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Gavin Newsom Hopes to Leave His Sludge in San Francisco
Last month, I wrote Chez Sludge, the first inside report on the sewage sludge scandal unfolding in San Francisco, based on internal documents obtained by the https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Food_Rights_Network" titl
Aug 06, 2010
Last month, I wrote Chez Sludge, the first inside report on the sewage sludge scandal unfolding in San Francisco, based on internal documents obtained by the Food Rights Network and now online in the Toxic Sludge wiki on SourceWatch.
San Francisco, under its "green mayor" Gavin Newsom, has since 2007 perpetrated a greenwashing scam upon city gardeners. The city, known for its environmentally sound practices and commitment to a precautionary principle approach to dealing with environmental hazards, has deceptively and fraudulently been giving away free "organic Biosolids compost," that is actually nothing but toxic sewage sludge from San Francisco and eight other counties, "composted" by the giant waste handler Synagro.
This issue hit the news in San Francisco first last September and gained national media attention in December, 2009. On March 4, 2010 a protest in Mayor Newsom's office that also received national attention, led by the Organic Consumers Association, forced the Mayor to put the program on temporary hold, at least during the political season. He is currently the front runner for the office of California Lieutenant Governor and come December Mayor Newsom is likely on his way to Sacramento. And, apparently, he wants to leave his sludge, if not his heart, in San Francisco.
In the face of the controversy, and the dioxins and other dangerous contaminants found in their sludge, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spent $25,000 to conduct some very limited and inadequate testing of their free "organic Biosolids compost." Like most sludge industry tests, this one examined a minuscule sample of the mountain of sludge, and only searched for a small fraction of the thousands of persistent chemicals and substances, and none of the biological contaminants, in sewage sludge.
It was designed as a PR stunt and worked well in that regard when the results were fed to the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. Both papers filed stories on July 28th, and both papers reported that the SFPUC staff would be bringing this controversy before the five citizens who make up the SFPUC Board of Commissioners, appointed by the Mayor, and who have never, despite the year-old public controversy, taken a close public examination of the sludge-to-gardens issue in any of their frequent meetings. But with two PUC commissioner meetings scheduled for August -- the 10th and the 24th -- that would soon change, the articles implied.
John Upton wrote in the Examiner:
"Sewage-based compost given out by San Francisco is laced with contaminants such as heavy metals, which exist in comparable levels in commercially available soil amendments, the City found. ... SFPUC staff plan to meet publicly with commissioners to seek guidance on the biosolids compost program, which could be canceled or continued depending on the public mood."
Peter Fimrite of the Chronicle wrote:
"The report is expected to be presented to San Francisco's utility commissioners next month (August). A decision could then be made on whether to continue the compost program."
In fact, both the newspapers were misled by the PUC staff and their PR maven Tyrone Jue. The Mayor and the PUC staff appear desperate to avoid any public showdown on the toxic sludge issue. The August 24th meeting of the SFPUC commissioners has been canceled, and the August 10th meeting of the commissioners will not have the much touted sludge tests on its agenda.
The two San Francisco newspapers fell for a classic government PR ruse: promise transparency and a public investigation, but then sweep the issue under the rug and out of the light of day and hope the press doesn't notice.
Why would the City of San Francisco behave so poorly? Simple. The sludge issue is a huge embarrassment to the Administration of Gavin Newsom. He is the front runner in the California Lieutenant Governor's race, and he has no intention of letting this issue muck that up. The longer his allies can push this issue down the road, the closer he gets to his November election. By the time the sludge hits the fan, he and his closest staff will be in new state offices in Sacramento and the wrongdoings of the SFPUC and his own Office of Mayor of San Francisco will be a headache for the next Mayor, and for the commissioners he appointed.
The internal documents we are investigating show deep and disturbing collusion among the city government officials in Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, the SFPUC staff, and industry promoters of growing food in toxic sludge. To say the least, the city officials have engaged in very bad and deceptive behavior in their handling of this issue. Announcing an August hearing of sludge-gate before the five PUC Commissioners, getting this printed in San Francisco's newspapers as a PR stunt, then making sure that sludge is off the agenda, is just the latest.
