Audie Bock is the first ever Green candidate elected to the California State Assembly. This page has further information on her career as a green lawmaker.

For info on Audie Bock's re-election campagn:
http://www.bockbypopdemand.org

For articles and speeches, click on these links or scroll down:

Novice Lawmaker Bings Element of Truth to Capitol

Bock Unites Industry and Environmentalists, Passes First Ever Green Resolution

Governor Grants Bock's Lake Merritt Request

ASSEMBLY KILLS BOCK'S INCINERATOR BILL

Audie Bock's Commonwealth Club Speech

Novice Lawmaker brings element of truth to Capitol
It seems Audie Bock is not your typical politician. Honest to a fault is an expression that comes to mind.

[Oakland Tribune Monday August 30, 1999]

In case you hadn't noticed, Bock is the 16th District Assembly Green Party member from Piedmont, and also representing Oakland and Alameda. She won election to the seat when conventional wisdom said she couldn't beat former Mayor Elihu Harris. But even to her own amazement, she won a stunning victory.

Since then she's continued to surprise many of her colleagues and constituents with refreshing candor. Inevitably, she's no doubt made some enemies. As for Harris, he didn't believe the electoral message, I guess, because he wants to run for the seat again. So do quite a few other folks.

Running against Bock seems to be mighty popular. In addition to Harris, I've counted seven others who are thinking about it, or seriously planning, on getting in the race for election next March. Obviously, all of them must figure they can beat Bock, and think her election last year was accidental. After all, an unknown novice has never been elected out of the Green (or the blue) without moving up the obligatory political steps first. But if last year's election was a fluke, the next one won't be.

Elections really are different each time even when the same candidates are running. Bock was an unknown then; now she has a record to stand on, or defend, depending on your view. Getting elected was just the beginning of a meteoric ascent for Bock. The Capitol press loves her for being so darned forthright and honest, for being the only Green on the two-party turf, and for making good copy. So that's the up side.

Then there's the down side. Like when Bock chided her colleagues for voting for a gun-control bill prohibiting the sale of new handguns that don't pass certain safety tests. Bock spoke against the bill, and those who supported it.

"The Emperor has no clothes," she said. "Voting for this will allow you to go home and tell your constituents you voted to ban hand-guns but it won't do anything about the old guns." Bock went on, "The reality is these well-written fragments of what we dramatically call gun control do nothing to control guns. I want gun legislation that works-- none of this phony write-a-gun-law-and-get-re-elected business."

There was Audie Bock, telling the truth again. Ouch, doesn't she know the truth hurts? She found an unlikely ally in the National Rifle Association whose lobbyist called her a "profile in courage." Just one more surprise for Audie Bock.

Later in the week, Bock was in Oakland at the Lake Merritt Breakfast Club where she won hearts with this out-of-date concept: "I was elected to speak for the people and I will continue to do so." Bock said she thought her election upset was an "echo" to the precedent set when Oakland voters overwhelmingly elected Mayor Jerry Brown and his strong mayor charter change.

"It was a message," said Bock. "My mission has been to be a voice for the people. I'm kind of a troublemaker up there, but I think I'm making good trouble as I do get thanked by both parties for what I'm doing."

But, of course, not all the time. Since she's the only Green Party member in the legislature there is no Caucus to chide her for not going along with the rest of the guys. "I have no Caucus to beat me up, I have to beat up myself." Bock has a friend in 14th District Assemblywoman Dion Aroner of Berkeley and Oakland. "Dion says there's a difference between being a liberal and a progressive. She says a liberal is someone who sticks to the line that says a vast array of social program will solve problems. And a progressive is someone who is willing to negotiate. My position has been to negotiate."

But was Aroner trying to instruct her colleague in the finer points? A continuing problem, said Bock, is the legislature's fear of being vetoed by its Democratic governor, who has turned out to be a fiscal conservative. Yet another surprise for Sacramento.

