Gayle McLaughlin – Green Party Watch

Stein says corporate/political “leviathan” is collapsing

Posted on October 6, 2015 by GPW

Chris Hedges writes at Truthdig about his recent meeting with Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and Gayle McLaughlin, the former Green Party mayor of Richmond, California.

Stein told Hedges, “A hostile corporate force occupies us all. Corporations are polluting our air and our water. They are degrading our jobs or exporting them. … But the leviathan is so over-zealous, so heavy-handed and so overfunded that it is beginning to self-destruct. … A recent Wall Street Journal poll shows that 50% of Americans no longer identify as being either Democrat or Republican. The system is crumbling from its own internal decrepitude. Our push is to try and help that happen.”

Stein to appear at California “Calling All Rebels” event

Posted on September 14, 2015 by GPW

On Sunday, September 20, the Green Party of Orange County is hosting Calling All Rebels, an event featuring music and speakers, at the Delhi Center in Santa Ana, California.

The headliner is author Chris Hedges of The Nation and Truthdig. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein will speak immediately before Hedges. Gayle McLaughlin, a Green who served as mayor of Richmond, California, from 2007 until earlier this year, is also scheduled to speak.

Green Party supports nonviolent protests against police brutality

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Dave Schwab

From Green Party US:

New York City grand jury’s refusal to indict an officer accused of killing Eric Garner is cause for more protest; police terror against Blacks and mass incarceration must end, say Greens

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Green Party leaders and activists expressed support for ongoing protests across the U.S., especially for nonviolent protesters facing brutal police retaliation, in the wake of a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The protesters’ anger was further inflamed by Wednesday’s breaking news that a New York City grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer accused of killing Eric Garner, an unarmed 43-year-old father of six, in Staten Island by putting him in an illegal chokehold.

Greens called for an aggressive investigation by the U.S. Justice Department of both the Ferguson and Staten Island incidents and the handling of the Ferguson case by St. Louis County officials, and demanded that the U.S. conform to international human-rights standards on the use of force by police, citing a Nov. 28 review from the U.N. Committee Against Torture (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-usa-un-torture-idUSKCN0JC1BC20141128).

Green Party members have participated in and helped organize many of the rallies and protests in reaction to a steady flow of news reports about police killings of young Black men. Continue Reading →

Green Party highlights from Election Day 2014

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Dave Schwab

From Green Party US:

Election results http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2014/11/04/green-party-2014-election-results and http://gp.org/election-wrapup

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Green Party made several advances in the 2014 general election on November 4, with Green candidates winning 27 seats and ballot lines held for most state Green Parties.

The most closely watched Green races were in Richmond, California, where outgoing Mayor Gayle McLaughlin overcame a $3-million campaign by Chevron to defeat her slate, and New York, where Howie Hawkins challenged incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Continue Reading →

Gayle McLaughlin, Green Mayor of Richmond, CA, on Democracy Now

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Dave Schwab

From Democracy Now’s story “How to Buy a City: Chevron Spends $3 Million on Local California Election to Oust Refinery Critics”:

The oil giant Chevron is being accused of attempting to buy the city government of Richmond, California. The company has spent more than $3 million to back a slate of pro-Chevron candidates for mayor and city council ahead of Tuesday’s election. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Chevron has paid for TV attack ads, purchased space on virtually every billboard in town, funded a flood of mailers and financed a fake “news” website run by a Chevron employee. The move comes two years after a massive fire at Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond sent 15,000 residents to the hospital. It was the third refinery fire since 1989 in the city. The city of Richmond responded to the latest fire by suing Chevron, accusing officials of placing profits and executive pay over public safety.

We speak to one of the politicians being targeted, outgoing Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. She was elected mayor of Richmond in 2006, becoming the first Green Party official to represent a city of more than 100,000. Due to mayoral term limits, McLaughlin is now running for Richmond City Council.

