Ga. PSC candidate backed by progressive socialist group also behind Mamdani
Jane Fonda Climate PAC also endorses Alicia M. Johnson
ATLANTA – A candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission has been endorsed by a progressive political group also supporting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as well as by a political action committee created by Jane Fonda.
Dr. Alicia M. Johnson, a Democrat, is running for the Georgia PSC against incumbent Republican Tim Echols in District 2. The election is November 4.
In August, Johnson touted an endorsement by the Working Families Party, a progressive minor political party that follows the ideals of progressive politics. It describes itself as a “grass roots independent political organization,” and some have called it the “Tea Party movement of the left.”
“Last night, I had the distinct honor of being endorsed by the Working Families Party and signing on to the #EconomicMobility Mandate along with several other candidates from across the state,” she said in an August 22 post on social media. “If anyone knows me you know that, the pillars of the Mandate directly align with my life’s mission.”
The WFP was created in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, community organizations, the inactive New Party and other advocacy groups such as Citizen Action of New York and ACORN. The party focuses healthcare reform, raising the minimum wage, universal paid sick days, addressing student debt, progressive taxation, public education, energy and environmental reform.
According to the WFP website, it is “building our own party on top of the two-party system in the United States.”
“We organize outside the two parties, and then we recruit and train people-powered candidates up and down the ballot and run them to win,” the WFP site states. “Sometimes we run candidates through Democratic Party primaries, and other times we run candidates on our own.
“We take on elections from city council to U.S. Senate — wherever there’s a path to win, and where winning will advance a people’s agenda, elevate visionary candidates, and help build the multiracial movement we need to win the America we deserve.”
The WFP says it has been “recruiting, training and electing transformational leaders across the country” for more than two decades.
The party touts some of its victories on its site, including minimum wage increases, distributing $2.1 billion primarily to illegal immigrants and slashing police department budgets.
“Progressive revenue in New York, including $2.1 billion to distribute relief to workers excluded from other federal relief — mainly undocumented immigrants,” the WFP boasts on its site. “$15 million cut from DC’s police budget, with funds reallocated toward community programs, while securing far-ranging police and justice reforms.”
The site also mentions automatic voter registration pushes, mass mail-in voting efforts and “restoring the voting rights of incarcerated people in DC.”
Among the WFP’s goals for Georgia are supporting land trusts, co-ops, flexible zoning, and audit housing programs for equity and access. It also looks to increase minimum wage, increase affordable housing, increase taxes, increase green energy, “end arrests for misdemeanors,” guarantee sanctuary city rights and statuses for illegal immigrants, “support union jobs, local businesses, co-ops, returning citizens, and city hiring equity,” “prioritize disabled residents in hiring,” “expand voting access” and “expand mental health care, reentry support, and access to healthy, culturally relevant food in public institutions.”
In addition to Mamdani, the WFP has endorsed several members of the Progressive Caucus, including Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Greg Casar (TX-35), Summer Lee (PA-12), Delia Ramirez (IL-3), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Becca Balint (VT) , LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) and Jennifer McClellan (VA-4).
The party also worked with Bernie Sanders during the 2024 campaign, and it donated nearly $2.6 million last year, including more than $2 million to itself.
The Jane Fonda Climate PAC also endorsed Johnson, one of two candidates it is supporting in the entire state. JanePAC also has endorsed members of the Progressive Caucus, such as Casar, Lee and Adelita Grijalva (AZ-7) as well as Mitch Green in Portland, Oregon. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“JanePAC’s objective is to end the stranglehold the fossil fuel industry has on our lives and our planet by electing climate champions at the state and local level,” the PAC’s website states.
JanePAC was created to support the Green New Deal and similar climate policies, and it’s primary goal is to endorse candidates “prioritizing ambitious climate policies and taking on the fossil fuel industry.”
Fonda, of course, has been an activist since the 1960s when she earned the nickname “Hanoi Jane” for her anti-war movement during the Vietnam War. She visited sites bombed by U.S. troops, met with prisoners of war and toured a military installation. Many Americans viewed her actions as treasonous, and her activities also were used by North Vietnam as propaganda. She posed with anti-aircraft weapons, spread anti-American rhetoric about U.S. soldiers and politicians being war criminals and called President Richard Nixon a “new-type Hitler.”
Fonda also supported the Black Panthers and made statements praising communism. She also linked racism and misogyny to the climate crisis.
“[The Black Panthers are] our revolutionary vanguard, we must support them with love, money, propaganda and risk,” Fonda once said. “If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would some day become communist … I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism. …
“If there were no racism, there would be no climate crisis. If there was no misogyny, there would be no climate crisis.”
And earlier this month, Fonda criticized President Donald Trump as well as Democratic Party leaders not fighting hard enough against him.
“No president, as far as I know, has tried to control the Federal Reserve, the central bank,” Fonda said, according to Fox News. “He is amassing power in a way that will destroy our democracy. And, so, we‘re going to stand up.”
Johnson also has been endorsed by other left-leaning groups such as the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter, the GALEO (Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials) Impact Fund, the Climate Cabinet, the Georgia Conservation Voters, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, Lead Locally and the Southern Poverty Law Center.