Candidate for
United States Representative; District 10

For my entire adult life, I've watched our political leadership become more and more distant from the lives of hardworking Americans like me, my family and my friends. These are times for our government when caring people cannot just stand aside and watch.

Since the day in October 2002 that Rep. Ellen Tauscher and nearly all of our elected representatives voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, I have been considering running for California's District 10. It is unconscionable that so many of our representatives never face primary challenges, and I was considering just such a challenge when Rep. Tauscher announced her departure.

The election of President Barack Obama, whom I supported through the primary by organizing friends and making hundreds of phone calls to voters in key states while my sons took their afternoon naps, is testament to the radical change that voters are demanding. That change has only just begun.

Congress contains many entrenched career politicians who have no desire for true change. I am fighting with all I have to ensure that the voter of District 10 have a real choice in Washington.

I have dedicated my professional life to the pursuit of truth, as a journalist and as a private investigator. I want to go to Congress to take the voices of everyday folks into the halls of power. I plan to fight with all my heart for progressive legislation to end America's economic crisis, including:

1.)Caps on Interest Rates;

2.)Fully Funding Public Education;

3.)Auditing the Federal Reserve (HR1207);

4.)Providing Single-Payer Health Care for all Americans.

This special election is a rare opportunity for a grassroots candidate, and I can be a rallying cry for real reform in the 2010 midterms.

I've got a clear plan for bringing an activist agenda to Congress. I'll fight to end the drug war, for equal federal rights for all citizens, to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, and for labor protections in all trade deals. Big bank bailouts are bad business for all of us, and at the top of my agenda will be progressive economic reform to protect the working class.

I come from humble origins. I earned my first full-time job working for the District Attorney in Calaveras County through a program that provided paid job-training for disadvantaged youths. I was also inspirted watching the Class of 2000 at the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, where a rag-tag collection of community activists beat candidates hand-picked by the mayor and business leaders and enacted progressive reforms such as a new minimum wage and increased tenant protections.

I have shed tears at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan, and I cheered in 2008 when Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking U.S. Official ever to visit that beacon of hope for a more peaceful world. I will work with local and national peace activists towards a world where we win hearts and minds in other nations with brave women and men who will put shovels instead of boots on the ground, and where the spread of knowledge and goodwill replaces the spread of fear and hatred.

We can have a healthy government built on the common dreams we share. What it will take is breaking the cycle of political musical chairs, where the same handful of candidates are considered frontrunners for whatever open office comes up. I am running because I have a vision for America. My vision goes beyond partisan politics and to the heart of "government by the people, of the people, for the people."

This vision is contagious, and has rallied scores of volunteers from around the nation to my campaign. Government reform advocates and visionaries from Wyoming, Florida, our nation's capital and New York have joined in promoting my efforts through blogging, editing, donating, writing, and pledging their time for my campaign's phone banking efforts.

I am just a guy, but I am a guy with a dream. I want to take the aspirations of everyone I represent to Congress. We must invest ourselves in an America where hard work and merit still lead to prosperity, where the next generations are as lucky as we are, in an America where anything is possible.