2006 through 2007
In 2006 Gayle McLaughlin won the election for mayor as a Green Party member versus incumbent Democrat Irma Anderson by 189 votes out around 12,000 cast. [4] Jim Jenkins lost his bid for the Richmond city council.
| Founder | Gayle McLaughlin |
|---|---|
| Location |
|
Area served | United States |
| Website | RichmondProgressiveAlliance.net |
The Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) is a community/political group in Richmond, western Contra Costa County, California, United States. Its mission is to unite the left regardless of political party and was founded by Gayle McLaughlin and Marilyn Langlois. [1] [2]
It supports various community efforts including campaigns to force the local Chevron refinery to pay higher taxes and reduce pollution; opposition to racial profiling; and opposition to urban casino development in Point Molate. It supports candidates for the nonpartisan races in the city.
Its members include voters registered in the Democratic, Green, and other parties as well as independents. During the 2000s and 2010s, the alliance altered the balance of power in the city and reduced the representation of Chevron-backed candidates. [3] When interviewed, McLaughlin stated that the RPA was designed as, "an umbrella organization to bring together Greens, progressive Democrats, libertarians, Peace and Freedom Party members and others who are concerned about Richmond community affairs." [4] The RPA is credited with "extracting" 114 million dollars on one occasion and another 90 million on a second occasion to fund social programs. [5]
Andrés Soto [6] ) is an environmentalist and activist from Richmond and one of the founders of the organization. [7] [8] He works for Communities for a Better Environment and is a critic of the pollution caused by the Chevron Richmond Refinery. [9] [10]
He criticized the notion that the Richmond Refinery brings jobs to Richmond with the statistic that only 5% of its employees are Richmond residents in 2012. [11]
He lobbied for Chevron to financially support struggling Doctors Medical Center in 2014 unsuccessfully, citing that it was a backbone for treatment during the refinery's periodic chemical spills. [12]
In 2016 he was campaigning for lower refinery emissions. [13]
In the year 2018 he opposed the settlement that went on to approve a master planned community at the former Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot. [14] Also in that year he opposed the exporting of coal and petcoke to Latin American and Asian markets through the Port of Richmond. [15]
In 2019 he supported banning the transport of coal from Utah to the Levin Terminal for export due to off-gassing from coal dust and its potential harm to the community. [16] He also criticized the Richmond City Council of being too close to Big Oil. [17] Furthermore he has stated that there is too much pollution located in toxic pockets of Pittsburg, California which he believes are associated with high levels of asthma an cardiovascular disease intersected with a community of African Americans and Latinx Americans living in poverty. [18]
In the 2004 election Gayle McLaughlin won the race for a city council seat in Richmond while Andrés Soto lost his bid for city council and Leonard McNeil won his campaign for San Pablo mayor, all running as part of the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
In 2005 the RPA supported transfer of the former Zeneca site at Campus Bay to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. [19]
In 2006 Gayle McLaughlin won the election for mayor as a Green Party member versus incumbent Democrat Irma Anderson by 189 votes out around 12,000 cast. [4] Jim Jenkins lost his bid for the Richmond city council.
Measure T, a ballot measure submitted to the voters that substantially increased business license fees for large corporations like Chevron Corporation owner of the Chevron Richmond Refinery passed. Jovanka Beckles ran for city council of Richmond and lost while Jeff Ritterman won his city council bid. Another ballot measure, Measure U, in favor of casinos, like the one proposed for the former Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot, was successfully defeated at the ballot box.
In 2010, the RPA negotiated with Chevron to contribute millions of dollars for the city to reinvest in itself instead of facing Measure T which would have forced a change in the utility tax which would have made them potentially contribute more. [20] In this same year Gayle McLaughlin won re-election as Richmond mayor. Jovanka Beckles in her second bid for Richmond city council won while Eduardo Martinez lost his second attempt at a spot on the Richmond city council.
