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Voter-Nominated Offices
State
Contests for statewide office explained by the San Jose Mercury.
- Governor
- Gavin Newsom. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club California.
- John H. Cox. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. Endorsed by the Orange County Register. Has plenty of gimmicks and no actual experience for doing the job. Has blown $5m of his own money on the campaign.
- Lieutenant Governor
- Eleni Kounalakis. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Orange County Register California League of Conservation Voters. Has spent $4m of her own money on a campaign for an office with very little power. What is her angle?
- Ed Hernandez. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Secretary of State:
- Mark P. Meuser. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Has a priority of “cleaning up” our voter rolls. If he is elected, you can count on voter suppression coming to California.
- Alex Padilla. Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club California, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters. He’s paying attention to election security.
- Controller
- Betty T. Yee. Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club California, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Konstantinos Roditis. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Has blown a quarter million dollars of his own money on his own campaign. What’s his angle?
- Treasurer
- Fiona Ma. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, California League of Conservation Voters, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Greg Conlon. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.
- Attorney General
- Xavier Becerra. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Sierra Club California, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Steven C. Bailey. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Currently facing 11 counts of misconduct brought by the Commission on Judicial Performance.
- Insurance Commissioner
- Steve Poizner. Former Republican, now nonpartisan. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register. He did a good job the last time he held this position, but he was willing to throw immigrants under the bus in 2010 when he was running for governor; he claims he won’t do it again, but I am reminded of the words of Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Why has he blown a million dollars of his own money for this campaign? And why do none of the endorsement editorials address that?
- Ricardo Lara. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club California, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters. He has plenty of endorsements, including that of Dave Jones, a previous insurance commissioner.
- Member, State Board of Equalization, District 2
- Malia Cohen. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Mark Burns. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.
United States Senator
This is a difficult decision for me, because I’ve been very irked with Feinstein in the past: she voted for the Iraq War at a time when her colleague Barbara Boxer had the sense not to, and has supported mass surveillance of American citizens, released a draft bill that was deeply ignorant of the realities of encryption, and prefers to toe the line for the MPAA rather than her constituents. On the other hand, she has seniority in the Senate and a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and if we replace her, we’ll have two fairly junior senators. Meanwhile, de León removed the top staff from a Senate committee that, in a previous session, blocked one of his priority bills, headed the committee that killed a bill to provide whistleblower protections to legislative employees, and given that his roommate had a sexual harrassment scandal suggests he might have skeletons in his closet. It may be sufficient that she feel the pressure from her own state— she has changed her positions, recently switched to opposing the death penalty, for instance, and softened her stance on recreational marijuana, and she unilaterally released the Fusion GPS testimony. For all my misgivings about Feinstein, my misgivings about de León are greater, so I’ll vote for Feinstein.
- Kevin de León. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. Endorsed by the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Dianne Feinstein. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Planned Parenthood. 100% scores from Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Campaign. Has spent $14.5m of her own money on her campaign. What’s her angle? How much of it came from her husband’s income from government contracts?
United States Representative
- Ro Khanna. Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club Loma Prieta, Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. 100% scores from Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Campaign.
- Ron Cohen. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. A hardcore Trump supporter.
Member of the State Assembly
- Marc Berman. Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice. Got 100% on the ACLU scorecard. Endorsed by the California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club California, Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.
- Alex Glew. Republican. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. ACLU Smart Justice.
Nonpartisan Offices
Judicial
The LA Times says the Supreme Court justices should be confirmed.
- Carol A. Corrigan, associate justice of the Supreme Court. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Ballotpedia references a study that places her just into the “strong Conservative” category. Her Wikipedia entry has some details on her rulings. San Diego Democrats for Equality opposes her because she opposed marriage equality twice. (They don’t link to the majority opinion she signed onto regarding Prop 8, so here are excerpts in the LA Times.) While she is conservative, she does not appear to have caught the fever currently gripping the Republican Party. I was going to vote for her, out of respect for the thoughtful conservatives in the state [some of them are my friends, so save the snarky comments], but then the news came out that the current administration is targeting the rights of transgender folk, and I cannot, in good conscience, take the risk that she will contribute to that.
- Leondra R. Kruger, associate justice of the Supreme Court. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. She hasn’t been on the court long enough to get a rating. Her Wikipedia entry has some details on her rulings.
- Mary J. Greenwood, presiding justice, Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.
- Allison Marston Danner, associate justice, Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. She does show up in a few stories: judging the case of an abusive Silicon Valley CEO (more details here and here and here) which stirred up some controversy, but makes sense in light of the plea deal involved; setting bail for the Santa Clara County deputies charged with murdering an inmate.
