2006 Victorious
Racial Justice Campaign Candidates

Claudia Kauffman Redmorningstar

Claudia Kauffman is a a Nez Perce tribal member and elected State Senator from District 47. She previously worked as the intergovernmental affairs liaison for the Muckleshoot tribe since 2001 the People's Lodge Project and co-founded the grassroots organization Native Action Network. She sits on the board of trustees of The Evergreen State University. A former foster parent, she is married and is raising her two children in Kent.

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Barbara McIlvaine Smith

Barbara Smith ran and won the top targeted race for Democrats in the state house in 2006. Barbara took advantage of Progressive Majority's full training program in 2004 when she first ran for this seat against an incumbent losing in a close race. She was the Vice President of the West Chester City Council and is a lifelong resident of Chester County. Barbara is a strong progressive in her moderate district and has convinced Republicans that she is the most qualified and capable representative of this district. Barbara has made Pennsylvania state history as the first Native American ever elected to the legislature.

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Rebecca Rios

Rebecca Rios is in her second term as the senator in the 23rd Legislative District. She has a very long history in her district and has been a champion for progressive issues.

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Amanda Aguirre

State Representative Amanda Aguirre became the first Hispanic and female representative for Legislative District 24 in 2003, when she was appointed to the to fill a vacated seat. She has since been reelected to the House of Representatives, and is taking the next step by running for the Senate. Amanda has been involved for more than 20 years in public health education and administration with a strong emphasis on U.S.-Mexico border health issues. Her opponent is the other sitting member, conservative Russ Jones.

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Edward Ableser

Edward Ableser is a state representative in District 17 who has dedicated his life to community service as a member of the Kiwanis Club, board member of Boys and Girls Club of the East Valley, a mental health counselor for families and children and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in counseling.

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Lynne Pancrazi

Lynne Pancrazi is a third generation Yuman, a teacher and a realtor. She won election to the State Assembly from District 24 in 2006.

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John Gomez

In 2006, John Gomez ran for a term in the Murphy School Governing Board District No. 21, a district has a wide variety of programs to meet its large minority student population. Before his election, John served on the City of Phoenix Hispanic Advisory Board and GLBT Advisory Board. With his strong background on progressive issues, we are hopeful that the sky is the limit for John.

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Cristy Lopez

In 2006, Cristy Lopez ran for the Phoenix Union High School Governing Board to replace Harry Garewal who was seeking his 5th two-year term. Garewal's nominating petitions were challenged after the filing deadline, and he was ultimately removed from the ballot after petition signature discrepancies. Cristy is now helping move progressive issues, such as forward safety in the schools, student achievement, and cooperation between the schools and parents. Cristy's win flipped the board to a progressive majority.

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John Chiang

John Chiang is a California State Controller, elected in 2006. He served as a member of the California State Board of Equalization since 1997, representing the 4th Equalization District. His district is comprised of 8.5 million residents in Los Angeles County. As chairman of the State Board of Equalization and a member of the Franchise Tax board, he is the highest ranking Asian Pacific American elected state official in California.

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Wilmer Amina Carter

Wilmer Carter is a State Representative from District 62. Wilmer's experience in government includes 16 years as a board member for the Rialto Unified School District, and work as a staff member for the late Rep. George Brown. She ran to ensure that schools receive the full amount of money guaranteed by Proposition 98's budget formulas. She also supports school districts having more independence from Sacramento.

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José Solorio

The son of migrant farm workers, José Solorio has gone from laboring in the fields as a teenager alongside his parents to earning a master's degree in public policy from Harvard and was a city councilman in the City of Santa Ana before his election. José is backed by Strengthening Our Lives (SOL), an electoral effort driven by the local SEIU chapter.

In the Assembly, José Solorio is continuing his fight for parks and athletic programs to keep young people out of gangs, maintaining the zoning restrictions at John Wayne Airport, and will demand more money for our public schools. He's also supporting the continuation of part-time positions in public agencies. Part-time positions allow young adults to receive valuable work experience, college students a way to pay for their fees and books, but most importantly, they allow hundreds of working women to also spend more time raising their children. Additionally, he's advocated that some health, sick pay and other benefits be provided for long-time city workers that are employed part-time. "We need to reward work and help families afford the high cost of living in Orange County", José said.

