As I read the latest GOP woes as they fight what increasingly looks like an uphill battle to keep
Congress, I can't help but hope that some of that rubs off at the local level, even in a red area like Huntington Beach in Orange County, California.
As a candidate for City Council in Huntington Beach, California, I am running to unseat one of a trio of GOP incumbents running for reelection.
All three practice the most egregious form of GOP party politics: voting time and again to take away our natural resources and give them to big campaign donors. And like our national politicians, these three incumbents say they are environmentalists, yet when the party bosses tell them to toe the line, well they toe it.
People across the city are fed up with their heavy handed politics and this time it is rearing its head in the form of taking away 5 acres of parkland to build a new senior center that we don't need at a cost of $25 million dollars. What's outrageous about this besides using parkland? We already have a underutilized senior center on prime real estate near the beach.
To finance the plan, they would give that land to a developer to build multi-million homes. The developer will use the $25 million offset money from a huge coastline development that it already owes the city to build the senior center. There you have it. The developer gets to make money instead of having to pay it. Sounds familiar doesn't it?
These same people also voted to build a huge desalination plant along the coast, which has proved to be highly unpopular.
My campaign has been receiving a lot of attention lately and disaffected voters across the city are welcoming my campaign.
It's hard to beat incumbents, especially as a progressive in one of the most conservative cities in the USA. But I come from a public relations background, I have a high-profile store in Downtown Huntington Beach and never do anything halfway.
Candidacies like mine are important parts of Howard Dean's 50 state strategy, and with good Democratic candidates hard to find here, my campaign has the capability to create a sea change in Orange County politics.
Visit my website, Joe Shaw for HB and if you are inclined, help out our campaign. We need volunteers and money.
We are raising $2200 for a ballot statement that's due soon and we raised nearly $200 from Kossacks already! Thanks!!!!