Ken Goldstein

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ken Goldstein (b. July 24, 1961) is an independent candidate for Vice President of the United States. This is Goldstein's second run for political office; he has previously run for Mayor of Sacramento, California in 1996. His running mate in this election is David Koch.

1 Biographical Sketch
2 Vice-Presidential Campaign
3 Ken as Wikipedian
4 Education
5 External links

[edit] Biographical Sketch

Goldstein was born in Boston, MA, and raised in Newton. He moved to Southern California in 1974, where he graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1979. He then headed to Northern California in 1989 where he earned a B.A. in Politics and a Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA).

Goldstein currently lives in Chemeketa Park, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, outside of Los Gatos, California. He is a nonprofit consultant and grant proposal writer with his own, independent practice. He works with organizations throughout the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Peninsula region. Goldstein is married to Leslie Sands.

[edit] Vice-Presidential Campaign

Ken Goldstein and his running mate, Dave Koch, have been friends since first meeting in Junior High School at Francis Parkman Junior High School in 1975. Despite their political differences - Koch professes to have a conservative outlook, and Goldstein balances his outlook to the left - they have remained fast friends since that time, and often argue their political viewpoints.

When they conceived their plans to run for the White House, they found these differences to be an advantage. Rather than the traditional choice of running mates from similar political viewpoints but different geographical areas, they built their campaign with a team with alternate viewpoints. Koch claims the pair has a strange ability to argue through issues we disagree on and come to common ground. This has become the basis of their campaign - to be open to many ideas from different points of view and to perform a synthesis to what benefits the most people. “Neither left nor right, but what is right” is their slogan, based on their combination of political views.

The pair are running as independent candidates, with no party affiliations. They feel the freedom of not being directly attached to any political party ideology gives them the freedom to combine the best ideas no matter where they come from. By not being tied to entrench political parties, the pair say they can come up with positions that provide real solutions rather than staying the party lines. The pair also sees their relative lack of political experience as an advantage - it sets them free from obligations to PAC’s and lobbyist groups. They are Washington outsiders. The campaign only accepts contributions from individuals.