October 23, 2021
Rusty Hicks, Chair
Betty Yee, Vice Chair
David Campos, Vice Chair
Melahat Rafiei, Secretary
April Verrett, Controller
Dear Officers of the California Democratic Party,
Progressive Zionists of California (PZC) writes to you today in support of the efforts from the Environmental, Black, and Progressive caucus leadership to ensure our party will no longer formally accept contributions from entities associated with the extraction and/or refining of fossil fuels and law enforcement.
As progressive Zionists, we believe that these contributions prevent our party from living up to our commitments to stop climate change and end police brutality, and the deadly racism it perpetuates.
We were thrilled to endorse several of you for your position during officer elections, and in our questionnaire, all of you personally stated that you would refuse donations from oil and gas lobbyists and that you support the statement “Black Lives Matter.” Most of you also committed to refusing donations from police unions. We now urge you to apply this standard to our party as a whole.
Sincerely,
Susan George, Executive Director
Lauren Post, Communications Director
Rachel Bracker, Chair, Board of Directors
Matthew Finkelstein, Member, Board of Directors
Victoria Solkovits, Member, Board of Directors
Rami Frankl, Member, Board of Directors
Daniel Bral, Member, Advisory Board