May 16th Election Update
With just a few races going to a runoff in the 2017 Los Angeles Municipal election cycle, Americans for Democratic Action has the opportunity to make a big different in a few low-turnout high impact races. Please get involved.
Los Angeles School Board:
District 4: Steve Zimmer
District 6: Imelda Padilla
The most important consideration on the Los Angeles Primary ballot this year is whether or not our public schools should be governed by a school board bought and paid for by the Charter School Industry. Democrats were horrified when Donald Trump nominated Charter School and School Voucher activist Betsy DeVos to be the Secretary of Education. But corporatist Democrats have had a miserable record in protecting our public schools and our teachers unions from corporatized charter schools that siphon off our tax dollars for unregulated profit-driven education. Our former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made proliferation of Charter Schools a top priority. And President Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was in the bag for the Charter School Industry as well.
The Charter School Industry is spending huge amounts of money to make sure that the LA School Board answers to it. Monica Garcia, who is in their pay, was re-elected to represent District 2. Ex-Mayor Republican Richard Riordan has donated $1 million to defeat Steve Zimmer because Zimmer is a strong advocate for good public schools. The Charter School Industry has set up two $5 million Independent expenditure funds to oppose Teachers' Union-endorsed candidates Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla. Also donating to the Charter-School candidates has been Alice Walton of the Wal-Mart familiy, Michael Bloomberg, and Gap co-founder Doris Fischer.
If you can find time between now and election day, please volunteer some time to phone bank for these candidates. Los Angeles already has more charter schools than any other city in the country. If we want to protect Public Education in LA, we need to act!
You can get involved with the United Teachers Los Angeles and their phonebanking operation: http://utla.net/news/phone-bank-canvass-zimmer-padilla
Contact Francis Mascarenhas at 610-509-1958 or [email protected] to get plugged into the Steve Zimmer campaign.
Contact Florina Martinez at 818-869-4380 or [email protected] to get plugged into the Imelda Padilla campaign.
City Council District 1: Gil Cedillo - We're endorsing Gil Ceillo in District 1 against challenger Joe Bray-Ali. Gil Cedillo's record on progressive issues has earned him our endorsement. We commend him for being being the strongest voice for the homeless on the City Council and for being one of a few elected officials in Southern California who actively worked on Bernie Sanders' Presidential campaign. His opponent has recently lost a lot of his endorsements when some racist and transphobic posts he made came out. We are confident we made the right call on this one.
City Council District 7: Karo Torrosian - As Director of Planning & The Environment for City Council Member Paul Krekorian, Karo has been an effective, active, knowledgeable and responsive public servant. He'll be all of these things as a City Council member too. His opponent received substantial contributions from Chevron in the primary and can be counted on to be an effective advocate for the fossil fuel industry if she were to win this race!
Measure C: Vote No! The Los Angeles Times does a good job describing how this is a "sleight of hand" the the Police Union has pushed for that would actually make it more difficult to hold police accountable for their actions.
Again, in a low turnout election, even an hour of phone-banking, canvassing, or contacting a few folks you know in the contested district could be the difference. Get involved and get engaged! If you have any questions about our endorsements or process, please contact Ankur Patel at 818.470.4019.
