June 2016 Election Guide

Election guide California June Primary 2016

US senate

Summary: This race is to replace Barbara Boxer (D), who has been one of the two US Senators from California since 1992 and is retiring this year. The person elected will serve a 6 year term. California has a top-2 system, so the two candidates who get the most votes on June 7th will move on to the general election in November, regardless of party affiliation. Kamala Harris is seen as the frontrunner, largely leading the other candidates in the polls, so this contest is seen as a race for who can get second place to compete with her in the runoff. The other major Democratic candidate is Loretta Sanchez. The republicans didn’t run any top-tier candidates, though Duf Sundheim, Tom Del Beccaro, and Ron Unz have the institutional support and poll numbers to make it to the debates. You can watch one debate here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K8rm88sFDQ) if you’re interested, though it’s long and not particularly informative.

Major Candidates:

Loretta Sanchez – Democratic – Loretta Sanchez is currently US representative for Santa Ana/Anaheim in Orange County. She has a typical California democrat platform, with a focus on her experience in national security and veterans’ issues from her 20 years serving on those house committees. She supports immigration reform, increasing Pell Grants, and helping women in the military. Sanchez is supported by most of the California congresspeople as well as other elected officials from Southern California and some labor unions. I think many of her supporters think it’s important to have someone from socal representing the state – almost all of the other statewide officials are from northern California.

Duf Sundheim – Republican – Sundheim was chair of the CA republican party 2003-2007, during the period of mild success where Schwarzenegger was elected governor twice, but has not held elected office. He is running the in the ‘moderate republican’ slot, supporting immigration reform and ‘pro-business’ policies. He wants to reform teacher hiring laws and supports more water storage and desalination plants. He also has a ‘Kamala Facts’ page featuring bad things Kamala Harris did, possibly to show he’s ready to compete with her in the general election? He’s been endorsed by most of the state’s republicans, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, as well as Charles Schwab,the Chairman of Cisco, and Charles Munger, who’s this rich guy who essentially keeps the CA republican party afloat.

Kamala Harris – Democratic – Kamala Harris is currently Attorney General of California (elected in 2010 and 2014) and previously was DA for SF County. Like Sanchez, she is running on a typical California democrat platform, though is seen as being somewhat more liberal than Sanchez. Given her background, her website focuses more on legal aspects: criminal justice reform (she has a ‘smart on crime’ platform), LGBT rights, her crackdown on for-profit colleges as AG, etc. She is supported by high-profile national democrats (Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren), statewide dems (LG and somewhat-rival Gavin Newsom), and most of the big labor unions and the California Democratic Party.

Tom Del Beccaro – Republican – Del Beccaro was chair of the CA Republican party 2011-2013 during which the party has major money problems. He is running in the more ‘tea party’ slot of the main republican candidates. He supports a flat tax, more water storage, a more aggressive foreign policy especially against Iran and ISIS, and stronger immigration controls in the interest of national security. He’s been endorsed by the conservative side of the California republican party including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, as well as national flat tax people like Forbes and Laffer (of the Laffer curve).

   

Ron Unz – Republican – Unz is a curious candidate. His political experience consists of losing a republican primary for governor in 1994 and sponsoring a successful initiative in 1998 banning bilingual education in CA public schools. He decided to run this year because the legislature put a measure repealing that ban on the November ballot. His platform is a highly unusal mix of policies: he supports raising the minimum wage to $12 (which according to him would reduce the incentive for illegal immigration), reducing legal immigration limits by 50%, ending foreign wars and denouncing the Iraq war, implementing a financial transaction tax (he cites Bernie Sanders here), cutting college costs, and ending Affirmative Action. He’s been endorsed by Ron Paul.

Less-well-known candidates:

Pamela Elizondo – Green Party – This candidate provides only a facebook page which doesn’t work. I found a questionnaire she filled out for the green party (http://www.cagreens.org/elections/2016/statewide-candidate-questionnaire-pamela-elizondo-us-senate), which isn’t quite coherent. From what I can tell she wants to heal the earth, make things easier for independent candidates for political office, and grow more marijuana everywhere.

Akinyemi Agbede – Democratic – This candidate is another perennial candidate running on a kooky platform. His website (http://www.americamustregainitsgreatness2016.com) assures me that he is a “super genius man” who will make America “regain its greatness again” and prevent it from becoming a “glorified third world nation.” How this will happen is not clear because his writing is barely comprehensible.

