Working for School Board Member Jackie Goldberg.

Presently Assembly District 51 Delegate.

Currently Secretary and Chair of Community Relations for East Area Progressive Democratic Club.

Served as Secretary and President of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council for 3 years. Served as chair of School Site Council in two schools. 

I am a progressive.

I am a Democrat and have always voted for the Democratic Party. 

I believe in a socially responsible, ethical and moral society and institutions  

I believe in the unionization of workers and worker's rights  

I’m honored to serve as an alternate to LACDP as well as having served as a state delegate for 2 years.

I am now running to represent Assembly District at the county level.

I’ve been a registered Democrat for over 35 years,

I’ve been a resident in CA Assembly District 51 for 25 of those years –

Echo Park; Westlake/ Pico; Lincoln Heights and now GlassellPark.

I’ve tried my best to carry with integrity District 51’s energy and desire for integrity and progressive change into our state party. One of the most important changes that delegates were able to implement in the last 2 years is to now have a committee to urge our elected officials who are Democrats to uphold the Democratic platform when they legislate. If CA Democrats have voted for a policy within the party, then our electeds should be held accountable to it when legislating.

I have also  passionately thrown myself into the process of the LA Registrar in the fight for a clean voting process.

I’m a proud union member and have pressed union leadership to divest in coal & fossil fuel investment in their pension plans. I have also been an active member of over 10 of the CA Dem Party caucuses - including Veterans Caucus, which elected an entirely new board (and fought for legislative changes for Green Card Soldiers lastyear – WooHoo!). 

I have also testified about our AD51 issues in the state Rules, Legislative and Finance Committees and have had a platform addendum accepted into the Women’s Platform. Progressive ideals are on the rise in the Democratic Party. 

I am also the Secretary for KPFK Pacifica Radio and the CFO of  Long Beach Community Table –a non profit providing food to the Long Beach homeless community. I want to serve not in an adversarial way, but as a constant reminder of what my district stands for. The party is getting stronger as we embrace more of these progressive ideals - and I am committed!

Thanks in advance for your support!!

I have lived in the Northeast Los Angeles community for decades. My four children attended the neighborhood public schools and my grandsons still attend Eagle Rock ES and Franklin Dual Immersion. 

I have been a classroom teacher, union staff and university professor. I am a proud member of the California Faculty Association, the union of CSU professors.  As a union member of my higher education union, I have worked on issues like ending student debt, lobbied for Ethnic Studies as graduation requirement, and increased funding for schools and colleges.

As Vice President of CTA, racial and social justice were among my top priorities, I helped establish Dream Centers in our schools and educational equity for students of color were/are my primary concerns. As  a unionist, I continue to support a secure retirement plan, decent salaries and health care for our teachers. I also advocated for greater connections with other labor unions and community.

I remain active in local democratic party activities and serve as an officer in the Northeast Democratic Club. 

As I write this essay, I can’t help but to acknowledge how corporations are moving to consolidate power in education and wage deliberate wars against teachers unions, public schools have become commodities tied to market place educational reform. Education is my top priority. 

As a mother and grandmother, I am also concerned about environmental justice, safe schools and communities and access to health care. 

A UCLA graduate and almost lifelong Angelino, Rabbi Jonathan Klein is the Executive Director Beth Chayim Chadashim, the oldest predominantly LGBTQ+ synagogue in the world, a Reform-affiliated congregation. He also serves as the Executive Director of HOPE for All: Helping Others Prosper Economically.

Prior to ordination in 1997 from Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Klein served congregations in Flagstaff, AZ and Rye, NY. Upon receiving his rabbinical degree, he served three years as Director of KESHER, the Reform Jewish Movement's college outreach program and then eight years as the Allen and Ruth Ziegler Rabbinic Director of USC Hillel at the University of Southern California. Reflecting upon his experiences of bussing, his family's financial struggle, and his brother's life with Down's Syndrome, Rabbi Klein decided to unite the disparate experiences of his ILGWU-shop steward-grandmother Sophie Klein and his multi-generational ancestry into his work as a religious community organizer. Rabbi Klein served on the staff of Progressive Jewish Alliance (now Bend the Arc), particularly proud of his first job there as a Community Organizer. This soon led to ten years as the Executive Director of CLUE: Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, where he built the premiere clergy-based social justice advocacy organization in Southern California, doubling its size and capacity and nearly tripling its budget and staff size. With Civil Disobedience arrests in support of demilitarization of El Salvador in 1989, in opposition to New York police brutality in 1999, in support of immigration reform in 2010, Walmart workers in 2015 Black security officers in 2017, port truck drivers and TPS recipients as well as for immigrant rights in 2018, Rabbi Klein organizes and mobilizes faith leaders to suspend their privilege in order to protect and celebrate the marginalized and disenfranchised of Southern California and beyond.
Following his time at CLUE, Rabbi Klein continued his economic justice work by co-founding and serving as the first Executive Director of HOPE For All: Helping Others Prosper Economically, once again working with Rev. Norman Copeland, retired Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal church, centering work around San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.

