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News Media report on the First RPA Forum

Two Hopefuls Campaign to sit on Council

By Rebecca Rosen Lum
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
February 1, 2004

RICHMOND - The local election season doesn't officially begin until July, but two challengers have declared their intentions to run for Richmond City Council. Andres Soto and Gayle McLaughlin kicked off their campaigns Saturday at a gathering and panel discussion sponsored by the fledgling Richmond Progressive Alliance and attended by about 200 people.

San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, who has emerged nationally as a Green Party success story in the aftermath of his city's recent mayoral election, stopped by to give the candidates and the organization his blessing. Although Greens number only 3 percent of the electorate in San Francisco, Gonzalez drew 47 percent of the vote.

Five Richmond council members are up for re-election in November: Nat Bates, Charles Belcher, Gary Bell, Tom Butt and Mindell Penn. "All depending on what kind of opposition people are able to mount, a couple of these incumbents may be turned out," Soto said.

Others saying they plan to run are Arnie Kasendorf, chairman of the Commission on Aging and member of the Point Molate Restoration Advisory Board; former Councilman John Marquez; and Eddrick Osborne, president of the Parchester Village Neighborhood Council.

McLaughlin, a former teacher, said she would hold developers to a higher level of environmental accountability and demand ChevronTexaco pay "a fair share" in taxes, rather than the flat rate the company now enjoys.

Soto, policy director for the San Francisco-based Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, says his campaign grew out of his "struggle to get justice out of the Cinco de Mayo" incident in 2002, in which he said police beat celebrants including himself and his sons, he said.

Both Soto and McLaughlin have called on public safety unions to pay a monthly contribution toward their health and pension benefits -- a point of contention in the stalled labor talks. "In the interest of the city, in order to maintain as high a level of protection as possible, they've got to be willing to compromise," Soto said.

Butt was the only sitting council member to drop by the Saturday event.

Gonzalez stuck around after his talk, chatting with locals, listening to other speakers and posing for pictures with admirers. "There's no reason why what's going on in San Francisco wouldn't work here," he said. "You don't have to water down your politics, make peace with things you don't believe in."

On the way out, he challenged McLaughlin to "invite me back."

"I'll walk a precinct for you," he said.