San Benito siblings pack a punch as the machine behind the
Caballero campaign
Robert and Rick Rivas are two brothers on a mission: to make the
world a better place by putting worthy Democratic candidates in
office.
San Benito siblings pack a punch as the machine behind the Caballero campaign
Robert and Rick Rivas are two brothers on a mission: to make the world a better place by putting worthy Democratic candidates in office.
The two brothers – weaned on the Cesar Chavez farm labor movement – are the power behind the successful campaign that won Salinas Mayor Anna Caballero a sweeping victory in the Democratic nomination for the 28th State Assembly seat on Tuesday. Rick, 25, is Caballero’s campaign manager and Rob, 26, is the campaign field coordinator. For the past six months, the young men have worked 12 to 16 hour days. Rick has accompanied Caballero on the political soap box circuit and arranged the almost daily public event appearances, while Rob – like a wartime field commander – worked the computers, crunched the numbers, set up voter outreach and coordinated a platoon of volunteers.
It’s not easy, at first, knowing which brother is which: both are tall, lanky, efficient, confident, well educated. And if they stick around Hollister, the dynamic duo could become the secret weapon progressives need in the area to vanquish more conservative opponents. Armed with M.A.’s in political science and the experience of working numerous successful political campaigns, the Rivas brothers could write their own tickets in political careers from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. But during the past two years, they have kept tabs on their hometown – and they don’t like what they see.
Rick, while working on a political campaign in the East, read about the controversy of San Benito’s District 5 supervisorial race between James De la Cruz and incumbent Bob Cruz. Six months after De La Cruz took office, he tried to organize a recall against the new supervisor.
Hours before Caballero’s victory, the brothers talked about their concerns at Caballero headquarters in Salinas. In a backdrop of red, white and blue balloons bobbing throughout the office, they continued fielding phone calls and making last minute arrangements for Caballero’s victory party – which they had no doubt would be just that.
“The reason I came back home was because Hollister has serious problems,” said Rick. “It has a lack of serious leaders. The city is a shell of its former self, with no vision. We need to focus and prioritize the city’s agenda. I mean, why are the Premiere Cinemas behind Leatherback? That’s poor planning. The city is full of self-aggrandizing politicians who seek office only for personal gain.”
“It’s terrible when you think of the sewer moratorium and the corruption issues with the county,” said Rob. “We like to help people step up. That’s what drives us: we want to see good people get elected.”
And that they do. Caballero won a whopping 62 percent of the Democratic vote Tuesday, persevering through an onslaught of muddy hit mailers from her opponents in both major parties.
A soap opera beginning
The Rivas boys grew up in a household highly charged with Democratic culture. Born in Henderson, outside of Las Vegas, the brothers were brought to San Benito as infants and raised by their single-parent mother. She had divorced their father early on.
While they didn’t have a father in the house, the brothers did have grandparents. Their grandfather worked in the vineyards of Almaden Winery – now Blossom Hill – in Paicines, and the boys grew up in farm labor housing just off Panoche Road. Their mother worked as a secretary for San Juan Bautista Elementary School, so that is where the brothers went to school. They got their first taste of politics at an early age.
“When we were 5 and 6, I remember waiting in the car while my grandfather picketed outside K&S Market,” Rob said.
“My grandfather was overworked and underpaid in the 1970s, and the only people who came to his aid were the Democrats,” Rick added.
Later, the family experienced the crushing defeat of the 1988 Dukakis campaign as it unfolded before them on TV.
“Dukakis was going to lose,” Rick recalled. “My entire family was really sad, but my grandfather held out hope.”
The political bug bit Rick first. In 1992, after seeing Bill Clinton on the national news, he made his way to the Democratic Central Committee of San Benito and became their youngest volunteer. He was only 11.
“Tony Ruiz took me under his wing and I’ll never forget that,” Rick said.
At San Benito High School, Rick became the student body president. That’s when the soap affair broke.
