Sunrise Los Angeles March 3rd Primary Endorsements
Sunrise LA is proud to have endorsed nine incredible candidates running to make a Green New Deal a reality in the city, the county, the state, and the country. Please read about them!
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Our Endorsed Candidates
- Los Angeles City Council District 4: Nithya Raman
- Los Angeles City Council District 10: Aura Vasquez
- Los Angeles City Council District 12: Loraine Lundquist
- Los Angeles City Council District 14: Cyndi Otteson
- Glendale City Council: Dan Brotman
- Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors District 5: Darrell Park
- California State Assembly District 64: Fatima Iqbal-Zubair
- California Congressional District 29: Angelica Dueñas
- California Congressional District 30: CJ Berina
Los Angeles City Council
District 4: Nithya Raman
Nithya is the former executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, a nonprofit borne out of the #MeToo movement, and founder of SELAH, a volunteer-driven nonprofit providing services to the unhoused population in Los Angeles. With degrees from Harvard and MIT in urban planning, Nithya spent years fighting for basic services in the slums of Chennai, India. In 2014, she worked in LA City Hall, producing a huge report on how $100 million was being spent on homeless services. She found that the majority of the money was being spent on cruel and ineffective criminalization, rather than shelter, housing, and services. Nithya’s campaign is centered around ending homelessness in LA and fighting for affordable housing. Meanwhile, the incumbent David Ryu is taking tens of thousands of dollars from developers.
Nithya is calling for 100% renewable energy by 2030, a walkable, bikeable city with great public transportation, and a sustainable water plan to make Los Angeles fully water independent. Nithya understands the housing and environmental crisis facing our city and the power that the City Council has to create solutions. Nithya is running a transparent campaign focused on empowering the community to take action and engage in local politics. Sunrise LA is proud to be fighting alongside Nithya and the many incredible organizations on her side.
District 10: Aura Vasquez
Aura is a Colombian-born immigrant, community leader, and social and environmental justice advocate. Aura has spent her career in activism, from her work with marginalized and underserved students in New York City to fighting for immigrants’ rights in Orange County. A long-time environmental advocate, Aura helped lead the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign to end Los Angeles’s dependence on coal and stood with water protectors at Standing Rock. As an LADWP commissioner, she championed the Shared Solar program, bringing solar power to Los Angeles renters, and was a leader in the fight to replace three gas powered plants with renewable energy in 2019.
Aura’s top priorities for Los Angeles are to move to 100% renewable energy, end neighborhood oil-drilling, reduce pollution, and ensure residents who suffer from poor air quality reap the benefits of clean energy investments first. Aura wants to create more fair and affordable housing and provide housing and wrap-around services to the homeless community. She will support local schools, teachers, and after school programs, continuing to fight for immigrant’s rights, especially DREAMERS, keeping families together with a pathway to citizenship.
We know that Aura will bring energy, passion, and a commitment to a Green New Deal to City Hall.
District 12: Loraine Lundquist
Loraine is an astrophysicist, teacher, community activist, foster mom, and professor of sustainability at Cal State Northridge. She has been a leader in the fight to shut down the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, site of the largest methane leak in US history. As an expert on clean energy, she is determined to get LA to 100% renewable energy before 2030. She is an active and passionate social justice advocate, co-founding the West Valley Neighborhood Alliance on Homelessness.
Her opponent John Lee is the only Republican on Los Angeles City Council. He is a former lobbyist, takes money from the fossil fuel industry and other corporate interests, and has tried to block construction of homeless bridge housing in the district.
Sunrise LA has knocked thousands of doors for Loraine since the special election in 2019. We’ve felt the energy residents in the northwest Valley have for change. With Loraine, we will not only flip the district blue, but we will put a fierce advocate for climate justice in City Hall, one with the smarts, expertise, and grassroots support to spark a Green New Deal in Los Angeles.
District 14: Cyndi Otteson
Cyndi wants to shake up City Hall. She knew she needed to run once she saw that the main candidates were just more establishment politicians. With 20 years of experience working in media strategy, Cyndi has a clear drive to get things done. She has served her community on the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council and co-founded Miry’s List, a nonprofit helping refugee families resettle in the United States. As a mom, she understands the issues affecting families in the district.
With a commitment to transparent governance, Cyndi is not taking any money from developers, fossil fuel interests, or corporations. She will fight for affordable housing, support renters to stop evictions, and make our streets safe and accessible for walkers, bikers, and public transit commuters. She will ensure that unhoused people in her district and across LA receive the services they need as we build bridge housing and supportive housing. She supports getting LA to 100% renewable energy by 2030, centering frontline communities and workers in the transition. Cyndi will also fight for our public schools and against the charter lobby, making sure all kids have a safe and healthy place to play and learn.
The “frontrunner” Kevin De León has taken tens of thousands of dollars from developers, car-parking companies, and other business interests that want access to City Hall so they can continue to unsustainably build over this city and make it even less affordable. Although he spearheaded SB100, the bill committing California to 100% renewable energy by 2045, he refuses to budge from that timeline for LA and calls SB100 “California’s Green New Deal.” He expects to be anointed to this seat on the way to becoming mayor. We need someone with Cyndi’s passion and commitment to grassroots change, who will not bow to the status quo in City Hall.
