[Sosfbay-discuss] GAYLE McLAUGHLIN ELECTED RICHMOND MAYOR!

[alexcathy at aol.com]

Dear Green Friends, 

For those of you unfamiliar with the history, economics, and demographics of the north San Francisco Bay area, the election of GAYLE McLAUGHLIN as the Green Party mayor of Richmond, California is a really, really, big deal.  

I don't want to get carried away, so I'll try to be brief. 

Richmond, California is a classic working-class industrial city.  During World War II, many African-Americans migrated to Richmond to work at building "Liberty Ships" at the large shipyard.  Many of them were women, which is why this is the site for the "Rosie the Riveter" memorial today.  

In recent years, however, Richmond has fallen on hard times.  The shipyard has long since shut down.  The largest local employer is the Chevron Oil Company which has a large refinery in Richmond.  Chevron, now merged with Texaco, is notorious for pollution, health & safety violations, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and general criminal wheeling 'n dealin' all around the world (which is why they picked Professor Condoleeza Rice to serve on their board of directors and why Dr. Rice, being the utterly immoral scum that she is, accepted).  

In recent years, Richmond has had a lot of trouble with gangs, guns, and crime.  And as always when you're talking about a large "minority" community, the Bay Area mainstream tabloid media never gets tired of talking about that.  

Poor schools in Contra Costa, like poor schools everywhere in California, have had a hard time, too.  At one point a group of kids, on their own, organized a march from Contra Costa to Sacramento to lobby Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar for more funding for poor schools.  After the kids came all that way, Ah-nold (the one hailed by the upper-class, corporate media as a good "moderate" Republican), refused to see them (I guess the kids' parents were not Hollywood "liberal" Democrats).  

* * * 

GAYLE McLAUGHLIN is a Euro-American social worker and longtime activist from an old Chicago union family.  In 2004 she was elected to the Richmond City Council on a shoestring budget campaign.  At the time it was considered a big upset, but likely just a fluke.  I met her at the Green Party Plenary in 2005 and was very much impressed.  At a campaign and candidates workshop I asked her how she she had managed to get the endorsement of the Sierra Club and some of the unions.  She replied that she won those endorsements, first, by working with those groups in their causes, and then by, well, by asking for their support.  

* * * 

This November Ms. McLaughlin has scored a spectacular victory by ousting the incumbent mayor.  Richmond is now the largest city in the United States with a Green Party mayor. 

McLaughlin defeated a sitting Democratic Party incumbent seeking re-election.  Richmond mayor Irma Anderson brazenly accepted $110,000 from the evil Chevron Oil, Pacific Gas and Electric and other corporate interests while Ms. McLaughlin refused corporate contributions during her campaign.

This is a spectacular Green victory.  Who says "minority" communities will not respond to an aggressive Green campaign?  


THE GODDAMNED MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Remember how the Mainstream Media (MSM) made such a big deal about Oakland and Los Angeles electing "white" mayors?

Remember how the MSM hyped the Harvard-educated Cory Booker as a "Good Black" mayor for Newark, New Jersey even before he was elected?  

Remember how the MSM badmouthed Matt Gonzalez when he came within an eyelash of being elected mayor of San Francisco?  

So, why the hell isn't McLaughlin's spectacular victory a big national story? 

I've been surfin' the web this morning and this is how ther are "spinning' it: 


San Francisco Chronicle, November 21st:

    "Assuming officials certify the results as expected, the election makes Richmond the biggest 
    city in the country with a Green Party mayor -- and apparently the first with a predominantly 
    minority population. 

    About three-fourths of the city's 103,000 residents are African-American and other minorities. 
    The Green Party's traditional base has been amonth the mostly white, well-educated people 
    concerned about environmental causes..."



Don't you just love the way these creeps casually refer to the MAJORITY of the people of California as "minorities?"  And in their litte minds, "well-educated people concerned about environmental causes" means "White."  


Contra Costa Times, November 21st
Also Printed in the San Jose Mercury News:

    "McLaughlin, a Green Party member who refused to accept corporate donations, 
    has been on the council for two years.  She spent $28,000 on her campaign.  
    Anderson, 75, who received major contributions from Chevron, the Council of 
    Industries and the Chamber of Commerce, spent more than $110,000.

    McLaughlin, 54, benefited from a third mayoral candidate, Gary Bell, a former 
    council member who, like Anderson, is black.  Bell received 4,800 votes, which 
    many believe would have gonemostly to Anderson had he not been in the race. 

    Anderson, a retired public nurse, has deep ties to Richmond's black community.  
    She was married to the late Rev. Booker T. Anderson, who was a former mayor 
    and councilman. 

...

    Anderson was criticized for being the city's top political figure when Richmond 
    suddenly discovered a $35 million budget deficit in 2004.  The crisis resulted in 
    the cutting of hundreds of city jobs and reductions of city services.

...

    McLaughlin's win may not have been a victory for Green principles as much as 
    it was voter dissatisfaction with city government after the 2004 budget crisis.  



Yes, fellow Americans, we do have a serious race problem in this country... and the goddamned mainstream media is part of the problem.  "She was married to the late Rev. Booker T..."   

Please!  

It is interesting to compare and contrast this "spin" to the kind of stuff they said when Richard Riordan or James Hahn was elected mayor of Los Angeles or Jerry Brown was elected mayor of Oakland or when Cory Booker was elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey on his second try.  Then it was like: 

    "Hurray!  Hurray!  THOSE PEOPLE have finally come to their senses 
   and elected moderates and conservatives!"

Don't hold your breath waiting for them to say: 

   "Hurray! Hurray!  American voters in Richmond have finally come to their senses 
   and thown out a corrupt, clueless Democrat 
   and elected an honest, progresive Green!"  


Dear friends, we should savor our sweet victories even if they don't.  If the MSM is unhappy then we must be doing something right.  


Alex Walker 
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