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mithriltabbyHere 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 $$$$ means a candidate has single-digit millions of dollars in their campaign. You may find Vote411 useful as well; they don’t support deep linking, so I can’t give you shortcuts.
I’m not thrilled with some of the candidates, but I keep in mind that a vote is not a valentine. You aren’t confessing your love for the candidate. It’s a chess move to get closer to the world you want to live in. If you would like to have a better choice of candidates, I commend your attention to FairVote and Californians for Electoral Reform.
I will not be linking to Republican candidates’ web sites. Being a member of the party that has turned against democracy— from voter suppression to sedition— should be disqualifying for any elected office, and the party needs to go the way of the Whigs. Any remaining Republicans with integrity should start putting together the infrastructure for a new party, because the current one does not look salvageable. I have voted for Republicans in the past; I do not expect to ever see a good reason to do so again.
Party-Nominated Offices
President and Vice President
- Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia, Peace and Freedom Party. $$$
- Kamala D. Harris and Tim Walz, Democrats. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$$$ Endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Equality California, California Environmental Voters, the Sierra Club, Bay Area Reporter, New York Times, San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters, and xkcd. Noah Smith gives her economic program an A–.
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Nicole Shanahan, American Independent Party. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$$. Withdrew from the race but hasn’t bothered to remove his name from the ballot in non-battleground states.
- Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat, Libertarians. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$
- Jill Stein and Rudolph Ware, Greens. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$ These days she’s a pawn to the Republicans.
- Donald J. Trump and JD Vance, Republicans. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$$$ His plans would ruin the US economy. His plans for deporting even legal immigrants will gut all manner of industries, including health care, and cause catastrophic economic damage, including a loss of 4.2%–6.8% to annual GDP. (Remember when Georgia’s crackdown left crops rotting in the fields?) The planned tariffs will be economically disastrous, destroy 70,000 jobs per month, increase the national debt more than twice as much as Harris, and cost the typical American household $2600 per year. Trump is running away from his record as fast as he can, but, if elected, he will definitely enact as much of Project 2025 as possible, and will functionally ban abortion even if the legal maneuvering goes by another name. He’s said he’ll withhold disaster funding from California if the state doesn’t obey him as president (he nearly did it during his last term). Do you fancy confronting that at the next big wildfire or earthquake? He denied 99% of the aid requested by North Carolina after Hurricane Matthew. If you’re in a union, note that he crossed a picket line; if you’re a parent, he wants to defund schools that require students to get vaccinated, which would be very bad for public health.
At the rate that Trump is losing his faculties, it is very likely that if Trump is #47, Vance will be #48. Vance scrubbed his absolute opposition to abortion from his Senate campaign website; he was one of only 8 Republican senators to support menstrual surveillance by law enforcement agencies. Note that Vance’s ideological influences include some very creepy neoreactionaries. He is also on board with Project 2025. He wants to make health insurance more expensive for people with preexisting conditions.
United States Senator, Full Term
- Adam B. Schiff, Democrat. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$$ Endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Equality California, Bay Area Reporter, California Environmental Voters. Coverage in CalMatters.
- Steve Garvey, Republican. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$$ Coverage in CalMatters.
United States Senator, Partial/Unexpired Term
Don’t forget to vote for the partial term!
- Adam B. Schiff, Democrat.
- Steve Garvey, Republican.
United States Representative, District 17
- Ro Khanna, Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$$ Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Equality California, Bay Area Reporter California Environmental Voters, the Sierra Club.
- Anita Chen, Republican. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$
Member of the State Assembly, District 26
We are spoiled for choice here with two competent candidates. The Democratic Club of Sunnyvale dual-endorsed them, as did California Environmental Voters. Coverage in CalMatters. The San Jose Spotlight notes false claims about Sreekrishnan in a pro-Ahrens mailer, and Ahrens’ failure to denounce that behavior in his supporters makes me think less of him. You can see them speak to the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.
- Patrick Ahrens, Democrat. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$ Endorsed by the Mercury News, Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte, Equality California, Bay Area Reporter. Profile in the San Jose Spotlight.
- Tara Sreekrishnan, Democrat. Ballotpedia. Vote Smart. $$$ Profile in the San Jose Spotlight. Endorsed by the Sierra Club. My impression from hearing both speak at the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale is that she’s more wonky, but both are quite competent.
Nonpartisan Offices
Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 5
- Johnene Linda Stebbins. Ballotpedia. $$ I like her rhetoric better and I think it’s better for Santa Clara County if Jeff Rosen isn’t making arguments in court with his former second-in-command presiding.
- Jay Boyarsky. Ballotpedia. $$$ Endorsed by the Mercury News, Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte.
Member, Santa Clara County Board of Education, Trustee Area 1
- Grace H. Mah. Went from Republican to “decline to state”. Incumbent. Ballotpedia.
- Jessica Speiser. Ballotpedia. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale, Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte.
Governing Board Member, Fremont Union High School District, Trustee Area 2
- Frances C. Renteria. Ballotpedia. One of the “Moms for Liberty” MAGA types. Coverage in the San Jose Spotlight.
- Pat Carpio-Aguilar. Ballotpedia. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.
El Camino Healthcare District
Coverage in the Los Altos Town Crier.