Rick and other students were shadowing local political leaders one day – a tradition for civic classes. The students attended a Hollister Council Meeting, and Rick got to shadow then Hollister Mayor Richard Boomer. When Boomer asked Rick what the associated student body was working on, Rick didn’t hesitate to tell all about how they were fighting to get soap in the men’s bathrooms.
It had been an issue between the students and the administration. When Rick asked for soap in the bathrooms, the authorities of the school said they would not replace any of the dispensers because the students had ruined them.
“The next thing you know, the Mercury News, the L.A. Times called, and the headlines read, ‘Soap Opera,'” he said. “I had to scramble to put together a makeshift organization, and we got facts from the state health department and other statistics about the spread of diseases because of a lack of soap. People were outraged, especially the teachers.
“Target and K&S donated 200 bars of soap, and in 72 hours we had soap dispensers in every bathroom in that school,” Rick added. “That’s the first experience I had of how to get things done. It was a good lesson on how to mobilize the public.”
Working for the bigwigs
Rick went on to get a degree in political science at the University of Santa Clara, then earned his master’s at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Meanwhile, Rob attended Gavilan Community College and went on to get a degree in political science at Sacramento State University. He is now finishing his master’s at San Jose State University, and has been working as an aide to Assemblyman Simon Salinas for three years, in the field office in Salinas. Assemblyman Salinas, said Rob, became a mentor to him.
“I got really involved right after high school,” Rob said. “I found the one class that really fascinated me was political science.”
Rick has been the force behind many political campaigns – all successes – including those of Assembly members Rod Diridon and Joe Coto of Santa Clara. He then went to the nation’s capital to work as an aide to Senator Ted Kennedy.
“It was a great experience,” Rick said. “He (Kennedy) was humble, down to earth and such a hard worker. I’m a Democrat because I feel the Democrats bring people together and represent a wider cross section of people in our state, more than the Republicans, regardless of religion, sex orientation or economic status. Their heart, their values and priorities are in the right place, and instead of dividing people they bring people together.
Rick was in D.C. on September 11, 2001. He was riding the subway to the Capital when it happened, and recalls that the city was shut down for four days.
“Those were grim days,” he said. “We ended up getting anthrax in the office, too. It was an interesting time.”
Another moment that will stay for Rick the rest of his life also occurred while he worked for Kennedy. The senator had what’s called a hide-away office, overlooking the Washington Memorial, where he could take a break in between votes and meetings and receive important papers from his staff. Rick said he occasionally met with the senator at the small office, and adorning the wall was a famous photo of Bobby Kennedy breaking bread with Cesar Chavez, after Chavez had been through a grueling hunger strike.
“My grandpa always told me he was in that picture, in the background of that moment. And there he was,” Rick said. “It’s something that’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life.”
Senator Kennedy arranged for Rick to obtain a negative of the photo.
“It was a dream come true working for Bobby Kennedy’s brother,” Rick said.
Back to their roots
As the California primary ends, the Rivas brothers’ careers in politics grow increasingly brilliant. Rick will continue working on the Caballero campaign, and see it through November. He will no doubt have a job waiting for him after Caballero becomes elected.
Rob will finish his master’s at San Jose State while continuing to work for lame duck Assemblyman Salinas, who is in the running to be a Monterey Supervisor. Rob says he wants to make sure the transition between Salinas and Caballero is a smooth one. Both brothers are living with their grandparents in Hollister.
But on Tuesday, despite such confidence in their candidate – whom they refer to as “The Mayor” – the boys are all but exhausted. Though they are burned out, and campaign fatigue has set in, they know they will soon be ready for the next fight.
“People ask if we’re going to run for political office,” Rob mused. “It never crossed our minds. We like getting people elected, we like the behind-the-scenes atmosphere.”
“People always ask, ‘Why did you come back to Hollister?'” Rick said. “I know I could have gone to D.C., Sacramento or maybe San Francisco. But I had to come back. With its rolling hills, the ridgelines, the beautiful night sky, Hollister is a Garden of Eden, a gem. If we don’t protect it it’s going to fall to the wayside. We know we need growth but it has to be balanced.
“I want my kids to see the beauty of Hollister,” he added. “The way things are going, it’s not going to last.”
