Das Williams taking his leadership to Sacramento

but staying based in Santa Barbara.

Elected in 2003, Williams is the most senior member of the council. He was known as an advocate for affordable housing downtown, increased bus transit routes, and higher wages for city workers.

Beyond his social policies, Williams is a staunch environmentalist, who pushed the city toward greater green awareness. Whether it was requesting that developers use solar panels for their projects, or securing money to replace leaky sewer mains to improve water quality, Williams elevated the environmental conversation at City Hall.

“I feel like there are some important things that we got done together in the last 7 years and the most important was moving the city toward this environmental sustainability in a way that saves the city money and that is a larger institutional change I hope that will continue when I am gone,” Williams said.

He was also an advocate for youth and afterschool programs, which he believes help curb gang violence

Williams wants to continue those policies in Sacramento, where he said he will immediately introduce legislation focused on creating green jobs – one of the platforms of his assembly campaign.

Williams plans to spend four days a week in Sacramento and another two days meeting with constituents locally in the 35th Assembly District.

On the 7th day, he will rest.

...“I am planning on being more active in the community, more in touch with local constituents and put more resources in local staff, doing constituent service rather in the capitol,” Williams said.- DailySound

Das Williams believes that rebuilding California...

relies upon rebuilding our Middle Class:

"We need to rebuild our middle class by creating new jobs and pushing our state to invest in new technologies and industries. I’ll expand alternative energy and sustainable, clean ways of living and doing business, and will unite our state’s environmental and labor constituencies behind a pro-jobs agenda to ensure that California is not left behind..." -- Das

DAS WILLIAMS knows plastic bags

are not indigenous to the ocean. Where's YOUR bag?

Environmentalist Linda Krop supports Das Williams

From her letter to the Ventura County Star:

I know from personal experience that Das Williams is an outstanding and effective environmental advocate. He has been part of our local environmental movement his entire life. As a board member of the Environmental Defense Center, Williams fought hard to oppose new oil leasing off our coast. As staff to former assembly member Hannah-Beth Jackson, Williams helped author legislation supporting the federal oil moratorium and blocking new oil tankering. As a Santa Barbara City Councilmember, Williams has taken a leadership role in the city, opposing offshore oil development and helping author the resolution adopted by the city opposing new leasing in federal waters.

But Williams doesn’t just say “no.” He also finds solutions. He has led the city in transitioning to a renewable energy future, making the city a leader in our state and nation. Under his leadership, the city has doubled its use of alternative energy and created hundreds of green sustainable jobs.

To pretend that Das Williams is pro-oil is the same as saying that congresswoman Lois Capps, former assembly member Hannah-Beth Jackson, Santa Barbara County Supervisors Salud Carbajal, Janet Wolf and Doreen Farr, and Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider are pro-oil. They all joined Williams in supporting a plan to end existing drilling off Santa Barbara County’s coast.

I support Das Williams for State Assembly because he is a visionary and will move our community and state in a positive direction.

Linda Krop
Santa Barbara

Das knows it takes results

and he gets them!

"We need to rebuild our middle class by creating new jobs and pushing our state to invest in new technologies and industries. Ill expand alternative energy and sustainable, clean ways of living and doing business, and will unite our states environmental and labor constituencies behind a pro-jobs agenda to ensure that California is not left behind..." -- Das

Das has been working on energy issues for years

Das has worked with a wide variety of people and organizations toward a common goal of lessening our energy footprint. For example, this news from 2007.

Earlier this month, the Santa Barbara City Council passed a new Energy Ordinance that aims to make the city’s buildings 40% more efficient than those in any other U.S. city. Under the ordinance, Santa Barbara’s energy standards become 10% more stringent every five years. The aim, City Council member Das Williams told the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Daily Nexus, is to make city’s buildings 20% more efficient than required under California Title 24 efficiency standards, themselves 20% more efficient than national standards. To pre-empt fights between the city and builders over the ordinance, the Santa Barbara-based Community Environmental Council and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects worked to educate builders about the benefits of building efficiently. A coalition of 15 local groups, including environmentalists, contractors and architects, are actively supporting the energy ordinance and the Architecture 2030 Challenge, a measure that inspired the ordinance and calls for cities to be carbon neutral by 2030. - FlexYourPower

Someone who knows the issues and communicates regardless of party lines to make things happen. That's exactly what we need up in Sacramento. That's exactly what Das Williams brings to the table.

