Still Golden: Record Wins in California

By Mike Feinstein
Green Party of California

California Greens ran a record 87 candidates in 2004, with 19 victories, including 76 candidates and 16 victories in the November elections. As a result, there are now 68 California Greens holding elected office statewide, an all-time state Green Party high.

Northern California led the way in 2004, with at least two victories in each of Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties. This success mirrors the results of the recent two Peter Camejo for Governor campaigns, including in 2002 when Camejo received more than 10 percent of the vote in seven northern California counties.

Greens also made strides in gender representation. Six of the 12 city council members elected were women, including 26-year-old Harmony Groves in Arcata and 27-year-old Holly Madrigal in Willits. Overall, nine of 19 Greens elected overall in 2004 were women.

Among the many other highlights in the Golden State:

• Greens maintained the City Council majority in Sebastopol that they've had since 2000 and regained the one they had in Arcata from 1996-1998. In both towns Greens hold three out of five seats.
• In San Francisco, in a historic election where Instant Run-Off Voting/Ranked Choice Voting was used for the first time, longtime Green organizer Ross Mirkarimi retained the District 5 Board of Supervisors seat previously held by Green Matt Gonzalez, who chose not to run for re-election this year.
• After 19 rounds of ranked-choice vote counts-all within the 72 hours the city expected to take to count ranked choice votes--Mirkarimi won with a majority of 50.594 percent, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections.
  Democrat Robert Haaland finished second with 7,204 votes and Green candidate and former city Planning Commissioner Lisa Feldstein finished third with 5,572. The third Green in the race--longtime state and national Green activist Susan King--survived 13 of the 19 rounds and garnered 1,357 votes.
• San Francisco Green Mark Sanchez also won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Education, becoming the first Green in San Francisco to be re-elected, finishing third out of 12 for four seats. Sanchez was elected as a Democrat in 2000, but joined the Green Party soon afterwards, inspired by Gonzalez's election.
• In Sebastopol, incumbent Craig Litwin was re-elected along with first-timer Sam Pierce, joining Larry Robinson (first elected in 1998) to retain the Green majority at least through 2006. Litwin--who served one year as mayor during his first term--campaigned on his record of affordable housing, traffic calming, green business and local economic development, preserving the town's underground aquifer and promoting the Solar Sebastopol initiative.
• Pierce--who is a research engineer specializing in environmental design and holds a Masters Degree in architecture--canvassed the entire town, going door-to-door in every neighborhood.
• In Arcata, both Paul Pitino and Harmony Groves were elected to the City Council. Joining incumbent Dave Meserve, they make up the second Green majority in Arcata and the first since 1996-1998, when Jason Kirkpatrick, Bob Ornelas and Jennifer Hanan made up the first Green City Council majority ever in the U.S.  Pitino ran on a platform of campaign finance reform, accepted no contributions, spent only $204.40 of his own money, and the only endorsement he mentioned was that of the Green Party. A landscaper by profession, he carried his identity door-to-door and built upon a record of speaking out at council meetings over the years. Among Pitino's key issues was providing a public restroom downtown, where the Arcata Plaza and other destinations attract large numbers daily.
• In Mendocino County, Greens won first-time City Council seats in Ft. Bragg and Willits. In Ft. Bragg, Doug Hammerstrom ran as an independent and responsive voice, seeking to maintain the community's small town values and not financially burden current residents with the infrastructure costs of new development.   In Willits, voters elected Holly Madrigal, a board member of the newly opened Willits Skate Park that she helped create. Madrigal championed economic development through promoting small local business, rehabilitating the town's many abandoned buildings, and discouraging sprawl into surrounding Little Lake Valley, which is filled with wetlands and large agricultural parcels.
• Greens incumbents also won on quality-of-life issues in two cities: Karl Warkomski in Aliso Viejo (Orange County) and Christine Mulholland in San Luis Obispo, which are not necessarily considered to be 'liberal bastions'.
• In Contra Costa, Gayle McGlaughlin, 52, a dark horse candidate with no name recognition, little money and a grassroots campaign led by friends and fellow environmentalists, surprised nearly everyone, including herself, by winning a seat on the Richmond City Council.
  In a year of anti-incumbent fervor after the City Council ran up a $35 million deficit, McGlaughlin made a major point of not accepting corporate donations, and spoke out against the city's plans to bring a Las Vegas-style casino to Point Molate, a former naval depot in town that McGlaughlin argued should be preserved as open space.
• A first-grade teacher who cut her political teeth opposing Chevron, McLaughlin walked almost every precinct in town and earned the endorsement of the Sierra Club, ACORN and the Service Employees International Union Local 790.
• Just 15 miles away in the town of Moraga, Lynda Deschambault won election in her first city council bid. With an MBA in business, two bachelor's degrees (in chemistry and soils), and serving as a project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, she brought an impressive résumé to the race.
  Seeking to preserve the semi-rural nature of the community, Deschambault opposed large, sprawling housing projects and big box retail. "I want to develop a sound town budget, revitalize business areas into pedestrian-oriented family centers, beautify scenic corridors, and preserve Moraga's magnificent ridgelines and natural habitat," she said.
• Also winning election were John Selawsky, School Board, Berkeley; Jeff Sklar, Rent Control Board, Santa Monica; Jeff Chapman, Aorroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles; and first-time candidates Melody Demeritt, city council, Morro Bay; and Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, Eureka Water Board.
• California Greens also celebrated the defeat of Proposition 62, which would have effectively blocked all third party candidates from the general election ballot by instituting a Louisiana-style primary where all parties would have to run together and the top two vote getters would advance, regardless of the party affiliation. A competing proposition guaranteeing all parties that participate in the primary a place on the general election ballot won with a two-to-one margin.