It is clear that far from this issue being decided in the interests of San Franciscans, the staff of the PUC are working hand in hand with the powerful national sewage sludge lobby led by the organizations and individuals belonging to the Water Environment Federation. The sludge industry wants to take the San Francisco scam -- "It's not toxic sewage sludge, it's free organic compost, grow your food in it!" -- and spread it nationwide as the latest way to greenwash toxic sludge and help the thousands of towns and cities with sewage plants dispose of their sewage sludge as biosolids fertilizer, out of sight, out of mind, and away from liability.
Stay tuned. Despite the PUC staff's efforts to keep this issue off the agenda of the appointed commissioners, I will be attending the August 10th meeting as a public citizen, and putting it on their agenda. The PUC staff tells me I will have no more than 3 minutes to speak before the Mayor's Board of Commissioners, but luckily for me I talk quickly!
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John Stauber
John Stauber founded the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media & Democracy and its newsmagazine PR Watch in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to his retirement from CMD in 2009, Stauber co-authored six books for them including the 2003 New York Times bestseller "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He continues now as an independent investigative writer, public speaker and democracy advocate whose leadership on controversial public issues began in high school when he organized to end the U.S. war in Vietnam and for the first Earth Day. He has begun or worked with many non-profit public interest groups.
Last month, I wrote Chez Sludge, the first inside report on the sewage sludge scandal unfolding in San Francisco, based on internal documents obtained by the Food Rights Network and now online in the Toxic Sludge wiki on SourceWatch.
San Francisco, under its "green mayor" Gavin Newsom, has since 2007 perpetrated a greenwashing scam upon city gardeners. The city, known for its environmentally sound practices and commitment to a precautionary principle approach to dealing with environmental hazards, has deceptively and fraudulently been giving away free "organic Biosolids compost," that is actually nothing but toxic sewage sludge from San Francisco and eight other counties, "composted" by the giant waste handler Synagro.
This issue hit the news in San Francisco first last September and gained national media attention in December, 2009. On March 4, 2010 a protest in Mayor Newsom's office that also received national attention, led by the Organic Consumers Association, forced the Mayor to put the program on temporary hold, at least during the political season. He is currently the front runner for the office of California Lieutenant Governor and come December Mayor Newsom is likely on his way to Sacramento. And, apparently, he wants to leave his sludge, if not his heart, in San Francisco.
In the face of the controversy, and the dioxins and other dangerous contaminants found in their sludge, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spent $25,000 to conduct some very limited and inadequate testing of their free "organic Biosolids compost." Like most sludge industry tests, this one examined a minuscule sample of the mountain of sludge, and only searched for a small fraction of the thousands of persistent chemicals and substances, and none of the biological contaminants, in sewage sludge.
It was designed as a PR stunt and worked well in that regard when the results were fed to the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. Both papers filed stories on July 28th, and both papers reported that the SFPUC staff would be bringing this controversy before the five citizens who make up the SFPUC Board of Commissioners, appointed by the Mayor, and who have never, despite the year-old public controversy, taken a close public examination of the sludge-to-gardens issue in any of their frequent meetings. But with two PUC commissioner meetings scheduled for August -- the 10th and the 24th -- that would soon change, the articles implied.
John Upton wrote in the Examiner:
"Sewage-based compost given out by San Francisco is laced with contaminants such as heavy metals, which exist in comparable levels in commercially available soil amendments, the City found. ... SFPUC staff plan to meet publicly with commissioners to seek guidance on the biosolids compost program, which could be canceled or continued depending on the public mood."
Peter Fimrite of the Chronicle wrote:
"The report is expected to be presented to San Francisco's utility commissioners next month (August). A decision could then be made on whether to continue the compost program."
In fact, both the newspapers were misled by the PUC staff and their PR maven Tyrone Jue. The Mayor and the PUC staff appear desperate to avoid any public showdown on the toxic sludge issue. The August 24th meeting of the SFPUC commissioners has been canceled, and the August 10th meeting of the commissioners will not have the much touted sludge tests on its agenda.
