Primary Election Date: 06/03/2008
General Election Date: 11/04/2008

Who Am I?

I have served on the City Council of Cathedral City for the last 13 years. During that time, I have helped change a city that was once a place to drive through into a place where 50,000 people work, live, shop and live their dreams.

In addition to my duties on City Council, I have worked on a wide range of committees designed to improve the lives of Californians.

I've dealt successfully with environmental issues from Salton Sea restoration to servign on the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy Board to helping to negotiate the Multi Species Habitat Act which will guide future growth in our area in a more sustainable way.

I've been working on transportation issues through the Riverside County Transportation Commission and the National League of Cities Transportation Policy Committee, working to come up with mass transit solutions that will help combat climate change.

I was the first openly gay elected official in Riverside County, and I have worked to bridge the gap between communities and provide leadership to other gay candidates who have the desire to serve in public office but needed encouraging and mentorship.

I have a BA from Azusa Pacific University and recently completed the Senior Executive Program in State and Municipal Government from the JFK School of Government at Harvard.

Why Am I Running?

I am running for a healthy California. That includes:

1) Creating a truly universal health care system in California that can be the model for the rest of the nation that has been mired in this debate for too long.

2) Public eduction--For our state to continue to be one of the largest economic engines in the world, we need to educate kids who are ready to compete in the global economy. While California has made great strides in funding public education (mainly by popular ballot measures) we need to eliminate the achievement gap that is plaguing so many communities, especially in my district.

3) Environmental protection--Simply put, the rest of the nation looks to California for leadership on this issue. I have the background working on land use, building codes and air and water quality issues to make it happen. It is my goal to have California meet the Kyoto standard of reducing carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Hold Me Accountable!

1) Universal health care
2) Quality public education across the state
3) Reducing our carbon footprint
I have a long progressive record in office that is also been fiscally responsible.

My DFA values:

As a progressive, I can tout the following:

Creating a first-time homebuyer program

Standing up to Wal-Mart's unfair labor practices

Working with police and social service agencies to combat the methamphetamine epidemic

Creating a humane policy to deal with day laborer issues without resorting to the invective that has seized the immigration debate

Leading the charge to reverse the ban on gay blood donors by social service agencies

Negotiating the Multi-Species Habitat Act that will protect open space for generations to come and encourage density while discouraging sprawl.

Working on cleaning up Salton Sea.

Serving as a member of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy.

Creating more pedestrian friendly neighborhoods to encourage more people to get out of their cars.

Instituting a household hazardous waste collection program

Set aside 168 acres of land for future parks

Led The Cove neighborhood to adopt a sewage system that will protect our aquifer.

My fiscally responsible credentials include:

Balancing Cathedral City's budget for each of the last 13 years.

Revitalizing our downtown core, providing 1,000 new jobs and a million dollars in new sales tax revenue to pay for vital public services.

As a post-Proposition 13 city, we need to maintain services without raising taxes without a public vote. During my tenure, we've added dozens of new police officers and three new ambulances and two fully staffed fire engines.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

We will have an aggressive field outreach effort in the primary election as well as the general election.

The plans for our primary election include targeting the 24,000 likely Democratic primary voters in a couple of different ways:

1) Canvassing supporters to encourage them to sign up to vote by mail once our Voter ID program is completed.

2) Canvassing our ID'd supporters to either turn in their ballots or vote at their polling location.

3) Neighbor to neighbor postcards inviting voters for a coffee with Greg.

4) Netroots outreach--We already have in excess of 5,000 voters who we will be encouraging to email their own lists with reasons they are supporting Greg

5) Phone banks--We have the endorsement of the Riverside County Labor Council who will be doing calls to their members. We are also planning an aggressive phone bank effort each of the last 25 nights of the campaign to target our identified supporters.

6) Voter registration--We won't be conducted the majority of the effort, but it will be lead by both the Democratic Party and Assembly Caucus who have targeted this seat.