Jerry Laws – Republican – Count of making America great again is now at 2. This candidate is an old veteran guy who is all about the Constitution – at least as it exists within the world of right-wing radio talk shows. His platform is inspired by those radio hosts and Ron Paul: no foreign wars, more guns, selling off all federal land (think of the Bundys), and especially ‘sound money’ aka the gold standard.

Ling Ling Shi – Independent – This candidate’s website is partially in English, but as far as I can tell, she runs an evangelical church and wants to ‘run for God’s heart.’ Her platform mixes a strong Christianist aspect (‘Christianity is our nation’s DNA and divine
identity and real strong strength’) along with very large expansion of the state – she supports a national bank, free college, free healthcare, the works.

Paul Merritt – Independent – His website looks like eat pray love and promises ‘cool stuff ‘n things’ but there isn’t much there. He thinks the main parties are bad, supports environmentalist, small government, and ‘Senator Feinstein’s boarder security fence.’ Now if only we had a fence that would keep the boarders safe.

Massie Munroe – Democratic – Now this one’s a doozy. She doesn’t have a website but her ballot description … If we elect her (and Bernie Sanders!) we’ll be on the right step to end ‘mind control slavery’ that is apparently happening via satellites and social engineering programs??? Also the global bankers are involved. But if we do that we can have a clean energy future!

Tim Gildersleeve – Independent – Judging from some undeleted phrases on this candidate’s website, he’s recycled it from a run for San Jose city council. For a fringe candidate his coherently presented? He calls himself a ‘Christocrat’ and is very worried about the moral decline of society. But on the other hand he thinks inequality is bad and wants a strong social safety net and union movement. He has a bunch of photos of him around San Jose looking awkward and I feel kind of sad for him though he literally thinks the US is losing the battle against Satan.

President Cristina Grappo – Democratic – This person has no website and has chosen to have her first name listed as ‘president.’ I don’t even know what to say, except ‘I am mainstream Facebook in social media.’

Don Grundmann – Independent – I went to this guy’s website and he had a picture of black people being lynched with something about how white people are coming back and I left immediately.

Herbert Peters – Democratic – This candidate claims to be an Andrew Jackson Democrat and so he’s very worried about deficits and the national debt (Jackson was the last president to eliminate the national debt!) He has all kinds of policies that he wants to borrow from 19th century democrats: vetoes of the National bank, welfare and farm aid. But then the filthy republicans led by Grant and Teddy Roosevelt implemented fiat money and progressivism. Also the media and government are covering up 9/11 and the JFK assassination.

Tom Palzer – Republican – This candidate is a veteran running as a conservative republican. He seems to have been involved in party politics at the local level, which means he’s pretty organized for someone who is going to get 1% of the vote. His website is garish, though.

Greg Conlon – Republican – This guy was the Republican nominee for state Treasurer 2 years ago. Of course that was because no other republicans ran, but he uses as a point of pride: he ‘knows how to run a successful general election’ even though he lost by 18 points. Again a pretty typical conservative republican platform: he wants to balance the budget, enforce the border, and cut the corporate tax rate.  Though apparently the big immigrant problem is foreign students overstaying their visas and taking high skill jobs?

Karen Roseberry – Republican – This candidate is running a S.A.V.E. campaign, which stands for Security, Accountable, Values, and Education. Her description of this platform is very competently written compared to other candidates except for the fact that it’s incredibly vague! She’s very good at looking like she’s saying a lot while not saying anything? I can tell that she is very into personal responsibility and against entitlements (free college would destroy the work ethic of young people!). Oh and she explains at length about how a ‘double-layered razor wire fence’ guarded by citizen militas would be better than a border wall.

Von Hougo – Republican – A classic type of gimmick candidate: he’s going to use an app in order to have every Californian vote on every bill in congress and then he’ll vote according to the results. Because representative democracy is overrated. Also both parties are bad and he’s not collecting any donations because money is bad and you should definitely post about him on social media.

Jason Hanania – Independent – This candidates ballot message is ‘01100101’ so maybe he’ll be a digital candidate? It turns out he is! The number represents ‘e’ for ‘evoting’ and it’s a protest against the fact that the state charges more for longer ballot statements. Anyway this guy also has an app so that his every vote can be controlled by people at home (someone has to tell these people that being a senator involved more than voting for bills – who decides what’s in the bills?). You can get his ebook where he explains that online communication is part of the right to bear arms.

