November 6, 2018 Voter Recommendations

After two terrible, long years of the worst president in history of our country we finally have a chance to do something about it. I know that many of you are fatigued, but now is the time to double down on your activism. I will outline everything you need to know to fill out your absentee ballot or go to the polls, but I hope that you will do more than just your civic duty. Will you encourage everyone you know to vote? Will you help organizations like the ACLU get out the vote (https://www.aclu.org/voter/)? Even better, will you knock on doors for Katie Hill (https://www.katiehillforcongress.com/volunteer) or Harley Rouda (https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/roudaforcongress/)?

Stopping Trump depends on democrats going to the polls. There are more of us then them, but we don’t vote in midterm elections. Please help to change that. Post on social media about voting. Tell your family and friends about voting. This is the most important topic to check in with everyone you know about for the next few weeks.

As with all my voter guides take what you like and leave the rest. These are my personal opinions and I hope that you will feel free to use the guide to gain more information and make your own informed decisions. Please do not skip anything on the ballot. There are extremely important state and local ballot measures. Positions in bold I feel very strongly about.

Governor: Gavin Newsom

Lieutenant Governor: Eleni Kounalakis

Secretary of State: Alex Padilla

Controller: Betty Yee

Treasurer: Fiona Ma

Attorney General: Xavier Becerra

Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara

State Board of Equalization: Tony Vazquez

U.S. Senator: Dianne Feinstein

U.S. Representatives:

CD25: Katie Hill

CD27: Judy Chu

CD28: Adam Schiff

CD34: Jimmy Gomez

CD37: Karen Bass

CD43: Maxine Waters

CD44: Nanette Barragan

CD48: Harley Rouda

State Senator - 24th District: Maria Elena Durazo

State Assembly - 51st District: Wendy Carrillo

Judicial Supreme Court Judges & Judicial Court of Appeal Judges

-Just say Yes to all

Judicial Office #4: A. Veronica Sauceda

Judicial Office #16: Sydne Jane Michel

Judicial Office #60: Holly Hancock

Judicial Office #113: Michael P. Ribons

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond

County Assessor: Jeffrey Prang

County Sheriff: Jim McDonnell

Proposition 1: Yes

Prop 1 is great! It is a $4 billion state bond to fund affordable housing. It will fund a variety of programs from affordable housing construction to a limited amount of home ownership subsidies. It is a great initiative that is desperately needed right now.

Proposition 2: Yes

Keep the housing measures coming! Prop 2 is a bit confusing because it is building on Prop 63 from 2006. Prop 63 is the millionaires’ tax that funds mental health services. This proposition clarifies a legal question about whether the state can issue bonds that bond against the future revenues from the millionaires’ tax. The bond proceeds will be used to construct supportive housing for people who are homeless and suffer from mental illness.

Proposition 3: No

I really struggle with Prop 3 because it has some things in it I really like – primarily $2.5 billion for watershed restoration and $2.1 billion for storm water recapture (which you will read more about below). The problem is that $4.6 billion in good stuff is stuck in there with $4.3 billion of not-great-stuff. The campaign is funded by big Ag and opposed by the League of Women voters. In the end it is a really expensive Christmas tree and it is up to you if want your taxes funding gifts for good and bad actors. 

Proposition 4: Yes

This is a $1.5 billion bond for children’s hospitals. I was very grateful for Valley Children’s Hospital in Fresno when Sadie broke her leg. I hope that none of you ever have to bring your children to a children’s hospital, but if you do you will be grateful that the voters of California helped ensure that these are some of the best hospitals in the world.

Proposition 5: No!

Do you like robbing children and millennials to make the baby boomers richer? If so, this is the ballot initiative for you. You may have heard about the worst thing that ever happened to California - Prop 13? Remember when California went from the best public schools in the country to 48^th in the country? If you liked robbing students of a decent public education then, the realtors have an opportunity to double down and take even more money from public schools. The California Association of Realtors is right up there with the NRA in terms of most self-serving mega-lobbyists of all time. In California today if you are a senior citizen who wants to downsize because your kids have moved out you can take your Prop 13 - artificially low - tax rates with you to a home of lesser value. But that apparently is not good enough for the realtors who get a commission every time you move. Now they want seniors to be able to take their artificially low property tax rates with them if they move to a home of greater value! Forget downsizing. You're done paying for your kids’ college and now you want to buy yourself a mega-mansion? Please let California tax payers help subsidize your mega-mansion. This is the most ridiculous ballot initiative ever. I hope it goes down in flames.

Proposition 6: No

While the realtors are trying to destroy public education, the Republicans are trying to destroy our roads. The Republicans want to repeal the gas tax, which funds roads and transportation infrastructure. We want gas cheap so that you can drive over roads that will destroy your car because of so many potholes. What is the point of that? There is bipartisan agreement that we desperately need these funds for roads and infrastructure. But maybe, just maybe, this isn’t about repealing a tax and is really about turning republicans out at the polls to try to keep republican control of the House…

Proposition 7: Yes

This is a funny proposition because it does not do much. It would repeal part of an existing state law, thus making it possible for the state legislature to adopt daylight savings time year-round, but there is a hitch – the feds would also have to approve any change. So, this is one small step towards not having to turn our clocks backwards and forwards twice a year, but don’t expect anything to change soon. I would be thrilled if someday in the future we do make the full move to permanent daylight savings time.

