Why I am Voting for Barry Hermanson for Congress

Barry Hermanson, Green Party candidate for Congress. File photo by Luke Thomas.

By Marc Norton

May 31, 2012

This election is different, and so is Barry Hermanson. Because of the new “Top Two” primary system, the top two candidates in the June 5 primary will be on the ballot in November, regardless of party affiliation. Are you tired of the total lack of any real debate in the general election between Nancy Pelosi and some retrograde Republican candidate? I am.

Barry Hermanson, Hotel Frank picket.

Whether or not you like the new “Top Two” primary system, that is the way it is this year. And it is a real possibility that Green Party candidate Barry Hermanson could be facing Nancy Pelosi in November, if Barry comes in second in the primary.

Nobody believes that Barry would beat Pelosi in the general election. She has the all the Democratic Party money machinery on her side. But, just for once, wouldn’t you like to see Pelosi and the Democrats forced into a real debate about:

• · The massive expropriation of our tax dollars by the Pentagon and the military?
• · Putting people back to work with a federal jobs program like Franklin Roosevelt’s WPA, rather than corporate-side “stimulus” deals?
• · Real health care reform like Medicare for All?
• · Ending the Bush tax cuts, spiking tax loopholes for the corporations, and taxing the rich?

Or would you rather get another stale debate about voting for the lesser-of-two-evils between Pelosi and some wacko Republican?

I have another reason for supporting Barry – he has been on the picket line at Hotel Frank again and again and again. He doesn’t do this because he is trolling for votes at our small hotel. He does it because he supports workers’ rights, just like he did when he co-authored San Francisco’s landmark minimum wage law, and co-chaired the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition.

I haven’t seen Pelosi anywhere near the Hotel Frank picket line. I don’t remember her getting down in the trenches and fighting for increased wages for the lowest paid workers in this city. I guess we are all just small potatoes to her.

I’m going to keep this simple. You can vote for Pelosi and business-as-usual, or you can vote for Barry because a second-place finish for him would change the conversation for all of us.

Check out Barry’s website at www.barryhermanson.org, then do your civic duty.

Marc Norton was a bellman for nearly twelve years at Hotel Frank in downtown San Francisco, until he was illegally fired in 2010 after Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the property. For more info on the fight at Hotel Frank see www.HotelFrankSF.info. Contact Marc at nortonsf@ix.netcom..com, or through his website at www.MarcNorton.us.