As for a pending bill sponsored by Sen. Don Perata that would hasten the ban on the toxic MTBE additive in gasoline, Bock supports Perata's efforts and said she will be watching closely to see what happens when it gets to the governor's desk. Bock herself will be watched closely by her constituents, and her enemies as she continues on her mission of truth. I thought you should know since I happen to be a truth teller, myself.

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Bock Unites Industry and Environmentalists, Passes First Ever Green Resolution

[From Assemblymember Audie Bock's Assembly Web Page, Monday July 12, 1999, Contact: Michael Twombly (916) 319-2016]

SACRAMENTO--The State Assembly today passed House Resolution 27 by Assemblywoman Audie Bock (G-Oakland). The resolution frames a comprehensive, tripartisan, scientific approach to dioxins in San Francisco Bay. Some dioxins are known to be 300,000 times more toxic than the banned pesticide DDT. "We know dioxin is dangerous," said Bock, "We need to know exactly how dangerous it is and where it has been entering San Francisco Bay."

Noting that the resolution had support from both the Sierra Club and the Western States Petroleum Association, Bock stated, "We are finished with the adversarial relationship between industry and the environmental community. We are beginning the new millenium with cooperation between industry, environmental activists, the medical community and others concerned about the health of San Francisco Bay.I am very pleased that this resolution passed with such broad support," said Bock. 43 Democrats, 27 Republicans and Ms. Bock, the only Green Party member of the Assembly, voted for the resolution.

Six Assembly members did not vote. HR 27 identifies a series of known health risks associated with dioxin, which is a byproduct of combustion and various industrial processes.

The resolution also states the need for more research into the many different sources of dioxin pollution. HR 27 also identifies the high risk of eating San Francisco Bay fish for the primarily minority anglers who depend upon fishing for their daily food intake.

"With this resolution industry and environmentalists agree for the first time on getting to the sources of dioxin contamination in San Francisco Bay. We need a comprehensive regional strategy that looks at all sources and integrates all of our agencies' approaches,"said Bock, "Getting industry and activists on board the same boat, we will clean up the Bay."

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[June 29, 1999 -- Contact: Michael Twombly (916) 319-2016]

Sacramento--The Legislature's first Green Party member scored a major victory today when Governor Gray Davis signed into law the 1999-2000 Budget Act containing Assemblywoman Audie Bock's Lake Merritt Project.

"I am very grateful to Governor Davis for acknowledging the importance of Lake Merritt as a major Bay Area attraction" said Bock. "As a Green Party member, I had no right to expect anything in the Budget. I want to thank the Governor for helping preserve the 'Jewel of Oakland' on behalf of all the people who have worked so hard to make this happen."

The project, to repair the century-old Lake Merritt retaining walls, is expected to cost more than $9 million when completed. According to Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, the City has committed $1.5 million toward this endeavor.

"My original request from the State was $1 million, roughly 10% of the total cost of the Project. The Legislature approved $750,000 and the Governor reduced this amount to $500,000, " said Bock. "I am following this piece with a request that the Coastal Conservancy consider designating an additional $1 million funding from their budget to match these great commitments from the City of Oakland."

"It is my goal to help return a pristine Lake Merritt to the people of Oakland, something we can all be proud of. I am appreciative of all the work done by the Lake Merritt Institute, Councilman John Russo, Mayor Jerry Brown, my Republican and Democratic colleagues in the Legislature and especially Governor Davis to make this happen."

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SACRAMENTO -- In a late night session Wednesday, the California State Assembly crushed Green Party Assemblywoman Audie Bock's (G-Oakland) environmental justice measure, AB 1681, the late arrival's only bill to come to the Floor this year. 18 Democrats, in an unprecedented "not voting" block, defied the official Democratic "Support" recommendation on the bill and withheld their votes, causing the measure to die with only 23 favorable bi-partisan votes.

