California’s Prop 50 put us in a new Congressional District #1, and one of the most natural and authentic politicians I’ve ever encountered should become our next Congressman.
Feb 06, 2026
(Photo by Steve Villano, at Luther Burbank Center, Santa Rosa, for Mike McGuire’s “One Big Night” campaign kick-off rally, February 5, 2026).
I attended Mike McGuire’s kick off rally for his campaign for U.S. Congress (CA-1) last night, and was overwhelmed by a rush of memories going back more than 60 years.
No, not memories of McGuire going back that long, since he’s only 46 years old, and I’ve only lived in Healdsburg for the past 5 years and only first met him a few years ago; not memories of him of being elected at 19 years of age to Healdsburg’s Board of Education, nor of becoming Healdsburg’s youngest Mayor; not memories of McGuire being elected to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, nor of his election to the State Senate. Dozens of Democrats in the audience of the Luther Burbank Center did have those memories, but I was not one of them.
A large number in the friendly crowd of six hundred had grown up with McGuire, gone to high school with him, taught or studied with him at Sonoma State University, and worked on any number of his past campaigns for public office. That friendliness gave the gathering more of the feeling of a Bar Mitzvah, wishing a loved one well, then of a political pep rally. Everyone was sharing in the joy of Mike McGuire’s success.
I’ve been around, met and worked with lots of politicians, public officials and public figures during my lifetime, starting with the real Robert F. Kennedy in 1964, when he was running for U.S. Senator from New York State, one year after his brother was assassinated.
I was 15 years old then, and spent two-days painting a huge “Hello, Bobby” banner on a bedsheet, which I brought to a rally RFK held in Sunset City Shopping Center in North Babylon, L.I., New York, the town in which I grew up. My jumbo banner got me to meet Bobby Kennedy, and, I like to think, helped persuade a few Long Island Republicans to vote for him. Kennedy’s energy and passion for humanitarian issues was palpable.
I worked on the campaigns of three powerful New York State women: Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s first campaign for public office (Monroe County Legislature) in 1973; Mary Ann Krupsak’s campaign for Lt. Governor of NY in 1974, and Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman’s campaign for US Senate for New York State in 1980. Each candidate had her own charisma and ability to connect with voters personally and on a wide range of local, state or national issus.
In the 1980’s I worked in public service with Mario Cuomo, an individual of great integrity, and one of the most gifted public officials and public speakers of our time. For me, as an Italian-American battling a lifetime of negative stereotypes, Cuomo was a transformational leader: so much so, that I wrote a book about my eight years of working with him when he was New York State’s Governor (Tightrope: Balancing a Life Between Mario Cuomo and My Brother, Heliotrope, Books, New York, NY., 2017).
I stood a few feet away from Mike McGuire at his “One Big Night” rally in Santa Rosa, and was transported back to a night 19 years ago, almost to the exact date, when I stood a few feet away from Barack Obama launching his Presidential campaign inside a big New York hotel, and knew that I was part of history being made.
This collection of experiences are what make observing Mike McGuire, a leader of the California State Senate, and candidate for Congress in California’s brand new 1st Congressional District, a real joy and revelation.
More than Bobby Kennedy, more than Mario Cuomo, more than Barack Obama, McGuire is the most naturally gifted and genuine politician I have ever encountered. I know that’s saying a great deal since RFK, Cuomo and Obama are often used as the standard for “charismatic candidates” among political practitioners and consultants.
Mike McGuire’s “charisma”, and I hesitate calling it that, is something far different. He connects with people on an entirely different and much more personal level. Mike McGuire is us, and he is our sons, daughters and grandsons. While RFK, Cuomo and Obama inspired us on emotional, spiritual and intellectual levels, McGuire is unafraid to unabashedly love us, and we love him back for his openness and vulnerability.
Sure, working with Cuomo was an instruction in integrity and humanity each day; witnessing and backing the rise of Barack Obama in the early days was exhilarating and restored our hope in each other.
But, Mike McGuire is all of us. He is reachable, and he reaches each of us. There is nothing aloof about him. He is right there; all the time, right there. And he is one of us.
I first I encountered McGuire in person at a dinner for the Common Ground Society, a non-profit serving children with a wide-range of special needs in the North Bay area of San Francisco. The organization’s Founder Larkin O’Leary asked McGuire, then the highest ranking member of the California State Senate, to not only attend the event but to act as the “Auctioneer” for the organization’s biggest fundraiser.
Few politicians I’ve ever known, occupying such powerful public offices would have put themselves in that position, ripe with room for embarrassment. McGuire, a skilled auctioneer with legitimate rural roots, embraced it, and was off and running, raising a record amount of money and the spirits of everyone within earshot. McGuire’s unabashed enthusiasm for the cause and for what he was doing made everyone in the room feel good about being part of something far bigger than ourselves.
But that’s not his only gift. Two years ago Mike McGuire spoke before our Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa and talked about a wide-range of topics, each of which he knew thoroughly. Insurance rates (particularly home insurance) in California were skyrocketing and he listened to each of us, and described every action he was taking in Sacramento to mitigate the damage to our families and come up with solutions. Many of us urged him to run for State Insurance Commissioner, since it was clear he knew all facets of the crisis better than anyone, and we were delighted when McGuire emerged as the logical choice to become our new Representative in Congress. Mike McGuire was us, and no one understood our concerns and our lives better.
This week, when the US Supreme Court upheld California’s redistricting plan, Trump declared that “holding onto” the First CD in California was among his “top priorities,” and he was going to pour resources into the district to win it. Let him come. Let him unleash Elon Musk’s millions of dollars, or Peter Thiel’s millions of weirdo musings. Let Trump come into our district himself, and try to spread his flatulent favoritism to the billionaire class and his congenital, corrosive corruption.
We’re ready for them, and we’ve got a true “natural” public servant in Mike McGuire who we’ll fight for and who will work around the clock and around this vast new district, for working families from Santa Rosa to the Nevada border.
Mike McGuire is all of us; and, this “natural” has the kind of experience and commitment and reciprocal love and humanity that no amount of money can buy.