Bead 22: Coup d' éTom, Part 4

The venue was a bright pink house set low in the oaks flanking Nelder Creek.  The hosts were the lucky ones who recognized the unique value of the house when it went on the market a few years earlier.  Its previous owner had passed away, and the house had essentially been abandoned.  But its previous owner was also its architect, the renowned Allyn E. Morris, once an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright.  And the architect was a genius.  The house had almost no right angles.  Outside it was all pink swoops.  Inside, curves and triangles of red, blue, and green.

It was civics that brought us to the bright pink house.  We were to be addressed by a candidate for Congress--a good, Democratic candidate, one that suggested far brighter horizons for our district than what we currently faced.  The candidate was Rochelle Wilcox.  She was one of four women vying for the prize against its incumbent, Tom McClintock, a political dinosaur.

Rochelle Wilcox addressing us at the bright pink house, August 5.

We gathered on the patio.  People sat in wrought iron chairs, camp chairs, folding chairs.  I sat on the low concrete bench that separated the patio from the long drop into the backyard.  The house was built on a hill.  Beneath its feet were rock slabs that ran down toward the creek.  Some of the rock had little tiles set in it--quaint, indecipherable messages from Allyn E. Morris.

The message from Rochelle Wilcox was loud and clear.  Tom McClintock had worn out his welcome in California's 4th Congressional District.  He needed to go--and she was the best-equipped to kick him out.  We pressed her on this.  Her three Democratic contenders--Jessica Morse, Regina Bateson, and Roza Calderon--had already come to to our little town to address us.  We liked them all.  What made her, Rochelle, the top pick?

For starters, Rochelle said, there was her electability.  As a media lawyer in a big L.A. law firm, she had high-powered connections.  Her fellow lawyers supported her bid for Congress, and would help her raise a lot of money.  And because she knew how to get through to conservatives, she could sway many of the undecided voters--particularly those dismayed by McClintock's willful neglect of the District.

Moreover, she said, she would be the most successful in the job.  Her two decades in law had prepared her well for lawmaking.  And she had an ability to work across the aisle without compromising the Democratic Party's core principles.

But there was a problem.  Rochelle's audience that evening was the Oakhurst Area for Peace, a group of mountain-dwelling people of conscience who came together last November, when the world suddenly seemed to go dark.  We found each other in the Red Sea that represents much of rural California, and hung on tight.  Since then, we've been pecking away at this strange new order we've been given.  Individually and collectively, we are trying to make a difference.

Although we understand it takes money and connections to get elected, those aren't the things that inspire us.  As one of my fellow peace group members put it at Jessica Morse's talk, "This is a Bernie crowd."  We are idealists.  We are wary of the establishment.  We grow our own food and cut our own firewood.  We support livable wages and healthcare for all, and wish that California would hurry up and become a sanctuary state.

What's more, in the current climate, I think many of us cringe a little when we hear Democrats talk about working across the aisle.  It's not that we want a divided, ineffectual Congress.  It's just that, since the election, there has been an open season on the sacred.  Civil rights, checks and balances, national monuments, public schools, and countless other American birthrights seem always at the brink of being gutted.  It feels like we need to defend our country from the other side of the aisle, not meet them in the middle.

So, when asked Why you?, the assets Rochelle Wilcox named might not have been the ones we OAP members prioritize in our candidates of choice.  But it was clear, throughout the rest of our evening at the pink house, that she was competent, well-informed, and a glowing alternative to Tom.

Raised by a single mom with the help of food stamps and other aid programs, Rochelle was keenly aware of economic inequality in our country, and wanted to do her part to mend it.  Key in this struggle, she said, was education.  Herself an alumnus of public schools and universities, Rochelle believed in public education and had ideas for how to improve it.  In particular, she said, it would be important to strengthen vocational training and early childhood education.

Another crucial step toward leveling the playing field in our country, she said, was health care.  If a person felt bound to their job because of the employer-sponsored health insurance that came with it, they might be missing out on opportunities for growth--say, by improving their education, or even by pursuing a better job.  To Rochelle, health care was a human right.  She was committed to universal health care, and had a plan for how to get us there.