Oakland is home to the only commercial incinerator of hazardous medical wastes in California. Oakland and San Francisco both recently passed zero-dioxin emissions resolutions, and the federal EPA has identified San Francisco Bay as one of the most dioxin endangered bodies of water in the nation. Dioxins are byproducts of high-temperature incineration of PVC materials often found in medical waste and are 300,000 times more carcinogenic than DDT, which was banned 20 years ago. AB 1681 was drafted to tighten existing reporting requirements for accidental emissions of dioxins, and would have prohibited release into soil and water.

"I wanted to present something encouraging in my first bill," said Bock today, "with a goal of improvement rather than punishment. The communities of color in the neighborhood of this facility have longstanding concerns about not only the air, but the soil and water of their homes and schools." "Our goal was to help the plant toward safer operations for the sake of workers and the community. The message I got for from the resounding silent defeat of AB 1681 last night is that my mild approach was not enough.

Strong environmentalists from both parties opposed or did not vote, including Members representing the communities of color most affected by environmental injustice. They want tougher measures," said Bock.

"The floor debate was very animated," Bock continued, "and one question that I believe influenced many Members was Assemblyman Wildman's (D-Los Angeles) concern over integrated multi-agency monitoring and enforcement. These provisions were not in my bill." Other members surveyed by Bock after the vote expressed a desire for more stringent penalties and better evaluation techniques for addressing the dioxin concern.

Next, Bock will fulfill the Teamsters Union request for a community meeting at a high school near the plant. She has requested assistance from the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. "We will work hard to bring the comprehensive bill my colleagues want to the Floor next year," Bock vowed.

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[Green Party State Assemblywoman Audie Bock's speech May 20, 1999 to the East Bay Lakeview Club Commonwealth Club was broadcast June 4 on KALW, 91.7 FM. Except for introductory words, the text of the speech is printed below]

I am honored and delighted to be here tonight to share with you some thoughts about what some are calling an historic time in California politics, and what one journalist called "The Greening of the California Legislature."

Whether the election of the first Green Party member to a state office in the nation represents the birth of a new movement or merely an aberration will be tested over the next 18 months in Sacramento, and I find myself, for better or worse, at the center of this experiment.

For not only am I a citizen legislator on the truest sense, but because I speak in and from the State Capitol Building. I have become a national spokesperson for the California Green Party; a leader in an otherwise anti-hierarchical movement.

More than anything else, the Green Party is a "values-driven" party, with tenets like sustainability, grass-roots democracy, ecological wisdom, respect for diversity, and non-violence at the heart of whatever strategic or tactical political decisions we might make.

These values unite us as Greens around the world and in our home communities... And these are the values which I am taking to the State Capitol of California, and the subject of my address tonight.

I am new to winning partisan elections and to the business of politics as it is practiced at the Statehouse. So too is the Green Party of California new to partisan victories, although we now have elected Greens to city councils, county boards of supervisors, school districts, and other local non-partisan offices.

But it is a qualitative leap for voters to choose a Green Party candidate over the other two major parties. It has never happened before in California or in the nation. How did this come about?

In my view, it is quite obvious that my community, the 16th Assembly District, had had just about enough of the cynical gamesmanship that passed for partisan politics in the East Bay.

Starting with the musical chairs resignation of Congressman Ron Dellums, and the two special elections for his seat and the State Senate seat vacated by his successor Barbara Lee, the 16th Assembly District, comprising most of the City of Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont became open.

The Democratic Party establishment, which had long dominated this seat and the East Bay, designated Elihu Harris, the former Mayor of Oakland, as the heir apparent and poured money, volunteers and operatives into the race. In one of the most cynical campaign strategies seen recently, African American voters in Oakland were targeted by the Machine and promised free chicken dinners in return for their voter stubs.

Fortunately, they ended up a few dinners short of an absolute majority, forcing their candidate into a runoff in March with me, the Green Party candidate. We had managed 9% of the primary votes with only 1% of the registration. (Because of the 65% democratic registration in the District, no Republican candidate was on the ballot). For my opponent, victory seemed assured.