The two San Francisco newspapers fell for a classic government PR ruse: promise transparency and a public investigation, but then sweep the issue under the rug and out of the light of day and hope the press doesn't notice.
Why would the City of San Francisco behave so poorly? Simple. The sludge issue is a huge embarrassment to the Administration of Gavin Newsom. He is the front runner in the California Lieutenant Governor's race, and he has no intention of letting this issue muck that up. The longer his allies can push this issue down the road, the closer he gets to his November election. By the time the sludge hits the fan, he and his closest staff will be in new state offices in Sacramento and the wrongdoings of the SFPUC and his own Office of Mayor of San Francisco will be a headache for the next Mayor, and for the commissioners he appointed.
The internal documents we are investigating show deep and disturbing collusion among the city government officials in Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, the SFPUC staff, and industry promoters of growing food in toxic sludge. To say the least, the city officials have engaged in very bad and deceptive behavior in their handling of this issue. Announcing an August hearing of sludge-gate before the five PUC Commissioners, getting this printed in San Francisco's newspapers as a PR stunt, then making sure that sludge is off the agenda, is just the latest.
It is clear that far from this issue being decided in the interests of San Franciscans, the staff of the PUC are working hand in hand with the powerful national sewage sludge lobby led by the organizations and individuals belonging to the Water Environment Federation. The sludge industry wants to take the San Francisco scam -- "It's not toxic sewage sludge, it's free organic compost, grow your food in it!" -- and spread it nationwide as the latest way to greenwash toxic sludge and help the thousands of towns and cities with sewage plants dispose of their sewage sludge as biosolids fertilizer, out of sight, out of mind, and away from liability.
Stay tuned. Despite the PUC staff's efforts to keep this issue off the agenda of the appointed commissioners, I will be attending the August 10th meeting as a public citizen, and putting it on their agenda. The PUC staff tells me I will have no more than 3 minutes to speak before the Mayor's Board of Commissioners, but luckily for me I talk quickly!
John Stauber
John Stauber founded the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media & Democracy and its newsmagazine PR Watch in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to his retirement from CMD in 2009, Stauber co-authored six books for them including the 2003 New York Times bestseller "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq." He continues now as an independent investigative writer, public speaker and democracy advocate whose leadership on controversial public issues began in high school when he organized to end the U.S. war in Vietnam and for the first Earth Day. He has begun or worked with many non-profit public interest groups.
Last month, I wrote Chez Sludge, the first inside report on the sewage sludge scandal unfolding in San Francisco, based on internal documents obtained by the Food Rights Network and now online in the Toxic Sludge wiki on SourceWatch.
San Francisco, under its "green mayor" Gavin Newsom, has since 2007 perpetrated a greenwashing scam upon city gardeners. The city, known for its environmentally sound practices and commitment to a precautionary principle approach to dealing with environmental hazards, has deceptively and fraudulently been giving away free "organic Biosolids compost," that is actually nothing but toxic sewage sludge from San Francisco and eight other counties, "composted" by the giant waste handler Synagro.
This issue hit the news in San Francisco first last September and gained national media attention in December, 2009. On March 4, 2010 a protest in Mayor Newsom's office that also received national attention, led by the Organic Consumers Association, forced the Mayor to put the program on temporary hold, at least during the political season. He is currently the front runner for the office of California Lieutenant Governor and come December Mayor Newsom is likely on his way to Sacramento. And, apparently, he wants to leave his sludge, if not his heart, in San Francisco.
In the face of the controversy, and the dioxins and other dangerous contaminants found in their sludge, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spent $25,000 to conduct some very limited and inadequate testing of their free "organic Biosolids compost." Like most sludge industry tests, this one examined a minuscule sample of the mountain of sludge, and only searched for a small fraction of the thousands of persistent chemicals and substances, and none of the biological contaminants, in sewage sludge.
