The ballots have arrived and I haven't filled mine out yet. Not wanting to miss an opportunity for a blog post if I'm doing the research anyway, I'm going to write out my endorsements here.
Here we go!
Statewide
Governor: Tom Steyer
I agonized about this one. It gave me flashbacks to 2003 when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor.
I was not happy about this. In fact, I hated it. I did NOT want Arnold's signature on my Berkeley diploma. I thought he was using his wealth, his fame, and his swagger to bully his way into a position he did not deserve. He'd never held a city council seat, probably never even attended one. He had no standing to come into our state's highest elected office and claim to know anything.
I was wrong. By all accounts, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a great governor. I'm sure I voted for him in the election after the recall of Gray Davis. I liked his independence. I liked his environmental policy. And at the end of the day, I liked his swagger. He was funny, the exact opposite of Gray Davis, and it turned out that our state needed this.
After two career politicians in the governor's chair, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, I'm back in that outsider mindset. Take it back. No more of the machine running the machine. Yes, Tom Steyer is a billionaire. No, he's never been a councilmember or sat through a meeting. He hasn't paid his dues, but it turns out dues are not required. I'll take the guy with the strong environmental record, the independence to not be impressed by big checks, and a track record of caring enough to not just campaign, but campaign hard.
As a plus, I run in the same San Francisco climate technology circles as his son, and he's a very nice, very normal guy. I think that says something too.
I'm voting for Tom.
Lieutenant Governor: Josh Fryday
Let's be real. This position barely matters. It's a stepping stone. Whomever wins will not be heard from again until they run for a better office.
So, I'm voting for the Cal guy. I don't know Josh, but I know of him. We overlapped at Cal. He was in student government and I was swimming around it, doing my environmental thing.
He's an insider, but he's the good kind of insider. He's not going from elected position to elected position. He served in the military. He started new programs. He also has a strong environmental policy bent and I trust that he will do a good and thorough job in the largely symbolic seats he'll fill on the UC Regents and Land Commissions and various other boards. He might even want to make a difference while he's there.
My next pick would be Fiona Ma, since I've been in the same room as her and I know she's capable, but I don't trust that she's actually going to pretend to do the work. I think if she wins she'll immediately start spreadsheeting her next campaign for something better.
That's it from me for statewide office.
County
Measure G
I'm biased. I'm a professor at the local community college. If I didn't believe they did good work, I wouldn't teach at one. Furthermore, while I believe all education is important, I think community college is especially critical right now.
People need to adapt. Employers will look for evidence that applicants are willing to learn and explore. Employers don't care about an Associate's degree. I'm not pretending they do. But they do care that someone took the time to start and finish something. That's the main benefit of an education. The skills and knowledge learned along the way may be transferrable but outside of accounting and certain fields of science, I wouldn't count on it.
In my classes I know ChatGPT use is rampant. It's like a virus. I don't know what to do about it. I find some solace knowing that their AI usage WILL translate to their careers. Getting good at prompting and covering their tracks is useful in today's workplace. Think of college these days as practice at using AI and getting away with it.
At least this education is relatively inexpensive. Measure G helps to keep it that way. The physical plant at these campuses is expensive. I wish there was another way, but a campus is a campus and it's just a bloated mess. On the plus side, these are huge community assets that we should continue to invest in. If someday they need to be repurposed there will be many options.
For these current and future reasons, Measure G is money well spent.
Yes on G.
Measure A
I sat for a couple of years on the county Sustainability Commission. I enjoyed it. It was a crash course in the plumbing of Contra Costa County. In some ways it inspired me to start Shovels. Then it started to get repetitive and I asked not to be re-appointed.
One of the topics we learned is the urban limit line. I sat through a presentation by Will Nelson, the Principal Planner for Contra Costa County. That dude was a wealth of info. I was impressed. He knew everything about how the county works, all the various jurisdiction lines and who has power over what and where. I learned that the urban limit line is a critical constraint. It keeps things neat (those are my words). It avoids sprawl and is a forcing factor for new housing density.
I think of the urban limit line as a budget. Instead of frugality, the default behavior is to dip into the coffers, file another bond, and spend spend spend. Similarly, the temptation is always to extend the boundary, eat up the open space, build build build. I'm all for building, but I love open space. We can have both. If the problem is cost, let's solve that separately rather than kill our vistas because of lackluster permit reform.
Yes on A.
School District
Measure H
My only local measure for this post.
This one was confusing at first. I had it confused with Measure T, the ill-fated attempt by the Acalanes High School District to squeeze a parcel tax through a special election. The cost of running it was likely north of $1M. It was never disclosed. The campaign was poorly-run, poorly-timed, and when it failed, the district had pie on its face and a huge liability. For nothing! A complete waste of district funds. They could and should have waited for this June primary ballot.
When I first heard about Measure H, I thought it was the district taking a second bite of the apple, doing it the way they should have done the first time. Fortunately, I was wrong!
This is the Lafayette School District which serves the elementary and middle schools, including Stanley Middle School — NOT the high school. It is upgrading a decade-old parcel tax that helps to account for our far below-average per-pupil spending despite being in a very upscale district. Some of the most expensive homes in the county are within the district boundaries. You wouldn't think we'd need a parcel tax, but we do because of the original sin of Prop 13.
I attended a Yes on H event and was sold. Simply put, we need this, and it's not for lack of cuts. We're not wasting funds on overhead and gratuitous DEI programs. This is a parcel tax to cover core instruction (I think arts and athletics are core, ESPECIALLY in K-8). We moved here for the schools, we love it here, and everyone, young and old, should want the Lafayette School District to maintain its flagship position not just in Contra Costa County, but in the entire state.
My older daughter just graduated fifth grade. She loves her school so I do too.
Yes on H.