The next LA Greens meeting will be on Wed., July 18. We'll have elections for Media Person, Events Coordinator, Membership/Volunteer Coordinator, and Female Co-Facilitator. We'll also be discussing our budget.
Please send requests for any additional agenda items to losangelesgreens@gmail.com or leave a comment on the site.
The Los Angeles Greens meet the third Wednesday of every month at 7PM at The Peace Center, 8124 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Meetings are free (donations accepted) and open to the public. Children are welcome. Parking is available behind the building.
37th Congressional District - Special Election results
Green Party candidate Daniel Abraham Brezenoff will be joining Democrat Laura Richardson, Republican John M. Kanaley, and Libertarian Herb Peters in the August 21 special Congressional election run-off, according to the results on the CA Secretary of State's website.
Here are the full "Semi - Final Official Canvass" results, as of this moment:
United States Representative District 37
As of June 26, 2007 at 11:35 p.m. * Precincts Reporting 100% (334 of 334)
Registered Voters 266,017 * Ballots Cast 29,637 * Turnout 11.14%
Here are the full "Semi - Final Official Canvass" results, as of this moment:
United States Representative District 37
As of June 26, 2007 at 11:35 p.m. * Precincts Reporting 100% (334 of 334)
Registered Voters 266,017 * Ballots Cast 29,637 * Turnout 11.14%
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Percent |
| Laura Richardson | Dem | 11,027 | 37.76% |
| Jenny Oropeza | Dem | 9,144 | 31.31% |
| Valerie Mc Donald | Dem | 2,743 | 9.39% |
| John M. Kanaley | Rep | 2,230 | 7.64% |
| Peter Mathews | Dem | 1,031 | 3.53% |
| Teri Ramirez | Rep | 560 | 1.92% |
| Daniel Abraham Brezenoff | Grn | 352 | 1.21% |
| Jeffrey "Lincoln" Leavitt | Rep | 345 | 1.18% |
| Leroy Joseph "L.J." Guillory | Rep | 334 | 1.14% |
| Ed Wilson | Dem | 334 | 1.14% |
| Herb Peters | Lib | 315 | 1.08% |
| George A. Parmer, Jr. | Dem | 220 | 0.75% |
| Lee Davis | Dem | 181 | 0.62% |
| Jeffrey S. Price | Dem | 128 | 0.44% |
| Bill Francisco Grisolia | Dem | 125 | 0.43% |
| Felicia Ford | Dem | 109 | 0.37% |
| Mervin Evans | Dem | 26 | 0.09% |
| Total | 29,204 | 100.00% |
Special Congressional Election Tomorrow!
The primary in the Special Congressional election in the 37th District (Long Beach, Compton) is tomorrow (6/26). The election is being watched closely by Greens because Green Party candidate Daniel Brezenoff is running a strong grassroots campaign.The Democrats are strongly favored to retain the seat formerly held by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, who died from cancer in April, but with 17 candidates a run-off is likely. The leading Democratic candidates are state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach) and Assemblywoman Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach).
If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote tomorrow, the top vote-getter from each party will go on to the general election in August. This means that Brezenoff does not need to finish in second place to get to the run-off.
Check back here Tuesday evening for preliminary results.
July 4th Impeachment Center Inaguration and Picnic
Impeachment is Patriotic: The Los Angeles Impeachment Center launches on July 4, 2007 at 11 am. The Impeachment Center will have literature, phone & address information and other resources. It is a county-wide resource for advancing the impeachment of George W. Bush & Richard Cheney. The Center is located at 8124 W. Third Street, Suite 216 (located by Crescent Heights & 3rd St.).
The July 4th launch to be followed by a Picnic at La Cienega Park with speakers and a film screening
The Impeachment Center is open every Saturday from 2 to 6 pm. The Center will facilitate the following activities: (1) phone banking, (2) letter writing, (3) meetings, lobbying/working toward adoption of impeachment resolutions by local City Council, CA State Assembly, and CA Congressional Representatives (especially House judiciary representatives).
CONTACT: Peter L. Thottam, Esq. (310) 497-7255 or Glenn Hopkins at (310) 478-7379; email thottam@bcimpeach.com. All Donations are welcome.
The July 4th launch to be followed by a Picnic at La Cienega Park with speakers and a film screening
The Impeachment Center is open every Saturday from 2 to 6 pm. The Center will facilitate the following activities: (1) phone banking, (2) letter writing, (3) meetings, lobbying/working toward adoption of impeachment resolutions by local City Council, CA State Assembly, and CA Congressional Representatives (especially House judiciary representatives).