Rabbi Klein has served on the boards of the ACLU of Southern California, the anti-war Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), the Labor 411 Foundation, and Interfaith Worker Justice, a Chicago-based faith and labor network. Rabbi Klein was also an elected delegate to the California Democratic Party (2017-2019), and serves as a Los Angeles City Commissioner, serving on the city's Commission on Revenue Generation, to help Los Angeles develop new streams to support the city's services, infrastructure and the greater Los Angeles community.

In 2013, Rabbi Klein co-founded Faith Action for Animals, which organizes faith leaders to actively protect animals and promotes plant-based consumption over animal agriculture. His advocacy has helped lead to a ban on fur in West Hollywood, a ban on use of a bullhook on animals in circuses in Los Angeles and Oakland, and a pilot program for vegan options in the LA Unified School District. Rabbi Klein currently leads West Coast efforts to curb the practice of Kapparot, a rite for expiation of sin through the slaughter of chickens during the Jewish High Holidays. He also currently as the Rabbinic Chair of Jewish Veg Los Angeles.

Rabbi Klein is also actively engaged in the Shtibl Minyan, a non-denominational traditional egalitarian community in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Rabbi Klein is a frequent officiant for lifecycle events, including weddings, babynamings, and funerals, and he would be honored to help you with your lifecycle needs. A song leader, music enthusiast, and lover of Jewish mysticism, he is the proud parent of his 20 year-old son and UCLA undergrad Rocky, 17 year-old daughter Kinneret, and twelve year-old daughter, Zimra. Rabbi Klein is married to Rev. Tera Klein. They personally practice and promote permaculture in Highland Park with Kika, #LittleBitBraven (their cats) and all sorts of LA wildlife.

As a recent ADEM delegate, a rabbi rooted in justice, and Executive Director of an LGBTQ synagogue, after over 10 years professionally advocating with diverse clergy for workers, immigrants, students, housing, universal healthcare, women’s rights, and racial justice, I believe issues first.  Most want what’s best; have they demonstrated experience and knowledge of the issues, grounded in kindness?  I want justice for all, regardless of race, gender, nationality, legal status, sexual orientation, age, class, or another meaningless slice-and-dice of humanity.

In 2018, I was arrested twice, once opposing immigrant family separation and once for port truck drivers and TPS workers.  Anything to stop Trump and his cowardly Republican minions.  His hoarding of wealth conflicts with my EXPERIENCE opposing Walmart (another arrest, in 2015) and my efforts to fund local wage enforcement bureaus.  His groping women and grotesque misogyny has reinforced my commitment as an active feminist. And there’s no shortcut to knowledge of the issues; I have learned so much in my years of experience.

Directing an Animal Rights and Environmentalist org, I have fought for the citywide fur and bullhook bans, for styrofoam and plastic bag bans, have publicly opposed TPP on the steps of LA City Hall, and supported Assemblymember Laura Friedman's recent statewide fur ban. 

Now, after Orlando & Pittsburgh, as Executive Director at—and ally for—an LGBTQ synagogue, I’m bringing my passion for advocacy to the well-being of queer Jews, throwing my lot in with two beleaguered vulnerable groups, especially the transgender community.

We need a Democratic party that:

• Won’t let the CA Charter Schools Association or anyone buy elected leaders’ votes
• Defines “Progressive” squarely around economic justice
• Stands in stark contrast with Republican wealth-hoarders.

Let’s recreate the party of The New Deal & The Great Society, with values-driven leadership.  Fight for what is right: Let me help lead this visionary party of conscience.

Ron Birnbaum is a community physician, veteran, union-member (currently UAPD (AFSCME Local 206) and previously CIR (SEIU)). and a progressive political activist, as well as a husband, father, and youth soccer referee in the Los Feliz / Silver Lake AYSO.  An nine-year resident of Silver Lake, he is now a statewide leader in the movement to bring universal single payer healthcare to California and the USA.

The bilingual son of immigrants from Argentina, Ron grew up in Toledo, OH.  He graduated from Yale University with a degree in English and then from the University of California, San Francisco with a degree in medicine.  After internship and decorated service as a general medical officer in the Navy, he completed residency training in dermatology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he later served as division chief and residency director.  Currently working in multiple community-based settings (including in the district at an office in Glassell Park), he has dedicated the bulk of his medical career to the care of underserved and undocumented residents of Los Angeles County and as an educator of medical students and residents in public and non-profit settings.

