housing since the 1970s, and is currently taking down what they have. His words painted a bleak picture of the future if we can't find a way to turn the situation around.

   

Caleb Kleppner talked about how IRV would have been great for this election, in that people would have been able to vote for who they wanted to, and not let it become a vote for somebody else like Arnold. At another point in the evening he was wandering around passing out David Cobb for President fliers.

Paul Quick M.D. is a leading Gay Community Activist in San Francisco. He began by thanking Peter Camejo for being the first Candidate for Governor of California to march in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade. Then he went on to say how proud he is that the Green Party Platform has the most progressive platform of a major Party on Gay Community rights. He announced that they would be working to include new language to cover the needs of transgender and intersex members of the community.

   

Jim was the master of ceremonies for the latter part of the evening. He was part of Camejo's campaign staffers during the campaign.

Peter Camejo came on at about 10:30 PM to give a speech for the TV audience. He thanked everybody for the many things they had done over the past couple of months to get the word out on his campaign. Then he chided the Democratic Party for not supporting Cruz Bustamante, pointing out that all of the big names that had come to California over the past month had been seen on TV with Gray Davis, but not their Candidate to replace him. Then Peter pointed out that the only newspaper in the state which had published his proposal to tax the rich at the same rate as everybody else was the San Jose Mercury News and wondered how people in other parts of the state could make informed decisions on that basis.

   

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[????] is the executive director of [???], a nonprofit organization working for peace in Central America. He spoke about how all of the nonprofit organizations need to find ways to work together.

   

Kevin Zeese, a drug policy reform activist, came out from Washington DC to help with the campaign.

Tom Landis is the Green Party Candidate for the 14th Congressional District seat, which is currently occupied by Anna Eshoo. He explained he is running to hold Eshoo accountable for voting for the Patriot Act. His flier also says he wants the government to stop waging war for oil companies. Click his picture to visit his website. Pat Gray, who is running for Congress in San Mateo and southern San Francisco Counties also spoke to us, but I didn't get her picture.