Primary Colors

New year, new county, new ballot!

This was an interesting one, with a high-profile wide-open governor's race in the top spot, and lots of lower-profile positions that I needed to educate myself on. While details vary, I find that my California November ballots generally have very easy lesser-of-two-evils or good-versus-bad choices, while the spring primary can be a lot more fraught, often with my heart and mind tugged in opposing directions. While researching, I also noticed that these days I have fewer trusted sources for endorsements. When I first moved out to California my first stop for election guidance was usually the major newspapers' editorial boards; but these days all media has been corporatized and homogenized, and I usually don't even think to check them, outside of very local minor races.

With no further ado, here's how I'm casting my ballot!

Governor: Tom Steyer (!!!!)

I know, I'm at least as shocked as you are. I came into this election with a strong preference for Katie Porter, who built a fantastic track record in Congress taking on evil megacorps and championing the smallfolk. But I've been very soured by her embrace of "slopulism" in this race, with a good-headline-but-terrible-policy promise to eliminate all income taxes under $100k of income. I could write a whole blog post on this, but it's so terrible on multiple levels. Fundamentally we need to return to an ethos of collective vision, us as a society investing in our nation, creating a civil state that works for us. Moving to an oligarchal system that's exclusively funded by the wealthy will alienate the majority of citizens and place the real power in the hands of the elites who Porter has traditionally questioned.

I can't believe I'm voting for a billionaire, but Steyer is the best of the major contenders. I was moved by the support from Rebecca Solnit and the California DSA (!!!).

Lieutenant Governor: Oliver Ma

Secretary of State: Shirley Weber

Controller: Malia Cohen

Treasurer: Anna Caballero

Attorney General: Rob Bonta

Bonta is probably my favorite person in California politics at the moment. I'm a little surprised he's staying in this position instead of angling for something else, but he's been doing fantastic work, and I'll enjoy seeing him continue, especially in these critical coming years.

Insurance Commissioner: Ben Allen

California's insurance market is another thing that could merit an entire blog post. This is a pretty wide-open race, I feel the most optimistic about Allen in actually navigating the difficult road ahead of us.

Insurance Commissioner is also such a weird race. I think people get elected by denigrating and attacking insurance companies, but when in office the most important job is working productively with them.

State Board of Equalization 2nd District: Sally Lieber

Sally's great!

12th Congressional District: Lateefah Simon

18th Assembly District: Mia Bonta

Superior Court Judge Office #13: Cabral Bonner

Superior Court Judge Office #19: Selia Warren

State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Nichelle Henderson

County Superintendent of Schools: Alysse Castro (uncontested)

District Attorney: Ursula Dickson

Measure A (Peralta community college property tax): Yes

Oakland Measure C (tax exemption for small businesses): Yes

I'm very conflicted on this one! It feels bad to hand out tax cuts while the city struggles with a budget deficit. Every reputable source I could find is endorsing this, so I'll jump on board.

Oakland Measure D (modernize an obscure and mostly defunct retirement system): Yes

Oakland Measure E (property tax): Yes

So, that's that! I hope that the angst around the governor's race this year finally convinces California to adopt ranked-choice instant-runoff voting at the state level. The Top Two primary system has served us pretty well in the last couple of decades, but we've entered a phase now where it's cynically manipulated by leading Democrats to boost Republicans to ease their own elections. The now-fading specter of an all-Republican general election race for Governor will hopefully be enough of a warning call for the state and the party to fix this and get us a more democratic system that lets people vote their conscience instead of keeping an eye on strategy.