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Folsom Telegraph Article includes description of Peter Camejo's race to be governor

by Raheem Hosseini (repost and link)
Raheem Hosseini describes two Folsom, California candidates facing uphill battles in this year's election-- and one is the Green Party's Peter Miguel Camejo!
green_party_candidate_for_governor_peter_camejo.png
Two Folsom residents battle odds to make political strides

By: Raheem Hosseini
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 5:45 PM PDT

Folsom residents may want to study their ballots extra close this year. If they do, they may just discover that two of their neighbors are running for major political offices.

Empire Ranch resident Peter Miguel Camejo is taking another Green Party stab at the gubernatorial race, while Folsom Democratic candidate Brandon Bell is trying to unseat Republican Roger Niello in the District 5 Assembly race.

What both men have in common, besides being locals, is they're fighting uphill battles against entrenched incumbents backed by corporate dollars. In other words, it hasn't been easy.

The more seasoned of the two is Camejo, who ran for governor in both 2002 and during the 2003 recall, and then was Ralph Nader's running mate during the 2004 presidential election.

This is Bell's first foray into politics and, while he considered running for a smaller office, says he was convinced by leaders in the Democratic Party to take on Niello.

"Not wanting to back down from a challenge, no matter how big, (I accepted)," Bell said.

But aside from being underdogs in their respective elections, the two candidates share something else. They're refreshingly candid about their political views.

"If millionaires had to pay the same tax rate as the poorest people, there would be no suffering," Camejo told the Telegraph.

He says there would be enough money to erase the deficit, build up the infrastructure, properly fund education and examine alternative energy sources. It may sound lofty, but Camejo says it's entirely possible.

The problem is the two-party system is funded by the same corporations that would see modest declines in their profit margins if they ever had to pay the same percentage of taxes the average voter does, says Camejo, a financial broker.

As someone who makes his living in the corporate world, Bell concurs, saying corporations will get away with what they can if it means an increase in profits. That mentality has seeped into the medical world, where the first question asked of a patient involves who the medical provider is rather than what the ailment is, Bell laments.

Bell also places affordable education high on his list of priorities and publicly endorses the SMUD annexation measure, as well as Propositions 87 and 89. The first aims to reduce the state's oil use over the next decade while putting money into alternative energy programs.

"I want oil companies to get out of the oil business and into the energy business," he said.

The oil industry is bucking hard, pouring money into attack ads that paint the proposition as an additional tax.

Proposition 89 is a campaign finance measure that Bell says would help make elections competitive again.

When it comes to Jessica's Law, Bell says it's a well-intentioned measure that may have the unintended consequence of pushing most sex offenders into suburban communities like Folsom.

Meanwhile, Camejo already has two projects brewing for after the election. As the owner of one of the only solar-powered homes in Folsom, Camejo wants to make clean energy an economically viable option for the average homeowner.

He is also lobbying to free Santo Reyes, a Folsom Prison inmate serving 26 years to life on a third strike offense for cheating on a DMV test. He hopes to convince Governor Schwarzenegger to pardon Reyes following the election.

"Arnold has won. The election is over," Camejo said, adding that Democrats seem to have already abandoned challenger Phil Angelides in favor of securing access to the Schwarzenegger administration.

As for his party's aspirations, Camejo is philosophical.

"At the local level, we're out to win," he said. That means that in school board races, City Council races, Board of Supervisors races and elsewhere, Green Party candidates want to fill the lower ranks of office.

In the higher profile races, the goals are more modest.

"We run with the understanding that we're really trying to get the platform out," said Camejo. In that, he compares his party to the one run by early abolitionists in the 19th century.

In other words, the Greens are more about the message than they are about the power.

For Bell, the assembly candidate still believes "anything can happen."

Whether the growing Republican backlash at the congressional level or Angelides' setbacks in the gubernatorial campaign will factor into local races remains to be seen. Indicators of a low voter turnout are also cause for concern.

With so many unanswered questions, Bell says the best he can do is press on. "And we are," he said.

For more about Brandon Bell, visit http://www.bellforassembly.com.

For more about Peter Camejo, visit http://www.votecamejo.com.
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