| Ranked Choice Vote ID | 192 |
|---|---|
| Ranked Choice Vote | Election: Coordinating Committee, 12 seats, July 2020 - June 2022 |
| Number of seats | 12 |
| Type | Secret Ballot |
| Ranked Choice Vote Administrator |
Brian Good, Lauren Mauricio, Nicole Raglin |
| Phase |
Closed |
| Discussion | 05/04/2020 - 06/14/2020 |
| Voting | 06/15/2020 - 06/21/2020 |
| Voting ends at Midnight Pacific Time | |
| Result |
Elected in alphabetical order: |
|
Candidates (Click on each candidates name to see their statements.) General AssemblyGreen Party of CaliforniaSaturday/Sunday, June 13th and 14th, 2020Location:Online
|
David Bond |
Background
Section 8-2. Membership
8-2.1 The Coordinating Committee shall be composed of up to 24 voting members, with 12 being female and 12 being of any gender, whether male, female, or non-binary. Six women and six of any gender shall be elected each year to serve staggered, two-year terms. (http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/03-31-2019 Section_8-2_Membership).
According to 8-4.1 "Elections shall be conducted each year by the Standing General Assembly using Ranked Choice Voting with a No Other Candidate option, with the six week discussion period beginning on the first Monday of May and the one week voting period commencing immediately thereafter." (http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/03-31-2019 Section_8-4_Elections). 8-4.3(b) adds that "A full and detailed explanation of Ranked Choice Voting, an explanation of the No Other Candidate option, and an encouragement that delegates make their choices seriously and a reminder that they do not have to fill all seats unless they feel there are enough qualified candidates."
This election is for twelve two-year seats for vacancies on the GPCA Coordinating Committee (http://www.cagreens.org/committees/coordinating) for two year terms running from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022. The Coordinating Committee's Duties and Authority are found here http://www.cagreens.org/bylaws/03-31-2019 Section_8-1_Duties_and_Authority .
Section 7-6. Online Voting
7-6.1. General Assembly delegates, throughout their year of service, shall be called upon from time to time to vote on decision items as described in 7-2, 7-3, and 7-4 between in-person General Assemblies, and as such shall constitute the Standing General Assembly (SGA). Decision items shall be placed before the SGA by the Coordinating Committee, and such votes shall be administered by Voting Administrators, according to procedures as set forth in these Bylaws and the Information Technology Protocol.
7-6.2 Discussion and Voting Period
7-6.2(a) The discussion period for Proposals and Elections shall be six weeks, beginning on a Monday at 12:01 am and ending on a Sunday at 11:59pm. The discussion period for Coordinating Committee and GPUS Delegation elections shall begin on the first Monday of May.
7-6.2(b) The purpose of the discussion period is to provide an opportunity to utilize the consensus-seeking process in 7-5 within the context of utilizing electronic means, teleconferences and other methods of communication other than an in-person General Assembly.
7-6.2(c) Proposals may be amended at any time during the discussion period by the proposal's sponsor(s), except that the final amended version must be placed before the Standing General Assembly no later than on a Monday at 12:01 am preceding the end of the discussion period.
7-6.2(d) The voting period for Proposals and Elections shall commence immediately at the close of the discussion period, and shall be for one week beginning on a Monday at 12:01 am and ending on a Sunday at 11:59pm.
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Candidates for Coordinating Committee and their Bios:
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David Bond
I'm very interested in being a member of the Green Party of California Coordinating Committee. I've been a green party member now going on 4 years, and have served on the GPCA IT committee for over a year. I'm involved heavily in the Los Angeles greens, and although not a member of the LA County Council, work constantly on building support and registering people to vote green here in my home town of LA. I want to grow the CA green outreach and registration, and appreciate the work the GPCA CC have done thus far.