He refused to debate, and his campaign was widely acknowledged as non-existent. The chicken dinner scandal worked to my advantage. My campaign attracted a wide spectrum of disaffected and hopeful volunteers from the other candidates. I encountered positive responses in every neighborhood I walked, and a wide cross-section of communities invited me to speak.

Tellingly, just a few months earlier, Oakland voters had given a surprisingly strong mandate to its new mayor and former California Governor Jerry Brown. I saw this as another sign of the voters' awakening desire for a new kind of politics. As the runoff went into its final days, the Democratic Party polls showed that very close race was imminent.

With no Republican in the race, the diverse forces of the 16th that opposed politics as usual had united behind the Green Party candidate. In a last-ditch attempt to save the race, I have heard that dozens of Legislative staffers from Sacramento were "volunteered" to bolster the failing campaign, and hundreds of thousands of last second Democratically-targeted mailers hit the streets, eleven different pieces in the last 3 days.

My opponent spent $600,000 in this election, compared to my $30,000, a ratio of 20 to 1. In the end, it was not enough to buy the election. By a mere 300 votes out of 30,000, the first Green Party candidate in the nation was elected to partisan office. Tip O'Neil said it right: All politics is local. But why did Oakland choose the first Green Party legislator in the United States?

Because from California, and especially the Bay Area, have come the major influences in political progress and new forms of political activity over the second half of this century. From the Beats to the Free Speech Movement, from anti-war protests to the Summer of Love, from Black Panthers to feminists, from Gay rights to the anti-nuclear and environmental movements, the Bay area has given birth to new forms of political expression which have connected with progressive forces around the world. What transpired in the recent elections in Oakland and the 16th Assembly District is the birth of a hopeful politics.

And that hope is expressed in the Ten Key Values of the Green Party. My District is a mirror of the New California. Its cultural and racial diversity is complex and exciting. Its urban heart is alive with activists and community leaders. Its churches and charities are magnets for civic involvement. Its consciousness of politics as it could be is awakened, and it is my intention to use this office to nurture the spirit of hopeful politics among my constituents and throughout California. My legislative priorities are first and foremost to address the basic needs of the District.

• I want to help my community rebuild quality public education from the Administration to the classroom teacher, to the school buildings themselves. I see my role as becoming an accessible facilitator to the forces for change in the education community. I will continue to oppose efforts to overturn local control.
• I will try to bring higher quality jobs to the District by seeking the relocation and expansion of small and mid sized environmentally-friendly companies. Perhaps my position on the Assembly International Trade and Development Committee will create such opportunities.
• I am committed to reducing the risk to human health and safety of toxic polluters in the District, and am sponsoring legislation to implement the Zero Dioxin Emissions policy.
• I want to improve our basic transportation infrastructure by helping to find funding for more cleaner non-polluting buses
• I want to help assure that one of the primary economic engines of the District, the Port of Oakland, is responsive to the community and to the future community by making sustainability the sine qua non of its growth philosophy. Secondly, my goal is to build upon my incumbency by strengthening Green Party-style grass roots politics throughout the District and working with others around the State
• I have joined Former Acting Secretary of State Tony Miller (Democrat) and Proposition 227 leader Ron Unz (Republican) as Green co-chair of the statewide Voters 2000 (?) campaign to reduce the impact of money in campaigns and to bring mandate disclosure through the Internet..

The proposed initiative would also close the "Chicken Dinner" loophole in California's Election Code. I want to help identify and nurture emerging leaders who demonstrate progressive grass roots politics.

I have initiated GreenPAC, a statewide political Action Committee to raise funds for new candidates and Party building. My third priority is to speak out wherever I can on the Green values common to most of us, and to find ways to explicitly incorporate those values in the public policy we make in Sacramento and in our cities and counties, values like:

• ecological wisdom
• grassroots democracy
• social Justice and responsibility
• nonviolence decentralization
• community-based economics
• feminism
• respect for diversity
• global responsibility
• sustainability.

It is my firm belief that while we all share many of these values in our private and personal lives, when it comes to making public policy, Members of the Legislature find it difficult to apply such values when confronted with the enormous pressures of special interests in Sacramento.

