Coordinating Committee at-large candidates, May 12

Los Angeles • Los Angeles County

 

This is my application for the Coordinating Committee 2012-2014

 

I was elected in January 2012 to fill the remainder of one of the 2010-2012 seats on the Coordinating Committee. I have participated since then, including traveling to Northern California to attend the Coordinating Committee retreat in San Mateo and participating on Coordinating Committee teleconferences and email list. Based upon the positive experience I've had thus far, I would like to run and serve the GPCA on the Coordinating Committee for another two years.

 

I believe the Coordinating Committee plays an important administrative role for the GPCA, such that if we do our job well enough, the rest of party will run better and can focus more effectively on its political priorities.  As a woman, I also would like to keep providing gender balance to the Coordinating Committee, as there are very few women on it.

 

I have been a registered Green and activist in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties for a long time and am a current member of the Green Party County Council in Los Angeles County.  I also have a long history of involvement with the Local Station Board at KPFK Pacifica in Los Angeles.

 

I started my activism in 1979 when I first worked to help save the Cowles Bog in the Indiana Dunes State Park from a Nuclear plant called the Bailly Plant.  The work had began to drain the bog. I went to the Indiana Dunes weekly as a high school student, so I was familiar with the entire ecosystem of the area.  I literally walked on the bog weekly as a student. The plant was shut down, before it was built.  I did clerical work in the office and other activist work. This began my involvement with attempting to "Save the Environment."  I walked for 30 miles outside Zion Nuclear Facility as a teen.  I saw the environment change from sparse vegetation near the plant to more live vegetation farther away from the plant.   I did what activists did then and I learned of the Indigenous Rights Movement while being involved.  I became a student of the Movement for Social, Political and Environmental Rights.  I have been so lucky.  I have been able to experience the United States through travel.  I raised 3 children and have been able to spend large amounts of time on that, while attending college and university.  I have been a successful mom.  I have been involved and have always been passionate about the environment and it's affects on humans, and all forms of life.
 

I hereby submit my candidate application for the GPCA Coordinating Committee for an at-large seat 2012-2014.

 

Since mid-2011, I have been an Alternate (2nd Alternate, North Bay) to the Coordinating Committee.  During this time as an Alternate, having experienced being on the Coordinating Committee (CC) listserve, attending the CC retreat, observing and participating in CC discussions, consensus process and decision-making, phone teleconferences, etc... I've decided I would like to become more engaged and would like to be an elected Member of the Coordinating Committee for an at-large seat.

 

I have been an activist in the Green Party for the past 12 years.  In 2000, I was the Campaign Manager for Green Party candidate Medea Benjamin's campaign for CA Senate.  From 2000-2009, I was active in San Francisco and was elected to the SF County Council for 2002-2004.  After moving to Sonoma County in 2009, I got involved with the Green Party there, became a Member of the Sonoma County Council in 2010 and have continued to serve on the Sonoma County Council to the present.  I've also served as a Member of the CA GPUS delegation from 2007-2011 and have been a Delegate to the National Green Party Conventions in 2000, 2004 and 2008.  I have volunteered on numerous Green Party candidate & issue campaigns. 
 

I am dedicated to working for economic, environmental and social justice. I have worked for organizations such as the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG), USD's Center for Public Interest Law (with original "Nader Raider" Robert C. Fellmeth), the San Diego Labor Council, and most recently Global Exchange (as the Green Energy Director and Speakers Bureau Director during the past 12 years).  

 

I would like to serve on the CC to help the GPCA move forward in a positive productive manner, to assist the GPCA to be as effective as possible, and build the Party.  I would like to prioritize growing the number of young Greens in leadership.

 

Thank you for your consideration of my candidacy.

June Brashares

 

I'm an environmentalist and an advocate for social justice from the late 60's.  I'm a long term Green (since 1992) and I've been active with GPAC since 2005. I'm currently serving a second term on GPAC County Council.

