mithriltabby | Hold your nose and vote on Tuesday, June 8, 2010: Santa Clara County (Reply)

Member, Democratic Party County Central Committee; County of Santa Clara; State Assembly District 22. SmartVoter. Vote for 6. (This is voting for about 10% of a 60-person committee, which includes 6 representatives for each assembly district, 1 for each club in the county.)
I got to meet most of them at a Democratic Club of Sunnyvale meeting. When I asked a question about instant-runoff voting, they were all in favor and most found occasion to speak knowledgeably about it over the course of answering questions. I liked all of them, and it’s tricky to pick which ones to vote for. Anything for which I don’t provide citations or hyperlinks is from my own memory and notes; my apologies for any inaccuracies.
- Gilbert Wong. No response to Planned Parenthood. Couldn’t make it to the meeting due to a family emergency.
- Aldyth Parle. Incumbent. No response to Planned Parenthood. Very experienced. She considers it important to get feedback from the voters on what the party should be doing, and was the only one to ask me what I wanted when I inquired about the candidates’ views about instant-runoff voting. (My answer: coalesce adjacent districts by fours or fives and use the single transferable vote to elect people from superdistricts, which would send Silicon Valley Republicans and Orange County Democrats to Sacramento.)
- Craig Dunkerley. Incumbent. No response to Planned Parenthood. He is a tireless worker for fair elections.
- Brandon L. Sulser. SmartVoter. Incumbent. Pro-choice. He seems to be a dedicated volunteer, but not an experienced public speaker. I get the feeling he’s more comfortable getting things done than talking about it.
- Alyson L. Abramowitz. SmartVoter. Incumbent. No response to Planned Parenthood. She is the only candidate who took the time to have flyers printed up ahead of time, and her answers showed she’s well-organized. Her flyer has three bullet points; since it’s not online, I’ll reproduce them here:
  - Economy: In the midst of the Worst Recession [sic] in our lifetimes, Alyson supports enhancing our local economy, bringing new jobs to the Bay Area, and supporting business to thrive.
  - Housing: Alyson supports programs to help home owners retain their houses, safe from predatory lending practices. A recent, first time home buyer, she is sensitive to the difficulty of buying, the needs of home owners, and the experiences of renters.
  - Budget: Alyson continues to press for fiscal responsibility, increased government efficiency, a reduction in the national debt, and a balanced budget. A high quality education and strong social network must be available.
- Megan Kathleen Young. No response to Planned Parenthood. She has been busy with the Young Democrats. She wants the Committee to reflect local demographics a bit more, be more supportive of local clubs, and work more on getting candidates elected. One of her specific policy recommendations was to adopt best practices from the census and recruit people from neighborhoods to register their neighbors to vote. She wants more goal-oriented progress in central committee process.
- Herb Engstrom. SmartVoter. Incumbent. Pro-choice. Both Dunkerley and Masaniai spoke well of him; Dunkerley brought up that Engstrom was given the Volunteer of the Year award at the last convention. When the questions turned toward issues of minority representation, he showed a good grasp of the economic underpinnings of social issues. He supports political and economic rights, including universal health care and full employment, but is very practical in his approach. He sees the Democratic Party as a means to an end and is quite willing to buck the party apparatus in the interest of the citizens.
- Jordan Daniel Eldridge. SmartVoter. Pro-choice. He showed a good understanding of the numbers involved in our budget problem and is interested in practical solutions.
- Melodi D. Masaniai. SmartVoter. No response to Planned Parenthood. She’s Brandon Sulser’s alternate on the Committee already, and is good at explaining herself— her metaphors for her vision for the Committee were (1) providing a solid network infrastructure and (2) supplying the clean uniforms and fresh peanuts in the dugout for the baseball team; she wants the Committee to do more to support citizens working their way up to higher office. She also supplied lots of good information when an issue came up of whether to endorse John Laird for the SD15 special election in June. I’m voting for her because she understands that infrastructure jobs are basically invisible but still need to be done.
Judge - Superior Court; County of Santa Clara. Coverage in the San Jose Mercury.
- Office 7. SmartVoter.
  - JoAnne McCracken. SmartVoter. Democrat. Took the trouble to come out to a Democratic Club of Sunnyvale meeting on a Saturday afternoon to speak briefly, though we didn’t have time for a Q&A period. Helped to defeat a “sunshine” proposal that would have given the public greater access to San Jose police records and statistics, which is a black mark in my book; unfortunately, her opponent doesn’t look good, either.
  - Thomas Spielbauer. Fired from the Public Defender’s Office for lying to a judge. Classy! The only thing McCracken would say about him when running was that he had no endorsements at all, and I can’t find any data to contradict her.
- Office 11. SmartVoter.
  - Vanessa A. Zecher. SmartVoter. I like her emphasis on transparency.
  - Tim Pitsker. SmartVoter. I like his emphasis on rehabilitation and respect his efforts to avoid the entanglements of funding, but I have doubts about how effective he can be in the modern world if he doesn’t even own a computer.
- Office 19. SmartVoter.
  - Bob Camors. SmartVoter. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Republican Party of Silicon Valley.
  - Julia Alloggiamento. SmartVoter. Democrat. I like her emphasis on rehabilitation and crime prevention.
Assessor; County of Santa Clara. SmartVoter.
- Larry Stone. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.
District Attorney; County of Santa Clara. SmartVoter.
- Dolores Carr. SmartVoter. Incumbent. Pro-choice. Coverage in the San Jose Mercury. Column by Scott Herhold of the San Jose Mercury. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Republican Party of Silicon Valley.
- Jeff Rosen. SmartVoter. Pro-choice. Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury, Palo Alto Weekly, San Jose Metro, Santa Clara County Democratic Party.
Sheriff; County of Santa Clara. SmartVoter.
- Richard Calderon.
- Martin Monica. I’m dubious of zero tolerance policies; they tend to lead to unreasonable outcomes, like kids getting kicked out of school for having an analgesic on their person for dealing with a headache.
- Laurie Smith. SmartVoter. Incumbent. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Republican Party of Silicon Valley, San Jose Metro (May 12–18).