[GPCA Updates] NEWS RELEASE: Barbara Becnel cites 'race, class bias'in Democratic leadership, switches to Green Party

[Jim Stauffer]

                  News Advisory
           THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
              http://www.cagreens.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Thursday, July 20, 2006


Democratic Party leadership accused of ‘race
and class bias' by black gubernatorial candidate
Barbara Becnel; She re-registers with Green Party

SAN FRANCISCO (July 20, 2006) – Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate
and death penalty foe Barbara Becnel – the first black woman to run for
governor in California – announced this week that she has left the
Democratic Party because the "Democratic leadership is allowing race and
class bias to dishonor the Democratic Party."

With Green Party candidate for Governor Peter Miguel Camejo by her side,
Becnel signed a voter registration form switching to the Green Party
Tuesday night. She is second high-profile person of color to switch to the
Green Party of late – Nativo Lopez, state and national president of the
influential Mexican American Political Association, has also re-registered
Green, the failure of the Democratic Party to address the concerns of
Latinos." 

In a letter to Democratic Party chairman Art Torres (available upon
request), Becnel said the Democratic Party "has transformed itself from
Dixiecrats to Richiecrats - money counts, equality of treatment does not.
This is shameful. The message to us everyday folks from today's Democratic
Party is that the votes of black, brown, poor and middle class people
matter to the Democratic Party leadership only because the Party needs
those votes. But...ordinary, non-millionaire members of the electorate do
not (really) matter."

She said the party refused to invite her to events, and when asked to speak
by the Progressive Democrats of America at the State Democratic Convention,
she was later "uninvited" by the state party leadership..

"I can no longer support a party that doesn't fundamentally
support...issues that are important to people like me: ending the death
penalty (and) three-strikes and the participation of California's National
Guard in the Iraq war. I plan to tell my story of discrimination and bias
to every person of color with whom I come in contact, encouraging them to
leave this out-of-step Democratic Party and become a Green," she said.

"Barbara Becnel is a breath of fresh air in the Green Party.  As a fellow
activist and ‘sister,' I welcome her with open arms, knowing that with her
know-how and commitment, the Green Party is better equipped to fight for
justice in the black community," said Donna Warren, who is black and the
Green Party's Lt. Governor candidate.
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