March 5, 2024 Primary Election Guide – Part II.

So, having gotten past my preliminary rant, what are my thoughts on the contests and candidates?

The Presidency

Let’s start at the top – with the Presidency. Everyone knows that the main party candidates will be Biden for the Democrats and Trump for the Republican. Maybe you’re happy with those choices, and maybe you’re not, but it doesn’t really matter. Nor, here in California, does it really matter who you vote for. Given California’s overwhelmingly Democratic registration (although No Party Preference runs fairly close behind the lagging Republicans, and Democrats are still not a majority of voters), Biden will certainly carry the state, both now and in November. Consequently, for better or for worse, presidential campaigning in California won’t be for votes, but for money. The good news is that, since it won’t matter, you can vote for whomever you want, as long as they’re on your ballot.

U.S. Senator

The first contest on the March ballot that does matter is U.S. Senator. There are actually two elections for that office – one for the unfinished term of Diane Feinstein and the other for the new term of that seat, starting in January. The main candidates are the same for both. Under California’s “top-two” system, everyone get to vote for any candidate, regardless of party, and the top two will fight it out in November.

There’s only one significant Republican candidate – Steve Garvey – a retired major league baseball player. What are his qualifications? 1. He’s well-known, 2. He’s a republican, 3. He claims to have a brain in his head.

How about the Democrats? There are three major candidates. All three currently represent parts of California in the U.S. House of Representatives. They are: Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff.

Adam Schiff is best know for having headed up the committee that recommended impeaching Donald Trump. He’s generally been a reliable vote for Democratic leadership measures. As a state senator in the 1990s, he authored several “tough on crime” bills (which was not unusual for Democrats at that time), but none were enacted.

Barbara Lee has represented the East Bay’s Twelfth Congressional District since the 1990s, when she replaced her mentor, Ron Dellums after his retirement. She’s been a stalwart “Progressive” and holds the distinction of having been the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for military intervention after 9-11, which led to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently, she has opposed Israel’s invasion of Gaza as an overreaction to the Hamas attack of October 7th, and supported a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Katie Porter is generally considered more liberal than Schiff but not a strong “Progressive” like Lee. she has developed a reputation as a “muckraker” in Congress, conducting sharp questioning of corporate banking officials and members of the Trump Administration, including the then-head of the Center for Disease Control and the Postmaster General.

Right now, polls show Schiff in the lead. (He has by far the most campaign funds of any candidate.) He’s followed by Garvey and Porter, running neck-and-neck, with Lee running somewhat behind the other three. Under the “top-two” system, Schiff will undoubtedly be on the ballot in November, but it’s unclear who the other contestant will be. If it’s Garvey, Schiff will almost certainly win in November. If it’s another Democrat, the answer is less clear.

If you’re happy with Schiff, by all means vote for him. If you’d prefer Lee or Porter, you might want to wait until the last polls come out showing who’s likely to come in second. Then, your vote might help make the difference whether that’s Garvey or another Democrat. zin that case, vote for that other Democrat.

House of Representatives – 12th District

This has been Barbara Lee’s seat for more than twenty years. It’s now an “open seat” with nine candidates running. There are two Republicans: Ned Nuerge and Steve Slauson. Given the District’s strong Democratic registration, they can be ignored.

Among the Democrats (there are no third party candidates), NONE have prior legislative experience at the state level. Only two have even held elective office: Tony Daysog – Alameda City Councilmember and Lateefah Simon – BART Board of Directors.

IMHO, ANY of the candidates will be out of their depth as a Congressmember in Washington! It’s interesting that, despite her lack of experience, Simon has racked up a slew of endorsements from prominent California Democrats, when BART has not impressed anybody with how it’s been run over the past few years. The endorsements, to my mind, just reflect the ability of someone tied in with the Democratic political establishment to pull strings and call in past favors. Nor do the policy positions of any of the candidates show the depth of thought or analysis one would want to see in someone who’d be representing us in the U.S. House.

Tony Daysog does at least have significant local government experience, and his policy proposals weren’t totally off the wall. Maybe vote for him and hope for better choices in two years???

State Senate – 77th Senate District

This has been Nancy Skinner’s seat for a long time, but she is finally termed out, and there are six candidates running to replace her. One of them, Jeanne Solnordal, is a Republican. [What kind of masochist do you have to be, as a Republican, to run for a seat where the voters are overwhelmingly Democrats?] There are also five Democratic candidates, and each of them has as good or better credentials than the candidates for the 12th District House seat!

The Democratic candidates are: (in alphabetical order) Jesse Arreguin, Jovanka Beckles, Dan Kalb, Kathryn Lybarger, and Sandre Swanson. All of the Democrats have support from one or more labor organizations, as well as other political groups. Lybarger is the President of the California Labor Federation. All the others are current or former local elected officials, and Swanson represented the 16th State Assembly District for three terms (2006-2012). Support from organized labor can be a mixed bag. Unions can provide both money and feet on the ground for a campaign, and since many voters in this district are union member or sympathizers, labor endorsements help win votes – and elections. However, organized labor is also a powerful lobbying force in the Legislature. One must be concerned to what extent a senator will reflect the wishes of his/her constituents versus those of union lobbyists. For example, Sen. Scott Wiener often includes in his affordable housing bill a provision requiring the use of union construction workers. Yes, this guarantees well-paying jobs, but it also may increase the cost of the housing being built, and can sometimes slow construction. There are trade-offs, and these show in the candidates’ answers to policy questions. (Labor support can also draw fire from anti-labor forces. For example, Lybarger has been targeted by numerous “independent expenditure” smear pieces paid for in large part by the California Building Industry Association (CalBIA). CalBIA is made up of for-profit developers, who don’t like being forced to use union labor because of legislators like Wiener.)

Lybarger wants to raise wages and increase union access and enforcement of labor laws. Won’t these raise the cost of new housing? Arreguin and Lybarger promote government owned and managed housing. What will be the cost of that new bureacracy, and will it lead to graft and corruption, as happened with redevelopement agencies (which Swanson wants to re-establish)?

On other issues, of the five, only Swanson wants to rescind Prop. 47. That 2014 initiative law reduced some crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, with the aim of reducing incarceration costs and investing the savings in programs to divert potential criminals from that pathway. Arreguin supports Gov. Newsom’s plan to restore felony status to some crimes that have attracted crime rings. The other three candidates feel that Prop 47’s aims of rehabilitation and diversion need more time to show results.

There are no “bad” candidates here (and in fact I’ve supported several of the candidates in the past). Of the five, I’d say Kalb is my favorite, but I also like some of Swanson’s and Beckles’ ideas. I fear that Lybarger is more focused on supporting unions than the interests of her district and the state as a whole. As for Arreguin, I’m troubled by the degree to which he has bought into the ideas put out by the YIMBIES and for-profit developers; notably their claim that “all housing is good housing.” The data compiled by the state’s own Department of Housing and Community Development shows that, despite all the bills pushed through the Legislature by YIMBY supporters since 2018, we’re still building far too little affordable housing, but producing a huge overabundance of market-rate housing. Much of that new market rate housing sits vacant, while being used as an investment vehicle for off-shore speculators.

State Assembly – District 14

This race is far more straightforward than many others. There are only three candidates: Utkarsh Jain, a Republican, Buffy Wicks, the Democratic incumbent, and Margot Smith, a Democratic challenger.

Let’s ignore the Republican. (No Republican has been elected to this district for many, many years.) This would be Buffy Wicks’ fourth two-year term. She has aligned herself strongly with the pro-YIMBY group of legislators led by Scott Wiener and Nancy Skinner. That group has pushed through a series of laws that override local control of zoning to promote taller and denser housing in urban areas. She has also supported Sen. Skinner’s efforts to strengthen the “Housing Accountability Act.” That law punishes local municipalities for turning down a housing project containing affordable units unless the municipality can show certain specific strong reasons for rejecting the project. With its latest modifications, the Housing Accountability Act has been “weaponized” for developers as a way to threaten municipalities unless their projects are rapidly approved. As noted, these bills haven’t changed the deficit in affordable housing or the superabundance of market rate housing in Oakland, the Bay Area, or California. They have given for-profit developers some hefty profits.

Margot Smith, Wicks’ Democratic opponent, is running on a platform with several planks: 1) promote more affordable housing, with local control; 2) reform Pro. 13 so business properties get assessed at their real values; 3) provide affordable healthcare; 4) strengthen environmental laws to address climate change and related issues. Her answers to a questionnaire from Ballotpedia (and an associated video) can be found here.

I strongly support Dr. Smith’s candidacy.

Alameda County Supervisor – District 5

Moving on to the local races, we have county supervisor for District 5. This seat opened up by surprise when long-time supervisor Keith Carson (who, like Barbara Lee, used to work for Ron Dellums) announced he would not seek re-election. Nine candidates hurriedly rushed in to file and fill the gap. (Note – The County, unlike the City of Oakland, doesn’t used ranked choice voting [that’s why there are no city offices on this ballot; they’ll all be decided in November].) Here they are:

Greg Hodge, John Bauters, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Ben Bartlett, Ken Berrick, Omar Farmer (since withdrawn, but still on the ballot), Lorrel Plimier, Gerald Pechenuk, and Chris Moore.

The first four are current or former elected officials. The other Five have held no elected office. Of the eight active candidates, seven are Democrats and one (Pechenuk) is Republican [in a campaign photo, he’s shown wearing a Trump baseball cap]. Another differentiation is their attitude towards the campaign to recall the County’s District Attorney, Pamela Price, who was elected in 2022 on a platform of reform and restorative justice. Hodge, Bas, Bartlett and Plimier are opposed to the recall. Berrick and Bauters are noncommital, saying the process will play itself out, while Pechernuk and Moore support the recall. (Pechenuk supports the recall of both Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. Moore has been a leader of the Price recall campaign.)

The candidates’ attitudes on drugs and crime also differ widely. Perhaps predictably, both Moore and Pechenuk take a hard line on crime and drugs. Pechenuk blames Oakland’s crime problems on the import of drugs from Mexico and Latin America. He would try to revitalize the war on drugs. Moore is a landlord and serves on the board of the East Bay Rental Housing Assn.

The other six candidates all believe that the issues of crime, drug use, homelessness and mental health are all linked and require a holistic solution that may, to some extent, involve the police, but would better be dealt with through a combination of social services and education.

As can be seen, several of the candidates advocate for similar programs to address county issues. The issue then becomes which have best demonstrated being able to “walk the walk” as well as talk the talk. As Oakland City Council President, Bas has been in a position to execute policies, and seems to have done so with some success. On that basis, she’s getting my vote, although Greg Hodge is also impressive and gets points from me for acknowledging that, though the YIMBIES may have good intentions, their efforts have resulted in building far more market-rate housing units than the affordable units that we really need.

