Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez was elected in May of 2013, promising to fight for our state’s working and middle classes, and she hasn’t stopped yet. In her first three months in office, Lorena authored two bills that empowered California’s immigrant communities by providing them safeguards against immigration fraud and allowing qualified DREAMers who pass the State Bar exam to practice law, regardless of their immigration status. Then, in 2014, Lorena authored historic legislation to allow 6.5 million Californians the ability to earn paid sick leave. When AB 1522 was signed by Governor Brown, California became the first state in the nation to guarantee earned sick days for every single private sector worker.

Assemblywoman Gonzalez also passed legislation prohibiting HOAs from fining homeowners for replacing grass lawns with drought resistant landscaping, created the first workplace bullying training requirement in the nation, and paved the way for stronger safety standards for high school student athletes by classifying high school cheerleading as a sport. She also co-authored the nation’s toughest rules to close the gender pay gap, and passed California’s New Motor Voter Act to streamline the registration for nearly seven million eligible voters.

The daughter of an immigrant farmworker and a nurse, Lorena learned the value of hard work and determination at an early age. After graduating from public school in San Diego County, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford University, a Master’s Degree from Georgetown University and a Law Degree from UCLA. She is a member of the California State Bar.

Prior to being elected to the Assembly, Lorena was the first woman and first person of color to be elected CEO and Secretary-Treasurer for the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO since the organization’s inception in 1891. Lorena also previously worked as the Senior Advisor to California’s Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante and she served on the California State Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission.

Assemblywoman Gonzalez currently serves as the first Latina in California history to Chair the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and as Chair of the Select Committee on Women in the Workplace.

For her work in the community, Lorena received the California State Bar Association’s first Presidential Recognition Award for Public Service, the Cesar Chavez Foundation’s Legacy Award for her career supporting immigrants and working families, and was named the Neighborhood Market Association’s 2014 Public Official of the Year.

Nonetheless, Lorena’s most cherished title is that of mother. Her daughter, Tierra, is studying at New York University and her son, Antonio, is in middle school in San Diego. Lorena lives in City Heights neighborhood of San Diego.

Louis J. Marinelli is a native of upstate New York and moved to San Diego, California in 2006. He has spent most of his life as a ESL Teacher for English language schools domestically and internationally (specifically in various locations in the Russian Federation) and currently works in the so-called 'gig economy' by driving for Uber and delivering items for PostMates. 

Due to frequent travel and relocation, Louis has studied at the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA), Kent State University (Kent, OH), Saint Petersburg State University (St. Petersburg, Russia), and most recently at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR) as an e-campus student. His studies have focused on Russian & Translation Studies, Political Science, and Environmental Science. 

No candidate has ever had a platform to establish a single-payer, universal health care system, restore fee/tuition-free college, provide income support to minimum wage workers, and help the homeless get back on their feet, while reducing taxes and fees, paying down the debt, and saving for a rainy day - until now. Those are a lot of promises but that is the bottom line of what my 13-chapter, 165-page, 195-citation, 10-appendix platform achieves for California.

If I am guilty of anything, it is of great love for California and belief in its potential. So I think California has the ability to be an independent country. So what? It does. If we were an independent country, we could achieve so much more here at home and around the world and save all the money that is being stolen from us by American politicians more than 2,000 miles away who don't share our California values.

While I do believe that California should be it's own country in the long term, there are a lot of progressive issues (in addition to those made possible through independence listed above) that I am excited to take on right away - issues like ending police brutality, helping the undocumented, supporting parent's rights and medical freedoms, getting money out of politics, and combating anthropological climate change.

As you read in my full platform "California's Future" available on my website, my plan lays out the case for why California should be independent. It explains how we can go about achieving that independence, including the steps we must take beforehand. It also discusses my vision for what California should do as in independent country as well as what we can start with while we're still a state. 

My ideology is most closely matched with the Green Party, though I am a member of the California National Party which advocates for California's independence from the United States. As for political philosophy, I agree with Senator Bernie Sanders and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein on 95% and 94% of the top issues in the upcoming election, respectively. By comparison, I agree with Secretary Clinton on 83% of the issues.