Sunday, June 01, 2014

How I'm voting in the June 3rd election (and in some cases, why):

How I'm voting in the June 3rd election (and in some cases, why):
Contested statewide:
Secretary of State: Derek Cressman -- he is a longshot but he's running a real campaign and he's the only serious candidate who is a good government expert, worked for Common Cause for years and we know him personally.
Controller: Betty Yee--she's an experienced board of equalization member and a proven good person for the job.
Treasurer: John Chiang (currently doing a bang up job as Controller)

Statewide measures:
State Proposition 41 -- Yes. Authorizes $600 million in general obligation bonds to pay for affordable housing for veterans and other homeless.
State Proposition 42 -- Yes. To require local governments to comply with open government public meetings laws--more transparency in government is a good thing.

Local--Sacramento Contested:
Assembly District 7: Kevin McCarty and Steve Cohn are both long time good city council members running. Kevin is the more courageous and progressive choice. A solid progressive vote. Only candidate to ask hard questions and stand up to the arena. He has the kind of backbone we need in the Assembly. Cohn is backed by Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Senate District 6: Assemblymembers Roger Dickinson and Richard Pan are running. Roger Dickinson is the clear choice for progressives. Richard Pan's vaunted "independence" leads him to take such votes as voting against a bill to limit fracking for oil and against a bill to ban dangerous bisphenyl A chemical in baby bottles.

District Attorney: Conservative law enforcement backed Jan Scully has finally retired, and is trying to annoint her successor. The Democratic consensus candidate is Maggie Krell.

Local Measure B-- Yes. to assess a $12 a year property owner tax to pay to keep libraries funded.

Other races are pretty much non contested but I'll give a shout out to re-electing Sacramento's own Dave Jones as Insurance Commissioner. He's doing a great job.