SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

* indicates required
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Chevron's "Company Town" Fights Back: An Interview with Gayle McLaughlin

One of Chevron's Move Forward billboards in Richmond, California. (Credit: Harriet Rowan, Richmond Confidential)

Chevron's "Company Town" Fights Back: An Interview with Gayle McLaughlin

Amidst all the noise of this year's midterms, in the middle of all the charges and countercharges, attack ads and spin control, barnstorming and whistlestopping, one of the most interesting and significant elections in the country is happening not at the state or federal level but in the small city of Richmond, California, population just over 100,000.

Amidst all the noise of this year's midterms, in the middle of all the charges and countercharges, attack ads and spin control, barnstorming and whistlestopping, one of the most interesting and significant elections in the country is happening not at the state or federal level but in the small city of Richmond, California, population just over 100,000.

What makes Richmond such a big deal is the enormous influence of Chevron, the multinational energy company that keeps a problematic oil refinery in the city -- problematic in the sense of its tendency not only to generate handsome revenues but leaks, fires and explosions, too. Complaints about its environmental impact have built for decades.

Chevron was accustomed to dominating the economy and politics of Richmond, treating it like an old-fashioned company town, but in 2007, Gayle McLaughlin, candidate of the Green Party, became mayor. She and her allies on the city council began calling Chevron out, especially after a 2012 refinery fire that sent 15,000 people off to area hospitals for treatment.

This year, Gayle McLaughlin is not running again for mayor but seeks a seat on the city council. Chevron has pulled out the stops, spending some $3 million - an unheard of amount for a small, local election - to campaign against McLaughlin and her slate, and to use its corporate clout in support of more business-friendly, opposition candidates.

Chevron and the Moving Forward political alliance it underwrites say they're just protecting the company's interests in Richmond, and are dedicated to preserving the city's "quality of life." Mayor McLaughlin and progressives around the country point to Chevron's well-heeled electioneering as a textbook example of big money co-opting politics and taking over government. We spoke with Mayor McLaughlin as she took a short break from the final days of campaigning.

Keep reading...Show less
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.