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Joanne Gilbert

Joanne has been on the Rialto School Board some six years. Prior to that, she was a teacher and educator in public education for 35 years from middle school to adult education. Under Joanne T. Gilbert's tenure, the Rialto School Board has returned to a strong emphasis on visual and performing arts being part of the classroom curriculum, and rebuilding music programs. Additionally, several schools have made great strides in improving their AYP test scores, some as much as 59 points, including one of the schools being named a 2006 California Distinguished School. Joann has a powerful interest in helping Rialto school district students excel academically. Her first term was a time to get to know and understand what are the needs of her district. In her second term, she wants to continue the rise of test scores and add more enrichment programs.

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Abel Guillen

Abel Guillen ran in 2006 because he felt the incumbent, Alona Clifton, was too beholden to interests that are not compatible with the interests of the community college district. As he is young (31), he looks to motivate other young people to get into public service.

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Ed Casso

Ed Casso was born and raised in Westminster and has a long family history in Adams County. Before his 2006 election, Ed worked in the corporate sector for five years as a customer service manager for Nextel. Ed will apply his customer service skills to make government more streamlined, effective, and make it work for Coloradans. Ed is also a youth counselor at Excelsior Youth Center, where he teaches life skills to at-risk teenage women he works as a substitute elementary teacher. House District 32 consists of Thornton and Commerce City.

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Tony Payton

In 2006, Tony Payton survived a challenge of his nominating petitions and managed to knock all competitors off the ballot in the 179th Legislative District. Tony was running as the underdog in this race against Emilio Vasquez, who had been pre-selected by the district's ward leaders to run. Unbeknownst to them, Tony built a quick base of support, got triple the amount of signatures needed for his petitions. He was asked by the city's Democratic leadership to get out of the race, but he resisted and proved that sitting and waiting for your turn is not the only way to make change. Since they couldn't get him out of the race by asking, the party took its sizeable resources and tried to challenge Tony's petition signatures. Tony responded in-kind and Vasquez got disqualified for failing to report income.

Before his election, Tony was a housing counselor at United Communities in South Philadelphia, the treasurer for the Philadelphians against Santorum campaign, a fellow with the Center for Progressive Leaders, he ran the field campaign for Bryan Lentz's 7th Congressional district race and he was deputy campaign manager in the Seth Williams for DA race. Tony Payton is young and not scared to stand up to machine politics.

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Thomas Blackwell

Rep. Thomas Blackwell is the son of the late community leader and U.S. Rep. Lucien Blackwell and stepson of Philadelphia City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. He began working with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) Local 1332 after graduating from high school and soon rose through the ranks to hold the offices of vice-president and president. After serving a stint as a business agent, he ascended to the office of president in 1992. He has been eyed as rising star and he has a strong desire to continue to develop a progressive political agenda. Thomas Blackwell is a grassroots public servant who continues to develop legislation that speaks to a thorough urban agenda.

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Chris Marr

In 2006, Chris Marr stepped down as President and COO of the Foothills Auto Group, which operates a host of dealerships in the Spokane Area that generate $80 million a year in sales and employs 160 people. Until launching his campaign, he served on the Board of Regents of Washington State University, on the Board of Governors of the Washington State University Foundation, and as Chairman of the Board of Empire Health Services and Inland Northwest Health Services. He has served as Chairman of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, as well as Chair of the Washington State Transportation Commission (the governing board of the Washington State Dept. of Transportation), and chaired the Transition Committee for Governor-Elect Christine Gregoire in 2004. He was honored with the Washington Environmental Council's 2005 Backyard Hero Award for his leadership efforts in passing state Clean Car legislation. This Senate seat provides a unique opportunity to make Democratic in-roads in Eastern Washington.

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John McCoy

John McCoy, who won re-election in the 38th for State Representative, is a Tulalip tribesmember and has been representing the district for two terms. He is the fourth Native American to be elected into the Washington State Legislature since statehood and is currently the only one serving. Over the past two terms, John has made important investments in higher education and health care, helped develop a compromise between business and labor on unemployment insurance, and strengthened Labor & Industries' wage payment regulations.

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