Glendale City Council
Dan Brotman
Dan is a professor of economics at Glendale Community College, a community advocate, and an environmental activist. Dan founded the Glendale Environmental Coalition and led the community’s fight to get Glendale to replace a dirty gas plant with renewable energy. After over 1,200 people showed up at three rallies at City Hall, Glendale is now investing in a modern clean energy system, saving residents $174 million. He is not taking any money from corporate PACs, developers, or the fossil fuel industry.
Dan will move Glendale toward 100% renewable energy by 2030, ensure that new commercial and residential construction is energy efficient and green, and support better mass transit options, more protected bike lanes, and increased walkability. He wants to conduct a comprehensive traffic study to lower Glendale’s carbon footprint and reduce congestion. Dan is focused on affordable housing and ending homelessness, making sure that Glendale’s strong economy includes everyone, as far too many people in Glendale are rent burdened. Dan will make sure developers use state and federal funding to build affordable housing, not just luxury apartments and condominiums.
Sunrise LA has fought alongside Dan to stop the Grayson power plant and spoken to residents across Glendale who are excited for a healthier, greener, and more affordable city. We are thrilled to help elect Dan to Glendale City Council.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
District 5: Darrell Park
Darrell is a seasoned entrepreneur, author, and environmentalist with over 20 years of experience in both private and public leadership. After earning a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University, Darrell spent nearly 10 years in the White House Office of Management and Budget and later moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the green tech sector.
His vision for Los Angeles County focuses on creating an environmentally sustainable small business boom with 100,000 new jobs in the 5th district to lift poor working class people into the middle class and end homelessness. His top priorities if elected are a full conversion to 100% renewable energy and zero carbon by 2030, shutting down all fossil fuel extraction and storage including closing Aliso Canyon, closing landfills, and eliminating single-use plastic by 2025. Darrell’s proposed Green New Deal for LA County also includes planting 100 million trees per year, a ban on fracking, transitioning the Antelope Valley to 100% renewable energy by 2025, making all public transit in the county free of charge, and making LA County zero waste by 2027. As this transition takes place, Darrell would ensure clean energy jobs for impacted workers.
His opponent, incumbent Kathryn Barger, is a fossil fuel-backed Republican, who takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers and corporations. We need Darrell’s experience, passion, and vision to have a real Green New Deal in Los Angeles County. He has been an active supporter on the front lines of the fight against Aliso Canyon, and we know he will continue to fight for all of us and for future generations on the Board of Supervisors.
California State Assembly
District 64: Fatima Iqbal-Zubair
Fatima had no intention of running for state assembly this year, but as a high school teacher in Watts and a leader of Watts Rising, she could not help but notice that her students were becoming more and more terrified of the future — and that her state assembly member Mike Gibson was not doing nearly enough to address the environmental crisis in her district. Nearly twenty-five percent of California’s oil refineries are located in District 64. There are six toxic sites and hundreds of oil wells right next to schools, homes, and hospitals.
Getting California to 100% clean energy by 2030 is a top priority for Fatima, as well as investing in affordable housing and public schools. She is not taking any money from developers or fossil fuels. Meanwhile, Mike Gibson has taken money from Chevron, Valero, Phillips 66, Signal Hill Petroleum, Marathon Petroleum, the California Independent Petroleum Association, and more. His voting record speaks to the influence that this fossil fuel money has had on his tenure — he voted no on SB 100, the bill committing California to 100% clean energy by 2045, and has either been absent or voted no on environmental bills that would regulate fossil fuels and single-use plastic.
Fatima has come to our meetings and canvassed with us. We know she has the spirit and commitment to bring about real change in her district and in California, fighting to end environmental racism and bring about a Green New Deal.
United States Congress
California District 29: Angelica Dueñas
With freeway corridors and the Sun Valley power plant, CA-29 is one of the most polluted districts in LA County. Angelica is a mom, activist, and local leader who has served on her Neighborhood Council for years. She was inspired to get involved in electoral politics by Bernie Sanders’ campaign in 2016 and ran for congress, and although she didn’t win, she learned how to run a grassroots campaign to engage her community. Meanwhile, incumbent Tony Cárdenas is an establishment politician who takes money from corporations, Big Pharma, and the fossil fuel industry.
Angelica is running on a bold and detailed Green New Deal platform, Medicare For All, humane immigration reform, and ending U.S. militarism. She understands that environmental, economic, and social justice need to be at the core of a national Green New Deal. We are thrilled to support a true grassroots leader like Angelica.
California District 30: CJ Berina
CJ is a 29 year old Filipino-American who was born and raised in the Valley. He’s an award winning entrepreneur who opened a community space to promote fashion, music, art, and live events, an active member of his Neighborhood Council, and a full-throated progressive who has worked to elect progressive candidates since 2014. In Congress, CJ will fight for Bernie Sanders’s Green New Deal policies, including banning fracking, eliminating privatized utilities, instituting Medicare For All, getting rid of all student loan debt, providing free higher education, and guaranteeing housing as a human right. A just transition for workers with guaranteed pay and training is key to CJ’s vision. CJ is committed to a government and economy that works for everyone and understands that the climate crisis requires a fundamental shift in how our society works. We are excited to support CJ’s bold rejection of the Democratic Party’s status quo as we fight together for a Green New Deal.
Propositions
Measure R: Yes
We urgently need reform in our prisons and criminal justice system.
Proposition 13: Yes
We need to fund our public schools.
For a full voter guide, we highly recommend these:
