To those of you who know me best and have been reading Creative Greenius since we started publishing in October 2007 it seems pretty silly that any candidate for elected office would seek my endorsement or think that it would do more good than harm.
And you would think that would be especially true for anyone running to become our United States representative from this 33rd Congressional District – the person who will be following the great Henry Waxman in that position.
But in fact, both Wendy Greuel and Marianne Williamson have each reached out to me and I have taken their asks seriously and with more thoughtfulness than usual given the crossroads we find ourselves at climate wise. Without Henry Waxman as our Representative we lose a giant.
I’ve spent time talking with Marianne Williamson’s policy advisor over the last couple of weeks and just this Wednesday I had the pleasure of meeting with Marianne one-on-one for about 90 minutes at my own spiritual sanctuary, our beloved South Coast Botanic Garden on a spectacular summer-like morning.
It was easy to see why people are so passionate about supporting Marianne and we quickly found common ground in agreement on most of the issues important to me.
I asked every cynical question that came to mind or that I had heard from others and she didn’t shy away from answering any of them. For anyone hoping to write Marianne Williamson off as a flake or some kind of out-there cult figure, I’m afraid that dog won’t hunt. This is a serious woman of substance who is first and foremost a very successful entrepreneur, who in the Great American tradition invented herself and built her success from the ground up based on her own talent.
The most compelling thing she said to me, that gave me great pause and caused me to think long and hard, was whether or not I thought that Congress needed to be shaken up and spun in a different direction by someone who wasn’t part of the status quo and the same two-party system that caused the problem of dysfunctional government to begin with.
It is hard to argue that Congress doesn’t need that. And under less dire climate circumstances I could endorse and vote for Marianne Williamson, but that is not the world we live in.
And what I myself need from our next Representative in the House is the person who will most effectively help me drive the South Bay to 100% renewable energy as we transition off of fossil fuels in the next decade.
I need someone who understands the science, knows all the key players, and who shares my sense of urgency about getting this done.
I need someone who can help me and the community members and elected officials from the five different South Bay cities I’m now working with to end our relationship with Southern California Edison so we can form a Municipal Utility District to make our move to 100% renewable energy the best economic move for our people – in addition to the one that best addresses our health, safety and climate concerns.
I need someone who can break the current logjam with the unions like the AFL-CIO and IBEW and get them on board to organize and build the clean energy fossil free future that they will profit from and their children will get the chance to survive in.
And I need someone who cared enough about all of this to have put together a lunch last month with South Bay environmental leaders to find out what issues we were working on and are concerned about about. I need someone who spent many hours with us at our MB2025 events in March, and who again came to be with us at the 22nd annual Manhattan Beach Earth Day at Polliwog Park and who wasn’t there just to have a photo taken but was engaging in meaningful dialogue.
That person is Wendy Greuel and I need Wendy Greuel as my next representative of the spectacular 33rd House District that I live in. That’s why I am wholeheartedly endorsing her as my choice in this election.
Since 1988 I have worked with CEOs and presidents of America’s top Fortune 500 companies from banking and finance, to high-tech, to the entertainment industry, to the automotive industry, to the media industry, to the most successful consumer brands in American history. I trust my gut with people and I know who is bullshitting me and who is being real with me. I know when I’m connecting with a genuine, authentic intelligent human being and when I’m working with a lightweight, phony, empty suit who is pretending because I have spent time working one-on-one with all those types.
The more time I’ve spent talking to and interacting with Wendy Greuel the more I had it confirmed I was dealing with a legitimate, bright but also down-to-earth person – who was of course courting me, but doing so based on her knowledge, her experience, and her priorities if she is elected.
The LA Times endorsed Matt Miller yesterday but I’ve never seen Matt Miller in the South Bay. I don’t believe he cares enough about us or our issues to be an asset. And the L.A. Times endorsement in 2014 isn’t exactly the L.A. Times under the Chandler family. It’s not hard to see why one member of establishment LA media endorses another. Almost like endorsing your own editorial board’s “thought leaders.”
Ted Lieu was never a consideration for me after 21 years as a constituent of his. I have not had a single meaningful or thoughtful conversation with him, and have never felt he was sincere, honest or transparent with me or the public in the two decades plus I’ve known him.
But if Wendy Greuel is elected, I believe the South Bay will have a strong, passionate, intellectually-sharp ally representing us in Congress, the person who will be our best bet in transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy over the next decade.
And if we don’t lead the way on doing that then it won’t matter who we elect afterwards.
Creative Greenius 