Hold Your Nose and Vote by Tuesday, March 5, 2024

[mithriltabby]

Here are links to the resources I used to figure out how to fill out my ballot. I give my conclusions, and I invite you to come to your own, and I hope this effort saves you a headache. $ means an order of magnitude of money backing a candidate, starting at the thousands, so $$$$ means a candidate has single-digit millions of dollars in their campaign.

I’m not thrilled with some of the candidates, but I keep in mind that a vote is not a valentine. You aren’t confessing your love for the candidate. It’s a chess move to get closer to the world you want to live in. If you would like to have a better choice of candidates, I commend your attention to FairVote and Californians for Electoral Reform.

Vote411 has replaced Voter’s Edge, but doesn’t seem to support deep linking; it’s a League of Women Voters Education Fund project and well worth your time. As of this writing, the San Francisco Chronicle Voter Guide is mostly Coming soon and the Mercury News endorsements don’t cover a lot of my ballot. As a subscriber to both, I am disappointed that they aren’t doing the work in time for people who don’t wait to the last minute to turn in their ballots.

I will not be linking to Republican candidates’ web sites. Being a member of the party that has turned against democracy— from voter suppression to sedition— should be disqualifying for any elected office, and the party needs to go the way of the Whigs. Any remaining Republicans with integrity should start putting together the infrastructure for a new party, because the current one does not look salvageable. I have voted for Republicans in the past; I do not expect to ever see a good reason to do so again.

Party-Nominated Offices (Democratic Party)

President of the United States

• Eban Cambridge. FEC: ?. Vote Smart.
• Gabriel Cornejo. FEC: ?. Vote Smart.
• President R Boddie. Ballotpedia. FEC: ?. Vote Smart.
• Joseph R Biden Jr: Ballotpedia. FEC: $$$$$. Vote Smart. Endorsed by Equality California, Reproductive Freedom for All. Standing up a serious presidential campaign is not an easy thing to do and no one else has really made an effort, so the best move available is to get Biden elected and push the downballot toward better policies; in the process of holding his coalition together, Biden will then support them. Biden has done a lot of good things as president, despite a Supreme Court stacked against him and losing the House in 2022, and a lot of good policies came from the appointments he made to hold up the progressive side of the coalition. As for the horrific crisis in Israel: my sympathies are with the Palestinian and Israeli civilians who never wanted this, and not at all with their rulers who have been adding fuel to the fire; and that from the perspective of US foreign policy, this is Nightmare level difficulty, with extremely convoluted chains of cause and effect to deal with. What matters to me as a voter is that Biden is trying to reduce the amount of carnage and anyone who could get elected by the modern Republican party would greenlight it.
• Marianne Williamson (has withdrawn from the race)
• Dean Phillips: Ballotpedia. FEC: $$$$. Vote Smart. Phillips admits it’s a last-minute campaign.
• Armando Mando Perez-Serrato. FEC: $$. Vote Smart.
• Stephen P Lyons. FEC: ?. Vote Smart.

County Committee

Members of County Central Committee, 26th Assembly District. Vote for no more than six.

Some of the candidates I know personally and can vouch for. Others I’m tracking down through searches and references from other candidates, and I tend to favor people who have already demonstrated their ability to play well with others and demonstrated the preparedness to make themselves discoverable online. For the ones who make themselves hard to discover: it’s 2024, people! It is easier to make yourself visible on the Internet than file the paperwork to run for office!

