Gayle McLaughlin ( /məˈklɔːflɨn/; born 1952 in Chicago, Illinois) is a California politician. She is a member of the Green Party and, since 2006, the mayor of Richmond, California. McLaughlin was elected on November 7, 2006 by a 242-vote^[1] margin over incumbent mayor Irma A. Anderson.^[2] Richmond is, as of 2009, the largest city in the country with a Green Party mayor.^[3]

McLaughlin is a social activist who has participated in the peace, social justice, civil rights, and environmental movements. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, with graduate study in psychology and education.

She was First elected to the City Council in 2004, winning one of five open seats, with 11,191 votes or 10% in 2004.^[4] She has lived in Richmond since 2001.^[5].

Background and experience[link]

McLaughlin was born into a working class union family. She is the middle child of five daughters born to a unionized carpenter and a housewife.

During the 1980s, McLaughlin was an activist with the Central American solidarity movement and a steering committee member of CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). She also played an active role in the North Star Network, a national networking effort to unite progressives, and in coalition-building efforts with Rainbow/PUSH.

McLaughlin graduated summa cum laude from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. She continued her education with two years of graduate study in psychology at Rhode Island College, with additional graduate study in education at U.C. Berkeley Extension.

McLaughlin has worked as a postal clerk, teacher, caregiver for the elderly, and tutor/clinician for children with learning disabilities. She has also worked in the capacity of support staff for various not-for-profit health and educational organizations.^{[citation needed]}

Richmond Progressive Alliance[link]

On November 2, 2004, McLaughlin was elected to the city council of Richmond, California, in a non partisan race. She is a founder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), a non-partisan progressive group in western Contra Costa County, composed of members of the Green Party, Democratic Party, Peace and Freedom Party and Independents.

In Richmond, McLaughlin's activism has found her in many local struggles in support of both social and environmental justice. She opposed the Patriot Act,</ref>. !-- the criminalization of the homeless, and Chevron's Richmond Refinery tax perks. She has also been involved in an ongoing effort to stop development on the North Richmond shoreline and supports the battle against job or salary cutbacks against Service Employees International Union

Mayor[link]

First term[link]

In the 2004 election McLaughlin was the first Green Party candidate ever to win a seat on Richmond California's City Council. In 2006, she decided to challenge incumbent African-American mayor Irma Anderson, whom she defeated by 242 votes.

Mayor McLaughlin is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,^[6] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

In 2008, a member of McLaughlin's staff was implicated in a scheme to steal more than $50,000 from the City of Richmond by creating phony contributions to charitable organizations. The staffmember was fired when this came to light. Contra Costa County District Attoney's Office prosecuted. The staffmember pled guilty and served time along with making restitution of the stolen funds.

Second term[link]

McLaughlin won a second term in office in the 2010 municipal election.^[7] She overcame a well funded offensive by local police and firefighter unions to unseat her during the election campaign. She was sworn into office on January 11, 2011 to her second term.

Veteran's Day 2011[link]

On Veteran's Day 2011, Fox News bashed the mayor, making an issue of McLaughlin attending an occupy rally "as a strong supporter of Veterans for Peace and Iraq Vets Against the War" and not attending a symbolic portrayal of a ship-launching at the former Richmond Shipyards. The report focused entirely on it being "disrespectful". It made unsubstantiated claims^{[citation needed]} of this being highly controversial and that the mayor is "known for controversy", but these were not specified. The activities of McLaughlin were used to attack the Occupy movement. ^[8]

See also[link]

• 2006 Richmond, California city election

Source[link]

• RichmondProgressiveAlliance.net "Asleep at the Wheel in Richmond", Chip Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle (July 12, 2004)

References[link]

External links[link]

