San Luis Obispo, CA, Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader to Speak Sunday September 28
News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Mehta, 408-348-0681, rmehta@votenader.org (National HQ); Stephen 916-834-9606, (Local)
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RALPH NADER TO SPEAK IN SAN LUIS OBISPO
WHO: Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Sunday September 28 at 7:00pm, and 7:30pm, respectively
WHERE: Alex & Faye Spanos Theater Building 44 of the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave. San Luis Obispo, CA 93410
On Sunday, September 28 at 7:00pm, consumer advocate and Presidential candidate Ralph Nader will host a press conference with his Vice Presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez in a private room in the Alex & Faye Spanos Theater Building 44 of the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave. San Luis Obispo, CA 93410. At 7:30pm the California Peace and Freedom Party nominee will hold a rally in the Spanos Theater itself.
The Nader/Gonzalez campaign will speak out against the unjust, restrictive, and undemocratic Commission on Presidential Debates. The CPD, a corporation headed since its inception by two former chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties, shuts third party candidates away from public view, maintaining a stranglehold on the two party system and stifling the political conversation in this country.
The Nader/Gonzalez ticket is encouraged by AB 1945, which has passed in both the Assembly and the Senate. If signed into law, the bill will make it illegal for insurance companies to cancel the medical coverage of their clients for accidental mistakes in their medical history. This loophole is currently sometimes used throughout the country in order to deny legitimate claims on the basis of medical history technicalities. The bill would require the insurance companies to prove that a client intentionally misrepresented their medical history.
Proposition 6, the so-called "Safe Neighborhoods Act," would make prisoners out of children. In the country with the most per capita citizens in jail already, this would be an unacceptable further step in the wrong direction. Care should be taken to instead invest in rehabilitation for criminals generally and of course children specifically. The money spent on sending children to jail could be used in various other productive and beneficial ways. It could be used to improve the destitute healthcare system in California which leaves 6.6 million Californians uninsured, according to the California HealthCare Foundation. It could be used to fund public schools in California, which receive one-fourth the money per student as prisons do per prisoner. Instead of locking California children in jail, Nader/Gonzalez believes we should secure their future with single-payer healthcare and increased funds for public education.
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About Matt Gonzalez
Matt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco's fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
The Nader/Gonzalez independent presidential candidacy will be on the ballot in 45 states, is polling at 5-6 percent nationally, and a new Time/CNN poll shows Ralph Nader polling 8 percent in New Mexico, 7 percent in Colorado, 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6 percent in Nevada -- all key battleground states.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org
