Indivisible East Bay CA Assembly District 18 Questionnaire- 2021 Special Election
Candidate: Janani Ramachandran
General
| Do you support voting rights for all, including incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people? Yes |
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| Do you oppose limiting access to health care and other essential safety net programs based on immigration status? Yes |
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Do you support Roe v. Wade and Whole Woman’s Health as the law of the land and will you support efforts to improve or expand access to abortion at any point needed? Yes |
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| Do you support a just transition to deal with climate change, such as the Green New Deal, which would bring carbon emissions down to zero by 2050 while investing in those most impacted, who are often low-income, marginalized communities of color? Yes |
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| Do you believe healthcare is a human right and support creating a single payer system for California? Yes |
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| Do you support reparations for slavery in the U.S. and atrocities committed against Native peoples? Yes |
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| Do you support abolishing fees and counterproductive debt nonpayment (such as the stripping of driving or voting rights) in the justice system? Yes |
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| Do you support ending qualified immunity for police and enacting a prohibition on selling or transferring military weapons to police departments? Yes |
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| Do you support limiting future fossil fuel production and investing in a 100% clean energy economy? Yes |
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| Will you support efforts to combat the economic impacts of systemic racism by supporting policies that target inequality in areas like housing, education, and intergenerational wealth? Yes |
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| Do you support marriage equality? Yes |
Do you support the following bills?
| SCA 2 – Public housing projects Yes |
SB 379 – UC health facilities Yes |
| AB 20 – The Clean Money Act Yes |
SB 467 – Oil and Gas hydraulic fracking Yes |
| AB 92 – Preschool and childcare and development services Yes |
SB 586 – Criminal fees Yes |
| AB 339 – Open govt. meetings Yes |
AB 221 – Emergency Food Assistance Yes |
| AB 937 – The VISION Act Yes |
AB 387 – Social Housing Act Yes |
| AB 1177 – BankCal Act Yes |
AB 71 – Homeless Funding Yes |
| AB 1295 – High fire risk areas Yes |
AB 328 – Re-entry Housing Program Yes |
| AB 1400 – CalCare Yes |
SB 452 – Immigrant & Refugee Agency Yes |
| SB 2 – Peace officer decertification Yes |
SB-222 Water Affordability Assistance Yes |
| SB 17 – Office of Racial Equity (ORE) Yes |
SB 16 – Peace Officer Records Yes |
| SB 54 – Solid waste packaging Yes |
AB 1041 – Leave Yes |
| SB 56/AB 4 – Health for All Yes |
AB 1493 – Tenancy: Victims of Domestic Violence Yes |
| SB 90/AB 1416 – Ballot DISCLOSE Act Yes |
AB 1038 – California Health Equity Fund Yes |
| SB 271 – County sheriffs eligibility Yes |
SB 464 – California Food Assistance Program Yes |
| SB 331 – Silenced No More Act Yes |
Staffing
| On your campaign, will you make every effort to create work spaces for your staff that are safe and free from all forms of sexual harassment? Yes |
| On your campaign, will you commit to paying staff equal pay for equal work? Yes |
| If your campaign staff chooses to unionize, will you commit to voluntarily recognizing a staff union? Yes |
| On your campaign, will you pay your interns? Yes |
| On your campaign, will you build a team, senior and entry level, that represents the demographics and diversity of your constituency? Yes |
| If elected, will you make every effort to create work spaces for your staff that are safe and free from all forms of sexual harassment? Yes |
| If elected, will you commit to paying staff equal pay for equal work? Yes |
| If elected, will you offer your staff paid family leave? Yes |
| If elected, will you pay your interns? Yes |
| If elected, will you seek to build a team, senior and entry level, that represent the demographics and diversity of your constituency? Yes |
Please explain any non-yes or qualified answers:
Each of the above-listed issues are extremely important to me. For most of my career, I worked with, in a legal or social service capacity, survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. I worked with individuals experiencing wage theft and gender-based discrimination. I worked with individuals facing eviction. I worked with individuals experiencing mental health crises. Actively cultivating a work environment on both a campaign and when in office that is inclusive, free of harassment, and equitable in all respects is critical to who I am as a person and as a leader.
