Oscar-winning actor and director Sean Penn, a former Marin County resident, has agreed to campaign in the area next week on behalf of Norman Solomon, an Inverness Park author and political activist, who is running as a progressive Democrat for an open seat in the newly reorganized congressional district that extends from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border. After Solomon led a congressional delegation to Baghdad as head of the nonprofit Institute for Public Accuracy in September 2002, he wrote a cold letter to Penn, who was then residing in Ross, in hopes of drumming up more publicity about his effort to find an alternative to invasion. “We’d never met. He invited me over,” Solomon said. “We talked about a potential trip. And within a few days, we were in Baghdad.” Solomon, who supports cutting funding from perennial wars and forging federal commitments to green jobs, sustainable agriculture, public transportation, public education, civil liberties, retirement security, and restrictions on Wall Street, is enthused about Penn’s decision to make joint appearances with him on the campaign trail. “It’s always been great to work with him,” Solomon said. “He’s the real deal. He cares deeply and he’s committed to progressive social change.