CONTACT: Peter L. Thottam, Esq. (310) 497-7255 or Glenn Hopkins at (310) 478-7379; email thottam@bcimpeach.com. All Donations are welcome.
June 20, 2007 Los Angeles Greens Meeting Minutes
1. Introductions: Michael Rochmes, Lynne Serpe, Thurston Seaton,
Peter Thottam, Sasha Karlik, Lisa Taylor, KCM Curry, Derek Iversen,
Erin Schmidt, Bruce Campbell, Linda Piera-Avila, Les Amer, Neil
Hastings, Nicole, Byron de Lear, Mark Andrews, Laurie Deegan
2. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV): Lynne Serpe 15 minutes. On June
13, IRV was heard in front of the Rules & Elections Committee (LA
City Council). Lynne spoke to this committee on behalf of the New
America Foundation. IRV can save LA a lot of money presently being
spent on expensive runoff elections. Most every group there spoke
positively about IRV. At this point there may be a combo package
that ultimately gets passed, including IRV, more absentee voting and
other measures to improve turnout. There have been several positive
editorials recently RE: IRV. Even the LA County Council Registrar
has spoken recently in favor in IRV. City Councilmembers who may
lean in favor of IRV: Tom LaBonge, Jack Weiss, Ed Reyes. Eric
Garcetti is pretty much in favor of it. Dennis Zine too spoke
positively about IRV, though he may not ultimately go for it. As
many letter as possible now to these LA City Councilmembers in
particular will be very helpful. Ultimately the Council needs to
vote to place a Charter amendment on the ballot. Let the voters
decide. It is worth noting that the voting equipment itself will
have to be modified in order to accommodate IRV. But this isn’t
preclusively expensive.
3. Congressional Campaign Update, Linda. Linda went to the
candidate forum last Saturday for the special congressional election
in the 37th district. There are a plethora of candidates in the race
with Daniel Brezenoff. A lot of Democrats, and then there’s
Daniel. Daniel is representing us very well. He’s articulate, he
answers questions comprehensively, he follows the Ten Key Values
without being preachy. The winner needs to have 50% +1 to win, that
probably will not happen in the primary. This means Daniel’s a shoe-
in for the runoff. When asked what makes him qualified to be in
Congress, Daniel replied, “Well, I’ve worked in a mental hospital
before.” That got Daniel some good press. Daniel seemed to be
getting a lot of applause, he’s getting a good reception. Saturday
evening there’s a fundraiser in Long Beach. Help him now:
danielforcongress.com. Primary election is Tuesday, June 26.
4. Lotus Festival Tabling, Lisa. It’s in Echo Park, it’s July
14 and 15. It costs less than Sunset Junction, it’s great. We have
the booth for the whole day. Shifts: 11 am – 2 pm. Maybe we could
have some bullet points for volunteers to use when speaking to the
public, we’re a little rusty on that whole table tabling thing.
5. Scholarship Update, Erin. The L.A. Greens sponsor the Petra
Kelly Memorial Scholarship for students in the Los Angeles area. We
presently have about the same number of applicants as last year but
we have better candidates this year. We’ll have a male and female
winner to announce soon. We’re now out of funds for this
scholarship, so we’ll need to have a fundraiser to raise about $1100.
6. Goals Discussion, Erin (mercifully). The Executive Committee
established goals at the beginning of this year for the LA Greens.
Making Meetings More Funner: KCM suggests contributing more
speakers. Earth Day Committee: we did that thing in Westchester.
And then there were those other ideas we had. We did stuff. LA
Greens Platform by … Sometime. Derek, Michael & SKCM will organize
a meeting for September. Fair Trade Festival:
fairtradela.wordpress.com. Next meeting is next Tuesday. Go! 20
New Relationships w/Community Leaders: Patrick will be contacted.
Irma Munoz counts. Build IRV Support: Get 5 Local Leaders Signed
On. It’s going well. League of Women Voters are looking favorably
at it but have not yet made a formal position. Relationships w/3
Major Chicano Groups: well we added Mujeres de la Tierra, so that’s
one. LAANE: success! (sort of) 70% of LA residents apparently
support it. Green Power: Derek, do something. 10 New Members, 5 in
Leadership Positions: we’ve added. Register 50 New Greens: well …
3 Greens on Boards, Commissions or Councils. Byron is the co-founder
of the Friends of the Article V Commission. One Green Victory Led by
the LA Greens: that’s on Patrick. Purchase a Voter Database: when
the time is right, we’ll do this. Fundraising: we’ve raised about
$500.