Alameda County Judgeships

There are two Alameda County Superior Court judge positions also on the ballot. One position is uncontested, with Terry Wiley being the only candidate. The other position pits Attorney and temporary judge Michael Johnson again Court Commissioner Mark Fickes. Both have sufficient legal background to be a judge, but Johnson appears to have been more corporate-oriented in his legal practice (which I consider a minus). Also, Johnson has harshly criticized Fickes for admitting,under questioning by the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, that he had voted for Pamela Price for District Attorney. Presumably, Johnson felt Fickes should have ducked the question. I guess I disagree. Saying how you voted is, to my mind, a far cry from electioneering. (Not surprisingly, Johnson did duck the same question.) The Mercury-News, a newspaper with a corporate/conservative bent, has endorsed Johnson. I beg to differ.

As an aside, I will repeat my frequent criticism that voters don’t really have sufficient knowledge to decide whether a candidate has the proper “judicial temperment” to make a good judge. Judicial temperment means being able to put aside one’s personal preferences and decide cases based on their legal merits, although that still leaves room for evaluating the fairness and appropriateness of a particular verdict or sentence.

Ballot Measures

Thankfully, there aren’t a lot of ballot measures on this ballot: one statewide measure, two county measures and one City of Oakland measures. Here they are with my analysis and recommendations.

State Measure 1

This measure would approve $6.38 in bond funds to build mental health treatment facilities and housing for the homeless. It would also shift $140 million annually for mental health treatment from the counties to the state for administration. I’m somewhat dismayed by yet another attempt by the Legislature to have the state take control of previously locally administered programs. However, I can see an argument for the state being better able to coordinate programs. More importantly, the additional bond funds are sorely needed and if this is what we need to do to get them, so be it. YES

County Measure A

This measure would reduced the mandatory notification period for civil service exams from 25 days to 14 days. I don’t see any reason why the notification period needs to be so long. YES

County Measure B

This measure brings the county recall provisions in line with those set by state statute. Again, I don’t see any reason for insisting on different recall provisions for the county. YES

Oakland City Measure D

This measure will allow the City to expend funds previously authorized by the voters, and is only required because of Prop. 13. There’s no good reason for withholding the funding, other than the desire to starve local agencies of needed and already voter-approved funds. YES

Finally, there’s one Oakland office that’s subject to ranked choice voting – city auditor. This is potentially an important office. Not only can the auditor sniff out financial malfeasance and mismanagement, but they can also do functional audits that evaluate an office does at doing its job efficiently and properly. Seems to me there’s plenty of room for that kind of investigation of Oakland’s bureaucracy. However, there’s only one candidate – the current acting auditor, so there is no choice. Why is this even on the ballot?

March 5, 2024 Primary Election Guide – Part I.

As I usually do, I will take the opportunity to opine on the March 2024 Primary Election ballot. Those who regularly read these pre-election blog posts will probably not be too surprised at my comments. Does this mean that I’m getting stuck in a rut and, with age, have become overly predictable? I hope not, but you’ll have to be the judge of that. Let’s just say that, over time, I’ve become more and more disenchanted with how the whole election “machine” seems to work in this country, this state, this county, and even this city. It brings to mind a famous strip from The wizard of Id:

In our society, where the U.S. Supreme Court has ridiculously said that $$$ = free speech, it means that whoever can contribute the most money to a candidate, party, or cause will almost always [yes, there is a caveat – the exception that proves the rule] control what happens in an election. (The corollary is that neither Congress nor any other governmental entity can restrict how much money can be spent to influence an election, either by contributions to a candidate or party or, perhaps even more importantly, by paying for political messaging for or against a candidate, party, or issue. That, in California, is called an “independent expenditure” – which is really hardly ever really independent.) Of course, there are differences between candidates and parties, but each of the two major national parties (and their various more local subunits) will parrot the “line” of those who pay the bills. For Republicans, that’s Donald Trump and his anointed surrogates. For Democrats, that’s the Democratic National Committee and its endorsees – and, at a more local level, the state and county committees and those who control them (hint, think corporations, labor unions, and other monied “special interests.”) Does that seem an overly cynical view? Well, IMHO you need look no further than California’s “top two” primary system, which automatically limits a final November election to just two candidates – as if voters were too dumb to figure out whom to vote for if there were more than two names on the ballot.

So there you have my first rant for this election cycle. As a protest against that rigged system, I have registered with the Green Party. (You still have two days – until 2/20/2024 – to go to the Secretary of State’s website [https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration] and change your voter registration.) Make sure you keep and print out your receipt – and take it to the polls – in case your registration change didn’t make it onto the voter rolls prior to election day.)

More to follow in my next installment.

November 2022 Election (part 3)

This is my final segment (prior to election day) on the November election. It’ll cover local elected offices and ballot measures (almost all of which are from the City of Oakland). Just to shake things up a little, I’ll start with the ballot measures.

Unlike the statewide ballot measures, most of the local measures were placed on the ballot by local governing bodies, primarily the Oakland City Council. This is interesting because in the past the Council has usully not been united enough to agree on pllacing a measure on the ballot.

Measure D – Amendment to measure protecting agricultural areas in the unincorporated parts of the County to modify some of the restrictions and requirements in agricultural areas. The original Measure D was an initiative measure placed on the ballot and supported by local environmental groups. A majority of the County Board of Supervisors opposed the measure. However, it appears times have changed. This amendment was placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors. It is also supported by one of the authors (Dick Schneider) of the original Measure D, and is not opposed by any environmental group. The basic purpose of Measure D – protecting agricultural lands and limiting urban uses to incorporated areas – remains unchanged. It’s still a good idea, and the amendments are “tweaks” to the measure to make it more workable. YES.

Measure H – Oakland Unified School District Parcel Tax Renewal. This measure, places on the ballot by the OUSD trustees, would renew a $120 per year parcel tax to benefit the school district and provide funding for teacher salaries, college preparatory programs, tutoring, and other student programs. OUSD has been perennially underfunded. This wont solve the District’s funding problems, but will at least help to keep them from getting worse. YES

Measure Q – Authorization for the City of Oakland to construct up to 13,000 low income residential rental units. This measure, placed on the ballot, would satisfy a long-standing constitutional requirement that low income public rental housing (“social housing”) be approved by the voters. The Legislature has passed a measure to repeal that requirement, but it won’t be on the ballot until next election, so for now the vote is still needed. The constitutional requirement was an anti-housing measure that is an embarrassment. YES!!

Measure R – Gender-neutral charter language. This measure has no real substance. All it does is make the City’s charter “gender neutral” by eliminating all the terms the referenced “he” or “him.” There’s no good reason to vote no. YES

Measure S – Allows non-citizen parents of OUSD student to vote in OUSD trustee elections. While this was placed on the ballot by the City Counncil, it modifies the City’s election laws to allow noncitizen parents to vote for school board. The main argument against it is that it will be hard to implement, as only noncitizens parents of OUSD students would be eligible, and only for the OUSD trustee offices.While it’s a nice idea, it appears to me it would be expensive and impractical to implement. Reluctantly, NO

Measure T – Progressive business tax. Right now, Oakland’s business tax has different rate for different types of businesses, but has a uniform tax rate for each business type, regardless of the business’ size or gross revenue. This measure would provide that bigger businesses would have higher tax rates, recognizing that small businesses don’t have the economies of scale of bigger businesses, so the same tax rate is a bigger burden on a small business. I also think it’s important to not let Oakland be overrun by large corporations that don’t have as much of a personal interest in the City’s welfare. YES

Measure U – $850 million general obligation bond measure for affordable housing, addressing homelessness, and maintaining and improving local infrastructure. This sounds like a good idea until you realize that it’s far more expensive to issue, and then pay off bonds than it is to use a “pay as you go” approach. Half of the money will be used to pay off bond investors. Also, there’s already one bond out there, so this will further increase the City’s indebtedness and reduce its credit rating (raising the cost of future bonds. reluctantly, NO

Measures V – Strengthening the protections of the City’s “Just Cause” eviction law. Oakland had a “just cause” eviction law that restricts when a landlord can evict a tenant by requiring there be a good reason for the eviction. This measure, recognizing the harm eviction does,especially in these days of soaring rental prices, adds additional protectios about when and how tenants can be evicted. The down side is it may make builders less willing to build more rental housing, but right now most of the rental housing being built in Oakland is market rate, and the law is less likely to affect those tenants. Having been a tenant, I am sympathetic to their plight of being at the mercy of landlords. YES

Measure W – Election Public Financing and Campaign reform. This may help somewhat in making Oakland’s elections fairer. It may also somewhat decrease the oversize influence of bog money campaign contributors. YES

Measure X – Term Limits and other reforms to elected City of Oakland officials. I have mixed feelings about term limits. They keep elected officials from becoming entrenched, but they also sometimes force out knowledgeable and effective officials.Overall, however, I think the effects of the measure would be beneficial. With mixed feelings, YES

Measure Y – Oakland Zoo parcel tax. The Oakland Zoo is a private nonprofit organization. This measure, placed on the ballot by an initiative sponsored by zoo supporters, would establish – and lock in for twenty years, a $68 parcel tax to help it run. (The tax would also increase annually based on the cost of living increase.) I have major qualms about taxing property in the City to guarantee funding for a private organization. I’d rather require that private organizations get any public funding through the City’s budget process, with periodic review and the ability to reduce or eliminate funding when money gets tight. This measure, to my mind, is way too inflexible. NO

Local Elected Officials

OK, this is is in some ways the most difficult part of the ballot. It’s also the most parochial. If you don’t live in Alameda County, you can skip this section, unless you’re one of those people who likes looking over the fence to see what’s happening in your neighbor’s back yard. In fact, while the first few offices cover all or part of Alameda County, the two remaining elected offices on my ballot (which is what I work off of) are for Oakland alone. I’m not going to comment on other cities, as even trying to cover Berkeley or Emeryville elected offices would drive me crazy.

Alameda County District Attorney – When they think of the DA, most people just think of criminal prosecution; and there’s no question that prosecuting crimes is the the main thing the DA’s office does. However, the DA is also responsible for enforcing consumer protection and local environmental laws (think public nuisance, or dumping garbage). The DA is also responsible for local enforcement of some laws governing local agencies and political candidates (for example, conflict of interest laws and requirements). Those often get short shrift, since most DAs’ careers start with being prosecutors.