The final piece of the puzzle, Rochelle said, was rural broadband.

Wait--rural broadband?  We scratched our collective heads on this one.  All four of the candidates had mentioned it in their talks, but it wasn't until Rochelle that we asked anyone to flesh it out.  What did rural broadband have to do with solving economic inequality?

Rochelle explained that with rural broadband came business.  New employers wouldn't turn their gaze toward Oakhurst if, like us, they had to contend with spotty, and often sluggish, Internet service.  Rochelle envisioned our mountain communities wooing the tech industry--but to be half-tempted, those companies would need to know they could function here.

Currently, Rochelle said, there is "a pot of money" available for rural broadband development, and Tom McClintock isn't doing anything to bring it to the District.  I looked this up.  Indeed, there appear to be myriad federal programs to bolster rural broadband, originating from offices as seemingly disparate as the Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Rochelle Wilcox, like the other three Democratic candidates, lives in the 4th District.  Her L.A.-based firm allows her to work remotely from her home in Roseville.  This is would go without saying were it not for the fact that Tom McClintock doesn't have constituents for neighbors.  He lives down the hill in Elk Grove, away from mountain interests and livelihoods, away from the natural resources he claims to know so much about.  As a 7th District resident, he has never been able to vote for himself.

Also like the other three, Rochelle has an impressive resume.  She has worked at the same firm since she began practicing law in 1998.  Her firm's focus is the first amendment.  She generally works for media companies, pushing for increased government transparency and accountability.  She has represented the ACLU.  She has gone before the California Supreme Court.

In previous blog posts, I have attempted to quantify our congressional candidates' relative levels of qualification, for comparison purposes.  I've drawn some heat for this, as we don't all have the same opinion as to what the "most qualified" candidate looks like.  Is it Jessica Morse, the national security strategist with a decade of civil service under her belt?  Is it Regina Morse, the Ivy League professor of political science?  Is it Roza Calderon, the geoscientist and community organizer?  Or is it Rochelle Wilcox, the first amendment attorney?  I still have my pick.  You might have a different pick.  The bottom line is, any of these powerful women are light-years beyond the current fare. 

Rochelle Wilcox's campaign theme, "Building on Shared Values," seems to reflect her philosophy as a whole.  For most of the politically-charged issues out there, she said, there was a values-oriented way to bring people together.  For example, when it came to Planned Parenthood, she would emphasize the organization's role in providing basic health care.  For climate change, she would show how investing in green energy meant more American jobs.

This made sense to me--and, I assume, most of my fellow Oakhurst Area for Peace members at the pink house.  We might still feel like we're in the thick of the fight.  We might not feel inclined to offer an olive branch to the administration, and the movement, that keeps threatening to dump all the progress we've made as a society.  But when it comes down to it, I think most of us want to find common ground with our neighbors, and our fellow humans in general.

There are four Democrats who, in 2018, hope to go head-to-head with Tom McClintock in the battle for California's 4th Congressional District.  We won't see all their names on the general ballot.  If things go as they should, we won't see all their names on the primary ballot, either.  But in the meantime, Rochelle said, she was happy for the wide field.  Four good candidates roaming the District meant four times the number of bridges that could be built.  And for Rochelle Wilcox, building bridges is everything.

The bright pink house.  Photo courtesy of Lois Clarke.

When the evening's hosts bought the bright pink house, it was occupied by mice.  It hadn't been lived in by humans for four years.  They resuscitated it, redoing the paint and tile work, adding roof supports where necessary.  Today, it shines.  You can find it on architectural websites.  You can find it on Pinterest.  It is again loved, and lived in, and ever improving.

California's 4th District, like the pink house, is a treasure.  Also like the pink house, it has been neglected for some time, left to languish in the weeds.  Our current "representative" doesn't live here.  He has never lived here.  Our current "representative" only listens to those constituents he agrees with, the ones just about as far right as a person can politically swing.  But the 4th District is on the market.  In 2018, with any luck, it will be in capable new hands--those of Jessica, Regina, Roza, or Rochelle.  And the renovations will begin.