CAUSE Action Fund has endorsed Megan Diaz-Alley and Greg Hart for the November Santa Barbara City Council elections. Until earlier this year, the organization was known as PUEBLO Action Fund, and for years endorsed candidates throughout Santa Barbara County and turned out thousands of voters to secure a political voice for the region’s working-class immigrant communities.

CAUSE Action Fund is a 501c4 nonprofit organization whose mission is building grassroots electoral power to achieve social, economic and environmental justice in the California Central Coast. Its endorsement committee focused on the candidates’ positions on immigrants’ rights, public transportation, and a potential gang injunction.

“I am honored to be endorsed by CAUSE Action Fund, an organization that shares my passion to provide a better life for all our residents,” said Megan Diaz-Alley. “I will fight to protect our environment for future generations, improve our local transportation infrastructure, implement practical solutions to help local businesses and entrepreneurs prosper, and ensure that opportunities and advantages are extended equally to all residents and neighborhoods.”

“I am honored to receive this endorsement,” said Gregg Hart. “CAUSE’s representation on important issues is critical to our democracy and is essential to assuring that all voices are heard at city hall.”

The organization uses a unique endorsement process, where a diverse group of community members from Santa Barbara’s low-income immigrant neighborhoods creates questions based on the issues they feel are most important to the city and interviews the candidates themselves.

“We had the responsibility of determining who would best represent the concerns of the community,” said Rosemary Muñoz, a community leader who was part of the CAUSE Action Fund endorsement committee and will work as a precinct captain to get her neighbors out to vote. “There was a high sense of empowerment and involvement among our group as we determined the best strategy to win seats on City Council.”

The endorsement committee will lead a team of dozens of volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls in a grassroots voter education and turnout effort.

“The CAUSE Action Fund is a people-powered, community-based organization that gives voice to working-class, immigrant and young voters,” said Marcos Vargas, Executive Director of the CAUSE Action Fund. “We are very proud to be working to elect Megan and Gregg for city council – two candidates with strong community values, integrity and a commitment to working on behalf of our city’s working families.”

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