It was designed as a PR stunt and worked well in that regard when the results were fed to the San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle. Both papers filed stories on July 28th, and both papers reported that the SFPUC staff would be bringing this controversy before the five citizens who make up the SFPUC Board of Commissioners, appointed by the Mayor, and who have never, despite the year-old public controversy, taken a close public examination of the sludge-to-gardens issue in any of their frequent meetings. But with two PUC commissioner meetings scheduled for August -- the 10th and the 24th -- that would soon change, the articles implied.
John Upton wrote in the Examiner:
"Sewage-based compost given out by San Francisco is laced with contaminants such as heavy metals, which exist in comparable levels in commercially available soil amendments, the City found. ... SFPUC staff plan to meet publicly with commissioners to seek guidance on the biosolids compost program, which could be canceled or continued depending on the public mood."
Peter Fimrite of the Chronicle wrote:
"The report is expected to be presented to San Francisco's utility commissioners next month (August). A decision could then be made on whether to continue the compost program."
In fact, both the newspapers were misled by the PUC staff and their PR maven Tyrone Jue. The Mayor and the PUC staff appear desperate to avoid any public showdown on the toxic sludge issue. The August 24th meeting of the SFPUC commissioners has been canceled, and the August 10th meeting of the commissioners will not have the much touted sludge tests on its agenda.
The two San Francisco newspapers fell for a classic government PR ruse: promise transparency and a public investigation, but then sweep the issue under the rug and out of the light of day and hope the press doesn't notice.
Why would the City of San Francisco behave so poorly? Simple. The sludge issue is a huge embarrassment to the Administration of Gavin Newsom. He is the front runner in the California Lieutenant Governor's race, and he has no intention of letting this issue muck that up. The longer his allies can push this issue down the road, the closer he gets to his November election. By the time the sludge hits the fan, he and his closest staff will be in new state offices in Sacramento and the wrongdoings of the SFPUC and his own Office of Mayor of San Francisco will be a headache for the next Mayor, and for the commissioners he appointed.
The internal documents we are investigating show deep and disturbing collusion among the city government officials in Mayor Gavin Newsom's office, the SFPUC staff, and industry promoters of growing food in toxic sludge. To say the least, the city officials have engaged in very bad and deceptive behavior in their handling of this issue. Announcing an August hearing of sludge-gate before the five PUC Commissioners, getting this printed in San Francisco's newspapers as a PR stunt, then making sure that sludge is off the agenda, is just the latest.
It is clear that far from this issue being decided in the interests of San Franciscans, the staff of the PUC are working hand in hand with the powerful national sewage sludge lobby led by the organizations and individuals belonging to the Water Environment Federation. The sludge industry wants to take the San Francisco scam -- "It's not toxic sewage sludge, it's free organic compost, grow your food in it!" -- and spread it nationwide as the latest way to greenwash toxic sludge and help the thousands of towns and cities with sewage plants dispose of their sewage sludge as biosolids fertilizer, out of sight, out of mind, and away from liability.
Stay tuned. Despite the PUC staff's efforts to keep this issue off the agenda of the appointed commissioners, I will be attending the August 10th meeting as a public citizen, and putting it on their agenda. The PUC staff tells me I will have no more than 3 minutes to speak before the Mayor's Board of Commissioners, but luckily for me I talk quickly!
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
LATEST NEWS
Senate GOP Fuels Privatization Fears by Confirming 'Quack Grifter' Dr. Oz
The new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator joins "a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health," said one critic.
Apr 03, 2025
Echoing a party-line vote by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee last week, the chamber's Republicans on Thursday confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, former televison host Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Since Trump nominated Oz—who previously ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania—a wide range of critics have argued that the celebrity cardiothoracic surgeon "is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS," in the words of Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
After Thursday's 53-45 vote to confirm Oz, Weissman declared that "Republicans in the Senate continued to just be a rubber stamp for a dangerous agenda that threatens to turn back the clock on healthcare in America."
Weissman warned that "in addition to having significant conflicts of interest, Oz is now poised to help enact the Trump administration's dangerous agenda, which seeks to strip crucial healthcare services through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act from hundreds of millions of Americans and to use that money to give tax breaks to billionaires."
