Politics
This year, California had the largest number of people registered to vote in the state’s history, with nearly 20 million ready to hit today’s polls. Formerly incarcerated people in Richmond, some of whom are voting for the first time, helped the state reach that record. In the lead up to the election, organizations across the city worked to educate formerly incarcerated people and their families about their right to vote. Laws vary across the country on voting rights for those…
The race for California’s 15th Assembly district is one of the most expensive in the state. More than $3.75 million has been spent to support the candidacies of Buffy Wicks and Jovanka Beckles, with spending for Wicks exceeding Beckles by a margin of 4 to 1, a Richmond Confidential analysis of the latest campaign finance reports shows. The reports reveal that nearly 40 percent of Wicks’ support is coming from outside of California. Corporate executives and business interests are heavily…
While the two candidates espouse the same political ideologies and discuss the same issues, their positions on them are very different.
Raul Vasquez plans to vote for Proposition 10 to allow cities to expand rent control on housing because the rent on his Richmond house has risen nearly 70 percent in the past two years. The 63-year-old father of three who has lived in Richmond for more than three decades now pays $2,500 for the three-bedroom house that cost him $1,500 in rent in 2016. “It’s hard for me to pay that much rent because I have to support my children,”…
Our partner site, Richmond Pulse, recently conducted a series of interviews with this year’s City Council candidates. Click on any candidate’s image to view their Q&A.
If approved, Measure FF would provide funding for the regional park district’s services. These include wildfire prevention, public access and safety improvements and habitat enhancement.
Dissension grows among RPA supporters over councilwoman’s ‘egregious violation’ on Point Molate vote
The Richmond City Council vote to move forward with plans to develop a pristine piece of the city’s shoreline has sown some dissension in the ranks of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, potentially weakening the political organization that has transformed city politics over the past decade. Some think the divisions within the alliance could affect the outcome of the November election. Two alliance members are running for re-election to the council and another, Vice Mayor Melvin Willis, is trying to oust…
At the corner of 22nd Street and Carlson Boulevard in Richmond sits a homeless encampment where the unofficial mayor, Oretha “Porkchop” Stevens, is calming down her next-door neighbor Tone. His phone is missing and Porkchop works to reassure him. “You’re not crazy, you know where you put your stuff! Don’t play with your own mind,” she says with authority, perched on the bed inside her tent from where she presides all day over her dozen neighbors’ lives. She and her…
