{news} Green Party Mayor Takes The Reins (Richmond, CA)

[clifford thornton]

Green Party Mayor Takes The Reins (Richmond, CA)

She promises to start jobs program, cut homicide rate

By Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/10/BAGPQNG56H1.DTL<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/10/BAGPQNG56H1.DTL>
San Francisco Chronicle
January 10, 2007

Richmond, Ca.

Richmond became the largest city in the nation with a
member of the Green Party as its elected mayor Tuesday
when Gayle McLaughlin was sworn in during an emotional
inaugural ceremony at City Hall. McLaughlin, 54,
pledged to launch a new jobs program to employ 1,000
at-risk youth, and to lower the city's homicide rate.

"The roots of crime are systemic in nature -- poverty
and the lack of real opportunities," she told 300
people who attended the ceremony. "We must make more of
an investment. Let us rise to this challenge."

To pay for her youth jobs program, McLaughlin has said
she'll seek to secure state funds and increase tax
revenue from Chevron and other manufacturers by
changing the way business utility tax payments are
calculated.

After her swearing in, she asked the audience for a
moment of silence in memory of the most recent homicide
victim in Richmond, 25-year-old Victor M. Ramirez.

"We still have to deal with 2006 and the pain of seeing
so many young people in caskets," noted Van Jones,
executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human
Rights in Oakland. "The pain of so many funerals in
Richmond, and Oakland, and Bayview-Hunters Point."

McLaughlin's victory has been hailed by fellow Greens
as a sign of the party's growing strength, but local
politicians and community leaders say her triumph in
November's election and her continued success depend on
issues like crime, jobs and schools.

"We have mothers who have lost their babies to gun
violence on the streets of this city," said the Rev.
Andre Shumake, head of the Richmond Improvement
Association. "If it takes a Green Party candidate to
come here and make it happen, so be it. It doesn't
matter if you're black, green, white, yellow or polka-
dot."

McLaughlin, who was elected to the City Council in
2004, defeated incumbent Mayor Irma Anderson in a hotly
contested three-person race decided by roughly 300
votes. She is one of 26 Green Party officials holding
elected positions in the Bay Area.

Her victory was featured prominently on the Green
Party's official Web site, and last month she shared a
stage with former Green Party presidential nominee
Ralph Nader and former San Francisco Supervisor Matt
Gonzalez.

The party is known for its strong pro-environment
stance. It also supports the impeachment of President
Bush.

Gonzalez said having McLaughlin head a city as
ethnically and economically diverse as Richmond will
help change the party's image as being an environmental
movement that only caters to white voters.

He and other McLaughlin supporters say her campaign
theme of economic justice for the poor and fighting
crime is a "Green message."

"It's the first time the Greens have ever won a mayor's
race in a city (that big). It's a little bit of a
milestone for us," said Gonzalez. "With each of these
accomplishments, people feel a bit more comfortable
with the idea of us being leaders."

With a population of about 100,000, Richmond has long
been home to shipyards, the Chevron refinery and other
heavy industry. In recent years it has sought to
transform itself by adding commercial businesses and
more upscale residential housing.

County Supervisor John Gioia, whose district includes
Richmond, said McLaughlin's victory was helped by voter
discontent over rising crime rates -- there were 42
homicides in the city last year, a higher per-capita
rate than Oakland's.

"The state Green Party wants to make a lot out of the
victory. I don't think that's the case at all," said
Gioia. "I think most voters didn't know her party
registration.

"Issues in Richmond are the bread-and-butter issues of
fighting crime and helping create jobs and improving
the schools. One's party is less of an issue. It's
about solving those issues."

E-mail Jason B. Johnson at jbjohnson at sfchronicle.com<mailto:jbjohnson at sfchronicle.com>.

(c)2007 San Francisco Chronicle 

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