Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 24

What's Joseph About?

Joseph followed in his mother's footsteps by becoming an organizer with Peninsula Interfaith Action (P.I.A.), focusing on immigrant rights. He helped lead new activists to personally lobby their elected officials and ensure that the conversation was steered in a way to benefit the people, not re-election campaigns.

Joseph's most significant victory was when he led a delegation of concerned citizens to Sacramento. He knew that the people would not stand to be used for a simple photo-op and led them to a successful takeover of a committee room in the Capitol. This attracted the attention of Assemblymember Gil Cedillo (AD45) and got the ball rolling on AB353 (Towing of Cars at Checkpoints) that reformed the unjust impounding of cars at DUI checkpoints when the drivers' only offense was not having a license.

As his activism grew, Joseph became an organizer with California Common Cause and established a chapter on his college campus. Last month, he continued to fight excessive political contributions by testifying in favor of overturning Citizens United via AJR22 at the House Judiciary Committee, moments before it passed.

Most recently, Joseph has been working with Occupy San Jose (OSJ) to endorse the DISCLOSE Act (AB1648), support the California Federation of Teacher's "Millionaire's Tax," fight San Jose City Council's pension reform initiative, increase the minimum wage, and much more.

He has consistently joined Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) to expose the foreclosure crisis, hold banks accountable, and work on legislation (AB1602, AB2439, and SB708) to ensure that history will not repeat itself.

In March, Joseph testified at the Association of Bay Area Governments executive board meeting to urge their selection process for Priority Development Areas to be more transparent and that the environment be protected at all times--particularly from forced development.

In April, Joseph was part of a delegation of members of OSJ, ACCE, and Occupy Redwood City (ORWC) who met with Assemblymember Rich Gordon's staff at his local office to urge him to support AB1602 and AB2439 to hold banks accountable and stop wrongful foreclosures.

Two weeks later, Joseph returned to Sacramento to speak to representatives of Assemblymembers Felipe Fuente, Nathan Fletcher and Ricardo Lara as part of a delegation of members of OSJ, ACCE and Pico National Network to urge them to support Attorney General Kamala Harris' Homeowner Bill of Rights.

Last week, Joseph joined the California Federation of Teachers on a one mile March for Fairness to protest the anti-collective bargaining initiative on the June ballot in San Jose.

Joseph is looking forward to May 1, when he joins Occupy, labor and immigrant rights activists throughout the peninsula who continue the fight for the 99%.