Open letter to the supporters of our 2012 campaign

I just sent this as an email to our mailing list:

Hello, 

 

I have not written to this list since the 2012 election because I know how we are all getting buried in unsolicited email.  So I have waited until we now have some news and activity to report before coming to you with it. 

 

This email is a THANK YOU, a message about the upcoming Oakland Elections and an appeal for signatures to get Green Party candidates onto the next California statewide ballot.

 

In the 2012 we were honored with 7% of the first choice votes for each of our candidates presenting in 3 different local elections.  We have the support of many of the people on this list to thank for it. 

 

So thank you, on behalf of myself as City Council Candidate in District 1, and Candidates Randy Menjivar for Peralta School Trustee and Theresa Anderson for City Council at Large.  And of course you have the thanks of the Oakland Greens and the Alameda Greens. 

 

In this next election we are watching developments in the mayor’s race and the city council and school board races.  We hope to have at least two Green Party Candidates running locally.  (not me)

 

Oakland has the opportunity to do some of the things that Richmond, San Francisco and San Jose have done. Especially Richmond where they have a Green Party mayor and a Richmond Progressive Alliance. 

They have made some nationally recognized progress on foreclosure abatement, community policing and getting Chevron to pay some taxes.  Crime is down in Richmond at a rate much higher than the national trend.  Crime is down in Oakland too, but only inside the normal fluctuations. 

 

The current Oakland status quo moves at a snail’s pace at best.  When it comes to things like restorative justice, community policing and police oversight we are moving backwards.  When it comes to helping people with the recession, we basically do nothing that benefits Oakland Residents. 

 

Here in Oakland we need some new kind of political will and independence to take the kind of initiatives Richmond and San Francisco have.

 

To do this, the Oakland Greens are reaching out to other groups and other campaigns to see what kind of unity and collaborations we can participate in locally.

 

We continue to propose an Oakland Progressive Alliance to the community. 

 

To learn more about that, please contact us at our website.  Our next meeting will be this Thursday and it is open to all. 

http://www.oaklandgreens.org/events/oakland-greens-monthly-meeting/

 

State wide the Greens are bringing up some interesting new candidates. 

We are working to make the next election about issues that matter and not just vote marketing with empty advertizing slogans.

As you may or may not know, the new "reform" of our California electoral laws called "top two" shuts out the smaller parties more than ever.
The official Democrats and Republicans get a free pass and the rights to move their primaries to the final in non competitive (gerrymandered) districts. 
The others, including us Greens, need to cough up either a lot of money, or get a lot of signatures.
So we are holding signing open house evenings.  The one at my home will be this Wednesday. 
Your signatures can help get good Green Party alternative candidates on the state ballot this year. 

to meet our candidates this year see:
http://www.oaklandgreens.org/statewide-candidates

So please come by 

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 5:30 to 8:30 pm --
Don Macleay's house, 4004 Opal St., Oakland 
(3 blocks northwest of Kaiser/MacArthur-Broadway, 4 blocks east of MacArthur BART).  

The door will be unlocked, please just come in.  I will leave a note on the door. 

Thanks

--

Don Macleay

don@oaklandgreens.org

510 290-1200

http://oaklandgreens.org

 

PS.  For more information on the Richmond Progressive Alliance, click here

 

PPS.  If you have any suggestions for how we should handle our on line newsletters, please let me know. We are in the process of transferring information from my campaign and deciding how to set stuff up.  I am thinking we should get an list server service.