Will Compton, Carson Voters Send A Progressive Reformer To Sacramento-- Or Another Transactional Political Entrepreneur?

If you've been following the narrative here at DWT, you're aware that Blue America has endorsed our old friend, Compton School Board president Micah Ali for the open 64th Assembly district that covers Compton, Carson and Willowbrook. [You can contribute to his campaign here on our page for state legislative candidates we think have the potential to become national leaders.] Micah has a tough primary on June 3, less than a month away, and he's up against 3 opponents.

Micah has a coherent vision for his community, one he's been working on for many years. His opponents' visions are all about career opportunities-- for themselves. In 2012, President Obama was reelected with 88.7% of the vote in the 64th and two years earlier, Jerry Brown beat Meg Whitman 81.3-11.9%. The district's demography have changed drastically in recent decades and the population is now 62% Latino. Latinos, however, make up just 40% of the voters. Afican Americans, who are just 26% of the population, are 42.4% of the voters. Clearly, whoever wins on June 3, will be the next assemblyman. Going into the final month, Micah has the most cash on hand.

Perhaps if voters in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and the L.A. Times picked the Assemblyman, the least authentic of the 4 candidates, Prophet Walker, would win. Polls of actual AD-64 residents, like the one up top, however, don't show him as a real contender. This is coming down to a race between Ali and Gipson. So who, exactly is Mike Gipson?

A few days ago Carson's effort stop fracking was dealt a fatal blow by none other than Councilman Mike Gipson-- yes, a "Democrat." Gipson decided it would be better to put campaign contributions for his race for the Assembly before the interests of Carson residents so he refused to support the moratorium on highly suspicious and dangerous oil and gas extraction. Because of Mike Gipson's decision to put Oxy's bottom line ahead of the demands of Carson residents and because he chose to ignore the demands of his own community, over 200 oil and gas wells will be constructed within a rock's through of his own neighbors' homes. That's called a "sell out." And all it took was a few grand-- and, in all likelihood, the promise of more campaign contributions to come. We have plenty of politicians in Sacramento following that path already. Gipson has also gathered a team of homophobic advisors around him who were active in the Proposition 8 battle, including an anti-LGBT consultant and convicted criminal, former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, who has now openly, brazenly endorsed him!

Gipson isn't stupid; he obviously weighed taking that Oxy campaign contribution against the interests’ of Carson residents and decided that the money from Oxy was much more valuable than the vote from Carson residents. It seems clear that Mike Gipson has decided that his climb up the political ladder is more important than the future of Carson’s families.

Based on just this one action-- but, believe you me, there are many many more instances-- we once again express our strong opinion that Mike Gipson does not deserve to be elected as an assemblyman. Furthermore, if being an assemblyman is that important to him and he no longer cares about Carson, then I think it is time for Mike to resign his position as City Council to make room for someone who will stand for the rights of the people. If he resigned, I would at least respect him more for being honest about it and doing the right thing.

One thing Sacramento does not need is more corrupt, transactional politicians willing to sell out their own constituents for campaign contributions from Big Oil and Gas and other avaricious special interests. Gipson is the worst possible choice for assemblyman.


UPDATE: Fracking Is Dangerous To Your Health

As voters are getting ready to send in their absentee ballots, this is what they're reading in the local paper:

Also occurring during the recent Sterling/Jenkins madness was the passage of state Sen. Holly Mitchell’s fracking moratorium bill (SB 1132) out of the Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee by a 5-2 vote, making it the second committee to approve the bill. It now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

While this was going on in the state Legislature, the Carson City Council was holding a special meeting at which that body was determining whether to end Carson’s moratorium on fracking in the predominately African-American section of that city. Well, the council voted to lift the fracking ban, igniting the extreme anger of the people who counted on their politicians to keep them safe. But you see, Democratic politicians used to do that-- vote for the common good of the people-- but more and more of them (including black ones) are becoming “corporate Democrats” who side with corporations and businesses and special interests that benefit them personally rather than the people. Republicans have always done that.

So, what happened in Carson? Corporate Democrats prevailed and reactivated fracking in the city. Mayor Jim Dear, a lifelong liberal, sided with Oxy Oil, Watson Land and the Carson Chamber of Commerce and voted to end the fracking moratorium. If you ask him about it, I’m sure he would say: “I did it for the jobs blah, blah, blah.”

Mayor Pro Tem Elito Santarina also voted to frack and Councilman and Assembly candidate Mike Gipson abstained on the issue. If he were a Democrat worth his salt, Gipson would not have abstained, because an abstention is the same as a “no” vote when the item under discussion needs “yes” votes to pass. The only members of the five-member city council who stood with the people were council members Lula Davis Holmes and Albert Robles. Like a true Democrat, Mitchell said this after her anti-fracking bill passed out of committee last week: “People must come before profits. My community needs jobs, but those jobs need to be safe for workers and surrounding communities.”