Reply to Conn Hallinan's Complaint Regarding GPAC and KPFA Election

Dear Conn Hallinan,

Hi Conn, I am Akio Tanaka. We met at the KPFA ‘Candidate’s Night’.

I am the author of the Green Party of Alameda County (GPAC) endorsement that was approved by the GPAC County Council (GPAC CC) and sent to our members on October 16.

I have subsequently learned that it has caused much dismay and controversy amongst the Concerned Listeners, KPFA staff, and GPAC, so I think that I owe an explanation for why I asked the GPAC CC to approve the endorsement.

On the eve of KPFA LSB elections during the weekend of the October 15, I was made aware that the ‘Concerned Listeners’ slate -- which had been endorsed by the WDRC (Wellstone Democrats) and had the support of many of the paid-staff at KPFA -- was going to send out a mailer supporting the ‘Concerned Listener’ slate to coincide with the mailing of the ballots.

This was troubling due to the lack of any serious amount of airtime publicizing the election and giving the candidates opportunities to state their positions. [As a listener supported radio, the station should have aired each listener candidate carts as much as possible before the ballots were sent out; instead, the candidates’ carts only started to air on 10-27 well over a week after the ballots and the mailers supporting the ‘Concerned Listeners’ slate had been mailed out.]

Under these circumstances, I felt that mailers supporting the ‘Concerned Listener‘ slate sent to half of the KPFA membership (coinciding with the ballots) were not going to result in a fair election (especially for the independent candidates).

There are very capable candidates on both slates and among the independent candidates, and I felt I needed to inform Green Party members about these candidates to help address the imbalance, so our endorsement list included 5 from the ‘ Alliance ’, 3 independent candidates, and 1 from ‘Concerned Listeners’.

There has been much criticism of the wording of the endorsement. In addition to your criticism, Lisa Ballard and Brian Edwards-Tiekert of KPFA, and John Morton and Michael-David Sisson of the GPAC also expressed criticisms.

I was the sole author of the endorsement, so I take full responsibility for its content. I apologize that some errors and some injudicious comments have been made, so I will go through the text of the endorsement, [......], and correct them below.

If you have any further issues or concerns please let me know. In all honesty, I am anxious to diffuse the acrimony which seems to surround the KPFA election. I am not trying to further the conflict.

Sincerely yours,

Akio Tanaka

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[There is an important election coming up for the KPFA Local Station Board ("LSB").

We urge every Green Party Member who is a member of KPFA to cast their vote to help both KPFA and the Green Party.

The basic issue of this election is whether the democratic reforms that were put in place after The Great Lock-Out will go forward--so that the listeners have real input in the running of the station--or whether the status quo will remain in effect.]

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Anyone who follows the LSB meetings knows that there are two factions on the board, nominally ‘pro-management’ and ‘pro-listener’; they are both ‘entrenched’ in the sense that they are caught in a gridlock and neither side is willing to yield.

The tragedy is that both sides want the same thing - a strong KPFA.

There has been great difficulty in implementing the democratic process that came out of the settlement agreement; however, we need to elect candidates who will support the democratic process and work to end the gridlock.

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[The lack of third party coverage by KPFA is a major issue for the Greens that are running for the LSB. In an age when corporations own the media and control both the Democratic and Republican parties, it is critical that progressive media like KPFA give voice to progressive third parties like the Green Party.]

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We live with the intolerable situation where the corporations own the media and control both the Democratic and Republican parties with campaign contributions.

Yet every four years we repeat the cycle where the Democrats are forever voting for the lesser of two evils and trying to suppress third party candidates as spoilers.

An emblematic example is Ralph Nader in the 2004 presidential election. Any progressive worth his/her salt will actively promote Nader’s message to remove corporate money from the electoral process. However, because of the accepted “reality” of electoral politics even KPFA will not air his message with any degree of consistency or repetition.

Were it not for Democracy Now and Flashpoints, I doubt very much Ralph Nader's voice would have been heard over KPFA air at all in the fall of 2004.

Greens feel that a progressive station like KPFA should squarely and frequently address the issues of electoral reform, such as IRV and publicly financed elections, so that in the end the electoral process is freed from corporate money.

The Green Party, like KPFA, has chosen to operate outside the confines (and benefits) of corporate money and so the two are natural partners in the effort to build a better world that truly supports human need rather than corporate greed.

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[There are two competing slates and a group of independent candidates running for positions on the LSB.

‘Alliance for a Democratic KPFA’ slate is backed by the 'progressive staff' like Dennis Bernstein and Bonnie Faulkner. The candidates include mostly peace and media activists like Henry Norr, the SF Chronicle journalist who was fired for participating in anti war march and supporting the Palestinian cause.]

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I use the word progressive in the sense of challenging the accepted norm that understandably creates opposition.
Dennis Bernstein gets harassed both inside and outside the station for his coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bonnie Faulkner gets derided both inside and outside the station for coverage of 9-11.