That brings me to the race facing Alameda County voters. The current DA isn’t seeking reelection, so we have two non-incumbents with very different backgrounds asking for your vote. Terry Wiley is the standard candidate. He’s currently the Chief Assistant DA for the County. In other words, he represents the status quo. If you like how the DA’s office is working, he’s your man. His opponent, Pamela Price, has been a candidate before. She’s an attorney in private practice, specializing in defending people’s civil rights. She’s experienced the criminal justice system both as an attorney and as a juvenile justice defendant growing up in Ohio. To say the least, her approach to being DA would be very different from that of Mr. Wiley.

Does the DA’s office need to change its approach? My feeling is yes. The County DA hasn’t changed its attitude towards prosecution in many years. The prior DA was the daughter of a long-time judge, and the one before her was very traditional. My feeling is the office needs to be shaken up. There are new concepts, like restorative justice, that ought to be used much more often. My recommendation is to vote for change. PAMELA PRICE

AC Transit Director At Large. AC Transit, the public agency providing bus service through much of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties (and service across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco), has a hybrid board – part district based and part elected at-large. This is an at-large seat. The election pits the incumbent, Joel Young, against a challenger carrying the progressive banner, Alfred Twu. There are places where being a progressive makes a big distance – like the County DA. I don’t think of AC Transit as being one of those places. Of course there are places for progressive change at AC Transit. Many such changes, such as the current transition first to diesel/electric hybrid bus and now to battery or fuel-cell fully electric buses, are already in progress. Others, such as realigning routes to work cooperatively with transit-oriented development, maybe need more emphasis, but IMHO, being the first asian-american on the AC Transit board and having endorsements from a lot of “progressive” politicians may be nice, but it’s not something I’d focus on. To my mind, Mr. Twu doesn’t make a convincing case for replacing the incumbent. Joel Young

East Bay MUD Director (Ward 3) – Water & Wastewater Agency Board of Directors. The East Bay Municipal Utility District (East Bay MUD or EBMUD for short) provides drinking (and firefighting) water for much of the East Bay. It also provides wastewater treatment for Northern Alameda County and much of Western Contra Costa County through its Special District #1. As some of you may know, I served on the EBMUD board in this seat from 1990 through 1994, when I was narrowly defeated by a pro-growth candidate. Someof the controversies at that time are now largely settled. There have not been any recent attempts to expand EBMUD’s service area to support sprawl development. EBMUD remains a leader in promoting efficient water use and in promoting the use of recycled water.

Right now, the biggest challenge to EBMUD in the long term will be adapting to the effects of climate change. EBMUD’s water supply is almost entirely from Sierra snow melt captured at Pardee Dam in the Sierra foothills and transported to the District’s area by huge aqueduct pipes. As climate change continues, snowmelt will happen more quickly, and some of what is now snowfall will become rainfall in the Sierra. This will outstrip Pardee Dam’s storage capacity and require new alternative storage. While I was on the Board, EBMUD began looking to conjunctive use – water storage in large groundwater basins under the Central Valley. More recently, that storage has begun to be a reality, with a cooperative agreement with public agencies in San Joaquin County.

There are two candidates running in Ward 3: Marguerite Young, the incumbent, and Mark Seedall. Both candidates have lot of experience in water issues: Mr. Seedall as a staff person at Contra Costa Water District and Ms. Young working at a public interest nonprofit, but, as the incumbent, Ms. Young obviously has more experience with EBMUD’s specific isues. Mr. Seedall talks generally about making EBMUD work more cost-effectively. more quickly, and more sustainable, but provides no details of what that might mean. Ms. Young provides more details about what EBMUD has done during her board tenure and what she hopes to accomplish in her next term, if elected. To my mind, what one needs in a board member is less the technical expertise, wich EBMUD staff can provide, and more the vision and responsiveness to the concerns of EBMUD’s customers. In that regard, I think Marguerite Young is by far the better choice.

Oakland Elected Officials

The two other offices on the ballot are Oakland elected officials: Mayor and City Auditor. The City Auditor position is uncontested. The only Candidate is the incumbent – Courtney Ruby. Consequently, I won’t discuss that position.

The other, and extremely important, position is Mayor of Oakland. The current mayor is termed out under Oakland’s term limit law, so there is no incumbent on the ballot. However, there are ten candidates seeking to replace the incumbent. Among the candidates are three current city council members: Loren Taylor, Sheng Thao, and Treva Reid. Ms. Reid, it might be mentioned is the daughter of a former city council member from the district she represents. There is also a long-time former city council member, Ignacio De La Fuente, and a former school board member, Gregory Hodge. The other candidates are: Seneca Scott (small business owner), Peter Liu (entertainer), Alyssa Villanueva (civil rights attorney), John Reimann (retired carpenter), and Tyron Jordan (legal assistant). Needless to say, the three council members and one former council member have significant experience in the running of Oakland’s city government. The former school board member also has some experience, as the school district interacts extensively with the City government.

I’ve watched a couple of mayoral candidate forums, as well as reading through the candidate statements. First there are three candidates to whom I can’t give serious consideration. Peter Liu is an entertainer, not a public official, and it shows. His answers to questions could not be taken seriously. Sadly, likewise for Tyron Jordan and Seneca Scott. While Mr. Reimann’s answers were more interesting – a critique of the capitalist system that has given use many of the messes we have in Oakland, his proposal to move the City towards socialism has to be called unrealistic. (If you want, you could give him a ranked choice vote, because he almost certainly will be eliminated.) That leaves six candidates that I take seriously.

All six of these candidates agree that public safety is a serious concern, but they differ in dealing with it. At the two extremes, De La Fuente take a very traditional approach – hire more cops, get them on the street, and get tougher on arresting people. By contrast, Sheng Thao and Alyssa Villanueva take the approach of emphasizing violence prevention programs and pulling dealing with mental health issues out of the normal police duties and instead using a program involving mental health professionals. Sheng Thao also mentioned moving some administrative duties, such as issuing special permits, out of the police department altogether so the police can focus on doing police work. The remaining three seem to lean more to Mr. De La Fuente’s approach of more police, bute in a more nuanced way.

On housing, again, all the serious candidates consider this an important issue, but IMHO, none of them had a clear answer of how to pay for and implement a plan to provided permanent and adequate housing for those who currently are struggling, or have already lost their housing. Certainly the homeless problem is huge, but just as big is the problem of those barely able to meet their basic budget need and, as the saying goes, “being one paycheck away from homelessness. None of the answers were truly adequate, but I think Sheng Thao and Alyssa Villanueva came closest.

Bynd that, there was the elephant in the room that nobody addressed – the enormous burden on the city of the various employee pension plans, especially for the police. These plans, while very attractive, are unsustainable, and thus far the City has been unable to negotiate a way out from under the tremendous financial burden. Could the only answer be to declare bankruptcy and then negotiate an equitable compromise? As I say, this question wasn’t brought up.

So, where do I come down on ranked choice” Here are my five: First -Alyssa Villanueva; Second – Sheng Thao; Third – Greg Hodge; Fourth and Fifth – I have no firm choice, but I probably would not pick Ignacio De La Fuente because I fear he would exacerbate the friction between the mayor and the Council on policy issues.

November 2022 Elections (Part 2 – Statewide Ballot Measures)

November election ballots now seem to have a plethora of statewide ballot measures on them, often sponsored by special interests. This year is no exception.

There are seven statewide measures on the ballot, including one state constitutional amendment for voter ratification. A lot of them are initiatives qualified through the efforts (and money) of one or more special interest groups. To my mind, this makes them subject to extra scrutiny, as what’s best for a special interest group is not necessarily best for the Stat of California. In fact, more often than not, the measures will benefit the special interest at the expense of the state and its people. Again, this year is no exception. Here are my evaluations:

Proposition 1 – State Constitutional Amendment – would enshrine in the California Constitution as part of Article I, the California Declaration of Rights, as Section 1.1, the right to reproductive freedom including the righ to have an abortion and the right to use, or refuse to use, contraceptives. It was approved by 29/8 in the State Senate (3 not voting) and by 58/17 in the State Assembly (5 not voting), exceeding the required 2/3 majority by a comfortable margin (including some Republican votes in the Senate). While the State Constitution has already been held by the courts to guarantee the rights to abortion and birth control under the constitution’s right of privacy, this amendment would lock that in regardless of any change in the California judiciary. (Recall that the rights of abortion had been protected in the federal constitution under an implied right of privacy – until the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that – for abortion only, at least for the moment. It’s an open question whether federal legislation outlawing abortion (or birth control) would preempt any state constitutional guarantees of those rights. With this U.S. Supreme Court, it’s anybody’s guess, as it would pit against each other two bedrock conservative causes – the “right to life” and states’ rights.

At any rate, for anyone who believes that abortion and birth control should, at least for the most part, be matters to be decided by the woman (or man) involved, this is a no-brainer; YES

Proposition 26 – Expanding legal gambling in tribal casinos. This would legalize sports gambling (e.g., on professional or college football games, professional boxing and wrestling, etc). It is primarily sponsored by a few tribes that already have casinos. Not only would this entice more people into gambling, but it would further open the door to other currently illegal activities such as “fixing” the results of sporting events by bribing players or coaches. IMHO, this would make an already bad problem that much worse. NO

Proposition 27 – An alternative approach to expanding legal gambling in the state. This would allow on-line sports betting, with a small portion of the proceeds to be used to assist in dealing with the state’s very large homeless problem. It’s primarily sponsored by Nevada gambling interests. See my discussion of the previous measure for why this is a bad idea. NO

Proposition 28 – Additional Funding for arts and music in public schools – This would allocate additional state general fund money (derived from unrestricted state revenue) towards funding art and music education. In the afternath of Prop. 13 and the replacement of local property tax revenue to fund schools by a uniform state funding formula, many school districts dropped their art and music programs in favor of more “fundamental” subjects. This would incentivize restoring those programs. While art and music may not be “necessary” – at least to get most jobs – IMHO they’re part of what makes us civilized. YES

Proposition 29 – Require Medical Professional at Dialysis Facilities – This measure would require having a doctor, nurse-practitioner, or physician assistant on duty at dialysis facilities whenever they’re open. It was put on the ballot by an employee union of dialysis center employees as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the major centers. According to my wife – who, as a geriatrician, has a lot of experience with dialysis centers, this is [pardon the expression] overkill and unneeded. NO

Proposition 30 – 1.75% surtax on very high-income California residents (over $2 million per year) to finance more electrical vehicle charging stations and efforts to reduce wildfire risk. According to opponents, this was put on the ballot by LYFT to reduce the difficulty of it requiring electric vehicles. That may or may not be true. It appears to me that both projects – more electric vehicle chargers and reducing wildfire risk – are worthwhile. The counterargument is that it would drive more high-income residents to leave California, and we’d lose all their tax revenue. This is a judgment call, however I feel that when you earn over $2 million a year, an additional 1.75% tax is not that likely to break your bank and push you over the line to move elsewhere. Bear in mind that California’s high-income tax rate are already quite high, so if high taxes were going to move you elsewhere, they probably already have. YES

Proposition 31 – Referendum against law prohibiting retail sale of flavored tobacco products – This referendum was placed on the ballot by the tobacco industry. Flavored tobacco products – especially for “vaping” suck a lot of young people into tobacco addiction. We really don’t need to be encouraging this harmful addiction. YES (remember that here a yes vote retains the law that the Legislature had passed!)

