Audie Elizabeth Bock (born October 15, 1946) is an American film scholar and politician who served in the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The ...

from 1999 to 2000, and was elected to the

Sarasota County Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton, FL ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

Soil and Water Conservation District in 2018. She was elected in 1999 as a

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

member during a special election for

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

's 16th Assembly District, but switched to the Democratic Party after losing the 2000 election.

Early life and career

Bock was born and raised in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

.Green will bring new tone to Assembly
, Patrick Hoge, ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

'', April 2, 1999 She attended Berkeley High School. She then attended

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial ...

, graduating in 1967. For the next five years, she lived in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, near

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, where she taught English and helped to publish English-language

travel books The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern ...

. After that, she returned to the United States to attend

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, where she received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in East Asian studies. She stayed at Harvard to receive a PhD, where she wrote a dissertation on Japanese film directors. This involved returning to Japan and interviewing some directors, including

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

; the two struck up a friendship as a result. Bock's dissertation was published as the 1978 book ''Japanese Film Directors'' (). Bock served as an assistant producer on Kurosawa's 1980 film ''

Kagemusha is a 1980 jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate the dying ''daimyō'' Takeda Shingen to dissuade opposing lords fr ...

''.

Academic career

Bock translated

's partial autobiography, '' Something Like An Autobiography'' (), which was published in 1983 by Vintage International. In 1985 she wrote the first book-length study in English of Mikio Naruse, ''Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema''. Bock has taught college classes, as well as teaching throughout Hayward as a K-12 and adult school substitute teacher. She holds a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the University of San Francisco. In 1994, Bock joined the

. She served as a volunteer on

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the Un ...

's 1996 campaign for the presidency.

California State Assembly

Bock was elected to the Assembly in a 1999 special election after the mid-term resignation of U.S. Congressman

Ron Dellums Ronald Vernie Dellums (November 24, 1935 – July 30, 2018) was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Californ ...

. Dellums' resignation caused a number of special elections that resulted in the ascension of

State Senator A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. Description A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of ...

Barbara Lee Barbara Jean Lee (née Tutt; born July 16, 1946) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for . Now in her 12th term, Lee has served since 1998, and is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 9th ...

to Dellums' congressional seat (she had been Dellums' former chief of staff), and the rise of State Assemblyman

Don Perata Don Richard Perata (born April 30, 1945) is a California lobbyist
and former special election musical chairs. Bock won the 1999 election by a combination of circumstances. Although she received less than 9 percent of the vote in the February 2 special election for Perata's assembly seat, no candidate received 50 percent of the vote; this caused a runoff among the top-vote getter from each political party. Bock was helped by a lackluster campaign and a scandal involving her Democratic opponent, former Assemblyman and former Oakland mayor

Elihu Harris Elihu Mason Harris (born August 15, 1947) is a retired American politician and college administrator. A member of the Democratic Party, Harris served as the 46th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1991 to 1999; he previously served for 12 years ...

, who had received nearly 49% of the vote in the first election. Harris sent targeted mailers to households in selected precincts, mostly

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, urging voters to vote for him and receive a

fried chicken Fried chicken, also known as Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating o ...

meal if they presented a voting stub at selected supermarkets. There was voter backlash because of the perception of vote buying (Section 18521 of the California Elections Code prohibits offering money or "other valuable consideration" in return for voting; the Harris campaign argued the fried chicken coupons were not covered) and that the tactic had a subtext of racism. Working with Bock, in the capacity of Campaign Coordinator, John Maurice Cromwell helped build a coalition of Green Party members, disaffected Democrats and Republicans (who had no candidate in the race) to defeat Harris. Bock was outspent by Harris by a margin of better than 16 to 1 ($550,000 to $33,000). While an assemblywoman, she helped secure funding for numerous park projects, including restoration of the shores of Oakland’s Lake Merritt. On October 7, 1999, Bock left the Green Party and re-registered as "Decline to State" so that she would not have to run in the March 2000

blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office without regard to p ...

and thus not have to compete directly against her Democratic opponent

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alam ...

Supervisor

Wilma Chan Wilma may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Wilma (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Eva Wilma (1933–2021), Brazilian actress and dancer Places * Wilma Township, Pine County, Minnesota, United Sta ...

until the November 2000 General Election, by when she presumably would have had more time to fundraise. During this same period, however, her acceptance of $500 campaign contributions from

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock la ...

and Tosco drew criticism from within the Green Party. Running as an independent, Bock lost the November 2000 election and afterwards re-registered as a Democrat.

Additional runs for office

Bock announced her run against

in the 2002 primary as a Democrat, arguing that Lee's vote against the

war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

was unpatriotic. She later withdrew from the race before the filing deadline. In 2003, Bock ran for

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, t ...

in the

2003 California recall The 2003 California gubernatorial recall election was a special election permitted under California state law. It resulted in voters replacing incumbent Democratic Governor Gray Davis with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. The recall effort ...

. She received 3,358 votes, placing 22nd in a field of 135 candidates. In 2008, Bock ran for a two-year term on the board of the Hayward Area Recreation & Park District.The return of Audie Bock
, ''Contra Costa Times'' Political Blotter, Josh Richman, August 8, 2008 Bock received 22,845 votes (46%), finishing second behind interim incumbent Paul Hodges. In 2012, Bock ran successfully for a four-year term on the Board of the Fairview Fire Protection District. In 2014, Bock ran for the California Senate in the 10th State Senate District,2014 Candidates List
''East Bay Citizen'' Steven Tavares, March 20, 2014 running as having No Party Preference. She came in 5th place, with 4% of the vote. Subsequently, she relocated to Florida and ran for the Sarasota Soil and Water Conservation District in 2018, winning office unopposed.

Other activities

Bock has directed and served on boards of theater, arts and cultural organizations. She also directs a scholarship for low-income youth to receive free horseback riding lessons.

Personal life

Bock is a single mother of one daughter. An avid horsewoman, she rides in Castro Valley and Hayward.

References

External links

*
Audie Bock's horse riding foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bock, Audie 1946 births Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni California Greens American Japanologists Living people Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly Politicians from Oakland, California Women state legislators in California Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Activists from California Wellesley College alumni Green Party of the United States officeholders 21st-century American women