• Nisar Ali. Part of a Human Rights Slate for the AD26 central committee.
• Milad Abo Kaas. Part of a Human Rights Slate for the AD26 central committee.
• Sameena Usman. Part of a Human Rights Slate for the AD26 central committee. Currently serves as the Government Relations Coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area office.
• Justin Lardinois. Chair of the San José Planning Commission.
• Helen K. Chapman. Ballotpedia. Member of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority in California. Endorsed by Justin Lardinois.
• Pearl Cheng. Probably the same Pearl Cheng who was elected as a Foothill-De Anza trustee?
• Ava Chiao. Still has a web site from when she ran for Cupertino Union School Board (and won). Endorsed by Justin Lardinois.
• Dahlia Eltoumi. Part of a Human Rights Slate for the AD26 central committee.
• Dina Saba. Part of a Human Rights Slate for the AD26 central committee.
• Chris Stampolis. Apparently has a history of aggressive behavior toward women, cost SCUSD $100K in legal bills and had to pay $19K in attorney’s fees and costs to a principal he harassed.
• Margaret Yuko Okuzumi. Incumbent. She was with the Sunnyvale Democratic Club at the beginning and is an enthusiastic progressive. Part of a Human Rights Slate for the AD26 central committee.
• Dianna Zamora-Marroquin. Endorsed by Justin Lardinois. Director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte.
• Neil Park-McClintick. President of Cupertino For All. Endorsed by Justin Lardinois.
• Martin Pyne: he has been a mainstay of the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale for years and handles the complexities of hybrid meetings with good grace. Endorsed by Justin Lardinois.
• Angelica Yvette Ramos

Voter-Nominated Offices

United States Senator, Full Term

This is for the regular 6-year term ending January 3, 2031.

SF Chronicle: Overview. California’s Senate candidates mostly vote the same — except on these key issues.

CalMatters Voter Guide.

I’m not surprised that there are vanity candidates running with war chests so small that they don’t even have FEC filings. I am surprised that some of them don’t bother to fill out their Vote411 profiles or get web sites.

• Harmesh Kumar: Democrat. Ballotpedia.
• James Jim Macaulay: Republican. Ballotpedia.
• Steve Garvey: Republican. Ballotpedia. CalMatters. FEC: $$$.
• Denice Gary-Pandol: Republican. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$$.
• Laura Garza: Socialist Workers Party. Lists The Militant as her campaign web site. Ballotpedia.
• Sepi Gilani: Democrat. Ballotpedia. FEC: $.
• Don J. Grundmann: apparently too extreme for any party. Ballotpedia.
• Forrest Jones: American Independent. Ballotpedia.
• Barbara Lee: Democrat. Ballotpedia. CalMatters. FEC: $$$$. Endorsed by Reproductive Freedom for All, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters. She is an experienced progressive; she is also 77 years old and applying for a job in a deliberative body where seniority matters and there are no term limits. I’m not thrilled with the system that has these incentives, but because we have that system, I don’t want to throw away advantages we can get from it until we fix the system.
• Gail Lightfoot: Libertarian. Ballotpedia.
• Sarah Sun Liew: Republican. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$.
• Sharleta Bassett: Republican. Ballotpedia. FEC: $.
• James Bradley: Republican. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$$.
• Martin Veprauskas: Republican. Ballotpedia.
• Eric Early: Republican. Ballotpedia. CalMatters. FEC: $$$.
• Adam B. Schiff: Democrat. Ballotpedia. CalMatters. FEC: $$$$$. I am not thrilled with him boosting Steve Garvey’s campaign in hopes of getting to face off against a Republican in November.
• Major Singh: Ballotpedia. FEC: $.
• Stefan Simchowitz: Republican. Ballotpedia.
• Christina Pascucci: Democrat. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$$.
• David Peterson: Democrat. Ballotpedia.
• Perry Pound: Democrat. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$.
• Katie Porter: Democrat. Ballotpedia. CalMatters. FEC: $$$$$. I like her better because she has more of an appetite for systemic reform.
• Douglas H. Pierce: Democrat. Ballotpedia.
• Raji Rab: Democrat. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$.
• Mark Ruzon: American Solidarity Party. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$.
• Jonathan Reiss: Republican. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$.
• John Rose: Democrat. Ballotpedia. FEC: $.

United States Senator, Partial/Unexpired Term

This is for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 2025.

