Robert Haswell for California State Assembly

Background:

I am a citizen activist. My family has lived in the district that I'm running in for 5 generations. I'm the son of a union truck driver and a public school teacher. I'm married and my wife, Kim, and I have two children, Kennedy, 5, and Martin, 2. We got very involved in politics in 2003 and supported Howard Dean's presidential campaign. We were active members of "Silicon Valley for Dean" during that time. During the 2004 election we worked to elect John Kerry in a number of ways. We precinct walked in swing states (Nevada), my wife Kim, attended the "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, D.C. We wrote letters, fundraised and phone banked. ... After the election, I aligned myself with different grassroots groups to work on specific issues, such as urging our community to adopt a resolution expressing concern with the Patriot Act. In short, we've been extremely active politically for the past 3 years. This is the first elected office I have pursued. I decided to run for office because, in 30 years, I didn't want my son or my daughter to ask me "why I didn't do something."

Goals:

Number one, this is an "open seat" and I believe that it is critical that we democrats run credibly and hard at every open seat. In the past, our party, in my opinion, has not run credibly for this seat. But more importantly, the politics in this region are being poisoned by an undue influence of big money (in this region, from large developers), which plays an overriding role in virtually every political race from congressional, to assembly and on down to supervisorial, city council and even school board.. The result is that more and more voters are completely disenfranchised from the process and my charge is to mobilize these people and bring them back into the process. I have two young children and I worry about their future. My wife and I have a philosophy that we never forget: It's not enough to create a safe environment for our children inside our home; we must work to create a safe environment for them outside as well.

Issues:

Accountability -- I will be supporting "Clean Money elections," for which I believe the time has come;
Conservation and responsible land use -- We need to invest in our future by balancing our resources (clean air, water, open space) with our build out. This includes investment in alternative transportation and alternative fuels, and smart growth planning that includes affordable housing and sustainable job creation;
Public Education -- Nothing is more important that investing wisely in our public education system and California is currently falling way behind the rest of the country in this vital key to our national security.

Grassroots Support:

The grassroots will be the key to victory in this race. We will be outspent enormously, but I am convinced that by mobilizing activists, volunteers and single-issue groups we can put together the type of ground operation that will carry the day. We will be using house parties, town halls, precinct walking and direct voter outreach as the bedrock of our campaign.

DFA Values:

I am pro choice, pro environment, pro worker and pro civil rights. I believe in equal treatment under the law and I believe in protecting an individual's right to privacy. I think, as we invest in our future, we have to have the political will to require that multinational corporations do their fair share in promoting and investing in a healthy society for all our citizens. For example, I believe that the skyrocketing cost of health care in this state and country can be addressed by moving toward a "single payer" system. Currently, somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of every health care dollar spent goes into overhead and adminstrative spending by health care conglomerates, phramacutical and insurance companies. By contract, Medicare spends just three percent on administrative costs. If we could lower the adminstrative costs of health care in general, to something approaching the Medicare spending, the savings for consumers and businesses, and the state would be in the billions. Fiscal responsibility requires political willpower and, for starters, that means NOT being bought and paid for by those in which it is our duty, as an elected official, to negotiate WITH, not FOR.