7. Impeachment, Peter Thottam. Website is getting 20-30 hits a
day now. In a month it’s gone from an idea to a reality. 300-400
people attended an impeachment forum earlier this month. This has
become the center of something big. CodePink, ICUJP, VoteNoWar.org,
lots of other groups are on board. PDA (Progressive Democrats of
America) is big in this too. PDA is dancing a fine line on this
because the official position of the Dems is anti-impeachment.
There’s a picnic July 4, go there. Christine has put together an
excellent ad that will be full-page in ChangeLinks. There’s a full-
page ad being run by the World Can’t Wait in the New York Times in
the next couple of days. Peter suggests this July 4 picnic at the
park is a golden opportunity to recruit progressive Dems to the Green
Party. We really need banners, signage at the park picnic. Every
Saturday from 2-6 pm the Impeachment Center will be meeting here.
John Nichols of The Nation said it was great that Greens are out
front on this issue. Maybe someone should talk to Patrick RE: send
out press releases about this. Byron says that there needs to be a
recounting of the crimes of the Bush administration, both for the
protection of our democracy, our Constitution, and to show the world
that there is accountability here in the U.S. Maxine Waters is now
on board with the impeachment movement. Peter asks that we show up
at any and all impeachment events as visible Green Party members.
8. Office Clean-up. Tabled to online discussion.
9. Finance Report. The hat was passed. Fundraiser ideas were
suggested. We have $2501, but minus the scholarship we have $1501.
Another paypal deposit is pending. An FPPC filing is coming soon.
10. Announcements. Linda: South Central Farm big two walnut trees
were carted off to Huntington Library. Sadness. SKCM: Our national
meeting is in Redding, Pennsylvania. Send your ideas to the strategy
workshop. Mark & Laurie: range voting is much better than
IRV; see rangevoting.org. Volunteer Coordinator, Events Coordinator,
Media Person and we need a female Co-Facilitator. Bruce: Late
January ’08 there will be an LA Social Forum. Also: Sierra Club
needs a member on the Sustainability (?) Task Force. Maybe that
could be you …? Lynne: Green Drinks tomorrow in Silver Lake, Good
Luck Bar. Also in Culver City. Nicole: there’s a movement afoot to
recall Sheriff Lee Baca. Sasha: the same night of our meeting every
night, there’s Brazilian dancing at Zanzibar, 5th & Arizona in Santa
Monica. Sasha: gathering sigs to get on the L.A. County Council. If
you’re in the 25th State Senate district, sign this man’s
petition! Contact: sasha@greens.org.
Peter Thottam, Sasha Karlik, Lisa Taylor, KCM Curry, Derek Iversen,
Erin Schmidt, Bruce Campbell, Linda Piera-Avila, Les Amer, Neil
Hastings, Nicole, Byron de Lear, Mark Andrews, Laurie Deegan
2. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV): Lynne Serpe 15 minutes. On June
13, IRV was heard in front of the Rules & Elections Committee (LA
City Council). Lynne spoke to this committee on behalf of the New
America Foundation. IRV can save LA a lot of money presently being
spent on expensive runoff elections. Most every group there spoke
positively about IRV. At this point there may be a combo package
that ultimately gets passed, including IRV, more absentee voting and
other measures to improve turnout. There have been several positive
editorials recently RE: IRV. Even the LA County Council Registrar
has spoken recently in favor in IRV. City Councilmembers who may
lean in favor of IRV: Tom LaBonge, Jack Weiss, Ed Reyes. Eric
Garcetti is pretty much in favor of it. Dennis Zine too spoke
positively about IRV, though he may not ultimately go for it. As
many letter as possible now to these LA City Councilmembers in
particular will be very helpful. Ultimately the Council needs to
vote to place a Charter amendment on the ballot. Let the voters
decide. It is worth noting that the voting equipment itself will
have to be modified in order to accommodate IRV. But this isn’t
preclusively expensive.
3. Congressional Campaign Update, Linda. Linda went to the
candidate forum last Saturday for the special congressional election
in the 37th district. There are a plethora of candidates in the race
with Daniel Brezenoff. A lot of Democrats, and then there’s
Daniel. Daniel is representing us very well. He’s articulate, he
answers questions comprehensively, he follows the Ten Key Values
without being preachy. The winner needs to have 50% +1 to win, that
probably will not happen in the primary. This means Daniel’s a shoe-
in for the runoff. When asked what makes him qualified to be in
Congress, Daniel replied, “Well, I’ve worked in a mental hospital
before.” That got Daniel some good press. Daniel seemed to be
getting a lot of applause, he’s getting a good reception. Saturday
evening there’s a fundraiser in Long Beach. Help him now:
danielforcongress.com. Primary election is Tuesday, June 26.