 

As a woman of color and a lesbian I was drawn to the Green Party by the 10 key values. I liked the idea that a political party had values that it aspired to...values that didn't change each election cycle.   I remain committed to the 10 key values and I remain committed to growing the Green Party. At this time I'm interested in helping the California Greens as a member of the state coordinating council. I believe I have valuable problem-solving and logistical skills to bring to the council. 

 

It was only a short time ago that you elected me to the council in a short seat. I'm now asking for your vote to elect me to the cc for a full term in the long seat.

 

Thanking you all for the opportunity to serve.  Grow Green.

 

Respectfully,

 

Maxine H. Daniel

 

Please accept my application to serve on the GPCA Coordinating Committee for the 2012-2014 term.

 

I have been a registered Green since the party's founding in 1990 and participated heavily in the 1990-1992 registration drive that qualified us for the ballot. Since then I've been involved with the party in a variety of ways, from tabling, voter registration, marches and demonstrations, and in the last four years, serving on the GPLAC County Council. I also have a background in IT-related tasks and have worked with the GPCA's Cameron Spitzer in this regard for years.

 

I would like to serve on the Coordinating Committee so that our party can grow and realize the potential we all saw for it when we founded the party back in 1990.  I believe that my experience with Green values and my patience in understanding the challenges in implementing them in the real world will serve me well as part of a 20+ member group like the Coordinating Committee.

 

Gratefully, In Solidarity for the Earth,

 

Sasha Karlik

 

I would like to continue my work with the California Green Party State Coordinating Committee after serving a one year term starting in June 2011. I hope to continue my work on committees and working groups: Agenda Committee; Budget Committee; CC liaison to Finance Committee; IT Committee and CC liaison to GIWG.

 

I am a long-time resident of El Cerrito and registered Green since 2001. I got active when a fellow Green knocked on my door and invited me to get involved. I did door-to-door outreach to local voters to invite them to join in Green Party activities, give them a Green Party Voter guide or register them as Greens. I was a founding member in the weekly peace vigil in El Cerrito at Del Norte BART, which continued for many years. I work on Single Payer Health Care SB840/810, on Community Choice Energy, on environmental issues around the Richmond shoreline, on stopping the Point Molate Casino and against militarism. I am very active in the Richmond Progressive Alliance, serving on several committees and worked hard on Mayor Gayle McLaughlin’s successful re-election campaign. I try to make connections between groups and build alliances to work together for progressive causes.

 

I have been very active with the El Cerrito Greens for a long time, hosting monthly meetings and cooking vegan meals, staffing booths, canvassing neighborhoods, helping with presentations and working on an energy plan for El Cerrito. I am currently the treasurer of the EC Greens and the Green Party of Contra Costa County. I was just elected to my third 2-year term on the County Council (my first elected office) and I look forward to helping the Green Party really grow in California.

 

I am an avid outdoors-person, woodworker, gardener, cook, dancer and dad. I am an electrical engineer with a background in computer technology, partially retired now, giving me more time to devote to activism. My love of this wonderful world and the beautiful people that inhabit it motivates my search for social justice, peace and a better future for our children. I try to bring joy and harmony with humor and a positive attitude. I have been active in the peace movement for forty years, including non-violence training, counter-recruitment, civil disobedience, anti-nuke work and first amendment cases. I was a member of the Muhlenberg Five, a case that went to the Pennsylvania Supreme court and extended the first amendment right to demonstrate on private college campuses in Pennsylvania.

 

Michael Rubin
Oakland • Alameda County
RubinArnol@aol.com

I seek to continue serving on the coordinating committee as I am a long time member of the Green Party. I was an Alameda county council member from approximately 2002 until 2010. 

 

I am an activist working to create a non corporate party. I have been very active on many local Green Party campaigns (Matt Gonzalez) as well as every campaign of Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo. I also contribute to local land use issues, anti death penalty work, Palestine and other anti-imperialist efforts.

 

I hope to help the state Green Party focus its energy on viable projects to reach more potential voters. I hope that the Green Party can take advantage of the opportunity created by the Occupy movement to focus attention on its non corporate agenda. Also to mobilize the newly awakened population to utilize the Green Party to advance progressive candidates and agenda. 