Why should Indivisible East Bay members support you?
California doesn’t just need another Democrat in our state legislature. We need a bold progressive leader who is not bought by corporate interests, and who will deliver real progressive change for Californians – at a time our communities need it the most.
1 in 3 Californians live at or near the poverty line – shameful for the wealthiest state in the nation.
160,000 Californians are houseless on a given night, and 2 million can’t afford to pay rent next month – shameful for a state led by a party that claims that housing is a human right.
Every three hours – a Californian dies from gun shot – shameful for the state that prides itself on supposedly tough gun laws.
We’re having national conversations about a Green New Deal and Medicare for All – neither of which have happened in very own supermajority Democratic state government.
We need bold action – and we need it right now. Now, more than ever, is the time to be fearless in the fight for justice.
So I am running on a platform that is building a movement to fight for 5 key things:
- Housing is a human right. We must proclaim that right, beginning with building more affordable housing, by providing better services for our houseless neighbors, and by reforming anti-tenant state laws.
- Healthcare is a human right. We need to provide every Californian with quality care, starting with our own Medicare for All network.
- Clean air is a human right. We must enact act quickly, because California’s extreme climate events and deadly toxic pollutants harm us all, especially low-income communities of color. We must pass a Green New Deal with a racial equity lens – to transition away from fossil fuel and other extractive industries and also create hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs.
- We deserve safe homes and our communities. We must radically re-imagine our criminal justice system to heal survivors and perpetrators of harm in order to end toxic cycles of violence. We can start to do this by prioritizing funding restorative justice programs and trauma-informed mental health services. We must also bring an end to qualified immunity for all police officers who commit harm.
- Workers deserve a living wage. We must align the minimum wage to California’s true cost of living, at least $22/hr, which will lift millions of California families out of poverty while strengthening our economy by creating a thriving middle class.
Born and raised in the East Bay, I attended Stanford University and then worked at a community health clinic for years – providing in-home case management services to immigrant mothers – most of whom were survivors of domestic violence and housing insecure.
Watching families be ripped apart by our inequitable systems of justice – and watching our most vulnerable community members often be hurt by laws intended to protect them – inspired me to go to Berkeley Law to think more deeply about how we can change these systems.
I’ve defended tenants facing eviction from some of Oakland’s most notoriously corrupt landlords. I’ve represented survivors of violence fighting tooth and nail in court just to get a shot at safety for themselves and their children. I’ve worked with individuals experiencing mental health crises – and failed by too many systems.
I’m running now because the voices of these communities have been silenced for too long. These voices, our voices, are being drowned out by political leaders who are often too timid to push for the changes we need, or too jaded with politics to even try. And as we know, even our Democratic leaders are too-often influenced by the power of big corporate money.
I began to push for change when I served as an Oakland Public Ethics Commissioner. I continued to push for change when I served as a California State Commissioner for Asian Pacific Islander. But I am hungry push for far greater change.
If elected, I would be California’s first South Asian Assemblywoman, and first LGBTQ API Assemblywoman.
Our campaign has been building significant momentum. As District 18 is one of the most progressive districts in California – we are seeing that voters are resonating with our message, and ready to embrace a fearless fight for justice on economic equality, racial justice and the immediate imperative to protect immigrants, renters and all Californians who have been underrepresented. Our campaign is already offering a bold vision of progressive change – starting with launching a petition to adopt a $22 per hour living wage by 2022. We have also raised $122,000 till date, starting to gain endorsements from progressive groups, including Oakland Tenants Union, and are building a strong team of volunteers.
Together, we can re-imagine a California that serves us all – by electing leaders who will fight for our communities. That’s why our campaign will only accept donations from people, not from corporations, police unions, big pharma, real estate developers, and the oil and gas industry or their executives.
I vow to bring every ounce of my energy, my community-driven perspectives, and my fighter spirit to deliver this change now, when our communities need it the most. But this is not a task I can do alone. This is a movement that we can build together – so I am asking for your support in this quest for justice.