Issues
Building a Fair and Equitable California for All.
Opposing Trump’s Policies.
Vote Up Issues Important to You
Single-Payer ‘Medicare for All’
Health care is not a commodity. Healthy California Act, SB 562, will ensure we all get the healthcare we need, when we need it, with the provider of our choice. No more insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. Workers and government will save billions each year. Private Insurance and Big Pharma want to kill it. Corporate-controlled legislators are stalling it. Let’s fight for it!
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Free College California
California needs to offer its residents tuition-free attendance at public four-year colleges, universities and community colleges. Community college students need to be included in scholarships, and students from families with fewer resources should get more, not less as currently proposed by some Legislators in Sacramento. Free College, No debt!
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Millionaires Tax
California needs a real Millionaires tax. We need one that is more progressive and raises the rate of the tax as the income increases. I propose a tax increase that goes up 1% from the current tax rate for each million dollars of taxable income (up to a 12% increase for incomes of $12 million or more). This Fair Share tax would raise billions that could be used to help fix our education system and generate jobs by repairing infrastructure.
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Opposing the Privatization of Jails and Detention Centers
It is absurd to use private-for-profit businesses as institutions to rehabilitate the inmates. The goal of this approach is to have more inmates, not less. The rates of physical assault are higher in many of the eight state private prisons, and thousands of California inmates are housed in these private prisons in other states, away from family support. End the privatization of jails and prisons!
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California Needs A Public Bank
A bank owned by the people’s government like the Bank of North Dakota. It can save money and finance public-works projects and priorities, such as affordable housing, infrastructure repair, roads, schools and hospitals, and assist non-traditional industries. In 2012 there was an attempt with AB2500, supported by CCISCO, PICO California, the Public Banking Institute, and some churches. The bill was killed by corporate controlled legislators influenced by the California Bankers Association. I will make it a priority for California to have a Public Bank! Our money, Our power!
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Elections Integrity
Since Citizens United passed, corporations have gone on “elections shopping sprees.” Corporate money destroys our democracy. We need to educate and mobilize to include in the California constitution that “corporations are not people and money is not free speech.” As we advance towards that, we need changes that assure more integrity in our elections: 1) In the 2020 presidential primary, the 4 million California voters who are No Party Preference (NPP), like myself, should get their ballots in the mail and it should be a ballot that allows us to vote for the candidates of the parties who allow it. We should not be forced to ask for an “NPP/Dem” ballot. 2) “No Party Preference” should be identified clearly and specifically as the option if the voter wants to be independent of all political parties. The lack of clarity had many registering with the “American Independent Party, when they wanted to be NPP. 3 ) We also need uniformity in poll worker training, uniformity in poll procedures, and a robust audit of all ballots including Late Vote by Mail ballots. Corporate money out of elections; clear, fair and uniform rules in them!
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Equal Rights for LGTBQ+ Californians
Our state laws must guide the nation towards updating the Civic Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes so LGBTQ+ persons are not discriminated in employment, housing, education, and other areas. Additionally, the lives of many are currently in danger. There are 80 countries that punish people for being LGTBQ+, 12 of them with the death penalty. We must support updating asylum criteria to prioritize LGBTQ+ individuals from countries that persecute and harm their LGBTQ+ citizens and we need comprehensive immigration reform to protect LGBTQ+ people who are here without documents. All bullying, discrimination and hate crimes perpetrated against LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters must be confronted. LGBTQ+ students in schools and LGBTQ+ seniors in care facilities must be specially protected from discrimination and bullying. There should be no allowance for broad religious exemptions that discriminate against LGBTQ+ folks based on religious beliefs. The California State Board of Education decision to include in the curriculum the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans must be fully implemented. We must continue to educate and champion equality for all.
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Stop the Gun Makers
The NRA is the most extreme possible example of why I make getting corporate money out of politics central to my activism. This lobby group for the gun manufacturers treats murderous weapons like toys and sows hate between Americans just to sell more and more guns. This is insanity! I stand with the students who are putting their voices and bodies on the line to say – NO MORE! California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, but we need to do more nationwide. Specifically, universal, comprehensive background checks; bringing the ATF into the 21st century with a digitized, searchable database; and, funding the Center for Disease Control to research the gun violence epidemic.