"As he showed in his confirmation hearing, Oz will also seek to further privatize Medicare, increasing the risk that seniors will receive inferior care and further threatening the long-term health of the Medicare program. We already know that privatized Medicare costs taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs," he continued, referring to Medicare Advantage plans.
CMS is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who, like Oz, came under fire for his record of dubious claims during the confirmation process. Weissman said that "Dr. Oz is joining a team of snake oil salesmen and anti-science flunkies that have already shown disdain for the American people and their health. This is yet another dark day for healthcare in America under Trump."
In the middle of Trump's tariff disaster, the Senate is voting to confirm quack grifter Dr. Oz to lead the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services.
[image or embed]
— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) April 3, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Oz's confirmation came a day after Trump announced globally disruptive tariffs and Senate Republicans unveiled a budget plan that would give the wealthy trillions of dollars in tax cuts at the expense of federal food assistance and healthcare programs.
"While Dr. Oz would rather play coy, this is no hypothetical. Harmful cuts to Medicaid or Medicare are unavoidable in the Trump-Republican budget plan that prioritizes another giant tax break for the president's billionaire and corporate donors," Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, said ahead of the vote.
"None of Dr. Oz's 'miracle' cures that he's peddled over the years will help seniors when their fundamental health security is ripped away to make the rich richer," Carrk continued. "And while privatizing Medicare may enrich Dr. Oz's family and big insurance friends, it will cost taxpayers far more and leave millions of patients vulnerable to denials of care and higher out-of-pocket costs."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), was similarly critical, saying after the vote that "at a time when our population is growing older and the need for access to home care, nursing homes, affordable prescription drugs, and quality medical care has never been greater, Americans deserve better than a snake oil salesman leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
"Dr. Mehmet Oz has been shilling pseudoscience to line his own pockets. He can't be trusted to defend Medicare and Medicaid from billionaires who want to dismantle and privatize the foundation of affordable healthcare in this country," the union leader added. "AFSCME members—including nurses, home care and childcare providers, social workers and more—will be watching and fighting back against any effort to weaken Medicare and Medicaid. The 147 million seniors, children, Americans with disabilities, and low-income workers who rely on these programs for affordable access to healthcare deserve nothing less."
Israel Bombs More Gaza Schools, Killing Dozens, Including Many Women and Children
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," said one observer.
Apr 03, 2025
Israeli airstrikes targeted at least three more school shelters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing dozens of Palestinians and wounding scores of others on a day when local officials said that more than 100 people were slain by occupation forces.
Gaza's Government Media Office said that at least 29 people—including 14 children and five women—were killed and over 100 others were wounded when at least four missiles struck the Dar al-Arqam school complex in the Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering after being forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled coastal enclave by Israel's 535-day assault.
Al Jazeera reported that "when terrified men, women, and children fled from one school building to another, the bombs followed them," and "when bystanders rushed to help, they too became victims."
A first responder from the Palestine Red Crescent Society—which is reeling from this week's discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of eight of its members, some of whom had allegedly been bound and executed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops—told Al Jazeera that "we were absolutely shocked by the scale of this massacre," whose victims were "mostly women and children."
Warning: Video contains graphic images of death.
Horrifying scenes following the Dar Al-Arqam School Massacre!#Gaza pic.twitter.com/xOvuq3Zztx
— Dr. Zain Al-Abbadi (@ZainAbbadi11) April 3, 2025
An official from Gaza's Civil Defense, five of whose members were also found in the mass grave on Sunday, said: "What's going on here is a wake-up call to the entire world. This war and these massacres against women and children must stop immediately. The children are being killed in cold blood here in Gaza. Our teams cannot perform their duties properly.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi said that the death toll was likely to rise, as some survivors were critically injured.
Dozens of victims were reportedly trapped beneath rubble of Thursday's airstrikes, but they could not be rescued due to a lack of equipment.
The IDF claimed that "key Hamas terrorists" were targeted in a strike on what it called a "command center." Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian civilians it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
Israel also bombed the nearby al-Sabah school, killing four people, as well as the Fahd School in Gaza City, with three reported fatalities.