 

Thank you for considering my application. 

 

Respectfully,

 

Kate Tanaka

 

This is to submit my application for an open seat to fill the remainder of the 2011-2013 Coordinating Committee term

 

I would like to re-join the California Green Party State Coordinating Committee for a one year term, after serving since January 2012 to fill a vacancy until the end of a 2010-2012 term.

 

I joined the Green Party when I moved to California in 1992 and have been a member ever since.  I became active within the Party in 2000 during the Ralph Nader run for President and Media Benjamin's run for the US Senate.  I worked on both those campaigns from the San Francisco Greens office.

 

I ran for Congress in California's 9th Congressional District (most of Alameda County, East Bay, against Barbara Lee) in 2008 as a write-in and 2010 on the ballot as a Green.  I've personally registered hundreds of Greens since 2000.

 

I was the Campaign Coordinator for Measure I in Berkeley in 2004, which finally brought Instant Runoff Voting to this city last year for the first time.  I also worked on the SF campaign and the Alaska campaign for IRV.

 

I have been deeply involved with the struggle for democracy at KPFA-FM community radio station in Berkeley.  It is the mother station of the Pacifica Network and has been under siege from a group of Democrats who seem to have a nefarious plan to bankrupt the station in order to turn it into a commercial station and cash in on its worth on the commercial section of the radio bandwidth.  This is a very important struggle not just for the Greens, but small "d" democracy as the station is supposed to be a venue for voices that normally do not make it to the public's ears.  3rd party politics has only gotten token spots under their management, which has recently been removed, though many of the staff remain.

 

I have also been active in the 9/11 Truth Movement.  The truth of the events of September 11th, 2001 do not match the official story.  The physics of what happened does not match the governments explanation.  Physics does not lie.  The benefits of a real investigation into 9/11 will have seismic political consequences on the side of democracy, transparency and accountability and hopefully global awareness.

 

I believe the Democrats are failing so badly to meet the needs of their constituents that we have a huge opportunity to make headway in building the Green Party.  And while the new open primary was probably designed by the duopoly parties to destroy all third parties, it does give us a back door advantage that people do not need to register as a Democrat to vote for the "lesser of two evils" candidate.  So now hopefully, when we register someone Green, they will stay Green.
 

This is my application for the GPCA Coordinating Committee for the remainder of the 2011-2013 term.

 

I have been a Green Party member since I first registered to vote when I was 18 and was elected as student body president at Santa Monica High School. Since then, I worked on the 2002 Green Santa Monica City Council campaign of Josefina Aranda and then became a Green candidate myself in 2010, when I received 18% of the vote and finished in second place for State Assembly in the Inglewood and Gardena area of Los Angeles County. I've also been a GPUS delegate for the GPCA since 2009.

 

Outside of the Green Party I've worked for youth empowerment in a variety of ways in my community, including

 

• Virginia Park Youth Involvement Project, Santa Monica, California

Youth Advisory Leader, July 2001 – January 2006

 

• Worked with City Staff and Architects on Youth Design team for Virginia Avenue Park Teen Center. Conducted youth focus groups regarding programming for newly built youth center.

 

• Wes Prisoner Resource & Education Project (WesPREP), Middletown, Connecticut Core Member, January 2004 – December 2006

 

• Worked to implement college-in-prison program for Connecticut prisons; organized the Wesleyan Prison Education Symposium in 2004. Aided the volunteer program in local Connecticut prisons where Wesleyan students

led workshops for prisoners; organized the prison education series.

 

I have also recently taken the California Bar and was a member of Southwestern University School of Law Latina/o Law Student Association.

 

I am a strong believer in social justice and the environment. I will do my best to advance the Ten Key values on the Coordinating Committee. As a woman in her late 20s, I am also encouraged to learn that the Coordinating Committee is becoming increasingly diverse in gender and age and would like to add to that.