My Thoughts on the November 2022 Elections (Part One)

OK, so this blog entry is a bit late – well, actually VERY late! In all likelihood, many potential readers have already received, filled out, and mailed in or dropped off their mail-in ballot (which everyone [hopefully] received).

Nevertheless, for those of you still scratching your head about how to mark your ballot, here are my thoughts and recommendations, for what they’re worth.\

First, a couple of general remarks – skip them if you just want to know how I’d recommend voting, but I feel like these are things that need to be said about problems with how we now vote.

IMHO, the biggest problem with the way we now vote in California is the “top two” system for running the primary and general election for all statewide candidate elections. As you may recall, this was instituted as the result of an initiative that attacked some of the weaknesses of the prior partisan primary electoral system. Under the Top Two system, there’s only one primary – as opposed to a primary for each eligible party (a party needed to show it had a certain number of active member, either through party registration or by votes for party candidates in the last election in order to be eligible to holld a primary and have candidates on the ballot for statewide offices). In the prior system, it was common, especially in districts that had a large majority registration for one party, to have the election decided, for all practical purposes, in a primary where, depending on the party’s preference, only voters registered in that party could vote. As a result, the November election was, in many counties, about as much of an election as an election in Russia or Iran.

Under the Top Two system, by contrast, everybody, regardless of party affiliation, runs in one primary election, and the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, face off in the November election. When one party has a strong majority registration, that can mean that only candidates from that party (assuming there is more than one candidate from that party) of being on the November ballot, If there’s only one candidate from that party, then a second candidate, with the next highest vote total, is the other candidate, and the November result is a foregone conclusion. In some highly Democratic (or highly Republican) districts, the minority parties don’t even bother fielding a candidate, and an incumbent from the majority party may sail through without any electoral challenge. Nice work if you can get it! Top-down party leadership will often discourage intra-party challenges (no big surprise!), so the status quo often reigns, as for minor parties, they’re as a practical matter almost never going to make it to the November ballot, so their only chance to connect with voters is the low turnout primary election, where than can be a multitude of candidates, including whacko fringe candidates, so they get minimal attention from voters. To my mind, the Top Two system is even worse than what it replaced.

What might work better? How about two rounds of ranked choice voting? The primary would be open to all comers, but would be conducted by ranked choice voting. The top four or five candidates (I think either would work, but five might allow a bit wider choice at the cost of dividing public attention a bit more) would go on to the general election. With ranked choice voters would not have to choose just one candidate, and a candidate who had quite a few second or third place votes might even turn out to be the top candidate in total votes. The second round, with fewer candidates, would allow voters to take a closer look at the remaining candidates. If there were five (or four) or fewer candidates at the time the primary election filing deadline passed, that race would go directly to the November elections, where the candidates would compete – via ranked choice – in a much higher turn-out election than primaries usually have.

OK, now that that’s off my chest, my second gripe is with the election of judges. While in theory having judges be elected ought to be a good idea, making them accountable to voters, in practice almost no voters know enough about any judge or judge candidate – in terms of their knowledge of the law, their treatment of those coming before them, and how the opinions they write might change the law.

(At the trial court level, a judge’s decision almost never changes the law, but at the appellate level – what happens if a trial court party to a case appeals from the trial judge’s decision – the law can often be reinterpreted or actually modified, effectively writing new law because the Legislature wasn’t entirely clear, or even tossing out a law the legislature wrote because it violates the state or federal constitution.)

All the voters get to see is names on the ballot, and possibly short statements from the candidate of why they’re doing a good job, or why they’d do a better job than the judge they’re running against. Often, there is no contest so the judge remains in office automatically. At the appellate level, judges don’t even run against an opponent, and they provide no statement explaining why they should be retained. Only in very rare instances (like when Republicans convinced voters to throw out several very liberal Supreme Court justices appointed by Jerry Brown in his first term as Governor) does an appellate justice get less than a 90% vote for retention. However that means very little, because there’s really no campaign so the voters have no idea whether the justice deserves retention or not. Also, appellate justices are voted on only by voters in their appellate district, even though appellate decisions. even those made in only one appellate district, often have statewide affects, especially in the Third Appellate District, where the laws made in Sacramento often are being challenged. I’m not sure what would work better, but the current system of judicial elections is, to put it bluntly, a farce.

NOW ON TO THE ELECTION!

Starting at the top, we have the election for Governor. Under the Top Two system, there are only two candidates (write-in votes won’t be counted!): Gavin Newsom (D) and Brian Dahle (R). Newsom generally represents the liberal California Democratic Party establishment, and Dahle represents the California Republican Party “establishment” (to the extent that party has an “establishment” position, given that the party is, at this point, virtually powerless to influence policy at the statewide level, so its views are essentially irrelevant). Gavin Newsom didn’t even bother to submit a candidate statement, and Dahle’s statement is virtually meaningless because most of what he’d like to do needs to be done by the Legislature, where a Republican – particularly one with a conservative agenda, would be able to accomplish nothing. Aside from that, Dahle’s program is essentially to undo everything Newsom and the Democratic legislative majority (of more than 2/3 in both Senate and Assembly) have enacted.

I’m not thrilled by the California Democratic establishment or Newsom, but the Republican candidate is not a good alternative. NEWSOM

Next we have several statewide subsidiary position. That’s not to say they’re unimportant. The Secretary of State supervises elections and runs the states office for regulating corporations. The Controller and Treasurer have potentially important roles in managing and evaluating California’s finances. The Attorney General, as the state’s top attorney, writes opinions that can influence how the courts evaluate the state’s law. The Attorney General is also responsible for enforcing state laws and advising and defending the state and its component entities (e.g., boards, commissions and departments within the executive branch) from challenges to how the stte and its agencies are conducting (or not conducting) their business. The AG also generally defends state law passed by the Legislature against legal challenge and has the authority (not often used) to enter litigation to enforce those laws. The AG is also the state’s primary prosecutor of the state’s criminal laws – an extremely important role that arguably should be a separate position. Here are my thought on the electoral choices – again keeping in mind the limitations of the Top Two system.

Lieutenant Governor – a position with few substantive duties. The incumbent, Eleni Kounalakis (D), espouses a variety of “progressive” policy positions, most of which I agree with. Of course her ability to implement any of these policies depends on the other members of the various boards on which she sits. Her opponent, Angela Jacobs (R), didn’t even bother to submit a candidate statement – probably for a similar, although, diametrically opposite, reason as Newsom. Newsom know he’d get elected even if he wrote nothing, so he didn’t bother; Jacobs probably knew she wouldn’t get elected, regardless of anything she might say, so she didn’t bother. Nevertheless, I think Kounalakis is the far better choice.

Secretary of State – The incumbent is Shirley Weber (D). The challenger is Rob Bernosky (R). While Bernosky asserts he’ll help elect the “right” candidates, that’s not what the Secretary of State’s job is. The job is about making sure that the state’s elections are run FAIRLY, accurately, and efficiently. Bernosky’s statements seem to indicate that he. like many Republicans want to “tilt” the electoral playing field to promote candidates who’s views he supports. That’s VERY disturbing! Weber!!

Controller and Treasurer – both of these offices are in some ways almost menial, but in other ways very important. The are both “money offices.” They supervise how the state gets and spend funds, and the treasurer makes important decisions about how the state invests the many billions of dollars it holds. Both of these offices of Democratic incumbents: Malia Cohen as Controller and Fiona Ma as Treasurer. Both incumbents are career Democratic politicians and probably view the office as a stepping stone towards higher and more powerful offices. That bothers me. On the other hand, the Republican candidates, especially Jack Guerrero for Treasurer, make promises that they really can’t fulfill given the nature of the office they’re seeking. On the other hand, Lanhee Chen, the Republican candidate for Controller, points to a number of specific steps he’d take to evaluate California’s finances critically. I cannot in good conscience support either of the Democratic incumbents. I would strongly support Chen for Controller, and offer lukewarm support for Guerrero (alternatively, you can leave your ballot blank for this office as a protest vote.)

Attorney General – As I said, I think this is an extremely important office. I am not impressed by the performance of the incumbent, Rob Bonta (D), who was a legislator before Newsom plucked him out to be AG. I have litigated against Deputy AGs in several public interest cases where, IMHO. the AG was on the wrong side. I don’t see Bonta as having the guts to change this. On the other hand, Nathan Hochman, the Republican challenger, is a “law & order” Republican in the mold of some of the more notorious past Republican AGs. NO THANK YOU! Reluctantly, Bonta.

Insurance Commissioner – This is another important but underappreciated office. Some of you may recall that this was made an elected position by an initiative measure, which also greatly expanded the office’s authority. Now it’s an important office representing consumers against the powerful insurance industry. The incumbent, Ricardo Lara (D) used to be in the Legislature, where he focused on insurance issues. He’s done a reasonable job as commissioner. His opponent, Robert Howell (R) comes with the traditional Republican stance of being a “businessman” who wants to “guard against waste, fraud, and abusively inflated premiums.” That’s fine, but whose side is he going to be on? Sorry, but when it comes to helping consumers against giant corporations, I’m afraid I still prefer a Democrat to a “businessman” Republican. Lara.