• Adam B. Schiff: Democrat.
• Christina Pascucci: Democrat.
• Katie Porter: Democrat.
• Steve Garvey: Republican.
• Sepi Gilani: Democrat.
• Barbara Lee: Democrat.
• Eric Early: Republican.

United States Representative, District 17

• Mario Art Ramirez: Democrat. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart.
• Ro Khanna: Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$$$. Vote Smart. Endorsed by California Environmental Voters.
• Ritesh Tandon: Democrat running on Reagan-era Republican policies (who ran as a Republican in 2020). Ballotpedia. FEC: $. Vote Smart.
• Anita Chen: Republican. Ballotpedia. FEC: $$. Vote Smart.
• Joe Dehn: Libertarian. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart.

Member of the State Assembly, District 26

This is a difficult choice because Ahrens and Sreekrishnan are both really good. You can see their written responses to questions from the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.

• Ashish Garg: Cal-Access: $? Ballotpedia. Vote Smart.
• Bob Goodwyn: Libertarian. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart.
• Patrick Ahrens: Democrat. Cal-Access: $$$. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. Endorsed by the Mercury News, Equality California, Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte 2023. Dual-endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. Also an excellent choice. Evan Low is getting termed out and Ahrens has been in his office for six years, so he’ll easily be able to take the baton handoff. He has actually been homeless, so improving access to housing is not an abstract matter for him.
• Sophie Yan Song: Republican. Ballotpedia.
• Tara Sreekrishnan: Democrat. Cal-Access: $$$. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. Was endorsed by Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte in 2022. Dual-endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale. She has been a legislative director in the state senate and has experience in getting bills passed, so she won’t need to take time to come up to speed in Sacramento. I’m supporting Tara because I think she is a bit better at systems thinking— for example, both she and Ahrens agree on creating more housing and moving away from being car-centric, but Sreekrishnan goes into detail on buses. Either of them getting elected will be a win for the district.
• Omar Din: Democrat. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. Good guy, good policies, but Sreekrishnan and Ahrens have more relevant experience and will be more effective on day one; they also have more endorsements and connections that they can work in getting things done.

Nonpartisan Offices

Judicial

Justice of the Superior Court, Office No. 5

Coverage in the Palo Alto Daily Post.

• Jay Boyarsky
• Nicole M. Ford can’t be bothered to fill out a VOTE411 profile, can’t be bothered to have a campaign web site, and thus doesn’t enter my consideration for a vote.
• Johnene Linda Stebbins. I like her rhetoric better and I think it’s better for Santa Clara County if Jeff Rosen isn’t making arguments in court with his former second-in-command presiding.

County

Member, Board of Supervisors, District 3

• Otto Lee. Ballotpedia. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale, Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte.

Measures Submitted to the Voters

State

Proposition 1

CalMatters Voter Guide. Coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Supporting	Opposing
$$$$$ Treatment Not Tents San Francisco Chronicle Los Angeles Times San Diego Union-Tribune Sacramento Bee Pete Rates the Propositions Equality California San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters	$? Californians Against California Proposition 1 Disability Rights California League of Women Voters of California Orange County Register

I’m with the League of Women Voters on this: this proposition is not well-designed. The legislature could have done all the work on the laws, conditioned on funds becoming available, then crafted a very simple bond issue to fuel it, and they didn’t. No.

School

Measure C

Note that this authorizes bonds; it does not immediately issue them! This means that they can wait until interest rates are lower before doing so, and there's a Citizens Bond Oversight Committee to review it.

Supporting	Opposing
Support Sunnyvale Schools Democratic Club of Sunnyvale	Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association

Only $15 per $100,000 of assessed valuation on my property per year? The better schools will make my home’s value go up more than that. Yes.

Comments are screened. I’m not in a mood to argue.

Comments

[wild_patience]

Thank you. David and I always consider your opinion before making our final decisions on voting.

[mithriltabby]

You’re welcome!