Gayle McLaughlin

Gayle McLaughlin (English ) (b. 1952, Chicago, Illinois) is the Green Party mayor of the city of Richmond, California and a member of Richmond's City Council. McLaughlin was elected on November 7, 2006 by a 279-vote margin over incumbent mayor Irma Anderson. With Gayle at its head, Richmond is currently the largest city in the country with a Green Party mayor.

McLaughlin is a social activist who has participated in the peace, social justice, civil rights, and environmental movements. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, with graduate study in psychology and education.

McLaughlin is currently an elected member of the Richmond Greens Steering Committee and has served on the Green Party County Council of Contra Costa County. Her term as council member expired on November 21, 2006. She was elected to the City Council in 2004, winning one of five open seats, with 11,191 votes or 10% in 2004. She has lived in Richmond since 2001.

She wants to introduce instant run-off voting, term limits, and district council members.

Background and experience
McLaughlin was born into a working class union family. She is the middle child of five daughters. Her father was a unionized carpenter and her mother was a housewife.

During the 1980s, McLaughlin was an activist with the Central American solidarity movement and a steering committee member of CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). She also played an active role in the North Star Network, a national networking effort to unite progressives, and in coalition-building efforts with People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) and the Rainbow Coalition.

McLaughlin graduated summa cum laude from Bridgewater State College, Massachusetts. She continued her education with two years of graduate study in psychology at Rhode Island College, with additional graduate study in education at UC Berkeley Extension.

Throughout her life, McLaughlin has funded her political work through a number of professions, working as a postal clerk, a teacher, a caregiver for the elderly, and as a tutor/clinician for children with learning disabilities. She has also worked in the capacity of support staff for various not-for-profit health and educational organizations.

McLaughlin has an affinity for the arts and has been trained in dance. She has also been an advocate for the arts and for artists’ coalitions and unions.

Richmond Progressive Alliance


On November 2 2004, McLaughlin was elected to the city council of Richmond, California, on the Green Party ticket. She has been involved with the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), a non-partisan liberal group in western Contra Costa County, comprised mostly of Green Party members, as well as left-leaning and progressive independents and Democrats.

In Richmond, as a Richmond Green, McLaughlin's lifelong activism has found her in many local struggles. She has opposed the Patriot Act, the criminalization of the homeless, and the toxic impact of ChevronTexaco on the environment.

She has also been involved in an ongoing effort to stop development on the North Richmond shoreline, and is supporting the current battle against cutbacks, being waged by the Service Employees International Union.

Mayor
In 2003, McLaughlin was the first Green ever to win a seat on the Richmond city council. In 2006, she decided to challenge incumbent mayor Irma Anderson.

At the Richmond Violence Prevention Department, she has begun work to curb the root causes of violence and to hire peacemakers. The agency will attempt to calm angry gang members and other people down before matters escalate to murder or high degree assault. The plan is multifaceted and based on three main strategies, anti-violence, revitalization, and smart policing. McLaughlin has stated that her approach is necessary after years of the largely fruitless hire-more-cops approach.

In November 2007, CQ Press (formerly Morgan Quitno Press) released their annual report listing America's "Most Dangerous Cities". Richmond is ranked as the 9th most-dangerous of all U.S. cities with populations over 75,000.

Gayle McLaughlin is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.