Board of Equalization District 2 – The board of equalization is responsible for collecting property taxes and resolving disputes over assessments used for property. The Republican candidate, Peter Coe Verbica, trumpets his family’s inherited wealth and loudly proclaims that he wants to lower taxes. How, then, will government provide the services we all need and expect? What come along with lower taxes is reduced services, which doesn’t bother Mr. Verbica, since he, unlike many of us, can easily afford to pay for whatever services he may need. His opponent, Sally Lieber, pays the mandatory obeisance to Prop. 13, but also promises fair taxation (whatever that means). I may not favor Ms. Lieber, but I certainly disfavor Mr. Verbica. Lieber

Superintendent of Public Instructions – This is the person theoretically in charge of California’s public schools. In reality, he or she does not have a huge amount of power. The Legislature and local school boards, between them, make most of the important decisions about public schools. nevertheless, the Superintendent does occupy the bully pulpit on schools. Our public schools certainly need help. The pandemic badly damaged students’ education, and many families have abandoned the public schools, lowering the amount of money available to run schools for the remaining kids. Charter schools also siphon money off from the public schools. The Republican candidate, Lance Christensen, would pursue open warfare against the state’s teacher unions. The incumbent, Tony Thurmond (D), supports the standard liberal goals and generally take the side of the teachers and of the public school systems, against charter and private schools. The teacher unions are, no question, a special interest, but teachers also have a strong interest in being able to provide teaching and have kids come out of school both literate and educated. To my mind, cooperation and negotiation beat open warfare any day. Thurmond

Supreme Court and Appellate Justice retention votes – as I indicated earlier, I don’t think that retention votes, as currently structured, are helpful in ensuring that California has an intelligent, thoughtful, and well-trained appellate judiciary. Even I, a lawyer with over 30 years of experience, have trouble deciding whether some of our current appellate judges deserve to stay on the bench. Further, there is no assurance that the replacement for any justices that are removed will be any better. Therefore, I make no recommendations on any of the retention votes. In my humble opinion, we need a better system for evaluating whether or appellate justices are doing a good job.

Part Two of my election thoughts, which I will publish tomorrow, takes on the state ballot measures. Part Three, which will follow closely thereafter, will discuss local candidates and ballot measures, – primarily in Oakland.

The November 2020 Election

Part 1 – candidates (Yeah, I know, I already published Part 2.)

November 2020 is a Presidential election. That in itself makes it special. This is a particularly crucial presidential election. We are just finishing four year that have almost literally turned the country on its head. We’ve gone from a president who insisted that the U.S. be a world leader in turning back climate change to one who doubts its very existence. We’ve gone from a president who endorsed diplomacy as the way countries solve their disputes (even though he engaged in undeclared wars and extrajudicial assassinations) to one who insists that the U.S. pull back from international involvement (while he continues to engage U.S. troops in a variety of overseas military operations – mostly begun by his predecessors – and threatens military and economic warfare on almost a weekly basis.

In short, we’ve gone from an administration that talked the talk of international cooperation while not always walking the walk, to one that doesn’t even make a pretense in believing in it, and wants to bring the U.S. domestic economic policies back to those of the laissez-faire 19th century.

I can hardly call myself an enthusiastic supporter of Joe Biden and his brand of Democratic (large D) government. As Obama’s vice president, he went along with numerous questionable choices that administration made. Nor, since becoming a presidential candidate, has he shown that he was artificially held back from taking stronger steps to address the many problems facing this country and the world. In short, he’s the kind of milquetoast, corporatist Democrat that I’ve voted against for many years.

However, this year is different, and I have to reluctantly endorse Joe Biden. I’d love to be able to think that either Green Party or Peace and Freedom Party candidate could win, but we know that’s not possible. Sadly, the voters of this country aren’t ready for any kind of radical change. Maybe in four years? I’m not optimistic.

Yes, it’s once again a choice for the a lesser of two evils; but Biden is so much less evil than his opponent that he looks almost angelic by comparison with Mr. Trump.

So much for the federal level. Being in Barbara Lee’s congressional district, there’s hardly any contest. Her Republican opponent has a platform of Puerto Rican statehood (It’s not even popular in Puerto Rico. Why is a Californian candidate making it his top priority), lower taxes (for whom? And if we lower taxes even further, how will anything get paid for?), and establishing a space force (with what money, when he wants to cut taxes? A space force is even more of a boondoggle that the High-Speed Rail Authority!)

At the state level, there’s not much choice either. To be blunt, I am notably unenthusiastic about either our state senator, Nancy Skinner, or our assembly member, Buffy Wicks. However, the only opposition to Skinner is a Libertarian whose ideas are little short of nonsense, and the only opponent to Wicks is Sara Brink – a film maker who has mounted virtually no campaign at all. I may vote for Sara Brink, if only as a protest vote. I will leave my ballot blank on state senate.

At the local level, things are more competitive and interesting. There is one uncontested office – BART Director – where the incumbent is running unopposed. However, there a two contested AC Transit Board seats, an Oakland Unified School District board seat, two Oakland City Council seats, one county superior court judge position, and the Oakland City Attorney seat.

Let’s start with City Council. For the at-large seat (city-wide), there are three candidates: Rebecca Kaplan – a three-term incumbent; Derreck B. Johnson, a “small business owner;” and Nancy Sidebotham; a tax preparer and perennial city council candidate. Johnson is running with backing from much of the East Bay political establishment, including Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Board of Equalization member (and long-time San Francisco politician) Malia Cohen, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, assembly member Buffy Wicks, former state senator Don Perata, and a number of former Oakland city council members. Rebecca Kaplan has the endorsement of the Alameda County Democratic Party, Our Revolution East Bay, and many of the local labor unions, as well as the Sierra club and Oakland Rising – i.e., much of the progressive wing of the local Democratic Party. Sidebotham has no organizational endorsement and 24 individual endorsers.

As for platforms, Sidebotham’s platform focuses on a few specific narrow issues – like being a watchdog a the newly-established city redistricting commission and getting audits done of city departments. Not what I’d call an ambitious platform. Johnson’s platform reeks of generalities – fighting COVID and supporting the City’s economic recovery, addressing housing & homelessness, and “racial justice and equality” – really – that’s what he put up on the LWV Voters Edge website! Kaplan lists a number of initiatives, ranging from ending disparities in the city’s treatment of its citizens in hiring, contracting, and policing to addressing homelessness and public health issues to promoting civilianization of the the police department. In short, a pretty wide-ranging progressive-oriented platform. Her three terms in office reflect that progressive stance. (It’s no wonder the Mayor would like to replace her.)

If you can’t tell, my choice is Kaplan. This is a battle between the old guard and the progressives. I’m siding with the progressives.

Oakland City Council – District 1.

This is also a three-way race, and again it’s an incumbent against two challengers. Let’s start with the challengers:

Steph Dominguez Walton calls herself a businesswoman and mother. She doesn’t say what her business is, though. (She’s been in TV in various positions, but not any more.) Her husband, by the way, is described as “an environmental attorney.” He’s a partner in SSL, LLP – a law firm that represents – according to their website – developers, property owners, investors, contractors, and financial institutions in a wide variety of development and construction projects. That doesn’t say that Ms. Walton is automatically pro-developer, but when you look at her biggest campaign contributors, they’re mostly construction unions.

One of her primary platform planks is to eliminate single-family zoning throughout Oakland. She claims it’s the result of racism – exclusionary zoning. In some parts of Oakland, particularly the Oakland Hills, there’s some truth to that. Housing tracts in Upper Rockridge, for example, developed around the time of World War I, included restrictive covenants prohibiting the sale of properties to blacks, asians, or Jews. On the other hand, given that most houses were built on steep, narrow streets because of the hillsides, single family homes were probably the only thing practical, and with the steep hillsides, streetcars weren’t practical, unlike lower parts of Oakland where they, along with small multi-unit buildings, were prevalent. In other words, yes, there was racism in Oakland, but no, it’s not what caused single-family housing.

Ms. Walton also says that requiring all housing to be multi-unit will make solve Oakland’s affordability problems. I don’t think so. Look at San Francisco. The eastern half of San Francisco is almost entirely multi-unit buildings, and it’s got some of the highest housing costs in the country. Housing pricing is not a nut that’s easily cracked, and simple-minded thinking won’t crack it. Perhaps because she’s opposed to single-family zoning, she’s been endorsed by California YIMBY. I’m afraid that endorsement doesn’t impress me positively.

A second major plank in her platform is “reforming” the police dept. What that means is unclear. She’s for prohibiting the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, or flash-bank grenades. Fine, but all three candidates say that. She wants accountability – but what does that mean? She said police should “protect the community from violent crime.” OK, but how? She says Oakland should fund departments “better suited to address mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness, among other critical services.” OK, but where’s the money going to come from when roughly half the City’s budget goes to policing? Sorry, but I don’t see ideas that give me confidence here.

She says she wants to see more money spent on education – then why isn’t she running for school board, not City Council?

In short, I’m not impressed. (Update October 9th – I heard all three candidates on an Oakland League of Women Voters Candidates’ Forum for District 1 Council and School Board races. The candidates answered audience-supplied questions posed by the moderator. The recorded program should be up on the league’s website. As of today, it’s not up yet. check back next week. Bottom line, while she’s a very slick talker, I didn’t here a lot of substance. I’m still not impressed.)

Well, it’s a few days later, and the vote by mail ballots have dropped – and this year they’ve dropped on everyone, so I need to hurry up and finish my recommendations before they become useless!

Short take on Mr. Ngo, he’s got a few good ideas – like allowing people in District 1 vote on issues before the Council so he’s got direct input from the community. However, there’s a lot of kinks that would need to be worked out to prevent fraudulent voting. Overall, he impresses me as idealistic, but very inexperienced. I’d worry about turning a council seat over to him at this point.

Bottom line, my recommendation is to stick with Dan Kalb. While I don’t always agree with him – I often feel he’s too timid and too worried about getting people made with him. (You’d think he’d have realized by now that if you want to make and omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs.) Nevertheless, his instincts and heart are in the right place, and on important things, he usually comes down on the right side – or at least on on the wrong side. I realize that’s not an enthusiastic endorsement, but, as with Biden, he’s still head and shoulders above his opponents.

For District 1 school board, it’s again a 3-way race. My thumbnail evaluations: Stacy Thomas – she’s basically mad because OUSD has been closing down some of the smaller schools as uneconomical. I understand her concern, but OUSD is in serious financial trouble, so something had to give. She’s running on a “progressive” slate (Action2020Oakland). The slated opposes school closures and charter schools. I certainly agree with the latter. I’d say she’s my second choice.

Austin Dannhaus – he’s pretty slick, and uses lots of jargon. He claims he’s been a third grade teacher, but doesn’t say where or for how long. He’s supported financially by Michael Bloomberg -who’s big on charter schools, but Austin says nothing about his position on that issue. To be blunk, I trust him about as far as I can throw him. NO WAY.

Sam Davis – like Austin, he’s been a teacher, but he seems much more down to earth. He’s also been a local school volunteer and has lots of support – including most progressive organizations. I’m picking him as my first choice.

City Attorney – this is a battle between the current city attorney – Barbaqra Parker , and a deputy city attorney, Elias Ferran. I have been very unimpressed with Ms. Parker. I think she blew it on the Oakland Coal Ordinance, and I don’t see her addressing the problems of OPD at all. I feel she’s been ineffective. I am voting for Mr. Ferran as a vote for change.