I want to remain a citizen lawmaker who is able to put this value-driven politics before career ladders and term-limit musical chairs.

I came to Sacramento on a train from Oakland, a train filled with well-wishers and campaign volunteers. I was sworn in as the first "third party" Member of the California Legislature since 1917.

My arrival at the Capitol brought with it a new spirit of "Tri-Partisanship" which was described by many as a "breath of fresh air." Dozens of Legislative staffers and insiders (and some Legislators themselves) approached me as "closet Greens, " offering help and assistance in finding my way through this sometimes arcane and self-contained world of state government.

What has surprised me the most, I think, has been the warm welcome, both personal and professional, which was given to me by my colleagues and fellow Legislators.

Because of the deadlines on the introduction of new bills, I was given opportunities to co-author important legislation which paralleled my campaign issues... bills on health care, education, toxics, and campaign reform among others.

To my surprise, I found that many of the initiatives were underway, and was able to add my "green" perspective and support. The leadership of the State Assembly, consisting of the Speakership and senior Democratic Members, has thus far offered much graciousness but little substantive help to this Third Party caucus of one. I have been described as a threat to the leadership to be "taken out" at the earliest opportunity. But some Democrats have expressed not only similar beliefs, but genuine friendship. On the other side, some Republicans have offered real help and guarded hope for alliance on some issues, such as local control. I insist on using the term "Tri-Partisan" at all times.

I will be one of 54 votes on the Budget and one of 41 votes whenever a new Speaker is chosen. I have already made several key votes on the committees to which I was appointed, which include:

• The Judiciary Committee
• The Environmental Safety and Toxics Committee
• The Human Services Committee
• The International Trade and Development Committee

One of the most difficult aspects of being Green in the California Legislature is the lack of resources which members of the Democratic Caucus and Republican Caucus enjoy. Hundreds of staff people are employed by the Speaker and the Republican caucus for research, media relations, policy development, constituent services and the host of day to day tasks of running a political operation.

The Green Caucus, which is I, gets no such resources. My very energetic and creative staff has to do it all. One reason that I hope to be joined next year by more Green Party legislators is the establishment of a full-fledged Green Caucus with the required allocation from the Assembly budget..

As a new Legislator I was invited to more than 500 events and what we call "meet and greets" in my first month in Sacramento. A steady stream of lobbyists and associations came through my office to get a look at the first "openly Green" legislator. At the same time, I have had to absorb and evaluate committee issues, and to cast votes on hundreds of bills both in committees and on the floor.

Another big surprise to me has been the sheer volume of legislative activities and the incredible pace of the process. My process for casting votes is to review the analyses of both Parties and to decide for myself using Green principles.

Both the Republican and Democratic Caucuses provide me with materials which their staff develop on each bill. But what I look forward to is being able to rely on research which comes from the "third" Dimension of the political perspective, and that will only come when more Greens are elected to state office.

For now, and for the rest of the Session, I am learning the business of being a Legislator, and the learning curve is very steep coming in mid-year. As the only Green in an otherwise bi-partisan Assembly, I have to do without the support staff, the perks, the comfort that comes with being part of a group.

On the other hand, I am free to go against both Parties at any time, to vote my conscience regardless of consequences, and to propose bills and initiatives which no Democrat or Republican might ever introduce.

As an example, I am readying legislation to introduce on the death penalty, one bill to abolish capital punishment (which I expect to fail) and a second bill to provide counties with new violence prevention funding equal to the amount the state would save on appeals when a county seeks "life without parole" instead of the death penalty for capital cases.

I can advocate for universal health care without being concerned about the contributions of the insurance industry or medical association. Above all, my goal in office is to bring the philosophy of "sustainability" to public policy.

Every decision we make as legislators will affect the quality of life for future generations. I want these future generations included as key interests in the decisions we make about how we manage our resources and our environment, and how we prioritize our expenditures each year. The next 18 months will be a test, for me and for the Green Party in California politics.

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