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Crash The Gate In San Luis Obispo & Santa Maria: Day 2

Yesterday on Daily Kos, I explained how my candidacy for Assembly District Delegate in AD-33 was a classic example of “crashing the gate.” Younger volunteers from the Obama campaign are continuing to serve in their communities across the country.

In some communities, there is more than just a tiny bit of friction between us and the old timers and their clubs. I don’t begrudge these long term volunteers their positions. But I do begrudge them their monopoly on local party positions.

If San Luis Obispo is famous for anything, it’s probably the farmer’s market. 20+ years before I moved to the area, I remember my family talking about visiting SLO to go to the Farmer’s Market. Tonight, I went there and leafleted for my campaign.

(Flip)

Here I am on the new Court Street handing out leaflets tonight. This is something I never would have done before I attended a community organizer training with Central Coast United For Change in early December, where I was inspired by Walter Heath and Hilda Zacarias to get more involved in my community.

On that day, we were broken up into groups, and had three hours to pick a project. My group’s project involved raising public awareness for a local non-profit called Transitional Food & Shelter that helps disabled homeless people, who fall through the large cracks in our safety net. We handed out leaflets downtown and wrote a letter to the editor. My belief in this need forced me to overcome my awkward feelings about leafleting. I found most people either kindly decline or kindly accept. Just like my first canvassing experience in Nevada, it was not weird, in fact, it was rewarding.

The happy ending is that our small, little quick action resulted in a surge in donations. I later volunteered to do pro bono legal work for that organization, and started this diary after writing a letter on behalf of one of their clients.

So, tonight, learning what I learned from a group of Obama volunteers, my lovely wife (the cameraperson here) and I hit the pavement.

If that’s too grassrootsy for you, I also bought air time on the local Air America station, KYNS 1340. I got an e-mail from a fellow volunteer today saying, “Heard your radio spot today–didn’t know I was working with a soon-to-be celebrity!!” I sure hope so!

And if that’s too “old media” for you, I also have a very Web 1.0 website helping people sign up for the caucus at http://electstorm.com. I was distraught to see that pre-registration is closed. I don’t remember that on the organizing conference call. I hope people who show up a bit late don’t get the Ken Blackwell Ohio 2004 treatment from our local Democrats!

I’m also planning on sending out some e-mails! I’m so 2002!

I’m a lawyer. It must mean I’m adopted. My mom is a teacher. My dad was a teacher. My wife is a teacher. My mother-in-law is even a teacher! Growing up with a widowed teacher for a mom in California’s High Desert taught me to appreciate the sacrifices teachers make. Some of my wife’s friends from school have been kind enough to support me, I believe, for that reason.

I will always stick up for teachers-that’s my mama you’re talkin’ about!

If any of you are in the Central Coast/San Luis Obispo/Santa Maria area and can come out to our party caucus, please do, regardless of whom you vote for. We made a big leap in the federal elections last year, but California is in desperate straits, and we need the energy people brought to last year’s election to carry over to bring California back.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Environment

Santa Maria Wingnuts Seek to Destroy Santa Barbara’s Economy

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One of the most potent objections to the Republicans’ drilling zealotry has been to remind Americans of the devastation that resulted from the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. As Van Jones explained in his talk with David Dayen, the fight against drilling is a fight FOR jobs and the economy and Santa Barbara knows this well. When oil drenches the beaches, kids get sick, service industry jobs that the already-struggling Santa Barbara working class depends upon vanish, and the overall economy suffers. Which is why Santa Barbara County has led the fight against offshore drilling for the last 40 years.

Until now. The rapid growth of Santa Maria, in the northern part of the county, has shifted the county’s political demography. North county conservatives now control the Board of Supervisors 3-2. And even though they voted last year to reaffirm their support of the offshore drilling ban, Santa Barbara’s role as the poster child for drilling’s consequences has led them to change their minds. As the LA Times reports, the Republican majority is expected to vote to support drilling:

Nearly 40 years after a disastrous oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast galvanized the nation and gave birth to the modern environmental movement, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is poised to vote Tuesday in support of offshore drilling…

But Tuesday’s vote is as much about the tension between inland and the coast as it is about the price of a barrel of crude. Population and political power have been shifting away from the more liberal coast, and the board of supervisors has a conservative, pro-industry majority for the first time in about a decade.

The result: An expected 3-2 vote to support increased oil drilling off the same beaches that were coated in crude and covered with the corpses of birds, seals and dolphins after 3 million gallons of oil leaked from an offshore drilling site in 1969.

As you can see by the lede, the LA Times is dutifully buying into the Republican game plan – if you can show America that even Santa Barbara supports drilling, then your cause is boosted that much more strongly. The devil’s in the details, of course – the Supervisors that actually represent the coast support the ban, and the 3 who will vote against the ban are from inland areas. They’re playing their part in the grand Republican plan quite effectively.

At the same time they’re going against the economic needs of their constituents. The rapid growth of Santa Maria is driven by housing costs – it’s more affordable for workers whose jobs are on the coast to live in Santa Maria and commute down 101 to Santa Barbara. If drilling is renewed, it WILL lead to more oil spills, and Santa Maria residents will suffer. And for what? So that oil companies can sell the oil on the global market.

As David Dayen and Van Jones agreed earlier today, Democrats need to fight back on economic terms. Santa Barbara County residents need permanent alternatives to high gas prices, they need good jobs, and they need affordable housing.  Santa Barbara County residents would be signing an economic death warrant by backing new drilling, regardless of which side of the mountains they live on.