I had the opportunity to hear Representative Lynn Woolsey this weekend in Sonoma County at The Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy's "Green, Eggs and Ham 2008" event to recap the 2008 elections.
It is not a stretch to say that Congresswoman Woolsey is "happy" to see a change at the top.
First off, I don't live in Sonoma County, I live in San Francisco. I happened to find out about this excellent meeting of Sonoma County Progressive leadership because the unthinkable had happened in Santa Rosa.
Cycling Advocate Gary Wysocky won election to the Santa Rosa City Council with an unapologetic campaign for alternative transportation and sustainability. I dropped him a line and he invited me to the talk.
Congresswoman Woolsey was the keynote speaker and she was all grins and showing no sign that she wants to fritter away the opportunity the Democrats have now. She discussed the stimulus package, and said the lame duck sessions would push it through and see what W would do with it. She is very excited about the new Congress, saying...
"57 is the new 60!"
She feels a lot of good legislation that has been sitting stale will get pushed through. This being a meeting of progressives she indicated that progressives will have to be vigilant because while we added seats in the house, a lot of them are Blue Dogs. Her biggest personal issue she expects to get done this year is HR 2392, the "Balancing Act" - which pushes for better paid family leaves, investments in Child Care, benefits for part time employees (who are often part-time in order to spend time with family), and improved access to telecommuting.
Overall, I was very impressed with Congresswoman Woolsey's attitude - she really doesn't sound like she is interested in taking any prisoners - especially in Iraq and you can tell she is unhappy with our excursion over there.
UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention. She really CALLED OUT John Dingle and basically said he screwed the entire Country by backing Detroit with respect to fuel standards, and she will be backing Waxman to take over the chairmanship of the committee.
After that, a lot of time was spent going over various downticket races and propositions. We bemoaned Prop 8, but were very cheerful of the rest of the state propositions (Sonoma County has a large number of Cage Free egg producers who are way ahead of the Prop 2 curve). Most near and dear to my heart, Measure Q passed in Sonoma County! This will bring a 70 mile passenger rail corridor to life from Cloverdale to Larkspur, putting a big dent into congestion on the 101 and remove a lot of the gnarly greenhouse gases produced by said congestion. It will have a parallel bike pathway running that entire distance, a great feature for the Sonoma County 101 corridor.
The Progressive Candidates for various city councils in Sonoma County did very well, taking a majority on the City Councils in Santa Rosa and Petaluma. This includes the aforementioned Councilman-elect Wysocky, founding member of the Sonoma County Bike Coaliton. I told him he had created a bit of a stir in the South Bay/SF area because SF and South Bay politicians are always a bit cagey about improvements for cycling because they worry about how it will impact their campaigns. He said "Well then, do you know any cyclists who want to help me retire my campaign debt!!!? I laughed, cut him a check, and said I'd see what I could do :)
Feel free to help a brother Progressive and Cyclist!