Rebecca’s endorsement of Mayor Jason West

From WikiPaltz: the collective knowledge of New Paltz and beyond

Dear Village of New Paltz Residents,

It has been a pleasure serving the community as a trustee and Deputy Mayor for the past 4 years. I greatly appreciate the comments from those I have spoken to who are disappointed that I am not seeking another term, even the person who seem surprised that I “took it seriously!” Many in the community have also asked which mayoral candidate I am endorsing, and I appreciate the fact that people are looking for feedback and not simply paying attention to the negative statements being made about candidates. The answer is, yes, I am supporting Jason West.

Having been a member of Jason’s campaign team in prior years, four years ago he and I agreed that we would continue in our tradition as Greens

History of the New Paltz Green Team

Below is an excerpt from the Green Party of Monroe County blog, written by Jason Nabewaniec. The piece is focused on Rebecca Rotzler’s colleague Jason West. Though, it has interesting vignettes about Rebecca Rotzler’s work as a green and as an elected official:

Posted: Friday, March 30, 2007

“Mayor Jason West to Run for Re-election”

I remember the first time I heard of Jason West, it was April of 2003. I got an email forwarded on from a friend in our local Green Party, it said that in New Paltz, New York, a slate of Greens were running for Village office…I didn’t really think about it again. Well, at least not until I got the next email. The email that said they won, they all won. A Green will be a mayor in New York! Greens got elected. Now, I am fairly optimistic but I figured it would be a while before we started winning even the small races.

This idea of elected officials was a new idea to us. I thought we could and should be winning small races, I just didn’t expect us to be winning anytime soon. Oddly enough, 5 months later I was expecting us to win a seat on the City Council. Dare to hope.

At our next canvassing effort, we probably had about 30 volunteers in an abandoned parking lot. Our candidate for City Council held up a newspaper with that famous picture of Jason, Rebecca, and Julia leaning on the fence. He said what makes this picture so special, and so amazing, is these 3 Greens are elected officials, these Greens won an election in New York. The whole Green electoral landscape in Rochester really changed shape at that moment. People believed that we could find small races and win them…

In the weeks following the New Paltz victories, we heard stories, possibly tall tales, of the old guard, the Democrats, and the media freaking out about what a Green Mayor would do to their wonderful Village over the next four years. To be fair, not all of them thought he would last four years, or even a year. We heard the inaugural celebration included solar powered speakers, vegan/organic snacks, and of course, puppets! We heard the joy and celebration amongst Greens and the fear amongst the Democrats.

Rebecca in New Paltz Oracle

http://oracle.newpaltz.edu/article.cfm?id=2904

excerpt:

Deputy Mayor of New Paltz and co-chair of the Green Party Rebecca Rotzler, radical feminist Carol Hanisch and activist Pete Healey lead the in-depth conversation that ranged from the anti-war movement, to capitalism, to the impeachment of Bush.

Rebecca Marks Iraq War Anniversary in New Paltz

From: Mid-Hudson News, NY – Feb 16, 2007 

“Four years in Iraq marked”

New Paltz – Four years ago yesterday, millions of Americans joined protesters on each continent in opposing a United States invasion of Iraq…

“It is an important date because people around the world realized that President Bush was about to do something very horrific that was going to be a huge stain in our history, and that a lot of people were going to be dying, and that not only here and in Iraq, but people all over the world were going to be affected by this,” said Rebecca Rotzler, the village’s deputy mayor.

Rotzler hosted a meeting Thursday night to help make people more aware of the importance of the date, and to tell them that more people opposed to the war and President Bush’s policies need to step up…

Rebecca in The Nation Blog: Global Warming

From The Nation blog:

“The Bush Administration is doing to the whole world what it did to New Orleans as Katrina began to descend on the city,” says Green Party co-chair Rebecca Rotzler, who has been in the forefront of demanding an official response to the administration’s assault on science. “By altering scientific research on global warming to fit his political agenda and refusing to take necessary steps to protect the public, President Bush has aggravated an impending environmental, public health, and security crisis.

Rebecca Rotzler leads “sweat-free” effort in New Paltz

More information and the full post at:

Dee’s Live Journal

On November 1, 2006 the Village Board of New Paltz, New York adopted a new sweatfree purchasing policy for apparel and textiles as allowed by New York state law.  The Village of New Paltz Board is led by two Green Party activists, Mayor Jason West and Deputy Mayor Rebecca Rotzler- a National Green Party Co-Chair who also led the effort to pass the sweatfree ordinance.

Rebecca listed at Presidential Nomination web-site

Rebecca Rotzler listed in good company…

http://presidentialnomination.blogspot.com

New Project: Affordable Housing for New Paltz

One of the current projects that Deputy Mayor Rebecca Rotzler is working on in New Paltz is affordable housing.