AC Transit – we get to vote for the At-Large seat and the Ward 2 seat. I know both the incumbents, and while they don’t always agree, they both have good heads on their shoulders and put their hearts into the job. I recommend Chris Peeples for at-large and Greg Harper for our district director.

Alameda County Superior Court – this is an open seat, and there are two candidates: Mark Fickes and Elena Condes. This is a run-off after neither got a majority in the primary. While they’re both decent candidates, I like Fickes’ views on the issues better, so that’s who I’m going for.

Finally there are the local measures. There are two county measures, one school district bond, and three city measures. Here they are:

Measure V – Utility tax for unincorporated areas – this will help the County have money to address needed county services. YES

Measure W – a countywide sales tax measure, also to help pay for county services, especially social services that have been stretched by the pandemic – YES

Measure Y – Oakland Unified School District bond for classroom repairs and school safety improvements – YES

Measure QQ – would allow the City to pass an ordinance allowing residents aged 16-18 to vote for OUSD school board members. – NO (I don’t think high school juniors have the maturity to understand what they’d be voting for. I know I didn’t when I was in high school, and I was probably more mature than most.)

Measure S1 – provides more oversight for Oakland Police Dept. by civilian review board. – YES

So there you have it!!

Statewide Ballot Measure Recommendations

So, my ballot came today in the mail – and my brother called me last night to ask my recommendations. Guess it’s time I put them up on this blog.

I already started going through the candidates, but that’s taking a while, so I’ll start with the state ballot measures. There are twelve of them – more than some years but not as many as some others. A lot of issues; some pretty minor, others huge. I’ll take them in numerical order.

Prop. 14 – Stem Cell Research Bonds – We voters approved an earlier set of bonds, and a research center was set up using them. It’s now churning out results – including results that led to one of the COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Should voters approve a second round of bonds? Well, maybe. I think most thinking people agree that stem cell research (using cells often derived from discarded human embryos produced using in vitro fertilization for later implantation, but then not used) is not immoral, and can give important medical results. The real question is whether it still needs more public money to keep going. (This measure would provide 1.5 billion – roughly one sixth the amount of the 2008 high-speed rail bond.) I’d like to see some “strings” attached to research coming out of this – like it can’t be used to give the pharmaceutical industry huge profits. But we don’t currently have that choice. I’m going to vote yes, because the benefits outweigh the “should haves.”

Prop. 15 – “Split roll” Property tax. This would modify Prop. 13 to allow different treatment of commercial/industrial versus residential property. Right now property only gets reassessed on sale; but commercial properties are rarely sold. (When was the last time Chevron’s Richmond refinery changed hands?) This would say that commercial property gets reassessed regularly. That will greatly increase property tax revenue – meaning more funding for schools, public hospitals, and other public needs. YES!!

Prop. 16 – Cancel the prohibition on affirmative action. A while back, a ballot measure (pushed by Ward Connerly) got passed prohibiting affirmative action for public agencies in California. That means we can’t take into account past discrimination in making personnel decisions. Arguably, if everyone had equal opportunity, affirmative action would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, we know that’s not true. True, affirmative action can be subject to abuse, but we’ve thrown out the baby with the bathwater. YES

Prop. 17 – Restores voting rights to parolees. California is a state that allows ex-felons to vote once they’ve totally finished their prison term. But technically, parolees can still go back to prison. Of course, if the do, they’d lose their voting privilege, but that gives them an incentive (perhaps not a big one) to stay on the “straight an narrow.” YES

Prop. 18 – This would allow a 17 year-old to vote in the primary election if they’d be 18 by the time of the general election. Right now, if you’re 17 1/2 in the spring before a general election, you’re limited to choosing between two candidates that you had no say in selecting. This measure would bend the 18 year-old voting age a little to give those about to turn 18 a say in who they get to vote for when they turn 18. YES

Prop. 19 – Property tax preference for seniors – Right now, senior (over 15) homeowners get to transfer their Prop. 13 “privilege” of lower taxes to a new home, but usually only within the same county, and only once. The rule also applies to severely disabled people and those displaced by a natural disaster or a contamination event. This measure would allow eligible homeowners to transfer the assessment up to three time to any county in the state. The measure would also narrow the rules that tax-advantage intergenerational property transfers. It would increase taxes on the latter transfers. It would also reduce the disincentive for elderly or disabled to move, and the new owners would pay an increased tax. Of course, the tax on the replacement property would be lower than if it was sold to a non-qualifying homeowner. Overall, I think the narrowing of intergenerational transfer rules is a good thing, and for the rest, it’s probably a wash. YES

Prop. 20 – This would tighten up sentencing and parole rules and generally reverse the loosening of rules putting people in prison done by the Legislature in the past few years. Generally, I think we’re putting too many people in prison, and it’s not working. Prisons are often training schools for criminals. We need to come up with better solutions, and this isn’t one of them. NO!!

Prop. 21 – This would reverse the Costa-Hawkins law, passed in the mid 1990s, that restricted the application of rent control. Now, any housing built after 1990 can’t be rent controlled. As a result, new housing is increasingly unaffordable, especially in areas with a shortage of housing. This would undo Costa-Hawkins and allow cities and counties to apply rent control to newer housing, once the housing is at least 15 years old. Rent control would continue to not apply to single family homes. Rent control would still need to allow landlords and fair return on investment, and owners of two or less rental properties would still fall under Costa-Hawkins. Consta-Hawkins has allowed rents to skyrocket. Enough is enough! YES!

Prop. 22 – The Uber-Lyft Ballot Measure. This measure, mostly funded by Uber, Lyft, and other “Gig” companies, would reverse a recent state law that called for people who work for such companies to be employees, not independent contractors. The difference? employees get employee benefits – like minimum wage, sick leave, paid time off, etc. independent contractors get NADA. Maybe some people like the flexibility of part time work, but these company get away with screwing the “employees.” NO!!

Prop. 23 – This measure, put on by a union trying to force unionization of employees at dialysis centers, would mandate that dialysis centers have a physician on duty full time. My wife, who’s a geriatrician, says it’s unnecessary and expensive. It will make dialysis more expensive without really improving care. NO

Prop. 24 – amending consumer privacy rights law. The Legislature had gradually been enacting more laws to protect consumers’ privacy. However, the Legislature is subject to pressure from businesses, and organizations like the state chamber of commerce, to keep the rules favorable to businesses. This measure would lock in stronger protections in some area, including a new consumer privacy protection agency, (but it appears it could weaken other provisions recently enacted by the Legislature) and those couldn’t be changed except by another ballot measure. What this measure is really about is how much you trust the Legislature to do the right thing. Conversely, do you trust the people who write this measure? (Perhaps significantly, the ACLU opposes the measure.) If you trust the Legislature, you should vote this measure down and rely on the Legislature to add protections as needed. For now, I’m undecided. I need to look at the campaign donor lists.

Prop. 25 – Referendum of new law replacing cash bail with a system of pre-trial detention based on risk of flight or danger to the public. Our bail system is really unfair. People stay in jail or go free based largely on their financial status. The new law replaced cash bail by a system based on the judge’s evaluation of risk of flight or danger to the public; not ability to “make bail.” (Under the new system, those arrested for misdemeanors would almost never be detained.) However, the new law opened the door to computerized systems that analyze the risk of flight or danger based on the person’s past criminal record. Some civil libertarians say the new system is also unfair and biased. They don’t trust the computer-assisted assessment process (or judges and court staff) to be fair. In my humbe opinion, the new system’s an improvement, and the Legislature can still “tweak” it if there are problems. YES (meaning the new law takes effect)

October 9th update:

Update on financing – As “Deep Throat” said during the Watergate era, “Follow the money.” (If you don’t know who deep throat was, go watch the movie “All the President’s Men.” It’s a great movie, with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as co-stars, and it couldn’t be more relevant during the current presidential election.) For some of the propositions, the sources are obvious. For Prop. 22, the money’s mostly coming from Uber and Doordash. I find that revolting. For Prop. 24, the money flowing into the yes side is huge, but the source is obscure. It’s not coming from big tech – at least not directly. According to the Secretary of State’s records, most of the money’s coming from a San Francisco real estate developer – The Emerald Fund. What they have to do with information privacy, I can’t figure out. Maybe they’re just a conduit, but if so, it’s running pretty deep. Emerald Funds reports no recent donations to it. Go figure. It smells fishy to me.

First Post-election Thoughts (November 2018)

While the dust has not yet settled on the November 2018 general election – With the increasing prominence of vote-by-mail ballots in California, it may be a month before some contests have a clear winner [and that’s not counting recounts!] – nevertheless, I think one can identify some general take-home lessons from this election.

1.  There was a “blue wave” but it was only about six inches high, and felt primarily in “purple” states.

The Democratic Party had entered this election campaign with high hopes of a “blue wave” that would sweep across the country, throwing out Republicans and installing Democrat replacements.  For the most part, it didn’t happen.  Blue states generally stayed blue, and the hue of blue maybe got a little bit deeper.  On the other hand, red states generally stayed as red as ever, and in some cases (like North Dakota and Indiana) maybe even took on a slightly deeper shade of red, with outlier Democrats being picked off by Republican adversaries.

If there was any blue wave, and there probably was, what with the majority of the U.S. House of Representives shifting to the Democrats, it was pretty restricted and not very big.  It semed to show up most strongly in states that might be labeled “purple” – meaning that they were not dominated by either of the two major parties.  That includes as notable examples the states of Virginia, Maine, Nevada, and New Mexico.  In each of those states, some Republican House incumbents either lost or are on life support.  Likewise for some purple state Republican governors.  However, even this trend is not all that strong.  Republicans appear to have retained the governorships of Florida and Georgia – state that are though to be shifting toward Democratic control,

Here in California, a few Republican-held seats shifted to Democrats, and there are still several seats that are still too close to call.  In that regard, the increasing trend of voters to use vote-by-mail ballots, and to often not turn them in until elecion day, means that the “Final” results (100% of precincts reporting) are nowhere near final.  In many California counties, there will be a significant percentage of votes that won’t get counted for days, or even weeks.  This, for example, the Denham/Harder race, where the two candidates are separated by a little more that 1%, could well reverse itself.  (As an aside, the traditional rule has been that vote-by-mail ballots turned in early tend to trend more Republican, while those turned in on election day tend to reflect the actual election day voters at the polls.  I don’t know if those “rules” have been re-examined with the big increase in vote-by-mail ballot usage.)

2.  The election results do not show any major change on the “mood of the voters.”  If anything, they show a further hardening of attitudes.

As I noted, blue states may have gotten a little bluer, and red states, a little redder.  I don’t detect any major trend in the “purple” states, except a slight tendency towards “bluing” in urban and suburban areas.