Mike Beitikis – Independent – This guy is pretty funny/great. He says that all the issues don’t matter because we’re all going to die due to global warming and so we should be doing everything to stop that. He has a pretty nice website with a lot of humor (iwillnotdonothing.org). He also made an ad where he trains to fistfight the Koch brothers. A+ fringe candidate.

Jason Kraus – Independent – And we’re back to the candidates with terrible websites featuring eagles and flags. He wrote a novel about Falcon Sane, a young man who “travels through youth into adulthood crossing the paths of love, corruption, and power, in search of the American dream—freedom” and runs for president. The rest of his website features other attempts at poetic phrasing and his centerpiece proposal the “us personal responsibility act,” which would replace the income tax with a sales tax, repeal federal housing programs, and tighten up immigration controls.

Don Krampe – Republican – This is at least the third old veteran dude candidate so far. He wants America to have a ‘positive mental attitude’ and use the power of imagination. Policy-wise, he thinks we should fund upgrades to the port of Long Beach (his #1 priority!) and move away from entanglements in foreign wars.

Now moving on to candidates who didn’t file a ballot statement (big mistake!).

Eleanor Garcia – Independent – This candidate is representing the Socialist Worker’s Party, which according to its very detailed Wikipedia page, is supportive of Cuban-style communism. She is an aerospace worker involved in union organizing. According to the SWP publication, they think that workers and farmers should join together to overthrow capitalism. They also have a presidential ticket!

Clive Grey – Independent – Like many other candidates, this one is a regular person who will ‘bring common sense to government.’ He’s a woodworker who made a woodworking show for PBS! His policies are pretty grab bag, and illustrated with some nice stock photos: he is for clean energy, more jobs, a path to citizenship, campaign finance reform, no more lobbyists, animal rights, market healthcare reforms, and a flat tax.

John Parker – Peace and Freedom – This candidate belongs to the worker’s world party and supports socialism and anti-imperialism. He wants to remove abusive police departments in ‘black & brown communities … to enable community-organized self-policing,’ as well as defund the military to end ‘imperialist and proxy wars.’ Also wants food and housing for and and full employment.

Emory Rodgers – Democratic – This candidate is a civil rights and environmental activist ‘inspired by Bernie Sanders’ message for social equality.’ He wants to end corporatism and overturn Citizens United, as well as support justice for LGBT people and people of color. He also is an energy activist who went on a ‘79 day hunger strike to bring awareness to biomass fuels.’

George Yang – Republican – This candidate only has a facebook page which makes it difficult to figure out what his candidacy is about, though he does post regular video updates. He seems to have a basic conservative platform of lower taxes and smaller government, explained via infographics. He does want to have a reality tv show competition for best desalination plant design to solve the drought problem though!

Gail Lightfoot – Libertarian – This candidate is a mainstay of the CA libertarian party, I think she runs for something every major cycle. In fact her website is still that of her 2012 senate run. She has the libertarian view that the purpose of the US government should be limited to the courts, diplomacy, and the military, and all else should be done away with. She thinks we should end wars, remove limits on immigration, privatize all social programs, and inform juries about jury nullification.

Scott Vineberg – Independent – I couldn’t find any information on this candidate.

Steve Stokes – Democratic – This candidate also is inspired by Bernie Sanders and wants to end the ‘Corrupt Corporate State.’ He supports stopping the TPP, ending #CISA (surveillance) and #CitizensUnited (he really likes #hashtags). He previously ran for congress as an independent and lost. Judging from the number of comments on his website, he does seem to have somewhat of a following among some of the Bernie crowd that is mad at the Democratic party.

Phil Wyman – Republican Party – This candidate was a state legislator from Bakersfield in the 80s and again in 2000 but now seems to be a perennial losing candidate running every year without much support. He supports lowering taxes and tough-on-crime policies; he authored bills establishing 3 strikes, and promoting the death penalty. He also supports limiting access to abortion.

Jarrell Williamson – Republican – This candidate is a health care lawyer in the central valley who enjoys reading about morality and philosophy. He has a bunch of pictures of him with his guns and also his copy of the constitution! His issues page is a list of the parts of the constitution he thinks are most important, and he puts the 2nd amendment before the 1st, thus satisfying liberal stereotypes.

Mark Herd – Libertarian – The libertarian party has two candidates, which is pretty impressive. This candidate is on the Westwood neighborhood council and has previously run for LA city council and congress. He supports the free market, civil liberties, personal freedom, and non-interventionism. He’s worried about censorship and thinks that we should be tough on crime. His federal reserve policy is a Ron Paul video so I’ll assume he thinks it’s Bad.

