Hold Your Nose and Vote on Tuesday, June 7, 2016

[mithriltabby]

As usual, I’ve done my research for the upcoming election and written up my notes to share with the rest of the class. I’ve given my conclusions, and invite you to come to your own. Even if we disagree on every issue, I’m happy if this saves you a headache.

Voter’s Edge are doing a good job of gathering funding information about candidates, so I’ll let them do the heavy lifting instead of linking directly to Follow the Money. I’ll still have one $ after the candidate for every digit of campaign funding, starting in the thousands place.

Party-Nominated Offices, Democratic Ballot

• President of the United States: Voter’s Edge.
  • Bernie Sanders. Ballotpedia. $$$$$$ Endorsed by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. I agree with the Guardian here: this isn’t about putting Sanders in the White House; it’s about signaling to Clinton that the electorate are clamoring for an overhaul, not just small, cautious, incremental changes. Sanders’ numbers don’t add up, but none of the candidates’ do; the important thing is that he’s a reality-based guy who wants to import good ideas from the Nordic democracies where they’ve proven effective. (And if his being a democratic socialist makes you think of Cuba, Venezuela, and the USSR instead of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, go spend some time listening to a real Marxist, Leninist, or Trotskyite and you should get a fine earful about what they think of democratic socialists. Call it “Nordic capitalism” if your conservative friends are freaking out.) If something truly bizarre happens and he gets the nomination, I expect his numbers will get much, much better once every think tank is vying for his attention instead of Clinton’s.
  • Willie Wilson. $$$$
  • Roque de la Fuente. $$$$
  • Hillary Clinton. Ballotpedia. $$$$$$ Clinton is a master of realpolitik, working the system as it is. (For instance, Sanders can’t get any foreign policy advisors because all the ones in DC fear her revenge.) She’s too hawkish and too cozy with notorious war criminal Henry Kissinger for my tastes. The problem I have with Sanders’ candidacy is that he called for a revolution but didn’t bring one to the party: he needed about four hundred primary challengers for House and Senate seats to make his movement a revolution. I think the best outcome we can get from this election is that Sanders exerts considerable influence on Clinton for her to turn her realpolitik skills on the more achievable of the reforms he advocates. I expect to be voting for her in November, and I think she’ll be able to seamlessly take the reins from Barack Obama.
  • Henry Hewes
  • Keith Judd
  • Michael Steinberg $
• Members of County Central Committee: vote for no more than six (i.e. pick one not to vote for). Voter’s Edge. It’s 2016 and almost none of these people have web sites to help voters make a decision between them? Really? I will amend this if I can dig up anything useful at the next Sunnyvale Democratic Club meeting.
  • Otto Lee. Former mayor of Sunnyvale.
  • Bill James. Incumbent.
  • Emily Thurber. Finding out anything about her is rather difficult, especially with a very unfortunate name collision with another Emily Thurber in Idaho; once I was informed she goes by the nickname “Emy”, it was much easier to find out that she’s a party stalwart.
  • Gilbert Wong. Incumbent. Also a former mayor of Cupertino whose second city council term ends this year.
  • Peter Y. Chiu. Has served on government boards and commissions.
  • Alyson L. Abramowitz. Incumbent.
  • Diane H. Rolfe. Incumbent. The only one to fill out their profile on Voter’s Edge. Received the Madge Overhouse Volunteer of the Year Award from the county party.

Voter-Nominated Offices

• United States Senator: Voter’s Edge.
  • Massie Munroe. Democrat. Ballotpedia.
  • Eleanor Garcia. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Tim Gildersleeve. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Clive Grey. Indepdendent. Ballotpedia.
  • Don J. Grundmann. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • President Cristina Grappo. Democrat. Ballotpedia.
  • Herbert G. Peters. Democrat. Ballotpedia.
  • Tom Palzer. Republican. Ballotpedia. $
  • John Thompson Parker. Peace and Freedom. Ballotpedia.
  • Karen Roseberry. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Emory Rodgers. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $
  • George C. Yang. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Jerry J. Laws. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Gail K. Lightfoot. Libertarian. Ballotpedia.
  • Mike Beitiks. Independent. Ballotpedia. $ Best single-issue candidate this year.
  • Pamela Elizondo. Green. Ballotpedia.
  • Scott A. Vineberg. Independent. Ballotpedia. $$
  • Steve Stokes. Democrat. Ballotpedia.
  • Duf Sundheim. Republican. Ballotpedia. $$$
  • Ling Ling Shi. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Loretta L. Sanchez. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$$
  • Phil Wyman. Republican. Ballotpedia. $$
  • Jarrell Williamsona. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Thomas G. Del Beccaro. Republican. Ballotpedia. $$$
  • Ron Unz. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Greg Conlon. Republican. Ballotpedia. $$
  • Jason Kraus. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Don Krampe. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Mark Matthew Herd. Libertarian. Ballotpedia.
  • Von Hougo. Republican. Ballotpedia.
  • Jason Hanania. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Kamala D. Harris. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$$ Endorsed by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Los Angeles Times, California Democratic Party.
  • Gar Myers. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Paul Merritt. Independent. Ballotpedia.
• United States Representative, District 17: Voter’s Edge.
  • Kennita Watson. Libertarian. Ballotpedia. I know her from numerous local science fiction conventions and she’s a very pleasant person.
  • Ron Cohen. Republican. Ballotpedia. $
  • Peter Kuo. Republican. Ballotpedia. $$ Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Republican Party.
  • Ro Khanna. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$$ Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury. Dual-endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.

