Jeff Kravitz and Gary Blenner announce their candidacies for Sacramento Board of Supervisor 2012

First ‘Pro-Occupy/99%’ candidates officially announce campaigns for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors

SACRAMENTO — Occupy Sacramento attorney Jeff Kravitz and high school government teacher Gary Blenner officially announced Wednesday that they are running for Sacramento County Board of Supervisors — as the first “pro-Occupy/99%” candidates in the area, and possibly the state of California.

Kravitz, who is a volunteer attorney for Occupy activists arrested at Cesar Chavez Park, is a civil rights lawyer and former constitutional law professor. He is running in District 3.

Blenner is a government teacher at Rio Americano High School, and a former school board member in the Center Unified School District. He is running in District 4.

Both said they will be running “for the 99%,” not corporations, promising to hold a series of “99% community forums” over the next few months to find out what the 99% want them to do if they are elected.

In a joint statement released Wednesday, they said:

“The 99 percent are under-represented in Sacramento. The 1 percent, corporations and the wealthy, are over-represented. We are going to ask the people — the 99 percenters — in our districts what they want. We will hold a series of 99 percent town halls to listen to the people, the 99 percent who are working men and women often ignored and exploited by the very politicians they elect.

“We will not support cuts in our county that harm those already under-represented and who need the safety net that has been shredded in recent years. We will not support cuts in our county that hurt those in need, whether they be the homeless, taxpayers caught in a bind or others, such as the sick and elderly, who must rely upon county funded services.

“We will not support a sell-off of public property to pay for millionaire and billionaire arenas.”