• GayleMcLaughlin.net - Official website
• ContraCostaTimes.com - 'Council Pool Not Deep' (editorial), Contra Costa Times (October 27, 2006)
• RichmondGreens.net - 'Many Neighborhoods - One Richmond', Richmond Greens
• Editorial by McLaughlin on Curbing violence

v t e Mayors of cities with populations exceeding 100,000 in California     Antonio Villaraigosa (Los Angeles) Jerry Sanders (San Diego) Chuck Reed (San Jose) Edwin M. Lee (San Francisco) Ashley Swearengin (Fresno) Kevin Johnson (Sacramento) Bob Foster (Long Beach) Jean Quan (Oakland) Harvey Hall (Bakersfield) Tom Tait (Anaheim) Miguel A. Pulido (Santa Ana) Ronald O. Loveridge (Riverside) Ann Johnston (Stockton) Cheryl Cox (Chula Vista) Gus Morrison (Fremont) Sukhee Kang (Irvine) Pat Morris (San Bernardino) Jim Ridenour (Modesto) Thomas E. Holden (Oxnard) Acquanetta Warren (Fontana) William H. Batey II (Moreno Valley)* John Drayman (Glendale) Don Hansen (Huntington Beach)* Bob Kellar (Santa Clarita)* William Dalton (Garden Grove) Susan Gorin (Santa Rosa)* Jim Wood (Oceanside) Donald Kurth (Rancho Cucamonga) Paul S. Leon (Ontario) R. Rex Parris (Lancaster) Pat Hume (Elk Grove) James C. Ledford Jr. (Palmdale) Stan Skipworth (Corona)* Dennis Donohue (Salinas) Elliot Rothman (Pomona) Frank Scotto (Torrance) Michael Sweeney (Hayward) Sam Abed (Escondido) Tony Spitaleri (Sunnyvale) Bill Bogaard (Pasadena) Carolyn Cavecche (Orange) F. Richard Jones (Fullerton)* Jacqui Irwin (Thousand Oaks)* Jesus Gamboa (Visalia) Paul Miller (Simi Valley) William D. Shinn (Concord)* Gina Garbolino (Roseville) Jamie L. Matthews (Santa Clara) Osby Davis (Vallejo) Rudy Cabriales (Victorville) Ernest Gutierrez (El Monte) Tom Bates (Berkeley) Rick Trejo (Downey)* Eric R. Bever (Costa Mesa)* James T. Butts, Jr. (Inglewood) Christy Weir (Ventura) Shelley Sanderson (West Covina)* Cheri Kelley (Norwalk)* Matt Hall (Carlsbad) Harry T. Price (Fairfield) Gayle McLaughlin (Richmond) Kelly Bennett (Murrieta) David Golonski (Burbank) Jim Davis (Antioch) Carol L. Klatt (Daly City) Jeffery Comerchero (Temecula) Larry Lavagnino (Santa Maria) ^* Mayor selected from city council Other states AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY

Nativo Lopez-Vigil (born in 1951) is a Chicano political leader and immigrant rights activist in Southern California. Lopez is the president of the Mexican American Political Association and the national director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana (formerly the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional), a community service and advocacy organization for Mexican and Latin American immigrants throughout the United States.

Biography[link]

Lopez, born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, grew up in Norwalk, California. He became an activist in 1968, inspired by Bert Corona and Cesar Chavez. Prior to college at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Lopez who was born Larry Nativo Lopez, changed his name to Nativo Vigil Lopez.^[1] He organized student walk-outs from high schools in order to demonstrate for education reform. He was involved in successful efforts to win a large-scale amnesty for illegal immigrants in 1986, and became involved in a campaign to allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses in the 1990s.

Lopez served on the school board of Santa Ana, California for six years, from 1997 until 2003. He was recalled from office after a campaign led by Ron Unz, the multi-millionaire backer of California Proposition 227, which prohibited bilingual education programs. He was accused of failing to enforce Prop 227, informing parents of their rights under the new law to opt for bilingual education for their children. He sued to challenge the use of English-only recall petitions as a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and won in the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court, although the case is not yet resolved. Another issue involved in the recall campaign was the proposed construction of an elementary school in the wealthiest side of Santa Ana, but opposed by the majority wealthy Republican and conservative constituency of the city. Lopez was recalled by 71% of the voters and lost every single one of the 16 precincts were the ballots were cast, including areas with majority Latino voters. ^[2]

Lopez, backed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed a lawsuit against the petition and recall process, claiming the English-only petitions violated the Voting Rights Act [1]. California began providing Spanish-language ballots statewide in 2002, and local jurisdictions also provide multilingual election materials. But petitions, which are written by ordinary people hoping to change laws from the grass-roots level, are often available in English only[2].

the initial suit, Padilla v. Lever, sought to prevent the recall election from proceeding. The suit unsuccessfully sought an injunction to prevent the election from occurring, after the petition signatures had been collected and certified by Orange County elections officials. The district court denied the injunction. After the recall election took place and Lopez was recalled, the plaintiffs appealed to a 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit[3]. There, the idea that the recall election was illegal was originally upheld, although an en banc panel later overturned that decision.