    Full disclosure: I was not thrilled with the divisive campaign that Khanna ran in 2014 and was a little surprised to be invited to a house party for him earlier this year. I approached him and suggested: “If you take all the time and effort you spent attacking Mike Honda last time and instead spend it on talking about how your policies will help the working class, I think you’ll win.” [My motivation here was preventing the kind of rancor that was making it hard for Democrats to work together after the 2014 campaign. And it’s also why, even as a Sanders supporter, I won’t hesitate in voting for Clinton.] We started talking policy ideas, and now we meet once in a while to get coffee and chat about policy wonk matters. He’s certainly pro-business, but he’s the first to point out that no less a conservative luminary than Milton Friedman advocated for the guaranteed minimum income, which would help a lot of people. If hyperpartisanship and party unity continue as they did before, no one is going to be able to peel Republicans away from toeing the party line, but if the spectre of Donald Trump haunts them enough to start compromising, Khanna is going to be able to use his economics background to give sound conservative justifications to policies that are normally only liberal territory, and that’s something Republicans can take home to their districts to help the GOP fight for the center and return to competing for the best reality-based policies.

  • Mike Honda. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$$ Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Dual-endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. Honda has seniority in Congress, which means that he gets his pick of committees to serve on, so to the extent any Democrat can wield power under such partisan conditions, he’s effective. He’s also sharp as a tack— addressing a group, he’ll ask for multiple questions and then answer them in order. I’m rather concerned about his being under ethics investigations.
  • Pierluigi C. Oliverio. Democrat. Ballotpedia.
• State Senator, District 13: Voter’s Edge have done a good job of collecting the candidate funding information.
  • Jerry Hill. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$ Endorsed by the California Democratic Party, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club of California, Planned Parenthood Action Fund. He’s come out to the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale a few times and seemed entirely competent.
  • Rick Ciardella. Republican. Ballotpedia. $ Endorsed by the California Republican Party.
  • John H. Webster. Libertarian. Ballotpedia.
• Member of the State Assembly, District 24: Voter’s Edge.
  • Vicki Veenker. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$ Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale, Sierra Club of California. 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Action Fund. I was impressed by how well she communicated when she visited the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale; I think she could be persuasive in the Assembly.
  • Mike Kasperzak. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$ 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Action Fund. I liked him in his visit; like me, he’s big on infrastructure. The only reason I’m picking Veenker over him is that I think she has an edge in persuasiveness.
  • Marc Berman. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$ Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury. 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Action Fund. A sensible fellow; I prefer Veenker and Kasperzak, but between the three we have an embarrassment of riches as candidates here.
  • Jay Blas Jacob Cabrera. Independent. Ballotpedia.
  • Barry Chang. Democrat. Ballotpedia. $$$ My impression from seeing him in person is that he’s a “does not play well with others” type who would do much better in an executive position than a legislative one. His willingness to bluntly call out bad behavior is admirable, but diplomacy is the way things get done in the legislature.
  • Peter Ohtaki. Republican. Ballotpedia. $$ Endorsed by the California Republican Party.
  • Sea Reddy. Democrat. Ballotpedia.
  • John M. Inks. Libertarian. Ballotpedia. $$
• Nonpartisan Offices: Member, County Board of Supervisors, District 3:
  • Dave Cortese is running unopposed. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.

Measures Submitted to the Voters

• Proposition 50: Suspension of Legislators. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.

  Supported by	Opposed by
  San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco Bay Guardian League of Women Voters of California Pete Rates the Propositions California Democratic Party California Republican Party	Los Angeles Times

  The state constitution has provision for expelling legislators, but not for suspending them while they’re under indictment, as was the case with three state senators a couple of years ago (for voter fraud, perjury, bribery, money-laundering, and racketeering). This amendment requires a ⅔ majority to perform a suspension (rather than a simple majority) and to withhold pay and benefits during suspensions. The best objection to this is that the constituents of suspended legislators lose their representation when their legislator is suspended, but this amendment makes that more difficult, not less. Yes.
• Measure AA: San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority. Voter’s Edge.

  Supported by	Opposed by
  Save the Bay Sierra Club California League of Conservation Voters San Francisco Chronicle Contra Costa Times Santa Clara County Democratic Party Democratic Club of Sunnyvale	Stop Measure AA San Francisco Bay Guardian California Republican Party

  Winter storms are only going to get worse, and one of the easiest ways to mitigate the damage from them is wetlands; each 2.7 miles of wetlands reduces storm surge by 1 foot. This will protect our property values and cut down on the need for disaster response in places like Alviso. Yes.
• Measure A: Santa Clara County Park Charter Fund. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.

  Supported by	Opposed by
  San Jose Mercury SPUR Santa Clara County Democratic Party Santa Clara County Republican Party

  This is an allocation from the general fund that will not increase taxes. Yes.