Gayle McLaughlin
Template:About Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder Gayle McLaughlin (born 1952) is an American politician from Richmond, California. She was first elected to the Richmond City Council in 2004 when she was a member of the Green Party of California. She won two consecutive four-year terms as the city's mayor in 2006 and 2010. After reaching the mayoral term limit, she was reelected to the City Council in 2014. In June 2017, she announced her candidacy for lieutenant governor of California in the 2018 election.
McLaughlin's election in 2006 made Richmond the largest U.S. city led by a Green Party member. She has advocated for a minimum wage increase and a plan to forcibly appropriate foreclosed home mortgages from banks. She has led an ongoing effort to restrict the municipal influence of Richmond's largest employer, the Chevron Corporation, and to refashion its environmental obligations.
Early life and education
McLaughlin was born into a working class family in Chicago. The middle child of five daughters, her father was a union carpenter and her mother was a factory worker and housewife.<ref name="City">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Schmit">Template:Cite news</ref>
During the 1980s, McLaughlin was an activist with the Central American solidarity movement and a steering committee member of CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). She also played an role in the North Star Network, a national networking effort to unite progressives, and in coalition-building efforts with Rainbow/PUSH.
McLaughlin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Bridgewater State University and took graduate courses in psychology and education at Rhode Island College and UC Berkeley Extension.<ref name="City"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
She has worked as a postal clerk, teacher, caregiver for the elderly, and tutor/clinician for children with learning disabilities. She has also worked in the capacity of support staff for various not-for-profit health and educational organizations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She has lived in Richmond since 2001.<ref name="City" />
Richmond Progressive Alliance
McLaughlin is a founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), a non-partisan progressive group in western Contra Costa County, composed of members of the Green Party, Democratic Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party, as well as independent voters.<ref name="RPA">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2004, the RPA ran a slate of candidates to replace a municipal government that was widely seen as dysfunctional: "There are vacancies in virtually every major administrative department," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle, "and the city is operating with an interim city manager, city attorney, police chief and fire chief. The city has no library director and no parks and recreation director, and no one running its housing authority."<ref name="Johnson">Template:Cite web</ref> Together with RPA colleagues, McLaughlin won her first election to the Richmond City Council in November 2004.<ref name="RPA"/>
In Richmond, McLaughlin was involved in local effortsin support of social and environmental justice. She opposed the Patriot Act, the criminalization of the homeless, and Chevron's Richmond Refinery tax perks. She has also been involved in an ongoing effort to stop development on the North Richmond shoreline and supports the Service Employees International Union.
Mayor of Richmond
In 2006, McLaughlin decided to challenge Richmond's incumbent mayor Irma Anderson. She was elected on November 7, 2006 by a 242-vote margin over Anderson.<ref name="KESQ">Template:Cite web</ref> At the time, her victory made Richmond the largest city in the country with a Green Party mayor.<ref name="KESQ"/><ref name="Hall">Template:Cite web</ref> McLaughlin won a second term in office in the 2010 municipal election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Under McLaughlin's mayoralty, the "small, blue-collar city best known for its Chevron refinery has become the unlikely vanguard for anticorporate, left-wing activism".<ref name="Onishi2012">Template:Cite news</ref> From early in her career, McLaughlin supported workers' cooperatives as a means of fighting unemployment.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> She was a strong proponent of Measure N, a proposed municipal soda tax that was met by determined, well-funded resistance from the American Beverage Association and other business interests.<ref name="Onishi2012"/> She also spearheaded a 2014 effort to raise Richmond's local minimum wage to US$12.30 per hour.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> The raise provided impetus to the broader statewide minimum wage movement.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> McLaughlin was a member of the nationwide advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
McLaughlin was criticized for attending an Occupy rally on Veterans Day of 2011 instead of a symbolic ship-launching portrayal at the former Richmond Shipyards.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McLaughlin stated she was a supporter of Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Eminent domain against banks
The U.S. mortgage crisis of the late 2000s had a powerful impact on Richmond. Even by 2013, nearly half of all home mortgages in the city were "underwater", with owners owing more than their houses were worth.<ref name="Elias">Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> On average, homeowners with mortgages were indebted for about 45% more than the original value of their homes.<ref name="DewanPBP">Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> McLaughlin mounted an effort to gain control of the mortgages. The city, in partnership with a private financing company, would seek to purchase mortgages from banks at fair market value and then allow the homeowners to refinance for a minimal fee. If the banks refused, the city would seize the mortgages using the legal power of eminent domain.<ref name="Schmit"/><ref name="Gonzales">Template:Cite episode</ref>
