California School Employees Association and its Chapter 147 endorsed Alfredo Andrade, Alex Cassadas, and Ray Curtis for the Banning School Board   (Full disclosure: I am the labor relations representative for CSEA Chapter 147.)

CSEA, the classified employees, endorsed three candidates who promise to make the Banning USD administration accountable to the students, parents, staff, and citizens of the Banning Unified School District.  This is an important election for Banning schools.   It can finally ensure that spending cuts start with management’s perks, instead of essential staff.  Banning has no more bilingual aides, and is slashing library staff hours.  Meanwhile, administrators continue to spend freely on attorneys and consultants, as though they worked at Goldman Sachs.  They don’t.  They work for us.

On November 8th, Banning residents can exercise their power to change the school district by electing Alfredo Andrade, Alex Cassadas, and Ray Curtis to the Banning School Board.  You can give them the authority to supervise the administration.

Isn’t it about time that the Banning School Board did that?

Alfredo Andrade

Para Educator

For the past 10 years, Alfredo Andrade has been working with Special Education students.  Andrade is a proud member of the California School Employees Association, actively engaged in the union’s efforts to improve the lives of its members, our students, and the community.  He believes that the Banning Unified School Board needs to be accountable to the community, its students, and its employees.   As a trustee, Andrade will ensure it.  Alfredo Andrade is currently enrolled at at California State University – San Bernardino.  He is the oldest of five children, and engaged to be married.

Ray Curtis

Retired Teacher and Administrator

Curtis is a Banning High School graduate, former Assistant Superintendent, school administrator, School Board  Trustee, principal, and beloved teacher and coach.  As trustee, he will focus on enhancing academic achievement for all students as well as focusing on the complete development of children to help them in becoming productive citizens, skilled workers, and good parents.  He will insist on budget efficiency, fiscal accountability, and a culture of dignity and respect within the school district.  Curtis has the capacity to ask the tough questions and hold the district administration accountable to the community and its children.  Curtis will listen to the concerns of parents and teachers, and will work for respectful communication with all school, staff, and community participants.

Alex Cassadas

Child Case Worker

Cassadas believes in building positive, collaborative relationships between all stakeholders and he is committed to our students and their education.  He believes we must preserve the full scope of quality academics, including Special Education, arts, music, athletics and programs for English language learners.  Cassadas knows we must prepare our students for college or a career by supporting both college preparatory classes and vocational and technical programs.  All students must have the opportunity to learn and succeed.  As a lifelong Banning resident, Cassadas feels that it is his responsibility to give back to our community, and he currently volunteers in the district.  Cassadas is running for Banning Unified School Board to improve Banning schools.

Vote for Andrade, Curtis, and Cassadas on November 8th!

Need to register to vote?  Click here.

With 2 weeks left until E-Day, California Progressives have been building a firewall to beat back the tide of the Red Menace. We are walking precincts, knocking on doors, engaging voters neighbor to neighbor, and phonebanking, phonebanking, phonebanking!

The task at hand is daunting and morale may flag and spirits may dwindle, but I say we must stand together! We must show not just California, but the nation that we will not go quietly into the night; that we, the Progressive Movement, on principle will not go down without a fight.

In this this vien, the acronym G.R.I.T. should serve as a rally cry to all activists in our movement.

Grim Determination:We may not have the enthusiasm of the other side, but we have the intestinal fortitude to soldier on in the face of long odds and short tempers. We will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Regain the Momentum:Very soon…maybe not today, maybe not tommorrow, and because of our efforts we will regain the momentum. Maintaing a positive attitude leads to positive results.

Intensify the Effort:Every waking moment and every single body should be focused on winning this election. If we are not exhausted by the time this thing is over, then we have not done enough.

Turn the Tide:Our organization is better than the Teabaggers and thier allies, our determination is greater, our GOTV is legendary! We can win this!

Good luck and godspeed, see you Nov. 2 🙂

The Riverside/San Bernardino County area, aka Inland Empire (whose Empire, I always want to know)recently beat Detroit for the dubious honor of being No. 1 in unemployment nationwide.  The Democratic challenger for the 65th Assembly District, Carl Wood, is running on job creation and tax fairness (ie, make corporations pay their fair share).  The incumbent Republican has no record whatsoever on jobs, and recently gave struggling homeowners the back of his hand on foreclosure relief.

The only hope for turning this District around is voter turnout.  A bit of local press on Wood’s odds in the extended diary.  Carl’s Act Blue page is here.

Crossposted at dKos

From Tuesday’s San Bernardino Sun:

Wood’s performance in 2008 was by far the best showing by a Democrat in the district this decade. Before 2008, Cook and Republican candidates before him had won lopsided victories – margins of victory of about 24 percentage points on average – in the 65th District, which stretches from Big Bear Lake to Hemet and from Yucaipa to Twentynine Palms.

But in 2008, Cook’s margin of victory was just 6.6 percentage points. Repeating that showing will be difficult though, as Wood was almost certainly helped by the groundswell of Democratic voter turnout that propelled President Barack Obama to victory and boosted many other otherwise-longshot Democratic candidates.

Wood knows turnout will be key this year if he hopes to build on last year’s near-success.

“That’s what makes this race so unpredictable,” he said. “It’s so heavily dependent on voter turnout. If there’s good turnout, I think I stand a good chance of winning.”

Wood had the Obama surge in 2008, but no campaign structure to speak of.  This time he has a strong volunteer base, union boots on the ground, and better name recognition.  Bill Hedrick’s excellent campaign* for the CA 44th CD is another plus for Carl, their districts overlap, and they share progressive values.   If we can pull this off, Sacramento will get a true bold progressive, one who can actually utter the word taxes without an apology, and leave his audience convinced that they’ve been had by the GOP.

*Corrected from previous version, wherein I invert the candidates and call it GOP Rep. Ken Calvert’s excellent campaign.  Ken Calvert (h/t to Howie Klein)is the incumbent we need to remove.

CSEA members and my fellow union staffer Dale and I walked precincts in Coachella this morning for Manuel Perez, Assemblyman for the 80th AD. As always with this campaign, we were in good company:

Isadore Hall, Assemblyman for the 52nd District, brought five volunteers with him for precinct walking and carne asada.  More from Isadore Hall, CA52AD, on the flip.

Crossposted from dKos

I’ll get better at this videography thing, I promise:

Assemblyman Hall, continued:

We had LIUNA, United Domestic Workers, Coachella Valley Teachers Association, CSEA and more.  This campaign has so many of the same people we had last time, and Manuel Perez’s grassroots/social justice focus is the same.  The difference is now he is on the inside, with a track record.