Das knows it's NOT just about stopping offshore oil drilling...but...

it's about PLANNING for energy alternatives...it's about WORKING toward energy self sufficiency....it's about TAKING initiative for positive change. It's about FORGING ahead to the future. It's all about the DOING. And Das is doing just that.



(hat tip to Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice for the video lead)

Das Williams believes growing Green Jobs is good

and a recent study from the California Employment Development Department proves that going green IS good for California.

...the California Employment Development Department last week released its first-ever report (pdf) on environment-related employment. What it found, based on a survey of 15,500 companies, is that the green revolution is already a vibrant part of the state’s economy, creating jobs even during the recession. And judging from what’s happening with local environmental firms, the green economy appears to be growing.

...The Associated General Contractors of America, a construction industry association, released a report last week estimating that by 2015, there will be as many as 15 million nonresidential green construction projects nationwide, breathing life into an industry hard hit by the recession.“These projects aren’t just a great source for renewable energy; they are a promising opportunity to renew our industry,” said Ted Aadland, president of the Associated General Contractors of America. - SignOnSanDiego.com

"California already has more than 300,000 green jobs and the best is yet to come," said Victoria Bradshaw, Secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. "This survey shows that green jobs are distributed more broadly through our economy than previously thought. - YubaNet

It's Official....

35th Assembly candidate reception — March 2010
Originally uploaded by On Scene — Amigos805.com.

Santa Barbara City Councilmember and Assembly District 35 candidate Das Williams officially picked up the California Democratic Party (CDP) endorsement this weekend at the State Convention in Los Angeles.

“The fact that Ventura and Santa Barbara Democrats have so overwhelmingly supported my candidacy in this race represents a key vote of confidence not only in what I fought for and achieved locally, but also the vision I have for where this state needs to go,” Williams said. “I’m honored that sentiment was echoed at this weekend’s State Democratic Convention, and I am so honored to carry the California Democratic Party’s sole endorsement heading into the June election.

“I can’t wait to get up to Sacramento, and fight to ensure that our Democratic values are reflected in the policies coming out of the state legislature.” - Noozhawk

Congrats, Das!

Who says one politican and some believers can't make a difference?

Case in point, Senator Gaylord Nelson and some folks who thought that Earth was pretty cool.

One U.S. senator and a core of young organizers turned April 22, 1970, into the day the environmental movement was born.

On that day, 20 million Americans in 2,000 communities and 10,000 schools planted trees, cleaned up parks, buried cars in mock graves, marched, listened to speeches and protested how humans were messing up their world.

....Earth Day was the brainchild of Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, who came up with the idea of a national teach-in on the environment after 3 million gallons of oil spilled across the beaches of Santa Barbara, Calif., and killed 10,000 seabirds in January 1969.

Nelson's idea gave birth to a green movement and a "green generation" that would be as powerful as the industrial revolution in shaping the future of civilization. - Cleveland.com

Celebrate Senator Nelson's idea today...and everyday.

We "Otter" Save Them

Sea Otter preening itself in Morro Bay, CA sea-otter-morro-bay_13
Originally uploaded by mikebaird.

There are some folks in town who want to rid the Santa Barbara area of Sea Otters. I think that is a foolish and knee jerk reaction to a "perceived" problem. I think that looking at the "big picture" should be the plan...and so does Das.

....Current Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams said it best… “I say we should embrace the economic and environmental opportunities presented by the otter’s return. They will eat a lot of urchins, and that will impact that fishery, but urchins have decimated kelp forests and the otter’s return may increase the size of kelp forests which also increase the number of other fish species that people once fished in decent numbers. The economic benefit of otters on a town like Monterrey is also very significant financially. Besides, their impact to the urchin fishery may not be devastating in the near term because it is largely males heading south during the female’s season to raise pups, an adaptation to prevent the males competing with the pups for food, so it is for now seasonal trips into our waters.” - Santa Barbara View