Mark Gamba

Mark Gamba was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. Gamba graduated from Glenwood Springs High School in 1977. He earned an associate degree in photography from Colorado Mountain College in 1979. Gamba was elected the mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon, on May 19, 2015. From 2012 to 2015, he served as Milwaukie City councilor.[1] Gamba's career experience also includes working as a commercial photographer, photojournalist, and small business owner. He has served as the vice chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the League of Oregon Cities, which describes itself as a "resource that helps Oregon city staff and elected leaders serve their cities well.”[2][3]

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I'm in my second term as Mayor of Milwaukie Oregon. I was born in Fort Collins Colorado, and raised in Glenwood Springs Colorado. I've lived in Oregon for 24 years. Most of my adult life I've been a small business owner, commercial photographer and photojournalist with clients like National Geographic and Adidas. I raised three beautiful, extraordinary children who are all living successful, happy lives. As a photojournalist I've been seeing the effects of Climate Change for years. I've also been witnessing the difficulties that average Americans experience in their day to day lives from lack of access to appropriate health care to the inability to find housing they can truly afford to rising costs of everything while their wages remained stagnant. I grew up believing that it was the government's job to make sure that the systems that effect people's lives were doing so for their betterment, not their detriment. In the last few decades I have begin to see that the systems are now designed to benefit the corporations and the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else. We need to repair the damage to our democracy that has allowed that.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Health Care is a human right. We need to create a universal health care system designed to give everyone world class health care. Currently the system is designed to maximize profits for the insurance, drug & hospital industries. Climate Change is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. We must mobilize and invest in stopping it like we did entering WWII. In doing so we can employ millions of people in good paying jobs with benefits. We live at a time when the 3 richest people in America have more money than the bottom half (165,000,000) people combined. People working full time jobs should not be living in poverty.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Our economic policies do not benefit 99% of Americans, therefore they do not benefit America. Because of them we have utterly failed to address climate change for 35 years; we have millions of Americans who don't receive the health care they need or deserve; and we have millions of people spending more than half their income on housing. 48% of Americans make less than $30,000 a year and then we wonder why there are more and more people living on our streets. We incarcerate more of our population than any other country on earth. Our infrastructure is crumbling. We spend more on the military industrial complex then the next 10 largest militaries in the world combined, 6 of which are our allies. Our elections are corrupted by money. It is literally a contest to see who can raise the most money rather than a system for determining who is the best leader or who has the best ideas. Hence, we have a congress full of millionaires indebted to other millionaires and billionaires and we wonder why our system is designed to benefit them at the expense of everyone else. OUR GOVERNMENT IS UTTERLY FAILING AND GETTING WORSE ALL THE TIME. We must address the Climate Crisis by creating a Green New Deal which will put millions of people to work in good family wage jobs with good benefits. We must pass Medicare for All so we can get more people, better healthcare for less money. We must reverse citizens united and go the next step to publicly funded elections.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther KIng Jr., Greta Thunberg... People who were/are unrelenting in their fight for what they knew to be right. People who were/are unflinchingly clear in speaking the truth to power. People who were willing to risk and sacrifice to cause the change they knew must occur.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

There is no one book that covers it. My philosophy arises from hundreds of books, decades of documenting the world and deep conversations with people from all walks of life.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Empathy: the ability to truly understand what someone else is experiencing. Compassion, a deep caring for people and nature. Foresight, the ability to understand how policies and investments will play out in the real world. Humility, awareness that you cannot know everything and should therefor seek knowledge and advice and the willingness to trust true experts like scientists. Integrity, the quality of being honest and having strong moral principals. Deep, holistic wisdom. Passion, without this you will not put all of the rest to use. Leadership, the ability to inspire others to achieve the "impossible". Guts, the ability to stand up to powerful forces and unflinchingly fight for what is right.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I have proven to be a thoughtful and inspiring change maker at the city and even metro level. I will not be beholden to the corporations. I know what the critical priorities are and will be an unrelenting champion for them. I am creative and solutions oriented.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

To clean up the mess that the last half century worth of Washington politics has created.