Proposition 8: Amended from Neutral to Yes

I am torn on this initiative because there is not a lot of information. It also seems too complicated to be legislated at the ballot box. This proposition would cap the profits of dialysis centers. SEIU put it on the ballot in the hope that dialysis centers would put the revenue they couldn’t keep into more staff. Many groups are opposing the measure out of fear that it would lead to dialysis centers closing at time when we need more to open.

*Addendum to my analysis on Prop 8. The best part of sharing the guide is all the feedback I get that helps me be more informed. My wonderful friend Julie, who is a doctor, shared the following about why she is voting for Prop 8. "I ended up voting yes on 8 because dialysis centers would receive incentives to care for more patients in the same way that hospitals used to get extra money (DSH) for serving a higher proportion of MediCal patients. Dialysis is an automatic MediCare and disability qualifier. So those healthcare dollars are coming out of our pockets no matter what, and, yet dialysis centers turn hefty profits. If the public is going to fund healthcare (which I believe we should because it is a human right), then no one should be making profits. AND, since I’ve been reading about this one, I have to throw in my 2 cents about the inherent bias that the world of kidney care has toward leading people to a lifetime of dialysis and never recommending kidney transplant." Julie convinced me to also support Prop 8.

Proposition 9: Nothing here because this proposition was removed from the ballot.

Proposition 10: YES!!!

Of everything on the ballot this is the initiative I feel most strongly about. Don’t be fooled by the $60 million in ads saying this initiative will hurt housing construction in California. The ads are all lies and funded by realtors and landlords who want property values and sales to keep going through the roof. Prop 10 repeals a horrible state law called Costa-Hawkins. Costa-Hawkins passed the state legislature in 1995 by 1 vote. It prohibits cities from protecting tenants from rent increases by doing three things. The worst part of Costa-Hawkins is that it prevents limiting rent increases on any apartment built after 1995 or locks in the year of rent stabilization policies in any city that had rent stabilization before the state law passed. This is why the supply of rent stabilized apartments in LA shrinks every year – we are locked into only regulating apartments built before 1978, the year the city used as the cut-off when Costa-Hawkins passed in 1995. The next thing it does is prohibits regulating rents on single-family homes, despite more than 1/3 of renters in California living in single-family homes. The third thing it does is prohibits vacancy control. I think New York is the only city left in the country that has any form of vacancy control – this is when a tenant leaves an apartment and the rent is kept below-market for the next tenant who rents the apartment. Prop 10 won’t change anything over night, but it will repeal this state law that has prevented cities from regulating many thousands of apartments. Many cities, including Los Angeles, are poised to implement stricter tenant protections if voters approve Prop 10. I hear from tenants constantly who have faced outrageous rent increases. This is the most important thing we could do to curb abusive and exploitative landlords.

Proposition 11: Neutral

This is another proposition that I am torn on. There is no formal opposition. All the major papers are supporting the proposition, but it is a complicated issue that would be better resolved by the legislature. A recent court decision said that security guards should not have to be on-call when they take breaks. Private ambulance companies want California voters to approve this proposition exempting private ambulance EMTs from these worker protections so that their employees would have to be on-call when they take breaks. Labor unions oppose the measure.

Proposition 12: Yes

10 years after I opposed Proposition 2 in 2008 because I thought we should give gay people rights before we focused on animal rights my husband still makes fun of me for feeling so strongly against Prop 8, which was on the same ballot, that I opposed Prop 2. Prop 2 banned battery cages for chickens in 2008. This proposition would go farther and require all eggs sold in California to be cage-free by 2022. I am sure that this is a good thing. It just feels weird to me that so many people are pro-chicken when we can’t do the simplest things to help humans in need. 

Measure W: Yes

Did you know that an obscene amount of energy in California is used just to transport water from northern California and the Colorado River to Southern California? We could significantly reduce energy consumption in the state if we simply captured our storm water, treated it, and used it to replenish our water supply. Instead we let billions of gallons of water pick up toxins and trash and then flow into our oceans and poison marine life. Measure W is a County measure that would tax property owners based on how much impenetrable surface we each have on our property. You can estimate what the tax would be for you by going to https://safecleanwaterla.org/calculator/. The proceeds would be invested in storm water recapture infrastructure that would collect enough water to serve close to a quarter of the County’s population.

Measure B: Yes

I don’t think the City of LA will ever establish a public bank, but I like the idea. Unfortunately establishing a public bank is very expensive and difficult. The good news is that this ballot measure won’t hurt anything, so why not vote yes and open the door for the city to establish a public bank?

Measure E: Yes

Many local governments, including the City of LA, have been working to increase voter turnout by moving away from the off-cycle elections to align votes for local offices with larger statewide elections. This is a good thing because very few voters turn out for the off-cycle elections. This proposition amends the city charter to align city elections with state elections.

Measure EE: Yes

Measure EE does the same thing as the measure above, but for elections for school board member elections.