Who is the third-party gubernatorial hopeful who kicked off his campaign in Fresno?

Luis J. Rodríguez – the high school dropout turned gang member turned best-selling author turned poet laureate of Los Ángeles – sees a path to victory in the 2022 gubernatorial race, eight years after he finished sixth in the gubernatorial primary.

This time, he figures with most major Republicans on the sidelines, he can sneak into the general election against Democratic incumbent Gavin Newsom. His 66,872 votes as the Green Party candidate was the most by a third-party hopeful.

“I’m running with the Green Party, but I’m also being helped by the Peace and Freedom Party as well as the Justice Party,” said the 68-year-old native of El Paso, Texas during an April 16 campaign kickoff at Holmes Playground.

He is among four statewide candidates who are part of the Left Unity Slate.

“It’s a bit of history because these parties hardly ever work together. That’s important for me because we are uniting all the progressives we can get, including some from the Democratic Party,” he said.

“This is not politics as usual. This is politics with soul, politics with depth.”

First, he will have to raise $1 million for his campaign (not difficult, he said, if he gets $1 from 1 million Californians), and register 1 million voters. He won’t take corporate contributions.

Rodríguez selected Fresno to launch his ‘Imagine a New California … Then Let’s Build It’ gubernatorial campaign because of its high poverty rate and high level of homelessness.

His platform includes addressing the homeless problem, environmental justice, and universal health care.

“There are many issues that the state is not addressing,” said Rodríguez during a brief interview in Spanish before the rally. “For example, we still have homeless. This is something that shouldn’t happen here with all the riches we have.

“That doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t work that there is so much poverty.”

He compares the San Joaquín Valley to “the Deep South” because of the economic negatives.

Rodríguez said those issues shouldn’t be addressed time and time again by political leaders without lasting solutions.

“We need a dynamic shift in how we think, act, and govern,” said Rodríguez, author of the 1993 memoir ‘Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.’ that has sold half a million copies.

Small turnout doesn’t faze him

Rodríguez was accompanied by his wife, Trini, and son, Ramiro, at the Fresno rally where about 30 people showed up, including members of the Aztec dance group Yoztaltepetl.

In a 10-minute talk, Rodríguez lashed out at the two major political parties, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and a system he claims is stacked against ordinary people.

He said Newsom “betrayed” farmworkers by vetoing legislation that would have allowed them to use vote-by-mail in union certification elections.

“We’re being betrayed by people who should know better. They are part of the system, and the system is the problem,” said Rodríguez.

The two major political parties, he said, “are corporate-run.”

“It’s not just about institutions. The whole system is sick,” said Rodríguez. “In order for us to heal the wounds in our society, we have to heal the terrible cancer that has eaten at us. It’s a cancer that says profit is more important.”

In his campaign site, Rodríguez said “it’s time to stop hacking at the branches and get to the root. It’s time to align resources to meet people’s needs and end poverty.”

Rodríguez – who was also on the Justice Party presidential ticket as former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s vice presidential mate – supports single-payer universal healthcare, the Green New Deal, safe housing, livable wages, universal basic income, free education, and, mental health/addiction treatment on demand.

Rodríguez touts his background

The San Fernando Valley resident points to his background as proof that he understands the struggles of ordinary people.

“From a troubled teen to an organizer for deep social change, I’ve prepared a lifetime for this challenge,” he states on his website.

He joined a gang in East L.A., got addicted to drugs, landed in jail and got involved in the Chicano Movement.

“I left that life behind because of the Chicano Movement,” he explained in Spanish. “I left because I got an idea that we all have to improve the community instead of destroying it.”

Rodríguez finished high school. He worked at a refinery, then in construction before eventually becoming a newspaper reporter. A poet, he has also written 16 books.

With his wife, he founded Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural and later bought Tía Chucha Press.

“For me, political expression is very important for the community,” he said. “We do not have much power in that expression, but for me it is something that we have to put more time, more effort.”

Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 22 de abril de 2022, 1:33 p. m..