A lifelong Democrat, Ron Birnbaum joined the ACLU at age 16 and cut his teeth as a political activist in campaigns before he was old enough to vote.  As a physician-activist, Ron has been a champion of access to care – including specialty care – in the social safety net in Los Angeles.   He has worked on many political campaigns as a volunteer, knocking on doors, making phone calls, fundraising, speaking, and organizing others.  Elected to California’s Democratic State Central Committee from the 51^st Assembly District in 2017, he has fought for reform, fairness, transparency and accessibility to the grassroots in the California Democratic Party alongside the Blue Revolution and other progressive reformers and against the party’s corporate establishment.  In 2017 he ran for the California Assembly as an unvarnished progressive Democrat, earning endorsements from labor (eg the California Nurses Association), progressive organizations (eg Americans for Democratic Action, 314 Action, Vote Vets, Feel the Bern Democratic Club) and local and national progressive leaders like State Senator Josh Newman, Congressman Ro Khanna and Zephyr Teachout.  He stood out in the field as the only strong Democratic candidate who rejected all corporate donations because of his abiding belief that people and not corporations are the only legitimate participants in our political life.

Since that election, Ron has furthered his commitment to Medicare-for-All by fighting for single payer in Sacramento, and by serving on the local and state steering committees of Physicians for a National Health Program and on the board of Single Payer PAC.  He has also been working on efforts to reform campaign finance in California. 

He is now running for election to the Central Committee of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.  He is also serving as a Bernie Victory Captain in the Bernie Sanders 2020 Campaign for President of the United States.

Why am I running and what do I stand for?

I have some core beliefs, and one of them is that the Democratic Party has gone way off in the wrong direction in the last 50 years.  I would like to return us to something more like the party of Roosevelt/Johnson (less the racism and the bent towards war). Overall, we have as a country and as a party favored the needs of capital and corporations way too much and not directed our efforts to workers, the poor, the middle class, renters, people’s health, etc.  And so we find ourselves with remarkable income inequality, morally galling homelessness and near homelessness, underfunded education, a shambolically cruel and stupid healthcare system, embattled unions, and a deteriorating environment with apocalyptic climate catastrophe on a near horizon.  In many cases, these problems are felt worse by communities of color, women and children, though there are plenty of suffering white men as well.  These things are not just true across America; they are true in California and Los Angeles, and in many cases worse here than elsewhere. We cannot be content with the Democratic Party as it is.  Truly, when Democrats fail, the Trumps of the world prevail. 

It’s not enough to bring “philosophy” to these posts. People are effective in these jobs when they are unbeholden to insider interests and when they bring clear policy/problem focus to the jobs.  I want to share what my focus would be on this job.

1)      1)  Passage of Medicare for All in California and the United States, whichever we can accomplish first.  I am not the only Democrat who supports this.  But you should ask why the Democratic Speaker of the California Assembly and the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives oppose this?  (Hint: it’s green and rhymes with honey). There are a lot of supporters.  But there are almost no doctors active in politics in California (just a few others) who have been fighting this battle with the party.  I would be one of them.

2)     2)  Homelessness and housing affordability. I can’t run for a local office and not put focus on this painful scourge.  All this has happened on our party’s watch over many years. Housing policy is complex, and I have tried hard to learn more about it and will keep doing so. I do think we need to 1) protect renters 2) build more affordable and sustainable housing in ways that do not displace renters  3) provide fullest public services on an emergency and longitudinal basis to help move our homeless siblings from homelessness to housing 4) need to fundamentally move away from the idea of housing as investment to housing as a provision of a human need (eg tax housing speculators who keep places vacant).  One of the biggest challenges is coordinating efforts at different levels of government. This is where I think the DCC can take a special role.  Because the Democratic Party operates at local, state, and national levels, it is a body that can work to force comprehensive coordination on these issues and discourage narrow politically driven solutioneering and kicking-the-can-down-the road.

3)      3) Reform of campaign finance so that big money stops subverting our Democracy. I have recently traveled to Sacramento to push legislators to reform campaign finance in California.  We do need to overturn Citizens United, but there is plenty to do to gut the regime of the dollar-over-the-voter in California at both the state and the local level, and no one should use the excuse that this is undoable before we overturn Citizens United.

4)      4) There are a lot of shenanigans in how things operate ALL LEVELS in the Democratic Party. I am a lifelong Democrat, but it is only after the time I served in the Democratic State Central Committee (2017-19) that I learned just how pervasive these problems are.  They problems always seem to favor big money interests and incumbency.  Ask yourself:  how can homelessness be so bad and yet we haven’t seen an incumbent mayor or council member or member of the Board of Supervisors lose an election in decades?  I will work to oppose the rubber-stamping of incumbents’ endorsements and fight for fair and open processes that protect the mission – helping people - and not just the prerogatives of the powerbrokers and insiders.  Ask anybody who has seen me in action:  I never stop fighting the shenanigans.

