Jeff's election recommendations, November 2014

[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've been updating for the past couple weeks. 

Please feel free to forward this widely, encourage people to visit the blog and sign up for this email list. If you have feedback, please comment on the blog -- that's easier than lots of emails. 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. 

Go out and vote!

-- Jeff

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

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November 2014 recommendations

The whole list goes roughly from the bottom of your ballot to the top (races in italics are the ones I haven't settled on yet -- but I plan to!). If there's a race missing that you want more info on, post a comment!!

Berkeley Measures + Offices:

• D: YES YES YES for Berkeley Soda Tax 
• R: NO NO NO: Protect Berkeley's Downtown Plan
• And here's one combined post for the other Berkeley measures:
• F: YES to Support Berkeley Parks
• O: Yes to Clean Up City Charter
• P: Yes: Berkeley says Corporations aren't People, Money isn't Speech
• Q: Yes: Berkeley says Work should be flexible
• S: Yes to Approve Redistricting map
• Berkeley City Council: following my friend Nathan's recommendations
• D-1: Linda Maio
• D-7: Sean Barry.
• D-8: Michael Alvarez Cohen (1), Lori Droste (2)
• Berkeley School District: Ty Alper, Josh Daniels, and probably Karen Hemphill. Writeup coming soon.
• Berkeley Rent Board: there are 5 people running for 5 seats. They've all endorsed each other. They're all going to win.  

Oakland Measures + Offices: I put these all together in one big Oakland post.

• CC: Yes to Strengthen the Ethics Commission. 
• DD: Yes to Create an Independent Redistricting Commission. 
• EE: Yes for a technical fix on pension administration. 
• FF: YES YES YES to Lift Up Oakland. 
• N: YES for High Schools parcel tax. 
• Z: YES to continue Violence Prevention/Police tax. 
• Oakland Mayor - #1 Schaaf, #2 Quan, #3 ... blank or Siegel
• Auditor: Brenda Roberts. 
• City Council District 2: Abel Guillen. 
• Districts 4+6 - no endorsement.

Alameda County + Special District Measures + Offices

• YES YES YES on Measure BB: Crucial Transit Improvements
• BART District 4: Robert Raburn
• AC Transit District, At-Large: maybe Dollene Jones, or maybe write-in you!
• East Bay MUD, Ward 3: Marguerite Young. 
• If you have questions about any other special districts, write a comment!

State Propositions:

• 1: Torn between Yes vs. No, with conflicting input from people I trust ($7.5 billion water bond) -- see long writeup.
• 2: YES for a reasonable rainy day fund.
• 45: Yes to Regulate Health Insurance Rates
• 46: No on Drug-Testing of Doctors, Medical Malpractice, + Prescription Database
• 47: YES YES YES for Sensible Criminal Justice Reform
• 48: Yes on Indian Gaming Compacts

Nonpartisan Offices

• State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson, who has done a fine job. Opponent Marshall Tuck is too much of an enthusiast for charter schools and too-much testing.
• County Superintendent of Schools: not researched yet, but friends seem to all support Karen Monroe. 

Judges

• I don't know any reason not to vote for any of these judges. And in the absence of any significant campaign against any one of them, they're going to be re-elected. If you know something about any one of them, let me know. 

State (+ Federal) Offices

• For almost all the state offices -- Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Controller, Treasurer, Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner, & Member State Board of Equalization 2nd District -- I'm voting the Democratic ticket. I like some of them, don't know so much others. 

State Assembly:

• D-15: slight edge to Tony Thurmond over Elizabeth Echols, although I'd be delighted with either of them as my representative.See long writeup. 
• D-16: Tim Sbranti. Great guy, effective leader, teacher, and someone I've grown to respect through my work life for the past several years. I'm sad we're losing him as a councilmember from Dublin.
• D-18: Rob Bonta: a helpful and effective leader from Alameda, who I met through the 2011-2012 Measure BB negotiations. And an incumbent Democrat, so I presume he'll win easily. 
• D-20: Bill Quirk. Intelligent leader from Hayward. And an incumbent Democrat, so I presume he'll win easily.