01/14/2017
During last week's Assembly District 1 ADEM caucus it was my honor to become Shasta County's only elected member of the California State Democratic Central Committee. I was born and raised in a working poor union household in Anderson, went to public K-12 here, transferred to UC Berkeley from Shasta College, and have spent the last decade working for the Democratic Party at the local, state, regional, and national levels. I will give voice to and fight for the North State working poor as your delegate to the state central committee.
I am also very pleased that Cheryl McKinley, the other union-backed Shasta County resident on our slate, has become Supervisor District 2's seated member at the Shasta County Democratic Central Committee and an appointee to the California State Democratic Central Committee. I am sure Cheryl will continue to be an excellent advocate for our teachers in particular and working people in general at the both the state and county central committees.
My priorities as your delegate are:
1) To advocate for single-payer health care in California. My late brother and I were born with very rare genetic disorders. In order to get the union health benefits and a living wage we needed to survive, my mother--who has severe rheumatoid arthritis and the same genetic disorder I do--worked a manual labor job until she became completely and permanently physically disabled. This means both that I know what it's like for a family to decide between things like heat, electricity, food, and basic medical needs at a kitchen table and that I am enraged and disgusted by our broken health care system in particular and how this country treats its poor and workers in general. My life's mission is to make sure that nobody living in the richest. most populous, and most technologically advanced state in the richest country the world has ever known ever has to make those kinds of decisions again.
2) Democratize the California Democratic Party. The modern Democratic Party used to be a party for working people. For the last 36 years, it hasn't been. It's paid lip service to progressive social values while doing the bidding of corporate America. The only way to change that is to make sure the people have more and better seats than big dollar donors do. And for that to happen, we need to both change the rules of the state party and take on Citizens United and its progeny.
3) Advocate for unions, good jobs, fair housing, and a living wage in California. In Shasta County, if you aren't lucky enough to get some sort of public sector job, the only way to survive is to work at least a couple low-paying, exploitative service industry jobs and hope you get the public assistance for which you qualify. This is a disgraceful situation and we should have been taking to the streets over it for the last 40 years. Let's start doing that.
4) Support Eric Bauman as the next chair for CDP. I understand that many other people who supported Bernie in the primaries and organized this progressive ADEM wave in the state have reservations regarding Eric. And I understand, respect, and even identify with some of those reservations. But I believe if you:
a) look at the work he has done organizing areas neglected by the national and state parties with the Los Angeles Democratic Party, his overall record on health care and labor, and his approach to dialogue outside of the heat of contested presidential primaries, and
b) consider the alternative beyond the fact that she is currently an outsider of the state party and the lessons the recent election should have taught us about a major political party embracing a candidate purely because he/she/they is an outsider without doing due diligence
then you will see Eric, as I do, as the best choice for the next Chair of the California Democratic Party.