3.  Democrats, at least at a national level, don’t appear to have any effective strategy for talking to those disaffected former Democrats who have shifted to Trump.

I haven’t examined every race in the industrial Midwest, where it appeared that disaffected Democrats, or former Democrats, shifted to Trump.  However, the general results seem to indicate that a lot of those folks aren’t shifting back to voting for Democrats yet.  The Democratic national strategy still seems focused on addressing voters on the traditional Democratic issues – many of  which are a combination of liberal economic and liberal social issues (e.g., Medicare for all, protecting abortion rights, promoting civil, political, and social rights for women and minorities, helping the poor, etc.).  Republicans seem to have a firm lock on the evangelical Christian voters, as well as on rural voters.  In many red states, that’s all that’s needed for them to keep control.  Untill/unless the Democratic Party can figure out how to pry some of those groups away from the Republican Party, I think we’re destined to see a continued divided Congress, based on the fact that the lower population states have as many senators as do states like California an New York.  No Democrat seems to have found a way to reassemble the “New Deal” coalition that elected Democratic majorities from the 1930s through the 1950s.  Certainly, the Democratic Leadership Conference strategy espoused by centrist Democrats like the Clintons and Obama doesn’t appear to be a winning strategy any more.  Nor, for that matter, has Bernie Sanders’ “left populism” shown itself effective in Florida or Georgia gubernatorial races.  Perhaps a more detailed analysis can point the way?

November 2018 General Election – Part IV – Local/Regional Ballot Measures

OK, so you’ve gone through all the statewide candidates and measures, and the regional/local candidates. Now, all that’s left are the local/regional ballot measures. You’re almost there! Bear with me while we go through them. I promise it won’t take too long.

Regional Measures

Measure FF – East Bay Regional Park District Parcel Tax Extension.

This measure would extend for 20 years an existing parcel tax to fund the East Bay Regional Park Districts ongoing maintenance expenses, as well as improvement expenses. It would NOT pay for new capital expenditures (e.g., new land acquisition). The parcel tax is $12 per year (for a single family dwelling, $8.28 per year for multifamily [i.e., condo or apartment] units), and is put on your annual property tax bill.

This time around there is vocal and well-funded opposition by the folks who don’t want to see any eucalyptus cut down. In reality, the Regional Park District program is aimed at thinning, not removing eucalyptus groves. If the measure fails, eucalyptus seedling will continue to germinate and grow, making the groves thicker and larger – and also a far greater fire hazard. the Park District has tried to stake out a middle-ground in the eucalyptus debate, pointing out that while eucalyptus may be beautiful, smell nice, and provide some wildlife habitat benefits, overgrown groves accumulate highly combustible shedded leaves and bark. Further, while older trees drop their lower branches, isolating their flammable crowns from the ground, if there are smaller trees between them, the combination gives a wildfire a “fuel ladder” to climb up into the towering crowns of older trees, where the burning leaves and branches will generate embers that the wind can carry for literally miles. As a result, the embers can ignite new fire areas, making the fire far more difficult to get under control.

You’d think that, having lived through the 1991 Tunnel Fire that burned over 2,000 homes in the East Bay Hills, East Bay residents would have learned that beauty and safety sometimes need to be balanced. Apparently not. So go ahead, listen to the “euc lovers” and vote this measure down, but don’t come crying when the next big fire – and there WILL be a next big fire – is even more dangerous and damaging that the last. YES!!!

Peralta Community College Funding Measures.

Measure E – Peralta Community College Parcel Tax Extension.

This measure would extend an existing $48 per parcel tax for an additional eight years. The tax proceeds would be used to provide support for academic programs and student support such as tutoring. The Peralta District provided the lowest cost higher education option for East Bay students, and serves as a gateway to the Cal. State and U.C. system for those who might not otherwise be able to make the transition. I know several kids on my street alone who’ve used Peralta courses to pave their way to entering a four-year degree program. $48 a year is a small cost to keep this important part of our public higher education system running. YES.

Measure G – Peralta Community College District Facilities Improvement Bond.

Unlike Measure E, which funds ongoing school expenses, Measure G is a bond measure to fund capital improvements. While some of Peralta’s campuses are relatively new, they’re still aging, and with technology moving forward rapidly, even newer classrooms and facilities need updating to be able to have the kind of electronic resources students and teachers need. The bond, which would be for $800 Million (a small amount compared, for example to the $9.95 BILLION bond measure voters approved for high-speed rail in 2008), would be paid off through property tax assessments of $24.50 per $100,000 of valuation over 40 years. YES.

City of Oakland Measures

Measure V – Oakland Cannabis Business Tax Modification Measure (Council Initiated)

This measure, which must be approved by the voters under Prop. 13, makes changes in how the City collects business tax from cannabis sales businesses to make it easier for those businesses to manage, and to give the City Council flexibility in making further changes, so long as those changes don’t increase the tax rate.

Cannabis businesses are now a fact of life for California and for Oakland. From the City’s standpoint, if cannabis businesses are going to operate, it’s to the City’s benefit that they do so successfully. The alternative is that cannabis sales go back to being an underground criminal activity – profiting gangs instead of the City treasury. YES

Measure W – 20 Year Sunset Vacant Property Tax. (Council Initiated)

This proposed tax has two purposes. One purpose is to provide funds for homeless services, affordable housing, code enforcement against blight and illegal dumping, and administration of the tax. The other, perhaps equally important, purpose is to provide a disincentive to property owners leaving their property vacant and unused. We all know of properties – either buildings, apartments, storefronts, houses, or vacant lots, that have sat idle for years – fulfilling no useful function and often contributing to an atmosphere of blight in the community. There can be various reasons for this, but one of the ones that’s become more common lately is speculators who don’t want the property occupied because they’re waiting to sell it at an increased price. It’s not clear how big a problem this is in Oakland, but in San Francisco it’s been estimated that there are as many as 60,000 vacant apartment and condos being kept off the market by speculating investors. While the proposed tax is not exorbitant ($6,000/year for vacant property, $3,000 per year for a condor ground floor commercial space)– especially given how much Oakland property is sometimes selling and renting for – it would give property owners a prod to DO SOMETHING with their property. YES

Measure X – Graduated Real Estate Transfer Tax (Council Initiated)

Oakland, like most cities, has a real estate transfer tax – essentially a tax on the purchase of real property in the city. This measure would amend Oakland transfer tax so that the tax rate would be graduated, so the rate would be higher on property selling for higher values. The current rate is 1.5% for all properties. For properties valued at less than $300,000, the rate would drop to 1% . For properties from $300,000 to $2, million, it would remain at the current 1.5%; for properties valued from $2 million to $5 million, it would rise modestly to 1.75%; and for properties over $5 million, it would rise to 2.5%. Further, for first-time low or moderate income homebuyers, the rate would be decreased by ½% from the otherwise-applicable rate, but only for property valued at $2 million or less. The measure would also rebate up to 1/3 of the transfer tax to low/moderate income homebuyers for the value of improvements to their newly-bought home to install solar power generation or to make earthquake retrofits within six months of purchase. However, these rebates would also only apply to homes valued at less than $2 million.

Overall, I think this is a good idea. Those buying higher priced homes can presumably afford to pay a bit more for city services.   (The tax proceeds would go into the City’s general fund.) The tax may also, incidentally, get sellers to price their properties below the various breakpoints for the tax.] The tax gives a break to first-time low & moderate income home buyers, which makes sense, because home ownership usually brings with it a more stable and more active relationship with the City. Likewise, the rebates for adding solar power & earthquake retrofits are incentives to do things that help the community as well as the homeowner. YES.

Measure Y – Extending Just Cause Eviction provisions to landlord-occupied duplexes and triplexes. (Council Initiated)

Up until now, Oakland’s Just Cause Eviction ordinance has had an exemption for landlord-occupied duplexes and triplexes, on the theory that these are small landlords who’ll generally do well by their tenants. Well, it turns out that landlords have learned how to “play” this exemption. The landlord [temporarily] moves into one unit of the building and then promptly evicts the tenants in the other unit(s). That’s not fair. Further, the just cause eviction provisions aren’t all that burdensome. It just means that the landlord needs to have a good reason for evicting a tenant – like non-payment or rent or violation of lease provisions. There’s no good reason why those reasons shouldn’t be needed for duplex or triplex owners, especially when there’s far too strong incentives to boot out current tenants and then raise the rent.

Opponents argue that landlords will take the units off the market. Sure, and then do what with them? Leave them vacant? If landlords think they have a better idea, let them bring it forward and have it put on the ballot. YES.

Measure Z – Minimum Wage for hotel workers, plus establishing employee rights and a new city department to enforce those rights. (Council Initiated)

This measure starts off with a good idea – raising the minimum wage in Oakland’s (larger) hotels [50 room minimum]. The large hotels play to the tourist and convention clientele, and consequently charge fairly hefty room rates. Yet they pocket most of that money. However, it’s possible that raising the wages uniformly may force poorer-performing hotels out of business. Seems like there ought to be a way for a hotel to claim hardship and temporarily pay lower wages – if they can substantiate their hardship. Also, why focus on just the hotel business? What about restaurants and conference centers? What about large employers, like UPS and Fed-Ex?

Another concern is establishing an entirely new City department to enforce this ordinance. One can easily see that department proposing more ordinances so it’ll have justification for hiring more employees. To me, this looks like it could easily turn into trying to expand Oakland’s bureaucracy and then figuring out ways to justify the expansion. NO.

Measure AA – Establishes $198 per year parcel tax for early childhood education and programs to promote college entry and completion and workplace readiness. (Initiative Measure)

I get worried about the various taxes and bond measures that get put onto the ballot without an adequate explanation of why they’re needed. This is a case in point. While the measure claims there will be accountability, it doesn’t identify how it’s going to measure the adequacy of progress towards reaching its lofty goals, and what will happen if it doesn’t. This looks far too much like a “throw money at a problem and see if it does anything” approach. I’d like to see something with more back-up, like being able to point to similar projects that have had demonstrable success in improving outcomes. NO

 

November 2018 Election Ballot comments – Part III – Local/Regional Candidates

As election day closes in, if you haven’t already filled in your mail-in ballot, or if you’re a traditionalist who likes to actually got to your polling place on election day, here’s part 3 of my election comments, local/regional candidates. Part 4, local/regional ballot measures, will hopefully follow shortly. I might add that unless you live in the Bay Area, you can pretty much ignore these last two parts unless you’re curious about what’s on the ballot here. Also, some candidates and measures get pretty darned local, so unless you actually live in Oakland, Not all my comments will apply to your ballot. If you’re wondering about someone or something I didn’t discuss, feel free to leave a comments and I’ll get back to you shortly with a response, although in some cases, that response may be less than fully informed – in which case I won’t be ashamed to say so. It’s hard enough to try to be fully informed about what’s on your own personal ballot!