In the 2012 election, Langlois lost a run for city council, as did Eduardo Martinez on his third bid. [21] In that same election, Measure N, a tax on sugary drinks written by RPA member Dr. Jeff Ritterman, was resoundingly rejected by voters amid $2.4 million in campaign spending by Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes, a campaign expenditure group funded by the American Beverage Association, to defeat it. [22]
In 2014, RPA member Mike Parker ran for Richmond mayor but withdrew from the race in August. Parker endorsed fellow candidate and city councilmember Tom Butt so as not to splinter the progressive and moderate-progressive vote in the election. [23] Seen as a "David versus Goliath" race in the wake of the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court case, the 2014 Richmond municipal election attracted national media attention [24] due to Chevron spending approximately $3 million to support its own slate of candidates and break progressive control of the council. [25] Butt beat Chevron's mayoral candidate, Nat Bates, with more than 51 percent of the election and avoiding a run-off. Martinez and Beckles also for won their bids, beating out Chevon-backed candidates Donna Powers, Charles Ramsey, and Al Martinez, while ex-mayor Gayle McLaughlin also won back a seat. [26]
In 2016, RPA members Ben Choi and Melvin Willis won seats on the Richmond City Council, joining McLaughlin, Beckles, and Martinez on the board and giving the RPA a majority on the seven-member city council. [27] Neither Choi, an account manager with a clean-energy company, nor Willis, a community organizer, had held elected office prior to the election. In that same election, Richmond voters approved a controversial rent-control and just-cause eviction measure written and backed by the RPA. [28]
In 2018, Richmond's mayor, Tom Butt, endorsed Buffy Wicks, who opposed Beckles in the race for District 15's California Assembly seat. [29] Beckles was endorsed by the California Progressive Alliance, a statewide offshoot of the Richmond Progressive Alliance co-founded by McLaughlin to elevate progressive ideas statewide. Wicks went on to beat Beckles by 12 points and win the seat. [30] Pundits cited her win over the RPA was due, in part, to Wicks' own experience with grassroots organizing, beating Beckles at her "own game." [31] In the same election, McLaughlin lost her race for California Lieutenant Governor. [32]
In 2019, Butt blamed the Richmond Progressive Alliance for obstructing appointments to city positions, which are done typically at the prerogative of the mayor. [33]
Shirley Ann Dean, considered moderate in Berkeley politics, is an American politician who served as the Mayor of Berkeley, California (1994-2002). Before serving two terms as Berkeley's Mayor, Dean served on the Berkeley City Council for 15 years (1975–94) and was a leader of the Berkeley Democratic Club.
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a city council. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay region, Richmond borders San Pablo, Albany, El Cerrito and Pinole in addition to the unincorporated communities of North Richmond, Hasford Heights, Kensington, El Sobrante, Bayview-Montalvin Manor, Tara Hills, and East Richmond Heights, and for a short distance San Francisco on Red Rock Island in the San Francisco Bay. Richmond is one of two cities, the other being San Rafael, that sits on the shores of both San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay.
Gayle McLaughlin is an American politician from Richmond, California. She was first elected to the Richmond City Council in 2004 when she was a member of the Green Party of California. She won two consecutive four-year terms as the city's mayor in 2006 and 2010. After reaching the mayoral term limit, she was reelected to the City Council in 2014. In June 2017, she announced her candidacy for lieutenant governor of California in the 2018 election.
Irma L. Anderson was the elected mayor of the city of Richmond, California serving between 2001 and 2006. She ran for re-election as the incumbent Democrat in the 2006 mayoral race and lost to Green Party challenger councilperson Gayle McLaughlin by 192 votes.
Jim Rogers is an American politician. He served on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in the 1990s, and was a city council member for the city of Richmond, California for three terms. He was first elected to the city council in 2002, and his final term expired in January 2015. He is a Democrat, considered a moderate, and has also been referred to as a progressive. He was called the San Francisco Bay Area's most famous lawyer because of television ads in which he dubbed himself as "The People's Lawyer".
The Richmond City Council is the governing body for the city of Richmond, California. The council consists of the Mayor of Richmond and six other city council members, one designated Vice Mayor. The council members are all elected from the whole city; no members are elected by district or ward. The council members are elected to four-year terms, as opposed to the previous six-year terms. They are not all elected at once. The council members meet every first and third Tuesday of the month and, if necessary, hold special meetings on the remaining Tuesdays. Presently the entire city council is Democratic.
