As a parent of young children, Richard became active in his kid’s public school. This led to his election to the Millbrae School Board in 1993, where he supported efforts to reduce class size and served on a State Board of Education curriculum committee. In 1997 Richard won a countywide election to the San Mateo County Community College Board. He was re-elected in 2001, and in 2005, receiving over 82,000 votes. In 2008, Richard became President of the Board.

As President of the Board overseeing College of San Mateo, Caňada College and Skyline College, Richard has made sure that the colleges are among the very top in California in rates of certificate completion and transfer to four year institutions. Richard has pioneered innovative education programs, including the state’s only University Center on a community college campus, where local San Mateo County residents can now receive a public baccalaureate degree in our county. Richard has led efforts to establish training programs to equip our youth for good jobs with a future, and has supported programs including our biotech training program to enable mid-career adults to upgrade skills and transition to “new economy” jobs.

Sacramento controls most of the funding for our public schools, colleges and universities.
Richard has mastery of the complex education funding formulas. He will work to reduce college tuition, expand school funding and create incentives for new approaches to education.

As a leading voice for consumers and as an advocate for the California Nurses Association, Richard has been at the forefront in the fight for universal health care coverage. Richard helped to double the number of registered nurses trained at San Mateo Community Colleges. He supported laws that increased inspections of nursing homes and that cracked down on elder abuse. He has crusaded for prescription drug price controls, and for HMO patient rights.

America spends 16% of our economy on health care, more than any other industrial democracy, yet we have 47 million uninsured, and tens of millions more are underinsured, with big insurance co-payments and out of pocket costs for care. Administrative costs in the private insurance health system swallow up 25% or more of every premium dollar. Medicare, by contrast spends only 3% on administrative costs.

Richard believes that health care is a human right, not a privilege. Richard supports creating a health insurance plan available to all Californians modeled on Medicare, with patient choice of doctor and hospital. Richard has the courage to take on the giant drug companies, health insurers and HMOs that are driving up the price of health care.

Richard is leading the effort to establish new pre-apprenticeship programs at College of San Mateo, Cañada College and Skyline College.

As a labor advocate for over two decades in Northern California, Richard Holober is an established leader in improving our standard of living.

When Republican George Deukmejian eliminated Cal-OSHA, our state’s worker safety agency, Richard helped lead the successful campaign that re-established this nationally acclaimed program. When the minimum wage fell to a 40 year low and Pete Wilson vetoed legislation to raise the minimum wage, Richard founded the Livable Wage Coalition, and led the successful Proposition 210 campaign that raised the minimum wage and lifted two million hard working Californians up from poverty. Richard wrote the daily overtime law that protects the earnings of eight million California workers.

As a legislator, Richard will promote economic development policies that rebuild the middle class, create high wage jobs and strengthen our export oriented industries.

As Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of California, Richard Holober played a pivotal role in winning the nation’s strongest financial privacy law and regulations preventing identity theft. For years, privacy protection bills were crushed in the Assembly under the weight of campaign contributions from giant banks and credit card companies. Richard took on the crusade and founded Californians for Privacy Now. He built a coalition, engaged thousands of consumers, and forced the banking industry to agree to the nation’s best financial privacy law.

He has led efforts to crack down on corporate fraud, and provide protection against deceptive cell phone industry practices. He has stood up against price gouging by the giant oil companies, and has led political reform efforts to reduce the corrosive influence of corporate campaign dollars in Sacramento.

Multi-billion dollar corporations have far too much clout with politicians of both parties. With his seasoned track record, Richard will be a powerful voice for consumers at the state capitol, with the integrity and independence to fight for us.

Richard campaigned to hold polluters responsible for toxic clean up and took the fight to the State Capitol. He’s worked to strengthen pesticide regulation and to promote development of alternative fuel vehicles. With his leadership, the San Mateo Community College District is recognized as a statewide leader in energy conserving “green building” construction.

Richard worked closely with environmental groups to stop Maxxam Corporation from cutting down old growth redwood forests on the North Coast. He sponsored legislation to stop polluters from hushing up vital life-saving information about environmental contamination. He was a leader in the Proposition 87 campaign to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.

Richard has a record of leadership in standing up to powerful anti-environmental corporate interests. His vision is a California that combines economic prosperity with environmental preservation. That’s one reason why Senator Barbara Boxer supports Richard Holober for Assembly.