- Nathan D. Mihara, associate justice, Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. He upheld the bulk of a judge’s reasoning making paint manufacturers pay for their contributions to the problem of lead paint.
School
- Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Coverage in Mother Jones.
- Tony K. Thurmond. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, California League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club California, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters.
- Marshall Tuck. Voter’s Edge. Ballotpedia. Endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Orange County Register. Tuck is more of a reformer than Thurmond; I prefer his approach.
- Fremont Union High School District, Governing Board Member. Vote for no more than three.
- Meena Juttukonda-Gajula. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by Ro Khanna.
- Benaifer Dastoor. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by Nancy Hirstein Smith and Tara Martin-Milius, both of whom I respect.
- Rosa Kim. Voter’s Edge.
- Naomi Nakano-Matsumoto. Voter’s Edge.
- William (Bill) Wilson. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.
- Don Sun. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by Ro Khanna and Glenn Hendricks.
- Sunnyvale School District, Governing Board Member. Vote for no more than three.
- Jeff Arnett. Incumbent. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. He demonstrated a good knowledge of policy details when he came out to talk to the club.
- Anita Herrmann. Incumbent. Voter’s Edge. I can’t find any information online and she didn’t bother to come out to talk to us like two of her colleagues; I heard she withdrew from the race.
- Bridget Watson. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. When she came out to the club, she spoke well about the need to help students of low socioeconomic status; she has a special needs kid of her own and places importance on safety and belonging.
- Michelle Maginot. Voter’s Edge. Has a number of competent people vouching for her.
County
- Sheriff
- John Hirokawa. Democrat. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury, Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.
- Laurie Smith. Republican. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Took the effort to speak to the Sunnyvale Democratic Club during the primary, even though we couldn’t endorse her.
City
Some good background on the city council election by Richard Mehlinger Jr. The Silicon Valley Voice reports on the financing of the race. For me, climate change is the biggest issue; I have lived in Sunnyvale for 20 years, and hope to do so for another 50, and I’m voting for the people that I think will make the best long-term plans to deal with it.
- Member, Sunnyvale City Council, Seat 1.
Richard Mehlinger Jr. on this race.
- Henry Alexander III. Voter’s Edge. Had the poor judgment to support the very badly designed 2016 Measure M. He wants to halt development, which is exactly the wrong way to deal with our problems with traffic.
- Gustav Larsson. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury, Democratic Club of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club Loma Prieta. He understands that we need to build more housing if we want to make Sunnyvale a better place to live.
- Member, Sunnyvale City Council, Seat 2.
Richard Mehlinger Jr. on this race.
- Glenn Hendricks. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Republican Party, San Jose Mercury, Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club Loma Prieta. Hendricks has been a competent mayor and earned the endorsement of Democrats like Ro Khanna, Anna Eshoo, Jerry Hill, and Marc Berman.
- Josh Grossman. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party. Another shortsighted “no growth” candidate who would create problems rather than solve them.
- Member, Sunnyvale City Council, Seat 3.
Richard Mehlinger Jr. on this race.
The candidates are dual-endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. This is a difficult choice, as I like both of them, but I am leaning toward Fong because he is more of a wonk and I like wonks. Honestly this is a win/win for Sunnyvale.
- John Cordes. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters.
- Mason Fong. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the San Jose Mercury, Santa Clara County Democratic Party.
District
- Director, El Camino Healthcare District. Vote for no more than two.
- Peter C. Fung. Incumbent. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Santa Clara County Republican Party.
- James Davis. Voter’s Edge.
- Mike Kasperzak. Voter’s Edge. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. When he came out to the club, he said his concerns were maintaining community control over the hospital (a for-profit company that bought three hospitals in the area filed for bankruptcy and he doesn’t want that happening here); he wants to make sure it can ride out the upcoming recession and maintain control for people rather than corporate interests; to make sure the hospital is prepared for Medicare-for-All when it happens; and to operate with as much transparency as possible. (The last 2 CEOs left and no one can talk about why because it happened in closed session.) He has endorsements from the mayors all four constituent citie,.
- George D. Ting. Voter’s Edge. I like the principles stated on his web site.
Measures Submitted to the Voters
State
The propositions explained by the San Jose Mercury and Mother Jones. The Courage Voter Guide has a grid covering the propositions.
- Proposition 1: Housing Programs and Veterans' Loans Bond. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.
- Proposition 2: Use Millionaire’s Tax Revenue for Homelessness Prevention Housing Bonds Measure. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Back in 2004, Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Acct, was passed to fund county programs to help the mentally ill. Since then, we’ve learned that such programs are more effective if the mentally ill have stable housing. In 2016, the legislature enacted the No Place Like Home program to provide that, but it hasn’t gone into effect because of court challenges— it wasn’t clear that the revenue from the tax created by Proposition 63 could be spent that way. This clarifies that.