The Richmond, California 2006 city election decided the mayor, four council members, and one measure submitted to the voters of Richmond, California on November 7, 2007. The election also elected the first Green Party mayor of this city, and made Richmond the largest city in the United States to have a Green mayor. Furthermore, it unseated an incumbent mayor from a major political party by one from a minor third party.
John E. Márquez is an American politician and activist who has held various positions in Richmond, California city government. For eighteen years, Márquez served as a city councilman. He was the first Latino to serve on the Richmond City Council. Originally he was an appointee to the council in 1985 and won an election to that seat in 1987; he subsequently lost his second bid in 1991. He was elected again in 1993 and twice more in 1997 and 2004. In 1990 and 1998, he served as vice mayor. Márquez was defeated for re-election in 2008, and lost a mayoral bid in 2001 to Gayle McLaughlin. In addition to his elected offices in the city of Richmond, he has held various other positions in Contra Costa County, California on various commissions.
Rosemary Corbin is a longstanding Democratic public figure and former mayor of Richmond, California.
Thomas King Butt is an American politician and architect serving as the sixth mayor of Richmond, California. He was vice-mayor in 2002 and 2012 and a member of the Richmond City Council for over 20 years before being elected mayor. He is the longest continuously serving council member in Richmond's history.
Point Potrero is a point in San Pablo Bay forming a cape and hugging the Potrero Hills in Richmond, California.
Harpreet Singh Sandhu is a Sikh American politician and community activist from Richmond, California and one of the most prominent ones of the Sikh religion. He was the first Asian and the first Sikh city councilman in Richmond, and one of only a few Sikhs to hold office in the United States.
The Chevron Richmond Refinery is a 2,900-acre (1,200 ha) petroleum refinery in Richmond, California, on San Francisco Bay. It is owned and operated by Chevron Corporation and employs more than 1,200 workers, making it the city's largest employer. The refinery processes approximately 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil a day in the manufacture of petroleum products and other chemicals. The refinery's primary products are motor gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel and lubricants.
Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot is a decommissioned United States Navy fueling station on the western shore of Richmond, California on San Francisco Bay. It has undergone years of litigation and debate as to its redevelopment with proposals ranging from a billion dollar casino project, parkland, housing, and other mixed uses.
The Potrero Hills also known as the Potrero Ridge and Point Molate Hills is a chaparral and forested escarpment that crests northwest to southeast along the San Pablo Peninsula in Richmond, California.
Buffy Jo Christina Wicks is an American politician who serves in the California State Assembly. A Democrat, she represents the 15th Assembly District, which encompasses the cities of Berkeley, Emeryville, Richmond, and parts of the City of Oakland in the East Bay. Prior to being elected to the State Assembly, she was an American political strategist who is credited as one of the architects of President Barack Obama's grassroots organizing model. She also served on the senior staff of Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, and as Deputy Director at the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Dan Kalb is an American politician. He represents District 1 on the Oakland City Council, a position he has held since January 2013.
The Richmond, California 2014 city election decided the mayor, three council members, and one measure submitted to the voters of Richmond, California on November 4, 2014. The election attracted national attention due to the amount of money spent by Chevron both for and against various candidates. Chevron created two political action committees and contributed $2,933,363.90 to them amounting to a total of about $30 per city resident. The only other source of money for them was $5000 each from the Richmond Police Officers Association and the local Firefighter's union. As of October 10, they spent $1.4 Million supporting Nat Bates for mayor and Donna Powers, Charles Ramsey and Al Martinez for the city council. They spent a further $500,000 on negative campaigning against council candidates Gayle McLaughlin, Jovanka Beckles and Eduardo Martinez. The other major candidate for mayor, Tom Butt, had a campaign budget of just over $22,000.
The 2018 California lieutenant gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the Lieutenant Governor of California. Incumbent Democratic Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom was ineligible to run for reelection due to term limits and ran for Governor of California instead. Democrats Eleni Kounalakis and Ed Hernandez faced each other in the general election, as no Republican finished in the top two positions of the nonpartisan blanket primary that was held on June 5, 2018.
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