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[The following individuals, including many Green candidates, also endorse the Alliance slate: Aimee Allison, candidate Oakland City Council, Dist. 2; Terry Baum, playwright http:/ /http://www.terrybaum.com; Riva Enteen, KPFA LSB member; Bonnie Faulkner, producer, Guns and Butter; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet; Dennis Bernstein, executive producer, FlashPoints; Krissy Keefer, Green Party candidate for Congress; Renee Saucedo, attorney, Civil Rights activist; Michael Parenti, author; Attila Nagy, KPFA LSB member; James Vann, affordable housing activist; Peter Phillips, Project Censored
There is also a group of independents running, which includes some very capable and progressive candidates.

‘Concerned Listener’ slate is backed by the 'entrenched staff' like Larry Bensky, Mark Mi[e]re[i]cle, Phil Maldav[r]i, and Sasha Lill[e]y who are opposing the implementation of democratic governance that resulted from the settlement. They have enlisted people from the Wellstone Democrats like Conn Hallinan to run on their slate. They also include two incumbents, Mark Hernandez and Sarv Randhawa, who blocked the KPFA LSB support for the Berkeley Honda strikers.]


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You have informed me that you are not a member of the WDRC--my sincere apologies for this mistake.

I misconstrued John Katz’s flyer which announced that you, Conn Hallinan, were hosting a fundraiser where the WDRC members were invited to meet ‘the Concerned Listener’ candidates who were endorsed for the KPFA Local Station Board by the Wellstone Club and .. "shmooze with some of the on air staff that is supporting their candidacies, including Larry Bensky, Bonnie Simmons, Phil Maldari, Sasha Lilley, and Mark Mericle”.

I took the account of the WDRC endorsement of the ‘Concerned Listeners’ slate from:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/09/25/18313697.php
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As far as the ‘entrenched staff’ opposing the implementation of democratic governance, this is a charge made by some of the candidates opposed to the ‘Concerned Listener’ slate. It is a value judgment, so it was not appropriate to include in our endorsement, and I apologize for including this in our endorsement.
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As far as blocking the resolution in support of the Berkeley Honda strike, I based this on the account by LSB member, Chandra Hauptman, who introduced the resolution in support of the strikers.

Chandra wrote:
“” The reason it took nine months for this resolution to be approved is because two board members, SARV RANDHAWA and MARK HERNANDEZ, prevented this item from being heard by the board. Each month, either Sarv or Mark voiced an objection to this item going forward on the LSB’s consent calendar. After a few attempts to get this resolution approved, I started writing emails to all members of the LSB prior to each board meeting. I asked if anyone had objections to this resolution to please make these objections known to me and to the LSB. I also offered to discuss these objections so they could be resolved prior to each board meeting. Month after month my email appeals were met with complete silence. No one said why he/she was objecting. No one came forward to state publicly why he/she continued to prevent this resolution from going forward.

The only reason the board was able to approve this resolution is because I threatened to go public, at the April 2006 LSB meeting, by exposing the names of the two people who prevented this resolution from being approved by the LSB for the prior 8 months."
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Anyone who wants to learn more about both sides of this issue should read the posting by the two principals: Chandra Hauptman who introduced the resolution and Mark Hernandez who gives his account of why it took nine month to pass the resolution.

Chandra’s account: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/12/18319938.php
Mark’s account: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/22/18322249.php
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We in the GPAC voted to support the strike, and many of us walked on the picket line. The strikers needed all the help they could get.

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[The Green Party of Alameda County recommends the selection of the following nine candidates for the Local Station Board from the Alliance for a Democratic KPFA slate, the Concerned Listeners slate, the Independents.

(Alliance for a Democratic KPFA slate)
1. Akio Tanaka - Green Party, Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee
2. Henry Norr - Green Party, journalist and peace activist
3. Dave Heller - Green Party, Californians for Electoral Reform
4. Bob English - labor activist
5. Regina Carey- civil right and grass-root activist

(Concerned Listeners slate)
6. Phoebe Sorgen - Chair Social Justice Committee, BFUU

(Independents)
7. Dave Welsh - labor activist
8. Vida Samiian - Dean, Fresno State University
9. Jane Jackson - Incumbent, and civil rights activist

More information about each candidate is available at: http://www.kpfa.org/elections/2006/

There are 22 candidates running for the 9 positions. Ranked voting will be used so each
KPFA member can cast no more than 9 votes in the order of their preference.]

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The GPAC endorsement list was put together partly to counter the pending mailers in support of the ‘Concerned Listeners‘ slate, so our endorsement listed only one ‘Concerned Listener’ slate member.

I recognize that there are outstanding candidates on the ‘Concerned Listener’ slate also like Conn Hallinan and Ernesto Chacin.

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