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June Brashares
Sebastopol, Sonoma County
I have been a member of the CC since 2016 and I would like to continue on the CC to assist with ongoing efforts to help the GPCA operate effectively and engage new members. I am interested in working with others to make the Green Party a more robust electoral arm in the service of movements for social, environmental, racial and economic justice.
Biography:
I've been a Green Party member for 2 decades. In 2000, I worked as the Campaign Manager for Green Party candidate Medea Benjamin's run for US Senate. From 2000-2009, I was active in the Green Party in San Francisco and was elected to the SF County Council from 2002-2004. I moved to Sonoma County in 2009 and have been a member of the Sonoma County Green Party County Council from 2010 to the present. In 2012, I worked as the California Campaign Co-Manager for Jill Stein in the CA Primary Election and I worked on signature drives to successfully place Jill Stein on the ballot in Alabama, Kentucky and Virginia for the Presidential Election. I have volunteered on numerous other Green Party campaigns. I was a Delegate to the National Green Party Conventions in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. I've served as a member of the California delegation to GP-US from 2007-2011, and from 2012 to the present.
I have a degree in Political Science from the University of California San Diego. I've worked for organizations such as CalPIRG, USD's Center for Public Interest Law, a Labor Council, and Global Exchange. Since 2013, I've worked in the profession of clean renewable energy. I'm currently a member of the Steering Committee of the Local Clean Energy Alliance.
Thank you for your consideration of my candidacy.
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Megan "Meg" Buckingham
I'm running for Coordinating Committee to help grow the California Green Party as best I can. This is something that I've been thinking about doing, but I believe I have some time now. Hopefully, I can be a voice from and for Central California.
My name is Colt Gonzales and I would like to re-apply to join the Green Party of California's Coordinating Committee for a second term.
I joined the Green Party and began working on the Jill2016 campaign midway through 2016 with a group of locally organized Green Party members as "Central Valley for Jill Stein". After the election, we worked together to create our county's first official County Council. Since then our council has worked diligently to grow our county party and built necessary infrastructure to support those endeavors. Recently I have served on both the GPCA IT & Fundraising committees and served as a Co-Coordinator on each committee for a time. I am also an SGA Delegate and along with our county council helped to organize the Green Party of California General Assembly held in San Joaquin County in summer of 2018.
Member, San Francisco Green Party since 2001.
Member, SFGP County Council for approximately 10 years
Co-Chair, GPCA Coordinating Committee for 3 years (2009 - 2011)
Green Party Candidate:
2002 – SF Board of Supervisors, District 4
2004 – Congress
2006 – State Assembly
2008, 2012, 2014, 2016 2018 – Congress
Member, Executive Committees of the Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter and SF Group
Chair, Conservation Committee, SF Group
Member, Healthy California Now Board representing GPCA in this statewide coalition as we advocate for an Improved Medicare for All.
Retired small business owner
In addition to administrative tasks, the GPCA Coordinating Committee is in a unique position to help the GPCA respond to current issues. My environmental and healthcare work could be an asset to the CC.
I have been a registered Green since 2004, where I supported Peter Camejo, and continuing after in his several State and Federal election efforts. I had known Peter for over forty years. We had met and been associated in the Socialist movement beginning in the 1960's. Before retiring in 2014, I worked for seventeen years at SEIU in the capacity of organizer, and then doing administrative litigation as lead senior civil service advocate, defending workers who were facing disciplinary action in the civil service system covering blue collar workers in the City of Los Angeles and thirteen other cities in LA County; I also handled disciplinary and contract violations under the MOU that I litigated through the Arbitration process. In the mid nineties, I was the chief negotiator for the Registered Nurses bargaining unit in Los Angeles County.
Prior to SEIU I worked as Journeyman Union Carpenter for sixteen years in Colorado and California. I attended college at the University of Colorado but was thrown out for antiwar activity during the 1970 Cambodia Invasion. I became politically active around the Cuban Revolution and civil rights movement. I belonged to the Denver chapter of SNCC in 1964. I am from Boulder Colorado.