Gar Myers – Independent – This candidate goes by GAR and is worried about that the ‘MASSIVE RIP CURRENT is dragging us out and away from our near shore waves of happiness.’ GAR loves the surfing metaphors. GAR has a lot of pictures of GAR in various poses accompanying very long text on his policies, which are a mishmash of conservative and liberal ideas, but which bury the lede which is that GAR is worried about chemtrails!! GAR is not very detailed but says that there is too much secrecy about aluminum particles in chem-trails and the public deserves to know! GAR we need to know more about this tell us about how the chem-trails are poisoning us.

US Representative, 18th District

Summary: The incumbent, Anna Eshoo, has been in office as US Representative since 1993. She’s not going to lose this time. This district includes Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Saratoga, Los Gatos, and Campbell.

Richard Fox – Republican – This candidate also ran for this office in 2014 and lost to Eshoo 68-32. He calls himself a ‘libertarian republican’ and thinks that the US is in danger of becoming like Greece or Venezuela due to big-government socialism. He wants to repeal Obamacare (which is a disaster that millions of people are abandoning) and replace it by tax-free ‘government-funded health savings accounts.’ He also thinks that the economy is way worse than the numbers say it is and that we need to cut taxes and spending in order to improve the economy and reduce the national debt. On social issues, he is a moderate and thinks that the country should be inclusive of all people, and as such rejects Donald Trump.

Bob Harlow – Democrat – This guy is a Stanford physics co-term who works on my floor. He seemed actually serious about running for congress though his choice of race was questionable (you have to start somewhere?). When he was collecting signatures to get on the ballot I asked him why he was running and he said that he thought Anna Eshoo hadn’t done enough in terms of universal health care. According to his website, his key policies are: adding a public option to the ACA, free tuition at public universities, and a high-speed rail to allow commuters to the Bay Area to live in the Central Valley.

Anna Eshoo – Democrat – As her achievements, Eshoo touts requiring coverage of those with pre-existing conditions in the ACA and success in maintaining a Net Neutrality policy. She wants to improve disclosure of political funding and supports overturning Citizens United.

State Senate, 13th District

Summary: The state senate is half of the California legislature and has 40 members. Senators serve 4 year terms and half are elected every two years. Incumbent Jerry Hill (D) was first elected in 2012 and is eligible for one more term. This is a very democratic district and its unlikely Hill loses. This district includes most of the peninsula from South San Francisco to Sunnyvale.

Jerry Hill – Democrat – Before being a state senator, Hill was a state assemblyman, San Mateo County supervisor, and San Mateo city councilmember. He supports funding environmental protection and education, and limits on antibiotics to reduce the impact of antibiotic resistance. He also touts his efforts to limit the powers of the CA Public Utilities Commission, which he sees as not doing its job to protect the public, and his attacks on PG&E after the gas pipe explosion in San Bruno a few years back. He’s passed a bunch of bills (like most CA legislators) and I’m sure some are bad and some are good but it depends on what you’re interested in.

Rick Ciardella – Republican – This candidate owns a landscaping firm and has been endorsed by the Santa Clara County republican party.

John Webster – Libertarian – This candidate thinks that democracy is doomed because we have given up all our freedoms, due to the majority voting to have the government take money from the rich to give to the poor. He wants California to secede from the US to be free of the evil empire. He also thinks we already live in a politically correct police state.

State Assembly, 24th District:

Summary: The State Assembly is the other half of the California legislature, with 80 members elected every 2 years. The incumbent is Rich Gordon (D) who is term-limited after 6 years in the Assembly. Due to changes in term-limits laws, the next assemblymember will be elegible to serve for 12 years. This district includes Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, and Half Moon Bay. You can read profiles of all the candidates here (part 1) and here (part 2), and a comparison of their specific positions here.

Vicky Veenker – Democrat – Veenker is a patent attorney based in Palo Alto. She wants to focus on improving funding for education, especially for poorer school districts, and a focus on STEM education, especially for girls. She thinks her strong links to the technology community will help her be an effective legislator, as well as her perspective from outside politics. She has been endorsed by the California Teachers Association, Sierra Club, Nurses Association, Palo Alto Weekly as well as groups who want more women in the state government.  

Mike Kasperzak – Democrat – Kasperzak is currently a Mountain View city council member and has been for 14 years, and claims his experience makes him the most qualified candidate. He also says that he is more independent from interest groups than the other candidates. He wants to focus on funding affordable housing, water infrastructure, and regional transportation. He is the only strongly pro-high speed rail candidate. He has been endorsed mostly by local elected officials but also some mayors from other parts of California.

