I hate elections.  I’m phobic about photos.  I dislike large crowds, conventions, and the sense of being a small cog at the bottom of a large and metaphor-mangled machine. I’d rather sit in my chimerical basement, wearing ratty pajamas and eating an orange fatty snack, blogging furiously on a computer.

Nevertheless, I seem to be running for delegate to the California Democratic Party.

Elections are this weekend.  Whether you live in my district or one of the other 79 districts, consider showing up to vote for up to 12 people.  The California Democratic Party website has a list of all meetings.

As a blogger, I’m known for being single-issue, focused almost exclusively on climate issues.  And as a California native, I care about the state’s future.  When Texas oil companies tried to buy an election, I took Proposition 23 personally.  I spoke at a couple of clubs against it.  Based on one speech, I was asked to join a Progressive slate in the “fighting 41st,” an Assembly district stretching from Santa Monica to Agoura and a small slice of Ventura County.  

Despite my qualms about running for anything at all, I’ll be at the Topanga Community Center, 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., this Sunday, January 9, from 10 AM until whenever.  I’m asking my friends to show up between 10 AM and noon, register, vote for me and everyone else on my slate, and — if they want — hang around until the actual meeting starts at noon and I make a fool of myself give a speech.  

As I understand matters, the rules are the same for every district even if the times are a little different: you can show up two hours before the meeting starts, vote for up to 6 men and 6 women, choose to hang around or leave, and know that you’re helping your party.  A Progressive Slate lists progressive candidates throughout the state.

The people on my slate are all amazing, accomplished real-life activists.  I suspect I’ve been asked as part of a Cyberspace Affirmative Action Program; either that, or I’m the token Ventura County resident.  If everyone in the party is as progressive as my fellow slate candidates, the party’s in very good shape.

Despite a sense that I’m underqualified by comparison, and an accompanying desire to return to my cyberspace haunt, I’m running anyway.  My contributions, such as they be, will no doubt be primarily on climate.  I want to ensure that AB32 is implemented well, not watered down.  I want to see the Legislature pass a plastic bag ban.  I want to identify any state legislators who call themselves Democrats but won’t commit to basic principles of a clean and healthy environment for all Californians.  And I want to start a dialogue within the party to ensure that all Californians are entitled to that clean and healthy environment.  I may just venture beyond climate and see whether Proposition 13 is yet ripe for sensible reform.

If you live in the 41st, I hope to see you on Sunday.  If you live elsewhere, find your Assembly district and meeting date/time (some are on Saturday, some on Sunday) and show up. You’ll be part of the democratic process, and part of the Democratic Party.