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Publication Date: Friday, July 19, 2002 Stumping for the environment
Stumping for the environment
(July 19, 2002)
@12subhead:Ready for a tough gubernatorial race campaign, Camejo brings Green Party message to Mountain View
By Candice Shih
Since running for president in 1976 as a Socialist, Peter Miguel Camejo has constructed a career on building blocks that many on the left consider political antitheses: big-money finance and social justice.
This year Camejo, who was one of the California Green Party's founding members in 1990, is traveling the state in a bid to bring his mix of financial expertise and far-left priorities to Sacramento as governor.
On July 23, Mountain View residents and other locals will have an opportunity to meet Camejo at a campaign stop in the Adobe Building.
Camejo said that while he is a long shot at winning the bid, he is being taken seriously by Governor Gray Davis.
"The Democrats are trying to keep me out," said Camejo, 62, a Walnut Creek resident. "Davis is terrified of having a debate with me."
That may be because Camejo is currently pulling 5 percent of the total statewide vote, according to a recent poll conducted by the Service Employees International Union. While it may not sound like much, 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader was considered a spoiler for having collected only 2.74 percent of the nationwide presidential vote in 2000.
Camejo argues, however, that his competition is Republican Bill Simon and not Davis. As voters become more disaffected by Davis, they are starting to look at other options including Simon and third-party candidates such as himself, Camejo says.
He also sees himself as an alternative to big party politics. Politicians from both the Republican and Democratic parties are "all careerists, think short-term, and are corrupt in a corrupt system," said Camejo.
A money manager and author of "The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially," Camejo said Enron's and Oracle's relationships with President Bush and Davis, respectively, are examples of the increasingly corporate-dominated political field.
In contrast to the two big political parties, the Green Party is small and takes in far less money. It counts issues of social justice and increasing public services among its priorities.
Next Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Camejo will detail his platform and answer questions at the Adobe Building on the corner of Moffett Boulevard and Central Expressway.
Among the topics he may discuss are a living wage of $10.50, affordable housing, preservation of California's natural resources and amnesty for Mexican-American immigrants.
He calls the fact that undocumented workers from Mexico cannot get driver's licenses a "human tragedy."
Although Latino voters have traditionally aligned themselves with Democrats, Camejo says he may have a slight advantage over Davis in that demographic because he is a native Spanish speaker.
Latinos "immediately sense I am genuine," said Camejo, who was born in New York to wealthy Venezuelan immigrants. He regularly communicates with Spanish-speaking Californians on talk radio.
He said spending summers in Venezuela also exposed him to what poverty looks like and has shaped his political perspective on social justice.
Camejo marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the sixties and ran for President on the Socialist ticket in 1976. Although he is against totalitarianism, he still considers himself "reddish" and speculates that Davis will run ads targeting that side of him.
Although Davis may consider Camejo a political adversary, it's not as true vice versa.
"We don't want Simon to get elected because we ran," said Camejo.
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