21st Century California and Common Cause

Produced by KSQD 90.7FM

“Be Bold America!” Sunday, August 14, 2022 at 5:00pm (PDT)

“You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going ‘cause you might not get there.” – Yogi Berra

For over 50 years Common Cause has served as a vehicle to strengthen public participation and ensure public officials and public institution are accountable and responsive to all citizens … like you! A vibrant democracy demands strong public participation and accountability for those with position power.

Common Cause fights for access to the ballot box and voting rights, fights manipulated gerrymandering and fights for fair district representation, fights for judicial and legislative ethics and accountability (including ALEC!), fights against the influence of money in politics, fights for freedom of the press, advocates for fixing the filibuster, and fights against the right-wing plan to rewrite the US Constitution.

What are they doing in bring California into the 21st Century? They are fighting to increase voting accessibility for all populations, increase voting language accessibility, to hold contractor donations accountable with City Councils and School Boards. In addition, with this upcoming midterm election being the first election after the adoption of California’s Fair Maps Act,  they will analyze the results for recommending improvements to the California State Legislature.

Interview Guest: Pedro Hernandez, J.D. is the Legal and Policy Director for California Common Cause where he helps lead the organization’s statewide policy and legislative work. He currently serves on the state’s Language Accessibility Advisory Committee and is Vice-Chair of the Berkeley City Fair Campaign Practices Commission.

Before joining California Common Cause, Pedro was Senior Policy Coordinator for FairVote, where he developed an education plan and helped implement a proportional representation system as part of the settlement in United States v. Eastpointe. Through his local advocacy work, he helped strengthen San Francisco’s public finance system, and has conducted several voter educational campaigns. He previously worked as an Associate at the Law Office of Robert Rubin where he specialized in claims under the California Voting Rights Act.

Pedro earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal.