Longtime peace activist Jerry Rubin announced his candidacy for one of the four open seats on the non-partisan, seven- member Santa Monica City Council. The election will take place November 4, 2008.
Rubin held a press conference at his Santa Monica residence to discuss the details of his “pro-peace,” “pro-trees,” and “pro-accountability” election platform.
Rubin, who is 64 years old and is no relation to the late 1960’s anti-war activist who shared his name, has been an activist with the Alliance for Survival since 1979. He founded the Activist Support Circle, an emotional support group for progressive activists, in February 2005. He is also a founder of Treesavers, a Santa Monica-based group that started in September 2007 and is still working to save the ficus trees in the Santa Monica downtown district.
Rubin previously ran for the Council in 2000. Although not elected, he garnered over 5,000 votes. Rubin was prohibited from using “peace activist” as his official ballot occupation, and after a three-year unsuccessful legal challenge that was ultimately rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, Rubin says he still wants to see the California Election Code changed to allow “activist” to be permitted. Rubin ran again for the Santa Monica City Council in 2002 but dropped out for health and political reasons.
Rubin, who in 2003 legally added “peace activist” as his middle name, will of course want to have his name listed officially on the election ballot as Jerry Peace Activist Rubin. Rubin pledges to run a clean campaign without resorting to personal attacks.
Rubin is open to public input on any issue and can be reached at 310.399.1000 or via e-mail at jerrypeaceactivistrubin@earthlink.net.
