GPCA Coordinating Committee Candidate Bio (One-Year Term)

Tim Laidman, Contra Costa
 
I am a long-time resident of El Cerrito and registered Green since 2001. I got 
active when a fellow Green knocked on my door and invited me to get involved. I 
did door-to-door outreach to local voters to invite them to join in Green Party 
activities, give them a Green Party Voter guide or register them as Greens. I 
was a founding member in the weekly peace vigil in El Cerrito at Del Norte BART, 
which continued for many years. I work on Single Payer Health Care SB840/810, on 
Community Choice Energy, on environmental issues around the Richmond shoreline, 
on stopping the Point Molate Casino and against militarism. I am very active in 
the Richmond Progressive Alliance, serving on several committees and worked hard 
on Mayor Gayle McLaughlin's successful re-election campaign. I try to make 
connections between groups and build alliances to work together for progressive 
causes.
 
I have been very active with the El Cerrito Greens for a long time, hosting 
monthly meetings and cooking vegan meals, staffing booths, canvassing 
neighborhoods, helping with presentations and working on an energy plan for El 
Cerrito. I am currently the treasurer of the EC Greens and the Green Party of 
Contra Costa County. I am serving my second 2-year term on the County Council 
(my first elected office) and I look forward to helping the Green Party really 
grow in California.
 
I am an avid outdoors-person, woodworker, gardener, cook, dancer and dad. I am 
an electrical engineer with a background in computer technology, partially 
retired now, giving me more time to devote to activism. My love of this 
wonderful world and the beautiful people that inhabit it motivates my search for 
social justice, peace and a better future for our children. I try to bring joy 
and harmony with humor and a positive attitude. I have been active in the peace 
movement for forty years, including non-violence training, counter-recruitment, 
civil disobedience, anti-nuke work and first amendment cases. I was a member of 
the Muhlenberg Five, a case that went to the Pennsylvania Supreme court and 
extended the first amendment right to demonstrate on private college campuses in 
Pennsylvania.