- Proposition 3: Water Infrastructure and Watershed Conservation Bond Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Authorizes $8.9bn in bonds to fund water projects. Coverage in the Mercury News. The California League of Conservation Voters has no position.
- Proposition 4: Children's Hospital Bonds Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge.
- Proposition 5: Property Tax Transfer Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. This is a Proposition 13-style bad idea will result in property tax losses starting at $150m/year, gradually increasing to $1bn/year.
- Proposition 6: Voter Approval for Future Gas and Vehicle Taxes and 2017 Tax Repeal Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. This is an attempt to repeal SB 1, which adjusted our fuel taxes for inflation (as they hadn’t changed since 1994). This would cut $5.1bn/year from the budget for highway, road repair, and mass transit, and make it harder to pass new fuel taxes and fees, so costs would have to be imposed on all taxpayers rather than the users of roads. It’s being pushed by the national GOP as a way to boost turnout in November, and they’re fond of quoting a dubious study that asserts that the cost of building and maintaining California roads is 2.5× the national average— without controlling for the fact that California highways are much wider than the ones being used for comparison, or accounting for the fact that three of the nation’s top five busiest ports are in California and 40% of the nation’s freight moves through our state.
- Proposition 7: Permanent Daylight Saving Time Measure. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. This allows the legislature to extend Daylight Savings Time to the entire year with a ⅔ vote and agreement from the federal government. It would end the annoyance of time changes, though it does mean that in the winter, sunrise could be as late as 8:25 am at the latitude of San Francisco. Which is worse: jerking our schedules around with the time change, or most people being out the door for school and work before the sun is over the horizon?
- Proposition 8: Limits on Dialysis Clinics' Revenue and Required Refunds Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. This is a move by SEIU-UHW in attempting to unionize the workers at for-profity dialysis clinics.
- Proposition 10: Local Rent Control Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Explainers in the Mercury News and Vox. This repeals a 1995 law regulating rent control, which will free cities to make better policies, or worse ones. (For instance, if this passes, a city could pass rent control for single-family homes, which would lower the income prospects of people rich enough to rent out that kind of property.)
- Proposition 11: Ambulance Employees Paid On-Call Breaks, Training, and Mental Health Services Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle.
- Proposition 12: Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. Ballotpedia. Voter’s Edge. Coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mercury News, and Mother Jones. The Mercury News has pro and con opinions.
County
- Measure A: Sales Tax Renewal.
Ballotpedia.
Supported by Opposed by San Jose Mercury
Santa Clara County Democratic Party
City
- Measure K: Hotel Tax Increase.
Ballotpedia.
Supported by Opposed by - Measure L: City Council Vacancy Procedures Charter Amendment.
Ballotpedia.
When David Whittum resigned his council seat, the timing was such
that the city was forced by its own laws to call a special election
in August, even though his seat was up for election in November,
costing the city $800k. This allows the City Council to appoint
someone should that kind of expensive fiasco occur again.
Supported by Opposed by Democratic Club of Sunnyvale
School
- Measure CC: Fremont Union High School District Bond Issue.
Ballotpedia.
Supported by Opposed by San Jose Mercury
Santa Clara County Democratic Party
- Measure GG: Sunnyvale School District Bond Issue.
Ballotpedia.
Supported by Opposed by San Jose Mercury
Santa Clara County Democratic Party
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Date: 2018-10-28 08:46 pm (UTC)I'm sorry you fell for the propaganda regarding city council. As the opposition candidates explained at the LWV forum, which I think you missed, they don't want no growth, they want smart growth, smarter than what we're getting now. They oppose giving favored developers waivers of the General Plan. They oppose the current ratio of office development to housing development, finding housing more desirable. They oppose creating developments without fuller consideration of their effect on traffic and schools. These strike me as valid concerns which, at the least, deserve more representation on Council.
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Date: 2018-11-02 10:17 am (UTC)But perhaps more importantly, merely having money to throw at the campaign is not itself a sign of qualification. If all signs point to there being two candidates, and one got there by being liked and endorsed by enough people who thought they were good, and the other got there by throwing money they happened to have at advertising, only one of the two is showing themselves to be qualified by the process that got them there.
Is money in itself enough to *disqualify* someone? Obviously not.
But I don't blame anyone for tracking it.
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Date: 2018-10-29 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2018-11-04 01:03 am (UTC)-E-
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Date: 2018-11-04 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-04 03:49 am (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2018-11-05 08:54 pm (UTC)Sorry for the silly question, but you were the first person I thought of when the question came up for me.
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Date: 2018-11-05 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-05 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-12 03:18 am (UTC)