Ugh — update — unfortunately, Yuksel apparently, allegedly, either assaulted or took advantage of a very inebriated young woman when in high school. So though I do think some of his ideas are good, and I do like what I know about his campaign, that just completely rules out public office.
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Wrote this before the news came out about the allegations:
Last July, I wrote a piece about how even long shot campaigns could create change by harnessing the power of the campaign itself. This July, I have the pleasure of writing about a campaign doing exactly that, in a more creative and powerful way than I imagined.
Yahya Yuksel, attorney and son of a leader of Islamic reform, has transformed his campaign into an engine directly helping the district CD2 where he is running for office. From simple efforts like volunteering at Primavera shelter for the homeless, to helping with the Outlaw Dirty Money petition signatures, to larger initiatives like the kickstarting of TeenDemocrats.org and piloting an intergenerational Grand Mentors program, Yahya’s volunteers are out in the community doing more than simple phonebanking and door knocking. They even held a Music for Democracy competition, asking participants to compose an original song promoting a cause or proposing a solution.
Perhaps most tellingly, Yahya urged his supporters to donate directly to the Florence Project providing separated families with legal counsel, and holds bowling nights to raise money for Youth On Their Own — this while trying to compete with the deep pockets of some of the other contenders.
Yahya appears determined to compete on merit, on genuine change, and on original ideas. He suggests adding a requirement that the candidate must themselves gather at least half of their petition signatures, as one way to ensure that the candidate actually engages with their constituency! Finding small ways to leverage laws for democracy is a key, and Yahya gets this — something simple such as moving President’s Day to be a voting holiday, could have a huge impact.
On income inequality, he offers a detailed proposal:
We are introducing to you the Raise American Pay (“RAMP”) solution. It reconnects the profits of a company as well as the pay of its top 10% of salary earners to pay going to the other 90%
of workers through a compensation ratio (“CR”). Companies that keep their compensation ratio stable over time (thereby giving workers a proportionate share of gains that businesses are
reaping) will get tax breaks. Companies that don’t, that are unwilling to share their gains with their workers, won’t get tax breaks. They will lose a good portion of the reduced taxes they just received from the Trump tax cuts (remember, those cuts were sold with the claim that by taxing businesses less, workers would receive solid pay raises!). It’s a solution that transforms
the tax cuts into a mechanism that really does boost workers’ wages and yet also leaves companies with strong profits. It will put an end to wage stagnation as well as its many disturbing consequences both for individual families and the nation.
- Through RAMP, average real wages will rise almost 35% in 15 years for the typical worker versus 5% given current trends
- Higher wages will boost consumer demand, lifting job creation by 20%, resulting in the addition of 4 million new jobs
- Tax revenues from the added jobs plus reduced social spending from the wage increases will create a net $900 billion federal budget surplus over 10 years
Whether all of his proposals will work exactly as he’s envisioning them now, remains to be seen, but his energy and genuine commitment to improving things now, whether or not he wins the election, is a breath of fresh air in a toxic time.
To find out more about his campaign, see www.yahya4congress.com