- Lynette Lee Eng. Filed for candidacy at the last minute to force a race. I’ve heard she can be difficult to work with.
- Julia E. Miller. Incumbent. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.
- Carol Ann Somersille. Incumbent. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale.
- John Zoglin. Incumbent.
City of Sunnyvale
Mayor
- Russ Melton. Left the Republican Party for the Democratic Party in the wake of the 2016 election. Ballotpedia. Profile in the San Jose Spotlight.
- Larry Klein. Democrat. Incumbent. Ballotpedia. Endorsed by the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale and Mercury News. Profile in the San Jose Spotlight. He did a great job during COVID and deserves another term.
Measures Submitted to the Voters
State
Proposition 2: Public Education Facilities Bond Measure
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
Schools are an important investment in the future, and this will provide much-needed funds to the School Facilities Program. It’s flawed, but not passing it would create even more problems. Yes.
Proposition 3: Freedom to Marry
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
Repealing the egregious Proposition 8 is well worth the effort, given the Supreme Court’s current predilection for overturning well-established rulings. Yes.
Proposition 4: Parks, Environment, Energy, and Water Bond Measure
Ballotpedia. Coverage in the Mercury News. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
Climate change is worsening and we need a proactive response. Yes.
Proposition 5: Lower Supermajority Requirement to 55% for Local Bond Measures to Fund Housing and Public Infrastructure
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times. Allows bonds for affordable housing, critical public infrastructure, and emergency response in our communities with a 55% vote— if those bonds have strict accountability and oversight.
Since 2000, there has already been a 55% threshold for local bonds for school districts for long-term capital expenses; this extends that to cities, counties, and special districts. It requires annual audits and citizens’ oversight committees. The Mercury News makes the best point against it, citing times that this has been a problem. I’m still leaning Yes.
Proposition 6: Remove Involuntary Servitude as Punishment for Crime Amendment
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
There is a loophole in the 13th Amendment: slavery is still legal for convicted criminals. Even Alabama and Tennessee have outlawed forced labor in prisons; we should catch up to them. Yes.
Proposition 32: Minimum Wage of $18/hour
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
California is an expensive place to live, and while we also need to be working on bringing prices down (such as by building more housing), the minimum wage needs to catch up with inflation; raising it from $16 to $18 is reasonable. A study showed that increasing the minimum wage in fast food restaurants didn’t cut jobs or raise prices significantly. Yes.
Proposition 33: Rent Control
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times. The League of Women Voters of California is neutral.
Rent control is very difficult to get right. If you get it wrong, you can create perverse incentives that lead to situations like “owner sells their property and all their tenants have to leave, and they need to uproot their lives because they can’t afford anyplace in the vicinity”. It can disincentivize the production of new housing, which we desperately need. And this particular implementation has a loophole that would let NIMBYs make it nearly impossible to build new housing. No.
Proposition 34: Require Certain Participants in Medi-Cal Rx Program to Spend 98% of Revenues on Patient Care
Ballotpedia. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times. The League of Women Voters of California has taken no position. Coverage in the Westside Current.
This is a finely targeted measure to punish the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for their efforts— which include bad bills like the above Prop 33, but that kind of fight doesn’t belong in the California initiative system. No.
Proposition 35: Managed Care Organization Tax Authorization
Ballotpedia. Coverage in the Mercury News. Voter guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
This is another case of ballot box budgeting that locks in spending and denies flexibility to our elected representatives. No.
Proposition 36: Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies
Ballotpedia. Coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle and Mercury News. Voter Guides in CalMatters and the Los Angeles Times.
Studies show that harsher punishments don’t deter crime; the likelihood of getting caught does. Newsom already signed ten new anti-crime laws cracking down on many varieties of theft, making this proposition redundant. No.
City
Measure E: New Main Library
Authorizes the city to issue up to $29m in bonds for building a new Main Library to replace the one built in 1960. From the city: Bond measure, Q&A, fact sheet. Requires a ⅔ vote to pass. Coverage in the Mercury News.
| Supporting | Opposing |
|---|---|
|
Yes on Sunnyvale Library Democratic Club of Sunnyvale |
Michael Goldman |
Our library is in need of upgrades, and a good library is part of the lifeblood of a healthy community. Yes.
Measure F: City Charter Updates
A bit of administrative bookkeeping: removes the voter registration requirement for serving on boards and commissions, allows the City Council to meet 24 times per year instead of twice per month, and uses gender-neutral language in the Charter. Coverage in the Mercury News.
| Supporting | Opposing |
|---|---|
Yes.
School
Measure Y: Parcel Tax for Schools
Renews the $59 parcel tax from 2011; it’s the lowest in the area (compare Palo Alto at $905, Saratoga at $68). It will help keep class sizes small; the tax covers salaries (not administration or pensions), while the bond has to build physical things. This also switches renewals from every 7 years to every 8 years, to match electoral cycles. Overall it should raise about $1m per year for our schools.
| Supporting | Opposing |
|---|---|
|
Support Sunnyvale Schools Democratic Club of Sunnyvale |
Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association |
A $59/year parcel tax will more than pay for itself in my house price. Yes.
Comments are screened. I’m not in a mood to argue.