Marc Berman – Democrat – Berman has been a Palo Alto city council member since 2012 and has had experience working on political campaigns. He says he is mostly passionate about education, infrastructure, and environmental protection. He wants to fund universal pre-K, affordable housing, infrastructure improvements, and environmental protections. He’s been endorsed by a lot of Democratic officials, including Gavin Newsom and Rich Gordon, as well as by the Mercury News.

Jay Cabrera – Independent – Cabrera is a ‘social innovation entrepreneur’ who identifies himself as ‘Bernie Candidate.’ He thinks that the current system is broken and we need to replace it by local participatory democracy, and that Bernie’s campaign provides a groundswell of energy to do that. He wants to increase the minimum wage, make it easier for regular people to get involved in politics, and get money out of politics. He also wants to preserve the environment and make sure state projects do not do any damage. He is a part of and supported by Bernie Movement Mid-Peninsula, and has run for various offices in the area in previous years.

Barry Chang – Democratic – Chang has been a Cupertino city councilmember for 7 years and is currently Mayor. He calls himself a ‘fiscally conservative Democrat,’ and is interested in education issues, suggesting a tax increase on the wealthy to fund schools. He is specifically running against the Lehigh Southwest Cement Plant, which he says is a major polluter that has dodged EPA regulations. He doesn’t feature any endorsements; I think his problem is that only a small part of Cupertino is in this district, so Chang doesn’t have much of a base. Chang previously ran for the 28th district, which contains most of Cupertino, in 2014, and lost.

Peter Ohtaki – Republican – Ohtaki has been a Menlo Park city councilmember for 6 years and is the only Republican in this race. He thinks his experience in finance will help him work on transportation and affordable housing issues (he wants more housing near workplaces) while keeping California’s budget balanced. Ohtaki is also worried about state pension liabilities and wants to reform pensions, as part of his belief in fiscal conservatism and limited government. He says he is interested in bipartisan solutions and has worked well with current assemblymember Rich Gordon, such as on a bill to allow cities to be more flexible in mixed-use zoning. He has been endorsed by Almanac News and the Daily Post.

Sea Reddy – Democratic – Reddy is a retired engineer who ran for Palo Alto city council in 2014 and placed 11th, and, from what I can tell, is a routine presence at city council meetings possibly harassing the city council. He says that the area is a great place to live currently and supports slow-growth approaches. Reddy wants to be an independent candidate opposed to ‘shady deals’ in the political sphere. He also is concerned about excessive airplane noise in the area.

John Inks – Libertarian – Inks has been a Mountain View city councilmember for 7 years and before that was a retired engineer. He is the most critical of current assemblymember Rich Gordon, saying he prefers a free-market libertarian approach to government. Inks wants to keep the state budget balanced and renegotiate pension benefits, and opposes surveillance and any attempt to give the government backdoors into people’s phones. He opposed any change to Prop 13 and is endorsed by the Silicon Valley Taxpayers’ Association.

Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, District 5

Summary: The BoS is the government of Santa Clara county. It has 5 members elected for 4 year staggered terms. The fifth district contains most of the cities north of San Jose. The incumbent is Joe Simitian, who was previously State Senator and Palo Alto city council member. He is eligible for one more term and is unlikely to lose.

Joe Simitian – Simitian touts his record of good financial management, efficient rollout of the ACA, and good constituent services.

John Mumy – Could not find information about this guy outside of the voter guide. He says he is an outsider and a regular citizen. He will support policies to protect the environment, reduce pollution, and find transport alternatives to reduce traffic.

Proposition 50

What it does/Background: Currently, the California constitution allows the legislature to expulse members with a 2/3 majority vote. In 2014, three democratic members of the state senate were accused of felonies. The state senate decided to suspend these three members with a simple majority vote. This means that the senators could no longer vote on bills but were still members of the legislature and still received pay and benefits.

    In response to this incident, the legislature decided to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment that would codify the rules for suspension of members. This measure would increase the threshold required for suspension to a 2/3 vote and would take away the suspended legislator’s benefits and pay during the suspension. The measure was put on the ballot via a bipartisan 31-3 vote in the state senate and 73-2 vote in the state assembly, with all the no votes being republicans

Campaign for: The YES campaign is led by California Forward, a group that pushes for government reform and accountability and has previously supported ballot measures for the redistricting commission, top-two primary, and the rainy day fund. They say that suspension is a necessary tool to discipline legislators who are under investigation but have not yet been convicted. Suspension is an intermediate measure that can be reversed if the legislator is cleared, unlike expulsion, which would require replacement via special election. In addition, increasing the fraction of the chamber needed to suspend a member to 2/3rds would limit the potential for abuse of this power. Prop 50 is endorsed by the League of Women Voters, California Common Cause, and the Sacramento Bee.  

