By Karanja Gaçuça

Anthony Woods is one among a field of about a dozen candidates currently contesting in the open primary, as is California's custom, to be the next Congressional Representative for the 10th Congressional District, which covers the area North of Sacramento right up to the Bay Area including Contra Costa County as well as parts of Alameda, Solano and Sacramento counties. The seat became vacant upon the nomination by President Obama of the current Congresswoman, Ellen Tauscher to be his Under Secretary of State for Arms Control.

Woods, a graduate of WestPoint and the prestigious Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has already aquired a rather impressive resume in his yet young career life, including two tours of duty in Iraq, as well as a stint working as an economic advisor for Governor David Patterson in New York State.



Anthony Woods California 10th District Congressional Candidate
Our interest in the candidacy of Woods is pretty obvious being that, if elected he would be the first openly gay African American elected to congress, and only one of four openly gay Congressional Representatives. However, his candidacy is actually quite interesting to me for other reasons not least of all, in the dawn of the election of President Obama, due to the similarities to the President's own, the most intriguing of which, in my opinion, is the fact that our current President was just about done paying off his student loans when he started his historic campaign!Anthony Woods was left holding the tab for his education, following his dismissal from the military, for his violation of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), the unfortunate military policy introduced by the Clinton Administration in an effort to avoid automatic disqualification from military service of LGBT individuals.

Woods, like Obama, was born to a single mom, who worked as a housekeeper to help raise him, and managed to attend prestigious Universities to help pull himself from a background with little promise to where he is now, running for congress, in his own equally historic bid.

I had the pleasure of speaking to Anthony Woods, on Wednesday afternoon July 1st. I started of by asking him why he is running for Congress. Strikingly, much like Obama, it is clear from Woods' responses that he is seeking to be a transitional candidate in the new post identity politics environment that Obama helped cement - there have been others, including former Richmond Mayor/former Virginia Governor L Douglas Wilder, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachussetes, Newark Mayor, Cory Booker, and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty are some of the more notable - touting himself as the best qualified candidate in the race based on his life experiences, serving in the military, and his unique qualifications to fight for the rights of all Americans for affordable healthcare and economic opportunity based on his background of being raised by a single mother and facing many of the challenges that many of the under privileged in our society face today.

While he does not shy away from his sexuality or his race, the latter being rather obvious, it was clear that he is seeking to appeal to his constituents based on what he perceives as their needs as opposed to his uniqueness, which, having worked for Obama myself, I have to say I think and believe it is a winning strategy.
You run for office to serve your constituents after all, and as such empathy with the issues that are of concern to them has to be paramount and being able to convey it and appear genuine and sincere while doing so is the one quality that will make a politician stand out.

Ours, unfortunately was a phone interview, and not being a constituent, but rather an interviewer, I was obviously having a different sort of interaction with Mr. Woods. What struck me  the most however, listening to his steady confident voice intonations was the sense that I was talking to a man who knows where he is headed and who sounded like he was ready and more than able to take the fight up to Capitol Hill for the things that he believed in. Mr. Woods stands to the left of even the President on the question of healthcare, expressing support for a single payer universal healthcare plan. I pointed out that this was not on the table, and that in fact, even the prospect of a public option of health coverage seemed threatened, and asked Mr. Woods what he thought of this, and what he thought of the President seemingly being open to compromising even on that, which to me doesn't sound like much of reform, but rather a continuation of a variation of what we currently have. I rather hoped to hear some fighting words from Mr. Woods on this, directed at the President, but, while I got some, they were rather directed at Congress who he accused of stalling in the face of Obama's strong stand on a public option. In essence I suppose this was an accurate characterization although I was more curious about what he thought of the President's seeming willingness to compromise on this very important aspect of his own healthcare reform proposals.

I was also interested to know whether Mr. Woods thought whether we have moved past specific questions of race in the provision of healthcare, in the age of President Obama, and a potential Black gay Congressman or whether we need to have targeted healthcare initiatives to the under-served black gay community, which faces increasing rates of HIV infection along with other sexually transmitted infections. His view was that yes, this is a community that is under-served and that is facing challenges in healthcare provision which require targeted attention, but he pointed out that this only further highlights the need for universal healthcare.

Anthony Woods, like Obama proposes extending benefits similar to those enjoyed by the men and women of the U.S Armed Forces under the GI Bill, to all Americans promising any young American that is willing to give time serving their community or their country, for an agreed length of time, full college tuition benefits to help ensure expanded access to quality higher education to deserving students who would otherwise not be able to afford college. I pointed out that the barriers to such a program, I would imagine, would be funding, and asked him how he would propose paying for such a program. He responded that "we cannot afford not to fund this program" pointing out that the cutbacks in education amount to saying that we do not value education, and sends the wrong message to our youth.

Woods is actually one of the more prominent faces of the victims of DADT, having been discharged from the army as a result of the policy. I asked him what he thought of President Obama's lagging on this issue. I expected this to be the one time he was going to come out swinging at the President, but in fact, his response was a rather subdued, "The president has made a commitment to repealing DADT, and I take him on his word on that." On this he blamed congress again, pointing out that given the President's clarity on the issue, it was now incumbent upon congress, "which continues to drag their feet" on the issue.
It was interesting listening to Anthony Woods, who time and again seems to indict congress for the many shortcomings, and indeed as unpopular as Congress is, I can understand why it is a popular easy target. However, I couldn't help wondering that given that he was running for office to belong to this same body, what fresh new ideas he would be bringing to shake things up and bring about some of the changes he proposed and institute some of the policies he stands for.

Anthony Woods touted his own experience living the life of a young underprivileged American, without health insurance, attending college on a Congressional appointment to WestPoint as the "useful experience that will put someone in Congress that can and will ask the right questions." He is obviously also very proud of his military Service, pointing out that he served two tours of duty in Iraq, and brought his whole squad of 81 men home safely, which is clearly an achievement he is not only proud of, but clearly grateful for. I challenged him, pointing out that his military experience would obviously come in handy on questions of national security, but that Congress in fact, obviously deals with many other issues, for example the economy, healthcare, poverty, small businesses etc and wondered what he thought qualified him over the dozen or so others who are now interested in the seat. To this I got the not so unexpected, "I do not claim to have the answer for everything" but went on to reiterate his commitment to being that person that will ask the right questions, and touting his unique life experiences as qualifying him for this role.

Woods' candidacy is obviously important historically, which is why we at GBMnews.com were particularly interested in talking to him, but from my background research and from speaking to him, I was left with the impression of a clearly well rounded, driven individual who is definitely qualified for the office for which he is running.
Further, given the historical aspect of the times we are currently living in, apart from the fact of his obvious qualifications, I get the impression that the stars may be aligned for Anthony Woods, and he actually stands quite a good chance of getting elected, particularly given the prominence of the question of DADT, which was further brought in to the spotlight, when fellow WestPoint classmate, LT. Dan Choi was recently recommended for dismissal from the force, following his - Choi's that is - recent breaking of the DADT policy live on the air on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

He also further pointed out yet another coincidence on DADT, given that Rep. Ellen Tauscher, whose seat he is seeking to fill following her confirmation by the Senate on Thursday June 25th, was actually responsible for the Bill that is seeking to repeal the unfortunate policy. I learnt from my interaction with Anthony Woods, that DADT has cost over $400 million to implement, apart from the obvious costs in valuable and qualified military personnel. Anthony Woods, made a commitment to work hard to pick up where Ellen Tauscher leaves off to continue to press for the repeal of this most discriminatory policy.