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Split-Roll Proposition 13 Reform
Our schools used to be top in the nation. The corporate abuse of Proposition 13 sent CA schools to the bottom. Prop 13 is good to protect seniors and folks on fixed incomes, but multi-billion dollar companies like Chevron should not take advantage of it. Corporations are not people. Let’s close the corporate loopholes!
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No-Fracking in California
To frack, the oil companies use 80 billion gallons a year of our scarce California water and they pump their waste, containing many cancer-causing chemicals, into protected aquifers supplying drinking water. Ten counties and our ocean are already suffering the consequences. We don’t need fracking, ban it!
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Oil Severance Tax
California is the only major oil producing state without an extraction tax. The Oil industry is getting a free ride. A 9.5% extraction tax on the value of oil and natural gas could raise more than $1.5billion annually. In 2014 the oil industry spent $17 million on California state races. California legislators intimidated by the oil industry are denying us what Alaskans and Texans get. The oil severance tax must be preceded by a ban on fracking and the tax rate must increase every year to the point when it is not economically worth it for the pump-owners to keep pumping out the oil. The money from this oil extraction tax will fund renewable energy projects that reduce fossil fuel dependency as well as provide community benefits to areas affected by oil and natural gas extraction.
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Building Affordable Housing
Rent control stops the bleeding. Eliminate the Costa-Hawkins Act, which prevents rent control on more than half the units. Have a fair statewide rent control law and just cause for eviction. Promote ‘real’ low-income housing with massive tax incentives, higher taxes on luxury construction, and participation in ‘land trust’ developments. Statewide Rent Control and low income housing now!
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Aid to California Cities for Sustainable Development
Sacramento recently closed down some 400 Redevelopment Agencies (RA) effectively seizing billions of tax dollars that poor cities used to fight blight and improve conditions. Cities received nothing in return and the new “Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities” law is full of obstacles and requirements. Bring back local tax money to poor communities!
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Defend Immigrant Rights
No human being is illegal. The rights and liberties guaranteed by our constitution apply to all immigrants, regardless of immigration status. I support a comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. Our country has some responsibility in the economic, environmental and military disasters that underlie massive migrations. Let’s keep California a Sanctuary State!
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Campaign Finance Reform
Evict corporate money out of politics. Corporations are not people. Money is not free speech. Our democratic system is corrupted by the toxic influence and intimidation of corporate money. I never accepted a penny of corporate money for any of my campaigns. In spite of the Supreme Court current decision (Citizens United), we must make corporate money in our elections illegal. No votes for anyone taking corporate money!
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#MeToo
Endemic violence against women has been a permanent feature of our nation and our state. It has affected most women, and particularly women of color and women with little economic and social power. It was perpetuated by shame and silence.
Many resisted it in different ways as individuals and as organizations, and this re-sister movement to patriarchal violence had many expressions through the centuries, and it continues to expand. The recent burst of famous women saying “enough” and embracing each other with what Tarana Burke calls “empowerment through empathy” has been very powerful and welcomed.
We need to advance further this movement of cultural struggle against violence and oppression of women, and we need to implement legal and economic measures that empower women to challenge and confront violence and abuse.
Let’s continue to end the silence, be in solidarity, empower women through economic equality and bring about real systemic change!
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Defending Public Education and
Opposing the Privatization Education and the expansion of Charter Schools
Charter school chains are draining resources, creaming the student crop, and counseling out the difficult and “less profitable” students. School districts must be in the hands of those who truly believe in the promise of quality public education for all. Petitions to start or renew a charter school must be approved exclusively by the local school board. “No!” to privatizing public education.
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Supporting Union Organizing
I’m the daughter of unionized carpenter. Today we need unions more than ever. The weaker our unions the higher our inequality. Unions pull up all workers and enforce workplace health and safety. I support universal majority sign-up or ‘card checks’, prevailing wage laws, and project labor agreements, and ‘real penalties’ for employers who violate labor laws. The United Farm Workers should also be covered by the ‘card check’ law, which Governor Brown vetoed in 2011. Real penalties for anti-union bullies!
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