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  Vorderbrueggen: Richmond Politics Get Ugly
April 21, 2012
 

Vorderbrueggen: Richmond politics get ugly

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times
Posted:   04/20/2012 06:00:00 PM PDT
Updated:   04/21/2012 09:37:34 PM PDT

Richmond's bare-knuckle politics are rarely confused with the silken-glove civility of Danville, but even the gritty city's most veteran players are cringing these days.
"Where do I even start?" said one Richmond politico.
Council meetings routinely devolve into shockingly rude and racially charged shouting matches.
Council members constantly interrupt and insult each other in public.
Dozens of council groupies -- many of them recruited by council members -- jeer and cheer from the audience, cycling one by one to the speaker's podium, where they comment on every single agenda item no matter how small. Meetings often drag out five, six and seven hours.
The question is not when will it stop, but how bad will it get?
The City Council election season unofficially starts today with a kickoff party for Richmond Progressive Alliance candidates Marilyn Langlois and Eduardo Martinez.
The pair hope to win the seat held by outgoing Councilman Jeff Ritterman and defeat incumbent Nat Bates, which would give the alliance a four-member voting majority on the council, along with Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles.
Interestingly, an alliance victory would represent a devastating defeat for a man who is not even on the November ballot.
Elected two years ago after 10 attempts, Councilman Corky Booze remains a lightning rod.
Some people thought he would temper his combative style once he sat on the other side of the dais, but his battles and provocative comments have multiplied like mushrooms after a soaking rain.
He's been at war with the alliance ever since he refused to support an Israeli-Palestinian resolution.
He and Ritterman have had deeply personal and public conflicts.
Booze regularly spars with McLaughlin, who once spoke with police after her council colleague made what she interpreted as threatening comments following her ejection of a speaker clad in fatigues who yelled out "racist."
At a meeting earlier this month, Booze uncharitably referred to McLaughlin as "that lady" and characterized her action as "The black community loses again!"
Hoping to quash expected squabbling over hearing rules, the council also passed what some privately called the "Corky Doctrine," which requires council members to keep quiet during public testimony and hold their questions until the end.
Booze's most serious rift erupted in mid-April when he made ugly public accusations of racism against Councilman Tom Butt, his longtime friend and ally. Booze is African-American, Butt is white.
The exchange came after Butt broadly released scathing responses received from an e-forum that asked the public to rate Booze's job performance.
People slapped Booze with every pejorative adjective they could find -- argumentative, opportunistic, disruptive, bully, egotistic and, well, you get the point.
Their relationship soured after each says the other refused to vote for their respective projects.
Butt wanted support for port development plans, while Booze sought support for African-American jobs programs and the relocation of a drug treatment clinic he says is too close to a school and park.
"What Corky doesn't understand is that politics is a team sport," Butt said. "If you don't have a team, you can't even get on the field. I told him I would do what I could to help him, but a lot of what he wants takes money the city doesn't have right now."
Booze rejects the premise that he must give votes to get votes.
"So, what you are saying is that if I don't kowtow to what these people want, then the community will continue to suffer?" Booze asked. "I am nobody's boy. I am not going to roll over and stop trying to help underserved people get jobs."
A former race car driver, Booze is admirably focused on bringing decent jobs to Richmond's black neighborhoods.
But if he keeps running over his pit crew and driving his fellow racers into the wall, he'll be left sitting alone on the track with four flat tires and a blown engine.
Contact Lisa Vorderbrueggen at 925-945-4773, lvorderbrueggen@

 

 

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