What legacy would you like to leave?

To stop climate change. To transform our health care system to one that gives everyone in America world class health care. Get money out of politics.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

JFK assassination, I remember my mom crying while watching TV, I had never seen my mom cry before. I was almost 4 years old.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Delivering milk with the local milkman when I was around 10 years old. Not sure, I did that until my parents let me get my first paper route. Probably a year or two.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Drawdown - 100 solutions for stopping climate change for obvious reasons

The Overstory - for beautifully illustrating our connection to trees and therefor nature

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Michael Valentine Smith.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

It's the end of the world

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I am dislexic, which made my early school years a struggle and I still struggle with spelling, but has given me the advantage of being able to perceive the big picture and the inter-relatedness of all things. It has given me great creativity.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

The ability to pass laws and make investments from the most powerful country in the world and the potential to be the most potent force for good in the world. We could single highhandedly steer the human race into a new paradigm: one in which we live in harmony with the natural systems and other beings of this planet. A system designed to maximize fulfillment, happiness and love for all people not just the obscene enrichment of the few. In the short term, instead of wasting nearly a trillion dollars a year on the military industrial complex we could be investing it in stopping climate change, educating everyone and restoring the damaged ecosystem worldwide.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes, particularly local government. Where you are confronted with the difficulties and realities of real people. It is easy, apparently, to make bad decisions that will destroy lives when you don't have see it or come in contact with it. People who were born wealthy and have never known anything else are incapable of imagining the real lives of the majority. Masters of commerce should be the last people we have in government. In a high functioning capitalist economy, government is meant to be the limiter that keeps the natural tendencies of runaway capitalism from destroying itself and all of us along with it.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Overcoming the greed of the one percent and stopping the worst effects of climate change. We literally have 10 years to do that and if we fail, in 100 years, nothing else will matter. Oddly it is also the perfect first step in solving the other thing that is destroying this democracy and economy. If we can pay millions of Americans good family wages to build out our smart grid and renewable energy sources and electrified transportation systems then we can lift those millions out of poverty or near poverty. If in funding this, we tax the corporations and the billionaires at the level that we taxed them at when our economy was at it's very strongest, then we also begin to diminish the astronomical income and therefor power disparity in this country. It will make the middle class more robust and therefore make our economy stronger. If at the same time we pass Medicare for All and people no longer suffer for lack of needed health care and our economy is saving millions of dollars that used to go into the pockets of Insurance company executives and pharmaceutical company executives then again the buying power of the vast majority of America will be increased. If we also require that ALL products be manufactured to last as long as possible and to be completely recyclable when they are at end of life, then we will need to buy less stuff, which means people could work fewer hours, which then solves the problems of what will happen when most of today's jobs are automated. People who are not living in desperation will also have the bandwidth to engage in their community and political system which again will make our democracy stronger.

If you are not a current representative, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, Transportation and Infrastructure and the newly formed Climate and Sustainability

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

NO!! That means they are constantly running for office, constantly dialing for dollars instead of doing their jobs. 4 year terms are far more appropriate.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

We should have them. Three terms in the senate, four (four year) terms in the house.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - she is there to do the job of representing the needs of the people rather than the desires of the corporations.

Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

Yes: I met a woman who had lost everything to health care costs and ended up homeless. She had been a very successful graphic artist, living in an expensive neighborhood in Portland, with a very good health insurance plan. She was in a car crash, received nerve damage in her neck that kept her from being able to work. She was told that she would need a series of 7 surgeries to get back to normal. The insurance covered the first 4 then told her that she was "cured" because she could feed and cloth herself again, it didn't matter to her that she couldn't work, the cut her off anyway. She sold the nice house, moved into a friend's basement, paid for the next two surgeries with the money from her house. Her friend tired of having her live there, and she ended up homeless. The surgeon took pity, and raised the money for the last surgery. When I met her she was just beginning to work again and had found a small apartment she could afford. Even with the best insurance plan you are not really covered for everything in this country.