This is the last of the four times -- morning, afternoon, evening, and weekend I'll have posted this. I truly do apologize for perhaps being obnoxious by doing so in order to have a decent shot at covering the various types of readers here. In my defense, this is important to my campaign -- and I hope that you'll consider passing it on well-beyond this website. If you've seen it before, please feel welcome skip it. I have already turned this in and can't revise it further, but if you want to comment on how you think it should have been improved, please feel welcome to do so here. (My second posting of this diary did make the Rec List, but my ActBlue somehow developed a problem with pop-ups blocking contributions, so my campaign didn't benefit from it.)
Two weeks ago,
I published a draft ballot statement for my State Senate race and invited your criticisms and suggestions. Several of you were kind enough to comply. I took many suggestions, though not all -- somtimes for reasons I don't want to explain and sometimes that I can't articulate.
The reaction I've got locally is that it's hard-hitting and highly unusual -- not the sort of thing one sees from a candidate in a generally conservative district. That's OK with me. To me, given the unlikelihood of my incumbent opponent accepting debates, the ballot statement is probably the most important thing I'll do in this campaign: it gets a message out to literally 420,000 voters (out of a district of 900,000 people) -- many of whom will read it in a relatively receptive frame of mind.
I had expected to have plenty of company as an Occupy-affiliated candidate for office, just like the Tea Party did in 2010. For various reasons -- largely that Occupy actually is the sort of grass-roots, questioning of authority, non-partisan political movement that the Tea Party has pretended to be -- that apparently hasn't happened. That puts more of a burden on me to do it right, as best I can. (I'll note up front: I'm not endorsed by Occupy as a movement, because Occupy doesn't endorse; rather, I myself participate in and endorse Occupy as a movement -- and I have numerous individual endorsements from local Occupiers.)
I don't know how much influence I can have on national politics from my lonely district here in the sticks. (OK, it actually contains Richard Nixon's birthplace, two Cal State University campuses, and goes down to the street across from Disneyland, so I exaggerate there slightly.) I do know this: if other people want to see the Occupy message extending into U.S. politics this year, I don't know any better way to do it than through publicizing and supporting my own campaign.
I'm proudly wearing my Occupy affiliation on my sleeve. If you think that those you know would appreciate knowing that someone out there is doing so, please pass it along -- and invite them to visit my website. My remaining expenses at this point are mostly voter lists and various means of reaching voters through printed material and the like; for those who can contribute money, that's where the lion's share goes.
I'm State Senate candidate Greg Diamond. I was raised in Orange County, left to earn a Ph.D. and top-ranked law degree – and then came home. My profession involves fighting sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and discrimination by race, age, disability, and more. In politics, I fight against government secrecy and corruption and for fairness, shared prosperity, tolerance, diversity, environmentalism, and – yes – “the 99%.”
This past year, I’ve negotiated with cities and helped organize peaceful, law-abiding protests for Occupy Orange County. If that’s surprising for a mainstream candidate, it shouldn’t be. Occupy opposes corruption – a mainstream concern.
The radicals are big banks and purchased politicians who seized our government, shipwrecked our economy, commandeered the lifeboats, left most of us to flounder and drown – and then demanded amnesty!
Powerful business lobbies have remorselessly abandoned the poor, relentlessly squeezed and crushed the middle class, and recklessly engorged the already wealthy. They feel no pain when California’s government starves and staggers. They don’t want government services for regular people; they seek handouts for themselves. That’s not civic-minded – it’s wrong!
Let’s fight back to reclaim California’s greatness. I favor:
• Prop 30 – the “Millionaire’s Tax” – to help restore California’s public education, health care, parklands, and economic stability.
• Single-payer health care, circumventing wasteful Big Insurance.
• Transparency in government. (I’d broadcast meetings with lobbyists live by Internet.)
• Stopping Prop 32 – perverse, one-sided, fake “reform” that squelches unions’ political contributions while leaving most massive corporate campaign contributions unaffected and unopposed.
Please vote for Greg Diamond. I’m prepared to fight for you!
Again; my website is
gregdiamond2012.com. The link to the ActBlue donation page is
here. I'll run as much of a campaign as I can afford -- how much I
can afford will depend on the generosity of those who appreciate what I'm doing over these next 80 days.