Yes, it is important to beat Trump in 2020.  But it is also important to change the policies that made Trump and a seemingly appealing alternative to so many people.   I do not consider myself a “niche” candidate; I support a full range of progressive policy.  But it is important to communicate where I would focus my efforts.  Please vote in this election and please consider what I have written here as you case precious your precious vote.

Raised in the community of Lincoln Heights in Northeast Los Angeles, Nilza Serrano has embraced the Latino experience from a local perspective. A graduate of Lincoln High School, she began her collegiate education at East Los Angeles College and California State University - Los Angeles. She has earned certificates in executive leadership from The Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical School, and the Pepperdine University Graziadio Executive Center. 

A successful entrepreneur and community activist, Serrano’s career has centered on bridging the gap between private enterprise and public service.  Over twenty years ago, she founded TMS Production and Post Production firm and, through that successful enterprise, compiled an extensive client network that includes such corporate giants as General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Mobil Oil Company, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, Paramount Studios, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, and DreamWorks Pictures.  

Ms. Serrano has continued to serve in the capacity of Co-Chairperson of the Latino Heritage Month Organizing Committee. As the Executive Event Producer for Latino Heritage L.A., she is responsible for forging strategic partnerships with top brands to create, execute and promote unique and free events for the public during Latino Heritage Month, to highlight the beauty and history of Latino culture to all communities of Los Angeles. Under her leadership, the City of Los Angeles’ Latino Heritage Month has flourished - combining the culture with the glamour of Hollywood and the pulse of the city - with Serrano instrumental in securing sponsorships and partnerships from major corporations and media. As Co-chair, Serrano was responsible for the overall logistical and creative management of events coinciding with the month-long celebration of Latino contributions throughout the communities of the City of Los Angeles.

Her love for Latino culture and film also propelled her to serve as co-founder of the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival, a successful event that brought Latino films from around the world to the City of Los Angeles during the celebration of Latino Heritage Month, as well as serve on the board of Nosotros, the organization founded in 1970 by actor Ricardo Montalban, to increase positive roles for Latinos in film and television. She also served as Vice President of the Los Angeles International Latin Jazz Festival, where she was instrumental in introducing Latin Jazz to the Greek Theater, along with other Festival committee members such as Andy Garcia, Hector Elizondo, Angelica Huston, Herb Alpert, the late composer Lalo Shifrin, and many more. 

In 2014 Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Ms. Serrano to the Board of Administration of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System (LACERS). She concurrently serves on LACERS Benefits Administration Committee and Governance Committee. In 2017, Ms. Serrano was selected to serve as a Trustee to the Board of the California State University – Los Angeles Foundation. Last year Ms. Serrano was appointed to the California Architects Board, which aims to protect public health, safety, and welfare through the regulation of the practice of architecture and landscape architecture.  She was subsequently accepted, as the first and only Latino in its 99-year history, as an Advisory Board member to the National Architects Board. 

Ms. Serrano’s extensive history of community involvement also includes proudly serving on the Boards of Directors of Plaza De La Raza and Amanecer Mental Health Services, one of the largest mental health centers in the County of Los Angeles, serving over 25,000 cases per year.

A strong believer in political activism and empowerment, Serrano served as treasurer for HOPE-PAC - A Political Action Committee, whose mission is to assist Latina women to rise to elected office in California.  With the rising Latino population and corresponding buying power, Serrano states: "Latinas play a vital role in the infrastructure of the family and in business; it is now long overdue that Latinas play a role on the political stage.”  Serrano is a graduate of the HOPE Leadership Institute and for many years was an active board member of HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality), an organization that focuses on State and National policy affecting the lives of Latinas in the country.

Nilza Serrano is an active supporter of opportunity, education, and outreach for underrepresented communities. She is widely respected for her work in the Latino community, locally and nationally, mainly focusing on the areas of education, arts and culture, business advocacy and political activism. Her love for Latino culture propelled her to continue her work with Latino Heritage L.A. - which she launched under the administration of former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan - an organization that engages, inspires and highlights contributions made by the Latino community to our nation. 

Nilza Serrano is a dedicated advocate and activist for expanded inclusion of underrepresented communities in the political decision-making process, transparency in government, and immigrants' rights.

I am a journalist and host the District 34 podcast.

I am a progressive and Berniecrat who believes that its time to do something about rabid inequality in the state. Our party has complated real estate developers and corporate interests at the expense of the working class and poor for far too long. "Free Markets" should never be the moral arbiter of anything- especially in regards to things like healthcare and education.