The work of building a ballot status, organizing party is difficult and extremely time-consuming. It requires rethinking what it means to organize, and what it means to run and, occasionally, win. Our job is not to convince those who rule that we are trustworthy and competent but rather to convince our newly emerging political base that those who rule are neither trustworthy or competent. Politics in this country is about the social alliances that are wound together to create and enable class rule. We need to stitch together a new social coalition the enables the transition to a new rule by a new class, the class of wage earners. Millions of these newly politicized people were energized and emerged out of the Sanders campaign, we need to organize them and enable them to exert a new and different type of political power.
I came to the Green Party in 2016 when Senator Sanders was cheated out of the Democratic Presidential nomination. I was actively involved with the Green Party of Tulare County until January 2019 when school and work commitments started to take a toll, however, I am getting back in touch with them in the midst of the current shelter-in-place order. I helped organize the COS Greens club at College of the Sequoias in the Fall of 2018, and we brought Jill Stein in as a guest speaker on campus. I have served as a Tulare County delegate to the Green Party of California, I served on the GPCA Coordinating Committee from June 2018 to April 2019, and I look forward to the prospective opportunity to serve on the GPCA CC again.
If I am elected to the CC, I hope to create a united party that demands change to our current government and political system. I fully believe the Green Party of the United States can become a major U.S. political party, but even if the nay-sayers are correct, we are still a force at the local level, and we have the ability and responsibility to organize at the grassroots level to affect change and to shift the Overton Window to a free, equitable society and a healthy, renewable planet. I believe humanity is at a crossroads where we will either continue to work competitively and go extinct, or we will learn to work cooperatively and thrive in harmony with each other and with the earth. And I hope, on the CC, I can be a voice that encourages cooperation.
Specifically, if elected to the CC, I would like to help the Green Party organize efforts to push for ranked choice voting and proportional representation at all levels of government, and to push to give all people the right to vote in the districts in which they reside, regardless of “citizenship,” “legal,” or “criminal” status. I think much inequity can be solved simply by giving everyone their voice. Additionally, I will fight for open borders; an end to our insidious, for-profit prison system; Reparations for slavery and the numerous crimes committed against Indigenous people; protection for workers and unionization; dignity, equity, and protection for LGBT people, specifically for my transgender brothers, sisters, and siblings; the official ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment; an end to all wars and foreign occupation; and protection of our water and other sacred, life-giving resources.
I hope you will vote for me and give me the honor of guiding the Green Party of California into this uncertain future. And I sincerely thank you for your consideration.
I am applying to the Coordinating Committee with the main goal of helping build an inclusive, effective and functional infrastructure for GPCA. Utilizing my experience in building and supporting collaborative teams and effective communication paths, I hope to help the Coordinating Committee in reaching the various GPCA organizations to integrate a state-wide inclusive vision. This enables us to proudly reflect our platform and values across the state and grow the Green Party of California through an organized voter registration and coalition building campaign.
On the CC I am a do-er. I will actively participate in meetings, playing roles as needed, and work between calls to support statewide committees and perform my other duties. On calls, I will bring whatever process and substantive skills/analysis I can offer to our discussions. Those include extensive experience with consensus process, formal training in reflective listening, consulting skills, and practice intervening in oppression dynamics (‘tho that’s everybody’s job), as well as substantive knowledge of and experience in life/environmental sciences, IT, data analysis, and the nonprofit sector.
Extraordinary moment Right now is an unprecedented opportunity for players, including parties outside the duopoly, to be seen and heard. We have to make the most of it. While the CC’s duties are largely administrative, we can support and inspire others in statewide committees and counties to use this opportunity to greatest advantage, whether by organizing, forging alliances, offering unique perspectives, or encouraging new strategies such as mutual aid that address the cascading series of crises we have just entered. We are players in choosing whether the doors of history will slam shut on us again, or be pushed open to allow for changes Greens have always wanted and advocated for. I am always looking for ways to leverage openings like COVID-19 for strategic advantage. There is a role for the CC in promoting such thinking.