Watch the video here:

Nonprofit Quarterly on Richmond CA and the Green Party approach to eminent domain

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Dave Schwab

From Nonprofit Quarterly:

Earlier this year, declaring 2013 “the year of the mayoral races,” a pro-nonprofit political advocacy group called for support for mayoral candidates whose platforms grasped the needs and potentials of nonprofits and proposed policies that would strengthen the nonprofit sector in their communities. The barometer for a mayoral candidate’s nonprofit cred was his or her response to the question, “How will you include nonprofits as part of your economic plan?” To that end, Gayle McLaughlin might be the prototype for this new breed of pro-nonprofit mayor.

McLaughlin is the mayor of Richmond, California, a tough, distressed, mid-sized city, which recently made headlines, including coverage by NPQ, for its plan to use its eminent domain powers to take foreclosed properties from banks and other mortgage holders. McLaughlin reportedly identifies neither as a Republican nor Democrat, but as a Green. Does her policy of taking on the big banks and other investors that own pieces of mortgages mark her as a mayor who reflects the values and interests of the nonprofits? Continue Reading →

Jill Stein on Grit TV: A party for the people

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Dave Schwab

From Grit TV with Laura Flanders:

It’s hard to imagine a better time to consider parties other than the Democratic and Republican. In the sixteen days that the federal government was shut down and thousands of employees were furloughed or asked to work without pay, Washington demonstrated its inability to put people first, but for the first time. Continue Reading →

In These Times interviews Gayle McLaughlin, Green Mayor of Richmond, CA

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Dave Schwab

In These Times recently interviewed Gayle McLaughlin, Green Party member and Mayor of Richmond, California, for an article entitled “The Progressive City on the Bay (and it’s not Berkeley or S.F.). From In These Times:

When we sat down to talk with 60-year old Gayle McLaughlin, the mayor of Richmond, Calif., she had just been through a summer media whirlwind. Policy innovation and political controversies landed McLaughlin and her East Bay city of 100,000 on the front page of The New York Times, on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, and on Democracy Now with Juan González and Amy Goodman. Even Fox News recently hosted a debate between two Richmond city council members about the merits of a new “ban the box” ordinance passed to ease the re-entry of former prisoners into the community.

The national media’s rediscovery of Richmond began last fall when the Times informed an unsuspecting world that McLaughlin’s “small, blue-collar city best known for its Chevron refinery has become the unlikely vanguard for anticorporate, left-wing activism in recent years, having seized the mantle from places like Berkeley, just south of here, or San Francisco, across the Bay.”

Since 2007, Richmond has approved a business tax increase and defeated a casino development scheme; opposed Immigration & Customs Enforcement raids in the city and created a municipal ID card to aid the undocumented; sought fair property taxation of Chevron and sued the giant oil company over the damage done by a huge refinery fire and explosion last year; and supported “community policing” initiatives introduced by Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus, which have helped reduce violence. Continue Reading →

Richmond CA, led by Green mayor, invokes seizure laws to save homes

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Dave Schwab

The New York Times recently published an article about Richmond, CA’s use of eminent domain to stop foreclosures. Gayle McLaughlin, the mayor of Richmond, is a Green Party member.

The power of eminent domain has traditionally worked against homeowners, who can be forced to sell their property to make way for a new highway or shopping mall. But now the working-class city of Richmond, Calif., hopes to use the same legal tool to help people stay right where they are.

Scarcely touched by the nation’s housing recovery and tired of waiting for federal help,Richmond is about to become the first city in the nation to try eminent domain as a way to stop foreclosures. Continue Reading →

‘Greens in Government’ panel to accompany California Green Party general assembly

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Dave Schwab

From Napa Valley Patch:

Green Party officeholders will appear on a “Greens in Government” discussion panel on June 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Slack Collective Studios, 964 Pearl St. suite B, in Napa, California.

There are over 130 Green Party officeholders in local government across the country, including 40 in California. Panelists will include Gayle McLaughlin, Mayor of Richmond – the highest elected Green in California, as well as Bruce Delgado, Mayor of Marina, Renée Goddard, Fairfax Town Council, and Jesse Townley, Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner.

The “Greens in Government” panel is being organized as a part of the Green Party of California General Assembly, which will also take place in Napa on June 22nd and 23rd. The General Assembly consists of Green Party delegates from counties throughout California and is the highest decision-making body within the Green Party of California. Continue Reading →