My friend Paul Song, Executive Chairman of the Courage Campaign, sent me an invitation to a fund raiser at his home. I met Paul in the Single Payer movement and he did come to my party in Detroit. Paul is a mover and shaker alright, if he ever runs for Governor I will support him. And his house has been on the news because it is the first energy neutral house in Greater Los Angeles.
The purpose was to raise funds for 8 Dem candidates to US Congress from California; Ami Bera (CA-07), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Lois Capps (CA-24), Scott Peters (CA-52), Raul Ruiz (CA-36), Pete Aguilar (CA-31), Michael Eggman, (CA-10) and Amanda Renteria (CA-21).
There were over 100 people including some Secret Service types, journalists and staffers. I met and talked to lots of people.
Paul introduced the candidates and they all spoke for a few minutes. I was particularly impressed with Raul Ruiz who is looking for re-election to Congress. His life story of being the first one in his family to graduate from high school while his father worked as a farm worker, Harvard, medical doctor and then US Congress was impressive. His district in the Coachella Valley outside Los Angeles is a bit too red and he is facing a Tea Party challenger like all the other candidates.
I was also very impressed by Amanda Renteria who is running in a red district from Bakersfield to Modesto north of LA. This is a district where the only 3 industries are oil, agriculture and prisons. She was very charismatic and she speaks Spanish, the language of many communities in her district. She has the support of Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers but the oil and prison industries do not support her to say the least. She did participate in a March for Democracy event in Bakersfield.
Pete Aguilar, the current Mayor of Redlands in the Inland Empire west of LA, is also a very good candidate to flip this red district to blue. Another Latino with deep roots in the district. Perhaps the Inland Empire Kossacks can pitch in. The big issue in his district is jobs. The area is second only to Detroit in poverty. Pete proposes infrastructure jobs. He hopes that the new Amazon warehouse will help.
I had a long conversation with Scott Peters of San Diego where he is running for re-election against the only gay Tea Party Candidate in the whole country a gay that gets boooed at the LGBT Pride parade. He actually agreed to speak at the upcoming San Diego Kossacks meeting.
Actually they all were great. And they all need our support to get elected or re-elected.
Then Nancy spoke and she did very well. Everything she said about the Boehner speakership, the dysfunctional Congress, the Tea Party, 2014, 2016 was on the money. Actually she did mention getting money out of politics. When I had a chance for a one on one she did ask me about my 99Rise pin and we talked about this issue. She told me she would have spken more about it if there was more time.
So these are the key races we need to support in California this November. Everybody at Paul's agreed and contributed what they could.
Here are some photos.
Nancy speaks
Selfie time
With Paul Song and Scott Peters
Amanda Renteria is very sharp
Pete Aguilar is a cool Mayor and he can definitely turn the district blue
Pete Aguilar and Raul Ruiz