Top McLaughlin aide resigns, joins 2012 electoral field in Richmond

(Stacey Kennelly/RichmondConfidential)
By: Robert Rogers | April 14, 2012 – 10:35 am
The race for Richmond City Council 2012 just got more interesting. Longtime mayoral aide and local activist Marilyn Langlois has resigned her post in Gayle McLaughlin’s office to run for a chance to govern beside her former boss.
“I will still be very close with the mayor and volunteering in the community,” Langlois said by phone Saturday morning. “But I am now planning to run for city council.”
Langlois joins a field of contenders that already includes her friend and political ally, Eduardo Martinez, a former teacher and local activist, as well as local Native American activist Mike “Raccoon Eyes” Kinney.
Three of the seven council seats are up for reelection this year, those of Jeff Ritterman, Nat Bates and Tom Butt. Butt and Bates, both longtime councilmembers, have stated their intentions to run for re-election. Ritterman has not announced his intentions.
Langlois resigned her post as community liaison for McLaughlin effective Friday.
Langlois said she is also working to help McLaughlin make a “smooth transition.”
“A replacement is in the works,” Langlois said.
Langlois said that she will officially kick off her campaign, alongside Martinez, at 4 p.m. April 22 at the Richmond Progressive Alliance office on 1021 Macdonald Ave.
Langloins has been a leading figure in the mayor’s efforts to promote worker cooperatives as a strategy for worker empowerment-based economic development and job creation.
Her online bio credits Langlois with working to create jobs and revitalize the community, including strengthening Richmond’s local-hiring ordinance, creating the Richmond Youth Corps, participating in the East Bay Green Corridor’s efforts to bring green businesses to Richmond and the East Bay, and partnering with the Healthy Richmond initiative funded by The California Endowment.
Langlois is a founding member of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, a political organization that has emerged as perhaps the city’s strongest political force, helping elect at least three of the current council members and the mayor.
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