Editor’s Note: Endorsements by columnists are their personal opinions and do not constitute an endorsement by The Santa Monica Daily Press.
CONFUSED, BUT WANT TO VOTE SMARTLY?
People picks are easy because incumbents have a record, challengers have a plan. Compare. The facts, not the hype. Propositions, not so easy. Often written to confuse.
I’ll address both here, with my outright personal endorsements, about the people and props I know very well, and my recommendations, from research I consider thorough and trustworthy.
CITY COUNCIL — PHIL BROCK, CHRISTINE PARRA, MARIO FONDA-BONARDI, OSCAR DE LA TORRE.
They are running as a slate, to replace the four full-term incumbents. Are you and SM are better off now than you were four years ago? This slate has detailed, common sense platforms of how they will govern and fix what is so wrong, and they have long proven records of public service and governance.
But if you want just one issue, how about Sunday, 5/31/2020, when gangs of looters announced they were coming to Santa Monica and the police chief left town and the City Council (including incumbent candidates Gleam Davis, Terry O’Day, Ana Jara, Ted Winterer) did not take responsibility to handle it, and our police force then used illegal force on peaceful protesters — sometimes-lethal rubber bullets, and tear gas, which is outlawed globally even during war — while letting the looters run free just a couple of blocks away, trashing more than 100 of our businesses. They should all have resigned, along with the Acting City Manager Lane Dilg. After years of across-the-board malfeasance, this one huge, traumatic failing is more than enough reason to remove them all.
Only three incumbent Council members have been voted out of office in the City’s history. Now is the election to break that incestuous cycle. I have never in my 35 years here seen so much dissatisfaction and anger with the way things have deteriorated, and with the politicians who caused it.
CITY COUNCIL — unexpired two year term: Incumbent Kristin McCowan was placed on Council in a proscribed process that was a charade of democracy, and she immediately started voting in lockstep with her benefactors, minutes after appointment. Ana Jara gained her seat that way. Only Ted Winterer, of the four incumbents, was elected first, not appointed.
SMMUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION — I endorse NO INCUMBENTS (no on Jon Kean and Maria Leon-Vazquez, see my previous two columns), with recommendations for ESTHER HICKMAN, JASON FELDMAN, STEVEN JOHNSON. These three parents promise to bring transparency and a students-first perspective to this prestige-oriented, maneuvering behind the scenes school board, and they are running as a “slate of 8” with the four challenging Council candidates I endorsed above.
SMC BOARD OF TRUSTEES — I recommend only BRIAN O’NEIL, the final member of the slate of eight. Our beloved “community college” has grown into a huge near-university, a political force wielding more than a billion dollars of our school bond funds. Witness the unconscionable heist from our pockets, from the early learning center they forced inappropriately onto our Civic Center grounds despite wide community opposition.
RENT CONTROL BOARD — I recommend either no vote, or the two incumbents, CAROLINE TOROSIS and ANASTASIA FOSTER, more from not having heard anything terrible about them. The RC Board does some good but could certainly use a remake. I do hear lots of stories of their delays or failure to help. Just don’t let your pen slip and vote for Kronovet.
STATE ASSEMBLY — do NOT vote for Richard Bloom, developer-funded and instigator of our downward spiral of overdevelopment while he was on our City Council. He’s now pushing bills in Sacramento that will screw the whole state. Unless you are in the building industry. But don’t revenge vote his opponent, who is absolutely awful. Alex Jones acolyte. No opportunity for a write in. Just give him a zero, a much higher grade than he deserves.
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — TED LIEU. I’d vote for him 10 times if I could. I don’t know of a better Congressman, period. Hard working, constituent oriented, unflinching truth teller, sans the mud slinging.
MEASURE SM — YES. Maybe doesn’t go far enough. Raises $3M for essential services from small extra tax on properties sold for more than $5M.
MEASURE AB — I recommend NO. Codifies crony hiring for City jobs.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY — GEORGE GASCON. Yes, he’s a Bay Area carpetbagger, but current DA Jackie Lacey has completely lost favor, for good reasons. Gascon will come in as a promised reformer.
JUDGES OF THE SUPERIOR COURT - I recommend MYANNA DELLINGER, KLINT JAMES MCKAY, DAVID DIAMOND.
COUNTY MEASURE J — I recommend YES. Allocates no less than 10 percent of county revenue to fight racial injustice, investing in health, housing, jobs and alternatives to jail.
STATE MEASURE 14 — I recommend NO. Stem cell research - good. But this mess was concocted by a real estate developer, seemingly crafted to prevent oversight, transparency and accountability. Revenue from patents will not go to the public, and there is no commitment to make medical gains available to the public at reasonable cost. The $5.5B price tag will balloon to $7.8B. We don’t need this.
STATE MEASURE 15 - I recommend YES. This one’s great. Essentially eliminates Prop 13 for commercial properties valued above $3M, will add billions to pandemic-depleted state coffers.
STATE MEASURE 16 — I recommend YES. Allows state government to take diversity into account in hiring and funding.
STATE MEASURE 17 — I recommend YES. Restores right to vote to prisoners who have served their time.
STATE MEASURE 18 — I recommend YES. Allows 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by the next election, to vote in primaries and special elections.
STATE MEASURE 19 — I recommend NO. Reads good, and does offer some benefits to all, but it’s designed to most benefit the wealthiest families, who may flip expensive homes for tax benefits or even make them rentals, furthering gentrification.
STATE MEASURE 20 — I recommend NO. Ham-fisted scare tactics that turn 51 misdemeanors into “violent” felonies, could easily set back effective prison reform. Allows police to collect DNA on misdemeanors, like shoplifting. Backed big time by grocery conglomerates and prison guard unions.
STATE MEASURE 21 — I recommend YES. Allows local governments to expand rent control.
STATE MEASURE 22 — I recommend NO. Exempts companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, who have dumped a record $180M into this campaign, from following state laws to provide drivers with fair wages, healthcare, unemployment insurance, sick leave, and other basic rights. Don’t believe the ads: drivers are emphatically NOT in favor of this. Would also dramatically weaken anti-discrimination and anti-harassment protections for drivers, and requiring a shocking 7/8ths majority to undo.
STATE MEASURE 23 — I recommend YES. Could go further, but does offer better protections for dialysis patients, besieged by a predatory industry.
STATE MEASURE 24 — I recommend NO. This one’s close. Does offer some privacy benefits to consumers, but there are giveaways too, and it will cost the state and small businesses billions,.
STATE MEASURE 25 — I recommend NO. Replaces cash bail with a worse system, handing enormous power to judges, probation departments, and racist/classist “risk assessment” algorithms, to imprison defendants before trial, which essentially automates racial profiling and coercion of guilty pleas. It would render Measure J ineffectual.
PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT - JOE BIDEN, KAMALA HARRIS - duh.
VOTE. VOTE-VOTE-VOTE. Please VOTE!
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 34 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