4. Lotus Festival Tabling, Lisa. It’s in Echo Park, it’s July
14 and 15. It costs less than Sunset Junction, it’s great. We have
the booth for the whole day. Shifts: 11 am – 2 pm. Maybe we could
have some bullet points for volunteers to use when speaking to the
public, we’re a little rusty on that whole table tabling thing.
5. Scholarship Update, Erin. The L.A. Greens sponsor the Petra
Kelly Memorial Scholarship for students in the Los Angeles area. We
presently have about the same number of applicants as last year but
we have better candidates this year. We’ll have a male and female
winner to announce soon. We’re now out of funds for this
scholarship, so we’ll need to have a fundraiser to raise about $1100.
6. Goals Discussion, Erin (mercifully). The Executive Committee
established goals at the beginning of this year for the LA Greens.
Making Meetings More Funner: KCM suggests contributing more
speakers. Earth Day Committee: we did that thing in Westchester.
And then there were those other ideas we had. We did stuff. LA
Greens Platform by … Sometime. Derek, Michael & SKCM will organize
a meeting for September. Fair Trade Festival:
fairtradela.wordpress.com. Next meeting is next Tuesday. Go! 20
New Relationships w/Community Leaders: Patrick will be contacted.
Irma Munoz counts. Build IRV Support: Get 5 Local Leaders Signed
On. It’s going well. League of Women Voters are looking favorably
at it but have not yet made a formal position. Relationships w/3
Major Chicano Groups: well we added Mujeres de la Tierra, so that’s
one. LAANE: success! (sort of) 70% of LA residents apparently
support it. Green Power: Derek, do something. 10 New Members, 5 in
Leadership Positions: we’ve added. Register 50 New Greens: well …
3 Greens on Boards, Commissions or Councils. Byron is the co-founder
of the Friends of the Article V Commission. One Green Victory Led by
the LA Greens: that’s on Patrick. Purchase a Voter Database: when
the time is right, we’ll do this. Fundraising: we’ve raised about
$500.
7. Impeachment, Peter Thottam. Website is getting 20-30 hits a
day now. In a month it’s gone from an idea to a reality. 300-400
people attended an impeachment forum earlier this month. This has
become the center of something big. CodePink, ICUJP, VoteNoWar.org,
lots of other groups are on board. PDA (Progressive Democrats of
America) is big in this too. PDA is dancing a fine line on this
because the official position of the Dems is anti-impeachment.
There’s a picnic July 4, go there. Christine has put together an
excellent ad that will be full-page in ChangeLinks. There’s a full-
page ad being run by the World Can’t Wait in the New York Times in
the next couple of days. Peter suggests this July 4 picnic at the
park is a golden opportunity to recruit progressive Dems to the Green
Party. We really need banners, signage at the park picnic. Every
Saturday from 2-6 pm the Impeachment Center will be meeting here.
John Nichols of The Nation said it was great that Greens are out
front on this issue. Maybe someone should talk to Patrick RE: send
out press releases about this. Byron says that there needs to be a
recounting of the crimes of the Bush administration, both for the
protection of our democracy, our Constitution, and to show the world
that there is accountability here in the U.S. Maxine Waters is now
on board with the impeachment movement. Peter asks that we show up
at any and all impeachment events as visible Green Party members.
8. Office Clean-up. Tabled to online discussion.
9. Finance Report. The hat was passed. Fundraiser ideas were
suggested. We have $2501, but minus the scholarship we have $1501.
Another paypal deposit is pending. An FPPC filing is coming soon.
10. Announcements. Linda: South Central Farm big two walnut trees
were carted off to Huntington Library. Sadness. SKCM: Our national
meeting is in Redding, Pennsylvania. Send your ideas to the strategy
workshop. Mark & Laurie: range voting is much better than
IRV; see rangevoting.org. Volunteer Coordinator, Events Coordinator,
Media Person and we need a female Co-Facilitator. Bruce: Late
January ’08 there will be an LA Social Forum. Also: Sierra Club
needs a member on the Sustainability (?) Task Force. Maybe that
could be you …? Lynne: Green Drinks tomorrow in Silver Lake, Good
Luck Bar. Also in Culver City. Nicole: there’s a movement afoot to
recall Sheriff Lee Baca. Sasha: the same night of our meeting every
night, there’s Brazilian dancing at Zanzibar, 5th & Arizona in Santa
Monica. Sasha: gathering sigs to get on the L.A. County Council. If
you’re in the 25th State Senate district, sign this man’s
petition! Contact: sasha@greens.org.
