Adriel Hampton officially kicked off his campaign Saturday in Walnut Creek.
Photo by Luke Thomas
By Luke Thomas
June 22, 2009
City of San Francisco investigator Adriel Hampton kicked off his grassroots campaign Saturday to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher in the tenth congressional district.
Tauscher, who has been endorsed this week by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she will resign her seat following her expected US Senate confirmation as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
“The reason I’m running for Congress is because I believe we have a political system that no longer serves the average American citizen,” Hampton told his supporters and campaign volunteers during a barbecue held at the Maxwell House, an historic building Hampton helped save from being condemned by the City of Walnut Creek.
A former journalist and editor of the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, Hampton said, “We have a great founding constitution. We have a great history of democracy in our country and people having a voice in their government.”
“What we have now isn’t really that. It doesn’t matter what party it is. It doesn’t matter what leader it is. It’s a system that’s very oppressive to average working people, and it’s oppressive to the poor. It’s oppressive to small business owners. It, basically, I believe, serves large corporations,” Hampton stated.
Hampton, 31, was born in Modesto, California and was home schooled by his mother. A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Hampton graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 and lives with his Japanese wife and two children in the City of Dublin.
Photo by Jeremy Maurer
Running as a Democrat, Hampton faces a competitive runoff against Democratic frontrunners Lt. Governor John Garamendi, California Senator Mark DeSaulnier and Assemblymember Joan Buchanan.
Lt. Governor John Garamendi
Senator Mark DeSaulnier
Assemblymember Joan Buchanan
“There’s this myth that you have to have a million to two-million dollars to run for office,” Hampton said of his self-financed campaign using personal savings and credit card advances. “I don’t believe it because I’ve run this far and I would say I have the best literature in the campaign and some of the best people working for me around the nation with just twenty thousand dollars.”
“I think for a hundred thousand dollars I can win this race,” he said.
Asked what differentiates him from his opponents, Hampton told Fog City Journal: “My opponents are professional politicians, nice folks groomed by a system to work within the parameters of that system. I am an independent Democrat, beholden only to the ideals and policies that I have been articulating on the trail – anti-war, pro-labor, pro-single payer, pro-equality. I am a common person and my friends are common people. My supporters are the working poor, the young and those disturbed by the system. Unlike my opponents, I’ve never spent millions of dollars on an election, and I believe we can break that framework and show grassroots candidates a new way of campaigning.”
Hampton is also the only candidate so far to have vowed to oppose continued funding of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hampton said he is an advocate of ‘Government 2.0′ – using new technologies to increase citizen participation and government transparency and accountability.
On the big issues facing CA-D10 residents, Hampton said the foreclosure crisis is “destroying whole East Bay neighborhoods.”
“I would go to work immediately on saving folks’ homes through foreclosure moratorium legislation and would fight to ensure that our tax money is not going to the banking industry while allowing it to turn around and increase interest rates,” he said. “I believe in trickle up economics.”
If elected, Hampton’s first order of business would include introducing legislation to repeal the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which, he said, has “cut the legs out from organized labor over the past three generations” and “ has allowed nearly unchecked power for big business.”
“It’s time to move the needle back to favor the working class,” he said. “I think that we need people in Washington who believe in standing up for the little guy. President Lincoln said we’ve got to have government by the people, for the people, and I believe that,” Hampton added.
“I’m killing myself on this election not because I need a promotion or I like hearing myself talk, not because anyone asked me to run, but because I’m deeply disturbed by where this country is headed. Sometimes it takes loud and hard-headed people to make change, and I think the time is right for the kind of leadership I can offer. I want to take the voices of everyday folks in District 10 to Capitol Hill, and I need help. I’m running this campaign like a startup – most of the money I’ve spent has been loans to the campaign on credit card advances. I’m hoping more than just me want a new kind of politics, and that many more will join our reform campaign. I’m so grateful to those who already have,” Hampton said.
Other officially declared candidates, or those likely to run include Democrats Tiffany Attwood, Tony Bothwell, and Anthony Woods; Republicans Nick Gerber, David Harmer and Catherine Moy; Green Jeremy Cloward; and independent Gino VanGundy.
Though no date has been officially set for the special election, it is expected to take place no later than early November.
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Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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The Hunger Site
June 30, 2009 at 3:42 pm
The California Political Bubble continues.
How can candidates Garamendi and DeSaulnier consider running for the US Congress, CA District 10? Our State Government is broken and in the process of shutting down, these two men are no small part of the problem yet they think voters will send them to Washington. This is what happens to career politicians; they get surrounded by a bubble and lose touch with the people they represent. I can’t imagine anybody seriously thinking that these two individuals have done a good job. They represent exactly what is wrong with the State of California. It would be different if these candidates had exercised a leadership role in resolving California’s budget crisis. Instead where are they? Running for a Federal office. Whatever happened to public servants sacrificing and working hard to get a difficult the job done? Their only priority is to get reelected. I hope that you will visit http://www.D10CA.com to see the many MUCH more qualified candidates seeking this position.