Campaign against: The NO campaign is led by the legislators who voted against putting this measure on the ballot. They say that Prop 50 is a bad solution to the problem and instead the legislature should expel legislators accused of crimes. Suspension deprives constituents of their representation since their legislator can’t vote but also isn’t replaced. Also they worry that suspension could be used to sideline members of the legislature for political reasons. The LA Times also supports NO, noting that the measure has no guidelines for what is an appropriate cause for suspension, meaning the power could be abused.

Measure AA

Background/Summary: The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority is a regional agency created by the state legislature in 2008 with the power to levy a tax over the 9-county Bay

Area in order to fund bay restoration programs. Its board is made up of elected officials from the region and it has an advisory committee made up of various experts, activists, and park and city officials. The authority has studied the problem and decided to put a $12 parcel tax (e.g. $12 per piece of taxable property) on the June ballot. This tax will be voted on in all 9 counties and needs a 2/3 vote to pass. It will last 20 years.

The programs funded by this tax will be administered by the Authority and will be regionally distributed around the bay. The programs will include pollution prevention and cleanup, shoreline and wetland habitat protection, and flood control.

Campaign For: This measure is supported by the Bay Restoration Authority and everyone involved; the Authority board put the measure on the ballot with a unanimous vote. It is also supported by most local elected officials, environmental and business groups, and the Mercury News/East Bay Times. They say that the parcel tax is necessary to fund environmental programs, and that the bay is a key part of our local environment and should be preserved. In addition, with global warming, the bay is even more at risk and these programs will become more important. More cynically, without this measure the Authority has no funding and so can’t really do anything.

Campaign Against: This measure is opposed by the Silicon Valley Taxpayers’ Association and the Santa Clara Libertarian Party. They say that taxes are bad and the money will be wasted on benefits to local politicians, instead of being used for the Bay.

Measure A   

Summary/Background: This is a Santa Clara County measure (unlike the above measure which is for the 9 county bay area, hence the different numbering) placed on the ballot by the County Board of Supervisors. Currently, the county charter sets aside 1.425 cents of the tax collected by the county per $100 of assessed property value in the county for the Park Charter Fund, existent since 1972, and sets how that money is spent in terms of park acquisition, development, and operation. These requirements expire in 2021. The measure would renew the requirements until 2032, increase the amount set aside to 1.5 cents, and shift the spending balance to spend more on park development and less on park acquisition. This is not a tax increase, but a rebalancing of the mandates for spending in the money the county collects, and therefore requires a simple majority vote to pass. It needs to be put to voters because it is a modification of the county charter.

Campaign For: This measure is supported by the County and the parks system, and also by business groups, environmental groups, and the Mercury News. They say that the parks program has been highly successful and that we should continue funding the parks as they have been funded for 40+ years.

Campaign Against: There isn’t really a campaign against this. Some brave soul did write up an argument against in the voter guide where he says that laws mandating minimum government spending are bad and lead to deficits, and also that government projects are inefficient.

Members of the Democratic County Central Committee, 24th Assembly District

What is this: I have this election on my ballot because I am a registered Democrat in the 24th assembly district. You’ll have different people if you’re registered for a different party or live in a different district. If you’re registered as an independent, then this race doesn’t appear because you’re not a member of any party.

The County Central Committee is the official organization of the Democratic (or other) party in the county (here Santa Clara County). The county party organizes party activities in the county, including campaigns and endorsements, and forms the first level of the party organization, building to the state and national party. The current members from the 24th district are: Alyson Abramowitz, Bill James, Diane Rolfe, James Thurber, Marcene Van Dierendonck, and Gilbert Wong.

    There are 6 members of the committee and 7 people are running for the election, so all but one will be elected. James. Abramowitz, Rolfe, and Wong are running for re-election. The other candidates are Otto Lee, Emily Thurber, and Peter Chiu. Lee was previously a city council member in Sunnyvale and also ran for congress in the Central Valley in 2012 (???). Wong is currently a Cupertino city council member. Abramowitz has a facebook page where she says she is supported by local elected officials and posts about activities of the democratic party. I could not find information about the other candidates.