Lopez assisted in organizing the 2006 United States immigration reform protests, both the March 25, 2006 demonstration of between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people in Los Angeles, and the Great American Boycott on May 1, 2006, which involved between 500,000 and about 1,000,000 people in Los Angeles.^{[3][dead link][4][5][6]} On April 13, 2006, Lopez appeared on Lou Dobbs' television show, where he argued that "illegal immigrant" is an offensively racist term on par with "wop," "nigger," or "kike."

Indicted on Voter Fraud[link]

On June 25, 2009, Lopez was charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office with four felonies: fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury and fraudulent voting. Lopez allegedly leased office space in Boyle Heights and registered to vote using that address although he lived with his family in Orange County. It was further alleged that Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Assn., cast an illegal ballot in L.A. in the 2008 presidential primary. In a plea deal, Lopez pleaded guilty to one felony count of voter registration fraud related to the voter fraud charges. The seven other felony charges were dropped. Lopez was sentenced to three years probation by Judge William C. Ryan, and Lopez was further ordered to perform 400 hours of community service. {http://totalbuzz.ocregister.com/2011/06/22activist-nativo-lopez-pleads-guilty-to-voter-fraud/55539/} Lopez is now a convicted felon.

After numerous attempts to set his preliminary hearing date during Los Angeles Superior Court hearings from February to May 2010 were postponed by Nativo Lopez's refusal to identify himself, including in Dept. 95, Mental Competency Court, Lopez was sent back to Dept. 36, where his preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 12, 2010. An article appeared that questioned whether he still represents MAPA because his local chapter and his Hermandad Nacional corporation have both been suspended, according to the Secretary of State. Lopez still continues his involvement with the Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl (APG)), which has been featured on various cockfighting websites. As late as March 2010, the MAPA/APG chapter was still providing political advocacy and holding poultry shows. ^[7]

References[link]

• Sailer, Steve (May 17, 2002). "Q&A with Nativo Lopez: Latino Immigrant Activist". UPI. http://www.isteve.com/2002_QA_Nativo_Lopez.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-25. 
• Dutton, Leslie (June 9, 2006). "Who Was Behind the Immigrant Boycott?". Full Disclosure Network. http://www.fulldisclosure.net/flash/462-463_Navito.php. Retrieved 2006-06-25. 
• Knopp, Sarah (October 29, 2004). "No support from the party we built". Socialist Worker. http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-2/518/518_06_NativoLopez.shtml. Retrieved 2006-06-25. 
• Denise A. Justin (June 2, 2010). Nativo Lopez: Does He Speak for MAPA and Mexican Americans? http://www.opposingviews.com/i/nativo-lopez-does-he-speak-for-mapa-and-mexican-americans
• Phyllis M. Daugherty (June 8, 2010). Cockfighting a Serious Crime or Legitimate Sport? http://www.opposingviews.com/i/cockfighting-a-serious-crime-or-legitimate-sport

Notes[link]

1. ^ Eng, Lily (July 1, 1990). "Point Man for County Latinos Activism: Nativo Lopez is county director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional. But his influence in the community goes far beyond that role". Los Angeles Times . http://articles.latimes.com/1990-07-01/local/me-1144_1_hermandad-mexicana-nacional?pg=1. Retrieved 2009-06-29. 
2. ^ Ray, Herdon F. (February 6, 2003). "Ousted Santa Ana Trustee Lost Even His Latino Base". Los Angeles Times . http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/06/local/me-savote6. Retrieved 2009-06-29. 
3. ^ ABC News article dated 1 May 2006: 1M Immigrants Skip Work for Demonstration
4. ^ CNN article dated 12 December 2003: California Latino groups urge boycott
5. ^ CNN article dated 30 April 2006: Millions expected to join walkout
6. ^ CNN article dated 30 April 2006: Quick Guide & Transcript: Immigrants launch nationwide boycotts, Student robotics competition
7. ^ http://www.opposingviews.com/i/nativo-lopez-does-he-speak-for-mapa-and-mexican-americans

*http://www.opposingviews.com/i/cockfighting-a-serious-crime-or-legitimate-sport

See also[link]

• Chicano Movement