Defending the plan, McLaughlin said mortgage seizures were necessary to alleviate "an unjust set of circumstances" facing homeowners after the Great Recession, and the use of eminent domain would be justified for the common good by preventing urban blight caused by abandoned foreclosed homes.<ref name="Elias"/> The city thus has a right and duty to prevent foreclosures, as well as a legal necessity to protect its citizens: "People were tricked. They were sold these bad loans" which were far in excess of their value, and made Richmond "a community being victimized".<ref name="Schmit"/><ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> In March 2013, the City Council voted 6–1 in favor of partnering with a San Francisco firm, Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP), to begin enactment of the plan.<ref name="Said">Template:Cite news</ref>
Opponents in Richmond countered that the plan would help only a small subsection of mortgage-holders,<ref name="DewanPBP"/> while two banks, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, immediately filed lawsuits against the city.<ref name="Gonzales"/> Arguing that it was an illegal use of eminent domain, the banks also warned that it would severely damage the U.S. mortgage industry by encouraging other municipalities to do the same.<ref name="Schmit"/><ref name="Elias"/> Other cities, including Newark, North Las Vegas, and Seattle were all said to be considering mortgage seizure, although only Richmond publicly pursued the plan.<ref name="Elias"/><ref name="DewanPBP"/> Undaunted, McLaughlin told the press in August 2013 that her administration was confident that it would prevail in court against the banks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following month, after heated public debate, the City Council again voted to back McLaughlin and proceed with the plan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Chevron
McLaughlin had a contentious relationship with the Chevron Corporation during her political career.<ref name="DewanNYT">Template:Cite news</ref> The multinational energy corporation maintains a refinery in Richmond, and it has long dominated the city's economy and politics.<ref name="Onishi2013">Template:Cite news</ref> After the RPA took root, however, the shift in government caused friction with Chevron, particularly after the McLaughlin administration fought it in court over the payment of various taxes.<ref name="Onishi2013"/> A major fire at the refinery in August 2012 led to another lawsuit, this time for "willful and conscious disregard of public safety".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Return to City Council
After her mayoralty ended, Chevron continued to oppose her vigorously, "spending some $3 million – an unheard of amount for a small, local election – to campaign against McLaughlin and her slate" in the 2014 city council elections.<ref name="Winship">Template:Cite web</ref> She was nonetheless elected to the City Council in 2014 and served in this role until July 18, 2017, when she resigned to seek a higher political office.<ref name="City"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
McLaughlin was criticized East Bay Times, which referred to her and the RPA in a 2016 editorial as "the biggest deniers of the city's fiscal crisis."<ref name="Bornstein">Template:Cite web</ref>
She and her fellow RPA candidates Eduardo Martinez and Jovanka Beckles all won by wide margins in 2014 despite having been heavily outspent by their opposition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The 2016 City Council elections were noticeably quieter in tone, with no financial input from Chevron, according to campaign finance reports.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two other RPA candidates, Melvin Willis and Ben Choi, won open seats creating a RPA majority in the City Council.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2016, McLaughlin changed her political party registration from Green Party to NPP ("No Party Preference") so she could vote for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in the California presidential primary.<ref name=EarlyBC>Template:Cite web</ref>
Campaign for lieutenant governor
In June 2017, McLaughlin declared her candidacy for lieutenant governor in the California lieutenant gubernatorial election of 2018.<ref name=EarlyBC/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her independent campaign refused to accept any corporate contributions.<ref name="Garofoli">Template:Cite news</ref>
Although McLaughlin ran with no party affiliation, her endorsements include the California National Party,<ref name=CNP2018>Template:Cite web</ref> the Peninsula chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Green Party of California,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Our Revolution,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Peace and Freedom Party,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the People's Party,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Richmond Progressive Alliance.<ref name=RPA2018>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Chan2018>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The hotly contested primary race saw over $10 million raised by campaigns, "far more than the $7.6 million that candidates raised for the entire election cycle the last time the seat was open in 2010".<ref name="Garofoli"/> In a crowded field of eight, McLaughlin won 263,364 votes (4.0%).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=CA2018>Template:Cite web</ref>
Books
A chronicle of the McLaughlin administration's rise and legacy, Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City, was published in 2017 with a foreword written by Bernie Sanders.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was followed in early 2018 by McLaughlin's own memoir, Winning Richmond: How a Progressive Alliance Won City Hall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
- 2006 Richmond, California city election
- 2014 Richmond, California city election
- List of Democratic Socialists of America who have held office in the United States
References
Further reading
External links
- 1952 births
- Living people
- California Greens
- Politicians from Chicago
- Richmond City Council members (California)
- Mayors of Richmond, California
- Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
- Women mayors of places in California
- American anti-war activists
- American democracy activists
- American environmentalists
- American women environmentalists
- Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from California
- 21st-century mayors of places in California
- 21st-century American women politicians
- Green Party of the United States officeholders
- Bridgewater State University alumni