Peter Camejo Joins CA Governor's Race

Camejo Joins Governor's Race
The veteran Green Party candidate says this will be his last long-shot bid.
By Kevin Yamamura -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Friday, February 24, 2006
Story appeared on Page A3 of The Bee

Peter Camejo arrived a few minutes late in his blue Honda Civic Hybrid, walked to the Sacramento County elections office counter and began filling out paperwork Thursday to become a Green Party gubernatorial candidate.

Camejo, 66, then stumbled on one line asking for his ballot designation.

"Hey, Cres, what do we put here?" Camejo asked Cres Vellucci, the California Green Party's spokesman. Camejo settled on "financial adviser," but the Folsom resident could have put "perennial political candidate."

He ran for governor in 2002 and 2003, and then became Ralph Nader's running mate on an independent ticket in the 2004 presidential election. He took a year off in 2005, but now he's back in 2006 - for what he said will be the last time.

"I don't believe it's good policy for parties to run the same candidates for too long," Camejo said, adding that he promised his wife, Morella, that he would stop after this year. After filing his paperwork, Camejo accused Democrats and Republicans in California of helping corporations to the detriment of public education.

He said the tax system is unfair, and that the poorest Californians pay the highest percentage of income to the state in the form of retail and property taxes and other fees.

He also said the Capitol's current debate over whether to put a multibillion-dollar infrastructure bond on the ballot is an election-year ploy that will only help business interests.

"I don't trust these Democrats and Republicans not to hand this money over to those companies as a boondoggle," Camejo said. "I don't think this is a plan that's thought out. I think it's an election-year plan."

Camejo added that California needs a "third voice," and that he wants to be included in any gubernatorial debates later this year.

He plans to lead an April demonstration at the California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento to "say to the people of California that you're in the wrong party." He said Democrats need to do more to fight for gay marriage and against capital punishment and the war in Iraq.

California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres called the Green Party "irrelevant." "They haven't played a factor in the past," Torres said. "In the recall, (Camejo) fared very poorly. I have no doubt that he'll fare poorly again. ... Peter's a nice guy, very bright, but he's just out of sync with a majority of the voters."

Vellucci said he was unaware of anyone else pursuing the Green Party gubernatorial nomination. Third-party candidates seeking a waiver of the $3,500 filing fee for the governor's race had to submit 150 signatures by Thursday.

As of January, the Green Party had 145,786 voters, or 0.92 percent of registered Californians, according to the secretary of state's office.

Schwarzenegger, the Republican incumbent, is running for re-election for the first time since he won the 2003 recall election. Two statewide officers, state Controller Steve Westly and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, are competing for the Democratic nomination.

Others who have taken out papers for the gubernatorial race include Barbara Becnel, a Democrat who helped convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams write children's books in prison before he was executed.
https://www.voteforrest.org//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=84

CAMPAIGN PROFILE
Peter Miguel Camejo
It's easy to be Green for this activist
Liberal financier benefiting from voters' dislike of Davis, Simon
Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/10/02/MN31845.DTL

CNN Factsheet: 2004
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/special/president/candidates/camejo.html

Peter Camejo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Camejo#External_links

The Avocado Declaration
by Peter Miguel Camejo
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=33&ItemID=4813