Don't Workers Deserve At Least One Legislator in Sacramento?

By Jon Taleb

The wealthy and their corporations have plenty of representatives in Sacramento. Don't working people deserve at least one? Jon Taleb wants to represent you, not your boss.

The 65th District was drawn to be a Republican district, and every political expert expects the winner of the Republican primary to be elected in November. According to conventional wisdom, the Democratic candidate and the Peace and Freedom candidate have no chance. Democracy means nothing when election victors are pre-determined. (Of course, if enough voters pay attention, and vote for their real interests instead of for a party label, we could give the experts a big surprise!)

A far more democratic way to elect a legislature would be to have bigger districts that each elect a number of legislators, and elect them by proportional representation. That way, all points of view with substantial support would be represented in the legislature, and even the Peace and Freedom and Democratic voters in the area that is now the 65th District would have real representation in Sacramento.

The biggest problem with our legislators is not the mechanics of the election process, but who they represent. They represent the wealthy and their corporations, and even the ones with substantial union support are very solicitous of the wealthy people who also finance their campaigns.

I have earned my own living for many years, and I understand how the system works in ways the privileged just cannot comprehend. I have worked as a waitress, a clerical worker, in railroad food service, and now for 20 years as a teacher. I raised a daughter on my own, and have helped raise two grandchildren. As well as having been a student and a teacher, I have been the parent and grandparent of students, and this has given me a very thorough experience of our state's educational system. The school district where I teach is not wealthy, and I have learned through my students and their families of the difficult struggles faced by working people in California, particularly by immigrants, poor people, people with disabilities - all the people with little power to effect the changes we need in our society.

Please consider, when you decide how to cast your vote in November, how helpful it would be to the majority of working people in the 65th District to have a legislator who genuinely understands their lives and their problems.