BIOGRAPHY Lately/Green Party and Other Groups I've been an activist since college (1980s). I attended my first local Green Party meeting in 1988 in San Francisco. I once worked for a Democratic state administration (straight out of college) as a Women’s and Peace Policy Liaison in Ohio. Despite a great title for my job, the limits of the Democratic Party became clear to me then (1988-1989). I moved back to California and have now been a registered Green for over 20 years.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve become more involved with the party at the county and state level. I attended the last 2 GAs, and gave 2 sessions in December in Fresno. I was just elected to our County Council in a contested election, and ran a write-in campaign against an unopposed incumbent Blue-Dog Dem for CA State Senate this past (“top 2”) primary. I proposed and co-led a visioning retreat for our county party, before I was elected. I continue to propose initiatives and try new strategies. Tomorrow I’ve organized a food plant giveaway to COVID-affected people under our GPSC banner.
In 30+ years of activism, I've worked on local issues, California ballot propositions, foreign policy, and of course climate change (the subject of my master's thesis). I’ve also performed direct service, both as a paid nonprofit employee, and in unwaged work in many situations (see below). I now perform the following unwaged roles in our movements (outside of GP work): nonviolence trainer (Sonoma County Nonviolence Training Collective), street musician (Hubbub Club and Musicians’ Action Group), street medic (certified by Frontline Wellness United, founded at Standing Rock).
Older/other Originally from Maine, I came to California in the 1980s to attend Stanford as an undergrad. I majored in Feminist Studies and lived in coops, where I first learned consensus process. I've lived in California most of my life since then, with exceptions a year in Ohio (worked for the feminist First Lady in the Governor's office as her Peace and Women's Issues Policy Liaison), a couple of years in Washington, D.C. (working at various nonprofits), and overseas political travel to/work in South Africa, El Salvador, and Bolivia (weeks to months of each; I was in El Salvador during the civil war, and in South Africa right as apartheid was being defeated. Bolivia was the People's Climate Conference).
In 1999 I went back to school and put myself through basic sciences later culminating in an M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy. Meanwhile, I became an independent consultant, remaining in the nonprofit/public service sector, to which I've dedicated the vast majority of my career (I've also worked at City College of San Francisco).
I've volunteered my technical (IT) skills locally (with the International Indian Treaty Council), regionally (with the Frente Indigena Oaxaquena Binacional in and near Fresno) and overseas (with the national trade union federation COSATU in South Africa). I worked in the nonprofit sector doing IT for California Rural Legal Assistance (serving farmworkers and other rural poor people from Santa Rosa to El Centro), as well as in social service in inner-city San Francisco (at Glide Memorial Church). So I know a lot about the state, having traveled and worked far and wide, in both urban and rural settings.
I've also served on several boards, organized with various activist coalitions, and started several activist groups (a Code Pink chapter and an anti-police brutality group, as well as two affinity groups). I've done some public speaking, worked (unpaid) in community radio public affairs for years, written successful grants, organized speaker panels, been the speaker, the moderator, spoken to community groups, helped others develop presentations... I've witnessed and participated in a lot of group dynamics and communications, and learned a lot about what's effective in the process.
My activist training includes reflective listening (as a hotline volunteer), undoing white supremacy (a multi-week training), various forms of street activism (I myself am now part of a collective who train other activists in nonviolence philosophy, strategy and tactics), and street medicine (I'm a street medic with Frontline Wellness United). I'm also a street musician with two community bands, and look to "cultural work" as a key contribution to politics and movements that are alive, inspiring, fun and rooted in communities seeking liberation.
Please vote for me. I now know many of the people already serving and re-applying for the CC. It’s a good group, and I hope I get the chance to work with you all there. Thanks.