Local/Regional candidates.

California State Assembly District Fifteen.

If you’ve read my comments on statewide candidates, you already know I have a dim view of California’s “top two” primary election rules. Those comments apply equally to local candidates.

In the case of the state Legislature, again there may have been more than two candidates in the primary (there were six in this district), but now it’s down to the two top vote-getters in June. Further, because only a few local jurisdictions use “ranked-choice” voting, in the legislative contests you only got to vote for one candidate in the June primary.

While narrowing things down to two candidates in the final election makes the final choices simpler, it doesn’t necessarily make them better. Further, with lots of candidates in the June primary, and, more often than not, a less engaged electorate, those primary choices may have been less informed than they could have been with a better system.

I’d again prefer it if we had two rounds of voting; both using ranked-choice. For the Legislature, I’d also like to see proportional representation provided for, so that minor parties aren’t automatically shut out. In California, the system practically guarantees (exept in very rare cases) that there will be no minor party representation in the Legislature. I think that’s a shame. Minor parties are often how new ideas bubble to the surface. With no representation in the Legislature, that creativity gets stifled. Further, because neither major party rewards creativity and diversity in opinions – quite the opposite – the effect of the lack of minor party representation is even more damaging. Because the two major parties totally control the Legislature, the only way we’re going to make change happen is by a statewide initiative. Unless some well-financed reform group (like maybe Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, a reform-minded billionaire, or perhaps a coalition of minor parties – or some combination of these) jumps into the fray, I’m afraid it ain’t going to change any time soon. (sigh.)

On the specifics of this race, at least the top-two process has given us two viable candidates, rather than the older format where, in much of the Bay Area, a Republican candidate was often automatically an also-ran. [Not to mention that the ideology of the California Republican party being what it is, Republicans are generally also almost automatically an also-rans in the Bay Area.] Given that the 15^th A.D. is one of the most liberal in the state – including as it does the major left-oriented cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond – the two candidates that emerged from the primary both represent the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Actually, in many respects, this election is, at the local level, almost a replay of the 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary. One candidate, Buffy Wicks, represents the traditional or establishment liberal Democratic Party ideology, while the other, Jovanka Beckles, represents the more radical and insurgent Bernie Sanders (dare I say it, Social Democrat or Democratic Socialist] ideology.

In some other respects, the two candidates don’t precisely hew to the 2016 primary candidates.   Unlike the 2016 presidential candidates, only one – Beckles – has previously held elected office. She’s now in her second term on the Richmond City Council, where she’s part of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, a group that arose in opposition to Chevron’s long-standing domination of that city’s politics. It’s not surprising, therefore, that she’s a pretty strident opponent of corporate dominance of politics. Also, while both candidates have spent a lot of time in California, Buffy has bounced around between different parts of the state, as well as spending a considerable time in Washington DC as an operative in the Obama administration. She’s consequently far more tied in to the state and national Democratic Party leadership and establishment.

These differences show in how the look at issues. They also help predict how they’d likely behave in the Legislature. Buffy reflects a cautious incrementalist approach. While both candidates claim to espouse a single-payer government run medical system – perhaps similar to Canada’s – Buffy was highly involve in the Obama Affordable Care Act’s formulation, and can be expected to focus, like the state Democratic Party leadership, on protecting Obamacare in California and trying to strengthen and expand its provisions, while Jovanka supports having California try to move forward towards its own single-payer system regardless of Washington’s current opposition.

Perhaps similarly, they differ significantly on housing policy. Buffy can be expected to support Democratic Party efforts, currently spearheaded by Senators Scott Wiener and Nancy Skinner, to promote more and denser private sector housing construction regardless of the income level being served. In practice, this approach has led to huge amounts of market-rate housing being built, but little progress in addressing the continuing disappearance of affordable low & moderate income housing. Jovanka, by contrast, supports the state (and perhaps local entities) making a big push for publicly financed and publicly owned affordable housing. She wants to see the addition of over 100,000 public housing units statewide in the next couple of years.

Given the Legislature’s current dominance by what might be called corporate liberal Democrats – who pay at least as much attention to the lobbying of groups like the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Bay Area Council as they do to grassroots Democratic Party constituents, The chances of any of Jovanka’s “Berniecrat” ideas being enacted as proposed in the next two years is virtually nil. However, she would become part of an emerging populist progressive caucus within the Legislature’s Democrats, and could influence the long-term direction of the party and the Legislature. Buffy would fit right into the current Democratic legislative leadership (which helps explain her endorsement by most of that leadership). Don’t expect her to be a primary author of almost any enacted legislation in the next two years. Instead, expect her to be a dependable co-author of legislation introduced by Senators Wiener and Skinner, as well as pitching in with the rest of the Democratic leadership’s legislative agenda.

My personal opinion (if you haven’t already guessed) is to prefer Bernie Sanders’ progressive populist approach. For that reason, I’m supporting Beckles.

Alameda County Assessor

This is a nonpartisan and really nonpolitical office. What’s needed is someone who’s very honest, hard-working, and has accounting, managerial, and these days probably computer skills. Both candidates, Jim Johnson and Phong La, appear well-qualified. Because the office should be apolitical, I think I tend to favor the person with the most experience in the office, which would be Jim Johnson.

AC Transit Director – At-Large

AC Transit fulfills an important and probably underappreciatd role in our regional transportation system. It fills in the gaps between what BART covers in the East Bay, as well as supplementing BART’s transbay service and providing affordable transportation for those who don’t have cars. Over the years, financial cutbacks (probably due as much to Prop. 13 as anything else) have starved AC Transit and forced it to cut its service to the bone and beyond. As a result, AC Transit’s service is much less comprehensive than it was 30 years ago, and getting where you want to go can take two or even three transfers, if you can get there at all.

Of course it hasn’t helped that much of the development since World War II has been auto-oriented and consequently not well-suited to public transit service – what with winding streets, many non-through streets, and low density (typically 4 units per acre) single family housing. The development in the East Bay Hills, as well as suburban-type developments in Southern Alameda County, are all not well-suited to good and financially sustainable bus service. That’s the background the current AC Transit board has to cope with. From all I can tell, Joel Young, the incumbent, has been doing a decent job as an at-large member. I especially like that Mr. Young want to try to integrate AC Transit with newer services like Uber and Lyft to attempt to re-establish comprehensive transit services. His opponent didn’t even bother to put a candidate statement in the voter handbook. Young.

Mayor of Oakland.

There are ten candidates for Oakland mayor this election!! That’s too many to give every candidate serious consideration in a final election. While ranked choice voting helps, with this many candidates more than one round of voting is really needed. Oakland’s voting system needs to be revised to make the filing deadline much earlier earlier, so there’s time for a primary election. If more than five candidates seek an office, the City should run a primary election to winnow the pool down to five, as I outlined in my discussion of the gubernatorial election.

That having been said, and with awareness that I have not been able to give each candidate the kind of scrutiny I’d like, here are my thoughts.

Obviously, with an incumbent running for re-elections, other candidates need to be measured against the incumbent’s performance. Our present mayor, Libby Schaaf, has, in my humble opinion, not done a great job as mayor. For one thing, she set up a new department of transportation. That, in itself, isn’t a bad thing, but really transportation planning and transportation maintenance need very different skills. The former really ought to be closely coordinated with land use planning, and the latter is probably best left in the public works department where it was. Libby’s department pulled in people from a variety of other places and has not gelled well. It’s administration appears heavy-handed and not very open to public input. Indeed, there is no body occupying a position parallel to the planning commission to receive public input and provide a counterpoint to the staff bureaucracy. As a result, we have a technocratically-focused department that has been ham-fisted in dealing with politically sensitive topics. Nor has the department improved functions that badly need improvement – like the residential permit parking program and integrating pedestrian, bicyclist, and driver concerns.

I haven’t seen any better changes in other departments. The planning department was leaderless for quite a while, and doesn’t seem to be able to recruit and keep good quality staff planners. The Planning Commission has become more and more pro-development in its orientation, and the Mayor’s program to promote providing more affordable housing consists of one person (a good person, to be sure, but what can one person accomplish in a bureaucracy the size of Oakland’s?

Nor has she proved able to work effectively with the City Council which appears to be as divided and unwieldy as ever. In short, if I was to grade her performance, it would be a C- or D.

Against that, there are a raft of candidates, but nobody coming forth from the City Council, which is where one might hope for a better alternative. I don’t know why that is. Perhaps because Oakland’s politics are so divisive and toxic that current council members feel it’s not something they’d wish to do. At any rate, we’re left with a range of outsiders wanting to take the wheel. In fact, not a single one has ever held public office before. Few of them give me much confidence that they’d do better than the incumbent.

Perhaps the candidate that gives me the most hope is Cat Brooks. She’s apparently had a fair amount of experience running organizations, and has some specific ideas of what to do about some of Oakland’s festering problems, like its difficult to control police department and doing a more effective job of addressing homelessness and promoting affordable housing [Yes, Mayor Schaaf can claim credit for a building boom in housing, but very little of what’s being built is affordable, and she’s shown no perceptible leadership there]. I also note that she’s supported by an impressive list of Oaklanders who have, for years, pressed the city to do more in the progressive side. I’d place her as #1 on ranked choice.  Cat Brooks

Of the remaining candidates, Pamela Price and Saied Karamooz both propose comprehensive programs to address many of Oakland’s major problems. However, neither suggests how they’re going to pay for all the big-ticket programs they propose. Oakland already has some major financial liabilities hanging over it, notably unfunded pension liabilities for current city employees. While there are some ways to pull together some additional resources, such as requiring large new employers to pay a housing impact fee to help maintain and build the city’s supply of affordable housing and passing a property transfer tax that is time-dependent, so that “flipping” properties is strongly discouraged, none of the candidates’ says much about where the money’s going to come from for all their new programs. I can’t in good conscience wholeheartedly recommend either of these two candidates, but if you want to pick as second and third choices someone besides Ms. Schaaf, I’d suggest one or both of these two candidates.  Pamela Price/Saied Karamooz

City Auditor. This race pits the current city auditor against her predecessor.   Each of the candidates says they’ve done a good job as auditor. I must confess, however, that I saw a lot more meaningful and incisive audits coming out when Courtney Ruby was auditor than I have since Brenda Roberts took office. Do I really believe Oakland government had cleaned up its act well enough that there are no problems needing daylighting? I think not. Rather, I suspect that while Roberts may be more “efficient” in putting out audit reports, those reports may not be digging as deeply. I would go for Ruby.