Some of the deadliest bombings in the war have been carried out against refugees sheltering in schools, many of them run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—at least 280 of whose staff members have been killed by Israeli forces during the war.
The United Nations Children's Fund has called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child." Last year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts. More than 17,500 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Thursday's school bombings sparked worldwide outrage and calls to hold Israel accountable.
"While your kids are getting ready for school, kids in Gaza were once against just massacred in one," Australian journalist, activist, and progressive politician Sophie McNeill wrote on social media. "We must sanction Israel now!"
There were other IDF massacres on Thursday, with local officials reporting that more than 100 people were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn. Al-Wahidi said more than 30 people were killed in strikes on homes in Gaza City's Shejaya neighborhood, citing records at al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza.
Al Jazeera reported that al-Ahli's emergency room "is overwhelmed with casualties and, as is so often the case over the past 18 months, the victims are Gaza's youngest."
Thursday's intensified airstrikes came as Israeli forces pushed into the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. Local and international media reported that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families fled from the area, which Israel said it will seize as part of a new "security zone."
Human rights defenders around the world condemned U.S.-backed killing and mass displacement, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—whose bid to block some sAmerican arms sales to Israel was rejected by the Senate on Thursday—saying: "There is a name and a term for forcibly expelling people from where they live. It is called ethnic cleansing. It is illegal. It is a war crime."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for the pair over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
According to Gaza officials, Israeli forces have killed or wounded at least 175,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Almost everyone in Gaza has been forcibly displaced at least once, and the "complete siege" imposed by Israel has fueled widespread and sometimes deadly starvation and disease.
Teasing Another Senate Run, Independent Dan Osborn Says 'We Could Replace a Billionaire With a Mechanic'
"Working-class candidate v. billionaire political race. I'm here for it," wrote one longtime progressive strategist.
Apr 03, 2025
Dan Osborn, an Independent U.S. Senate candidate who struck a chord with working-class voters in Nebraska and came within striking distance of unseating his Republican opponent last year, announced Thursday that he's considering another run, this time challenging GOP Sen. Pete GOP Ricketts, who is up for election in 2026.
"We could replace a billionaire with a mechanic," Osborn wrote in a thread on X on Thursday. "I'll run against Pete Ricketts—if the support is there." Osborn said that he's launching an exploratory committee and would run as Independent, as he did in 2024.
Ricketts has served as a senator since 2023, and prior to that was the governor of Nebraska from 2015-2023. By one estimate, Ricketts has a net worth of over $165 million—though the wealth of his father, brokerage founder Joe Ricketts, and family is estimated to be worth $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.
A mechanic and unionist who helped lead a strike against Kellogg's cereal company, Osborn lost to Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) by less than 7 points in November 2024 in what became an unexpectedly close race.
Although he didn't win, he overperformed the national Democratic ticket by a higher percentage than other candidates running against Republicans in competitive Senate races, according to The Nation.
"Billionaires have bought up the country and are carving it up day by day," said Osborn Thursday. "The economy they've built is good for them, bad for us. Good for huge multinationals and multibillionaires. Bad for workers. Bad for small businesses, bad for family farmers. Bad for anyone who wants Social Security to survive. Bad for your PAYCHECK."
Osborn cast the potential race as between "someone who's spent his life working for a living and will never take an order from a corporation or a party boss" and "someone who's never worked a day in his life and is entirely beholden to corporations and party."
"We could take on this illness, the billionaire class, directly," he said.
Osborn, who campaigned on issues like Right to Repair and lowering taxes on overtime payments, earned praise from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who told The Nation in late November that Osborn's bid should be viewed as a "model for the future."
Osborn "took on both political parties. He took on the corporate world. He ran as a strong trade unionist. Without party support, getting heavily outspent, he got through to working-class people all over Nebraska. It was an extraordinary campaign," Sanders said.
In reaction to the news that Osborn is exploring a second run, a former Sanders campaign manager and longtime progressive Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir, wrote: "working-class candidate v. billionaire political race. I'm here for it."
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