Jeff's election recommendations, November 2012

[Jeff Hobson]

Dear fellow voters,

I finished my writeups for this November's election. Check it out at http://caelections.blogspot.com.

If you just want the crib sheet to take with you to the polls, you can print out this email, a copy of the summary I posted earlier today.

Please feel free to forward this widely, encourage people to visit the blog and sign up for this email list. If you have feedback for me, I strongly encourage you to use the comment field on the blog -- that is easier for me than lots of emails. And of course, as usual, all views in this email and on the blog are entirely my own and are not those of my workplace or any organization I'm involved in.

Take care, and make sure to go out and vote!

-- Jeff

PS -- If you are getting this forwarded to you and you'd like to get it directly in the future, please point your browser to http://caelections.blogspot.com and put your email address into the "Google groups" box in the upper left.

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November 2012 Summary of Recommendations

Here's my summary of recommendations for the November 2012 election. I've tried my best to put these in the order they'll appear on your ballot, based on how they show up in mine. If there's a race missing that you want more info on, post a comment!!

Federal & State

• President, Senator, Congress, State Senate & Assembly: I'm voting the Democratic ticket. I like some of them (Obama, Lee, Hancock, Skinner) more than others (Feinstein).They're all going to win California or their respective districts, so I won't spend any time here debating their relative merits.

Nonpartisan Offices

• Berkeley Rent Board (up to 4): not satisfied, but probably voting the 'progressive slate', Dodsworth, Shelton, Soto-Vigil, and Tregub.
• Berkeley School Board (up to 2): Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, Judy Appel
• AC Transit Director, At Large: Chris Peeples
• AC Transit Director, Ward 1: Yelda Bartlett
• BART Director, District 3: Rebecca Saltzman
• BART Director, District 7: Maria Alegria

State Propositions
Most important to me are Yes on 30 (fix the budget!), No on 32 (don't silence our voices), and Yes on 34 (replace the death penalty with justice that works!). Here's the full summary:

• Yes on 30: Temporary State Budget Fix
• No on 31:  Poorly Worked-Out Budget Reform
• No on 32: Don't Silence Our Voices
• No on 33: Billionaire #1: Manipulating the Insurance Market
• Yes on 34: Justice That Works
• No on 35: Human Trafficking Penalties
• Yes on 36: Reform Three Strikes Law
• Yes on 37: Support our Right to Know What We Eat
• No on 38: Billionaire #2 with inadequate education funding
• Yes on 39: Close Out-of-State Corporate Tax Loophole
• Yes on 40: Approve Redistricting by Citizens Commission

Alameda County Measures:

• Yes on A1: Zoo Improvements
• YES!! on B1: Crucial Transit Improvements

City Nonpartisan Offices:

• Berkeley Mayor: Tom Bates
• Berkeley City Council District 2 (Southwest): Darryl Moore (1st), Denisha DeLane (2nd)
• Berkeley City Council District 3 (South Berkeley): Max Anderson
• Berkeley City Council District 5 (Thousand Oaks): Laurie Capitelli
• Oakland City Council, At-Large: Rebecca Kaplan
• Oakland City Council, District 1 (North Oakland): Richard Raya #1, Amy Lemley #2, Dan Kalb #3
• Oakland City Council, District 7 (Deep East Oakland): Sheryl Walton

City of Berkeley Measures (I put these all together in one long post): 

• Yes on M: Berkeley Streets & Watershed Bond
• Yes on N & O: Berkeley Pools Bond & Parcel Tax
• Yes on P: Raise Gann Limit
• Yes on Q: Modernize language for Utility Users Tax
• Yes on R: Rational Redistricting
• No on S: Wrong solution to a real nuisance
• Yes on T: Approve city's Rezoning for West Berkeley
• No on U: the Berkeley political gridlock ordinance
• No on V: More gridlock, financial reporting style