-Gary Clift
June 26, 2009 at 8:35 am
Hey wingman,
I’m told from people in the know that there is, in fact, a small cadre of young women who get very excited and start to whine at the mere mention of my name.
h.
June 23, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Yo h, right behind you, 65 in August. Damn we wear it well !! More piss and vinegar than most half our ages. Just too bad that we can’t get as up and excited about fun and games as we did at 18. Tell the truth now compadre, even Cialis can’t compensate for decades of debauch. But then again we’ve probably enjoyed more delights of the flesh and pleasures of indulgence than most of those half our ages could even dream of. And boy are those memories sweet and succulent. Hasta la vista companero.
Lets all focus on flushing the preening Little Lord Fauntleroy out to the George W. Bush Sewage Treatment plant where he belongs.
June 23, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Matt,
I agree on Greens. I love em but they’re more of a think tank than a political party. I joined em to vote for Salomon in an inner-party thing and then to back a candidate for congress. They have a good candidate in CA10 by the way. Guy named Cloward. He’s unopposed so will be on ballot in November, I think, against Adriel (plus Republican & Ind).
Go Giants … Lincecum in 1 hour and 19 minutes. I’m 65 and I still get excited about games as I did at 8.
h.
June 23, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Hi h.,
Unfortunately, I won’t be attending Jim Meko’s kickoff party because I will be busy with something else. I’m not really familiar with his platform, either. I’m sure we’ll meet sooner or later, though.
I couldn’t really tell you why people aren’t running for congress. Maybe it’s a low self-confidence thing or outright fear. It would make sense if somebody with solid local support would run against Nancy Pelosi. Cindy Sheehan, though she had high name recognition, lost because she doesn’t have deep roots in the community.
At this point — though I used to be a member — I’m categorically against the Green Party. They have discarded their independence and have become coopted by the Democrats. For this reason alone, they will go the way of the New Party. Extinction. Good riddance and the sooner the better.
June 23, 2009 at 8:46 am
Campers,
Apologies to Walker. Adriel called to say that she DID phone in sick. I didn’t know and I should have checked.
h.
June 22, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Hey Matt,
I hope I get to finally meet you at Jim Meko’s Kickoff tomorrow evening. Isn’t it amazing that these campaigns are starting up to 2 years and more out? That’s what makes the CA10 campaign so unusual. It’s a freak of nature and Adriel could actually win. Who are you backing? If I read the rules right, the Greens get into the runoff just for the asking.
Be honest, why are people excited about an SF supe race that won’t go down for another 18 months and will produce an office holder with little power when they have the opportunity to put a fellow traveler in Congress, essentially within 90 days.
Did you know that Debra Walker RSVP’d for the Hampton Kickoff then neither showed nor called in sick?
Introduce yourself at Meko’s. I’m a drunk and I forget my own name. I’ve enjoyed your reparte’.
h.
June 22, 2009 at 3:41 pm
There always seems to be nothing better than a campaign, free food and beer is a good lure. But more i9nportant is you get to mingle and talk with people. I like talking with the supporters more than the campaign workers and directly with the candidate.
When I attended this kick off someone asked me where I lived, and I told them. With a bit of a confused look the asked me if the CA10. Not as far as I know it doesn’t. “So why are you here? came the next question. Jokingly my response was “free beer and food”. But this wasn’t the real reason I was there. Just part of it.
And I wasn’t there to carpetbag, maybe do a little volunteering if need be. But I was able to do what I like to do is mingle and talk to people.
One thing I know is that progressive need to do what they can to help Hampton out. He is up against some status quo types that have done nothing or very little for the progressive agenda. This alone should be a reason to support other candidates in districts outside your own that has a progressive agenda that you can bet on to be real.
June 22, 2009 at 2:59 pm
By the way, Adriel, of all the things that you could campaign on, how did the Taft-Hartley Act become the foremost issue of your campaign.
June 22, 2009 at 2:55 pm
It’s nice to know that Adriel is not settling just for the Employee Free Choice Act and has taken it up a gigantic notch to push for the repeal of Taft-Hartley. It’s all about changing the terms of the debate. I also hope he pushes for electoral reforms, such as proportional representation (via choice voting), IRV, open source voting machines that are created and run by the government. http://www.fairvote.org.
I think that for no other reason, Democrats should vote for Adriel because he is facing career politicians who are just looking for a cushy, good-benefits, job to round out their horrible careers. If they had any respect for Democracy and the electorate, they would be running in districts where Republicans stand a chance of losing.
I’m sorry to say that I can’t support Adriel’s campaign because he is a Democrat. Ultimately, Democrats, however good-intentioned, swim in the same water as the rest of the Democratic Party establishment. However, I do have complete faith that Adriel won’t budge on his principles in the immediate term.