Instant Runoff Voting Gains Support at City Council
Instant Runoff Voting got a boost at the Los Angeles City Council Rules and Elections Committee meeting on June 13. The Los Angeles Greens endorse the use of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), which allows voters to rank candidates by order of preference and eliminates the need for expensive run-off elections.
At the meeting, Lynne Serpe of the New America Foundation gave a presentation about the benefits of IRV. Comments to the council from local organizations and the public were overwhelmingly supportive of IRV. Representatives from the African American Voter Registration Project, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian American Action Fund, Common Cause, FairVote, LA VoteFIRE, League of Women Voters, and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project all spoke in favor of IRV. Several Greens also spoke to the committee in support of IRV.
To adopt IRV in Los Angeles, a majority of the City Council needs to vote to put an IRV charter amendment before the voters. Several Councilmembers have endorsed the change. Jose Huizar and Bill Rosendahl both spoke on behalf of IRV at the meeting, and Wendy Gruel sent a staffer who related the Councilmember's support for IRV.
The immediate result of the meeting is that City Clerk Frank Martinez is going to prepare a report on how to implement IRV and other electoral changes in Los Angeles. The report is planned for completion in December.
News coverage:
LA Daily News: Los Angeles may vote for change: Instant runoffs, new dates some proposals for combating low turnout
LA Daily Breeze: Instant runoff voting is worth a look
LA Times: Instant runoffs might be fix for voter fatigue
At the meeting, Lynne Serpe of the New America Foundation gave a presentation about the benefits of IRV. Comments to the council from local organizations and the public were overwhelmingly supportive of IRV. Representatives from the African American Voter Registration Project, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian American Action Fund, Common Cause, FairVote, LA VoteFIRE, League of Women Voters, and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project all spoke in favor of IRV. Several Greens also spoke to the committee in support of IRV.
To adopt IRV in Los Angeles, a majority of the City Council needs to vote to put an IRV charter amendment before the voters. Several Councilmembers have endorsed the change. Jose Huizar and Bill Rosendahl both spoke on behalf of IRV at the meeting, and Wendy Gruel sent a staffer who related the Councilmember's support for IRV.
The immediate result of the meeting is that City Clerk Frank Martinez is going to prepare a report on how to implement IRV and other electoral changes in Los Angeles. The report is planned for completion in December.
News coverage:
LA Daily News: Los Angeles may vote for change: Instant runoffs, new dates some proposals for combating low turnout
LA Daily Breeze: Instant runoff voting is worth a look
LA Times: Instant runoffs might be fix for voter fatigue
Next LA Greens Meeting - Wed. June 20
Join us on Wednesday for our monthly meeting. This month we'll be discussing prospects for Instant Runoff Voting in Los Angeles, an Impeachment HQ at the Peace Center, and plans for the summer. Plus, as always, refreshments and refreshing company!
The Los Angeles Greens meet the third Wednesday of every month at 7PM at The Peace Center, 8124 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Meetings are free (donations accepted) and open to the public. Children are welcome. Parking is available behind the building.
The Los Angeles Greens meet the third Wednesday of every month at 7PM at The Peace Center, 8124 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Meetings are free (donations accepted) and open to the public. Children are welcome. Parking is available behind the building.
Summer Issue of Green Focus
Several LA-area Greens have articles in the most recent issue of Green Focus, the statewide Green Party newspaper:
- the cover story about May Day in LA by Christine Pinto and Linda Piera-Avila
- Peter Thottam's article "Thought Control in the American Media: My Experience at the LA Times Book Festival
- Cathy McKnight and Lisa Taylor pictured marching in the nationwide Climate Change Action by Step It Up
- Shane Que Hee: "Blueprint for Green Organizing: How to Hold a Demonstration on Just 3 Weeks Notice"
- "In Solidarity Move: LA Green Party CC Endorses Latina Activist" by Linda Piera-Avila
Daniel Brezenoff for Congress press conference
Green Party member Daniel Brezenoff is running for Congress in the 37th Congressional District (South Los Angeles and Long Beach). A special election is being held on June 26 (with a potential runoff in August) to fill the seat formerly held by Juanita Mellender-McDonald (D), who died of cancer in April.
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