Colorful Camejo

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

The San Francisco Chronicle, NOVEMBER 15, 2001, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION

Green Party candidate is colorful; Crusading Camejo limits donations

by Steve Rubenstein

The Green Party candidate for governor announced yesterday that, as a
matter of principle, he would refuse to accept contributions over $20,000.

"So far, I have not received a donation of $20,000, so I think I'm all
right," said Peter Camejo, perpetual candidate, optimist, activist and
crusader.

Camejo, 61, kicked off his campaign inside the Green Party's nerve center,
a skinny Mission District storefront squeezed between car repair shops. On
hand were a dozen people, most already believers. The Greens favor solar
energy, runoff elections and decriminalized marijuana. They oppose tobacco
subsidies, nuclear power and the Afghan war.

They have a lot of statements to offer about everything, which could be why
Camejo's press conference announcing his candidacy ran a full 90 minutes.

Gov. Gray Davis, Camejo said, is a "pay-to-play governor who . . . has
already raised $30 million" from corporate donors who view campaign
contributions as an investment.

And former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, another gubernatorial foe, is
a friend of big business, not the working man.

Camejo, a Walnut Creek author and investment counselor, attacked Davis for
his handling of the energy crunch, calling it an "artificial crisis." He
said Davis had "given away $12 billion" by committing the state to purchase
natural gas at inflated prices.

The war against terrorism in Afghanistan, Camejo said, is wrong, and the
widespread international support for it is an example of the U.S. "flexing
its economic might to get people to say and do what it wants."

His running mate, Donna Warren, a financial manager from Los Angeles, said
the war was insane.

"The war on terrorism is a joke, plain and simple," said Warren, the
party's candidate for lieutenant governor. "I want to say it because a lot
of politicians aren't saying it."

Democrats and Republicans have the wrong idea about the Greens, she said.

"You guys look at us and say, 'You're just tree-hugging liberals,' " she
said. "But that's not true. We can stop these sellouts in Congress and in
Sacramento."

The press conference came at a dramatic moment for Camejo, who is
recovering from painful shoulder surgery, currently taking prescription
painkillers, and who began speaking shortly after his daughter-in-law went
into labor.

Of the length of his remarks, he smiled and said he had taken "only a
little bit of codeine, but maybe it affected me."

Immediately after the press conference, he whipped out his cell phone and
called the delivery room, to find out if he had become a grandfather. He
hadn't.

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.