Darrell Issa announced he is stepping away from Congress. Professor Jordan Mills said he is ready to take his place.
Even before Issa announced on Jan. 10 that he would not run for re-election in the 49th California Congressional District, Mills said he was running as a candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party. Mills said Issa was out of touch with America and way too conservative.
“There’s a real progressive wave in the country right now,” Mills said. “I think people have seen the big discrepancies in wealth and overspending on the military. The fact that we don’t have health care is really taking a toll on the American people. They want change and they want candidates that are willing to serve them instead of the 1 percent and the corporations that back them.”
The Peace and Freedom Party came into fruition in the 1960s to support the Black Panther Party. The party are avid supporters of socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality and internationalism, the platform summary reads. Mills, similar to the Peace and Freedom Party, supports politics that favor people over profit.
“One of the problems with the United States political system is Congress represents only one class of people,” Mills said. “It’s a millionaire’s club. It’s people who defend large lobbyists and defense contractors and there aren’t a lot of people in Congress who represent the people of their districts and certainly the vast majority of the working people in this country.”
Issa is the richest member of Congress, Mills said, and he has no empathy for working class Americans.
“We knew it was really important to run against Issa,” he said. “He is the sinister Mr. Burns figure in Congress. We didn’t realize he was going to quit.”
Issa and other Republican Congressmen not seeking re-election have motivated the Peace and Freedom Party to promote socialist issues. Mills said his goal is for his nomination to give voice to the progressive movement and make it stronger.
Mills campaign manager Eric McGill agreed.
“He’s deeply connected to the struggle,” said McGill. “He’s spent his life fighting for the needs of working, marginalized and oppressed people in ways that others candidates aren’t and won’t. Certainly in a way that the other two parties are not remotely interested in doing.”
McGill and Mills agreed the two-party system will make the candidacy difficult. Mills has to collect 2,000 petition signatures or raise $1,450 in order to qualify for the primaries, but only the top two candidates are chosen for the general election.
“California passed that law as a way to discourage third party participation, which I think is undemocratic and extreme,” Mills said. “Ninety percent of the time, that means the Democratic and Republican parties make it into the final two. A candidate like me wouldn’t get a chance to have my voice in the general election.”
Mills’ campaign has set up a community donation page, 87 cents equating to one signature. Mills said the fund raiser reached its halfway goal in four days and hopes are high. All donations have been from working class citizens, he said. McGill said it has to be that way.
“He does not take corporate money,” McGill said. “He will never represent their corporate interests.”
Mills said the two-party system and capitalism are in a state of decay, Americans are not as spooked by socialism as they once were. He also said the people see problems with land speculation, police brutality, gentrification, and abuse of LGBT and immigrants. Constituents deserve better, he said.
“This is the richest country, yet we have people sleeping on the street and having to decide between food and health care,” Mills said. “There’s just no place for that. I’m proud to say I’m a socialist. We believe everyone should have access to health care, a job, an education and to not have their kids die in wars for the one percent.”