As a member of the Green Party of California who is involved deeply on a county level with the Nevada County Green Party, I hope to represent the voices of rural California, and of women of color on the CC.
Biography
I am an active member of the Nevada County Green Party and I also lend my support to our local Peace and Justice Center, Nevada County Health Care for All, and Extinction Rebellion. I am a founding member of GMO Free Nevada County, and work regularly work with a local coalition to stop the Centennial Dam Project. I am a member of the GPCA IT Committee, and an SGA Administrator.
I presently serve (since 2017) on the County Council of Alameda County and have appreciated a number of opportunities to learn and participate. Locally, during the lead-up to each election, I feel honored to help fellow Greens produce the highly useful and educational Alameda County Green Voter Guide. I function as an Alameda County delegate at biannual General Assemblies of the Green Party of California (GPCA). When the GPCA GA was hosted in the Bay Area in early 2019, I coordinated operational logistics and a weekend’s worth of 100%-plant-based meals for attendees. I was elected in 2018 to serve as a California alternate delegate to GPUS. I am also a member of the GPUS Animal Rights Committee.
During the 2018 election cycle, I served as treasurer for Laura Wells for Congress and Aidan Hill for City Council and successfully executed administrative duties as prescribed by the various local, state and federal regulations. I am presently serving as treasurer for Aidan Hill for Berkeley Mayor.
I would like to serve on the GPCA Coordinating Committee because I have been passionately committed to advancing the growth of the Green Party in California.
This country needs a viable alternative to the corporate duopoly dominating the political scene in the United States. The Citizens United Supreme Court decision altered the political balance to favor the 1% deep pocket elite and gives them an unreasonable advantage and influence over the rights of the citizens of this country. The grassroots nature and values of the Green Party are the only things that can possibly restore our democracy and change this dreadful condition.
I intend to faithfully reflect the will of California Greens and the GPCA while serving as a CC member and will be transparent and forthright in representing and expressing the views of California Greens and their party.
I was a life-long advocate of the “lesser evil” political philosophy and regularly voted on the left side of the ballot firmly believing that it was the best alternative. I awoke in 2012, realizing the result of my efforts had resulted in electing a lesser evil government that was expanding military incursions, bailing out Wall Street and not the homeowners, and that ethnicity, gender identity, nor skin color will make a President more sociocentric.
Totally disillusioned with the mainstream parties I registered Green in 2014, but got distracted when Bernie came with his compelling campaign of social reform and I once again I swallowed the hook line and sinker of mainstream politics. When Bernie failed to get the nomination, I joined the Stein campaign and did my utmost to convince people to vote Green.
Since becoming active in the GPCA, I helped reactivate the Stanislaus County Green Party in the fall of 2016, and currently serve on the Stanislaus County Council. I served as a delegate for the 2017 Kern General Assembly and the 2017 Ventura GA. I currently serve as a 2017-2018 SGA delegate.
I want to continue to bring my grassroots electoral experience to the state-wide Green Party in an effort to elect more Greens to public office. I strongly believe that to effect political change, we must amass political power at the local level, which will lead to state-wide power. Giving Greens the ability to apply the Ten Key Values across California and will further our Green values.
I am applying to continue serving on the state Coordinating Committee. The Green Party is the political party this country needs, now more than ever, because we are not and can not be sold out to billionaires and their corporations, and we advance the interconnected values of the environment, peace, and justice. I want to do whatever I can to strengthen the Green Party and I believe the CC is a good place to serve.
As to my experience, I first registered in 1992, when the Green Party began, and since then I have been active at the local, state and national levels. I have run for state Controller, once for Governor in 2010 after the global financial meltdown, and most recently in 2018 as one of three CA Greens running head-to-head against incumbent Democrats for Congress. I love getting the word out about the Green Party, including writing, editing, proofing, speaking, and organizing. I plan to use these skills to help strengthen the Green Party and welcome people into it.