SB 51: the California politics thread

Oh yeah, and Oakland has a mayoral election ...

Alaska and Arizona, come on. This *was* a big push forward.

Bush had already given his SOTU pressing for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Massachusetts was on track to start allowing marriages in May of that year. A backlash was going to happen in 2004. And Prop 8 was a direct response to the California Supreme Court recognizing marriage rights in 2008

agree that it was a partly self-serving move, but it was also a very good thing

yeah, on paper he has done all the right things, but you read into the details of his life and he is a total slimeball

thing is, how else would you vote if not on what he has done and the positives more or less outweigh the negatives

i feel like this single payer healthcare program was hyped a lot in california, but like it's crazy when you do the math

i'm not against it though

on paper he has done all the right things

not when he was mayor! he did a lot of not-right things

as mayor his sponsorship of Prop N (Care not Cash) was very controversial

yeah, i know what you mean

i guess i should say given the options

I agree that policy-wise I'm compelled to vote for him, more or less. At the same time, I absolutely hate watching him talk and prior to our current scandal-goalpost-moving POS chief exec I would have assumed Newsom was a lock for doing something scandalously unethical/illegal that would tank his career. I guess we're going to find out soon enough.

Well when the alternative is John Cox...

i was listening to an interview with scott weiner and he mentioned that brown had vetoed the 4am last call thing but he would bring it back next year and didn't expect any problems with newsom on that issue. there was then a weird moment where the interviewer and weiner acknowledged that yes, newsom is a known partier.

a friend of mine/former journalist wrote a semi-autobiographical novel that briefly features an obvious Newsom character riding around in a limo drinking champagne, doing blow and engaging in bisexual hijinks

"That, in turn, should be the opening line of your novel.

god damn i need a voter guide who tf are all these yahoo local judges speaking in code

i forget, are you in LA?

sandy eggo

city of

ah i cannot help you.

anyone reading this in LA:

superior court #4: sauceda on the grounds that the other guy is endorsed by the police unions.

#16: hunter. michel's husband is an NRA lawyer and her son is called Colt and her dog is called Heston. also michel is endorsed by the LAT which in court elections seems to indicate a "nice little beach community" type.

#60: hancock. ex public defender (rather than prosecutor) and woman.

no news here for anyone local, but prop c goes national

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/technology/san-francisco-taxes-homeless.html

i didn't know this though:

In 2012, San Francisco also adjusted its tax code by switching from a payroll tax to a gross receipts tax, a change that favored the tech industry, which spends extravagantly to recruit top engineers.

superior court #4: sauceda on the grounds that the other guy is endorsed by the police unions

i definitely voted against the guy that said "proud to be law enforcement's choice"

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-road-map-thurmond-tuck-schools-charters-unions-20181021-story.html

I am going to ask an extremely ignorant question: what is the billionaire obsession with charter schools? an untapped market?

i think it's the standard "free enterprise" thing that appeals to business people, like public schools are hamstrung by all these government regulations, what if we could "disrupt" that and do more or less what we want but still get the same government funding that the public schools do?

yeah it's total bullshit

i endorse these endorsements

https://lawebsitedotnet.wordpress.com/

rich people also send their kids to private schools so they dgaf about using charters as a lab for their dumb theories. they're not affected.

Weird new republican ad buy

A plane crashed onto the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. https://t.co/L09NSqhq3k pic.twitter.com/dXHLoY4aKB

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 23, 2018

would sign a prop that seized all assets of a rich warplane flying asshole that fucks up everybody's commute

Opposition to PROP 10

Officials

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), 2018 gubernatorial candidate[47]
John Cox (R), 2018 gubernatorial candidate[47]

Parties

California Republican Party[48]

When did Gavin Newsom disappoint you first?

I betcha nobody here remembers Brittanie Mountz.

lol who could forget

I actually remember Newsom's Gay Marriage Gambit as a pretty savvy move to consolidate the city behind him after a divisive election (and I definitely didn't vote for him in that one).

But he will not be as competent as Brown, that's for sure. Hopefully it will be enough.

I betcha nobody here remembers Brittanie Mountz.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, October 23, 2018 6:04 PM (yesterday)

oh I remember! she had the best name, the jokes wrote themselves

i also endorse these endorsements:

https://tjr.xxx/content/two-evils-voting-guide-nov-2018.pdf?1540269420

Surprising revelation from @GavinNewsom, former 2-term Mayor of SF: he hasn’t read #PropC and has no opinion on it. Tax tech to help homeless? No view. Not even in the abstract. “I haven’t read it.” pic.twitter.com/0RpAbozJFA

— Doug Sovern (@SovernNation) October 30, 2018

prop 10 seems like it's going to lose:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-may-2018-proposition-10-s-support-craters-in-new-1540406834-htmlstory.html

possibly thanks to this kind of nonsense (the same people will tell you that prop 10 will result in fewer houses being built. pick a side people!)

silver linings though:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-may-2018-prop-6-leaders-threaten-recall-campaign-1540838655-htmlstory.html

missing link there sorry

Why’s @AptAssocGLA gonna go ahead and make this old lady lie like that pic.twitter.com/GiSMsSydF8

— Scott Frazier (@safrazie) October 28, 2018

damn dude, she looks like she's only in her mid-50s??

that Doug Sovern tweet is bullshit. Newsom has already weighed in on Prop C

(he thinks Prop C could make the problem worse. don't agree)

Prop C is a good thing!, really hope it passes

Agree completely re Prop C

Prop 10 is doomed, but I may vote for it anyway.

submitted without comment

http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/images/VoterGuides/2018-November-Workers-Voter-Guide.pdf

except that the candidates they are endorsing look really young

the best thing on twitter right now is marc benioff dunking on rich silicon valley guys who won’t pay a tiny tax to fund anti-homelessness initiatives https://t.co/IDjDXsaqJb

— we're going to abolish ICE (@SeanMcElwee) November 4, 2018

yeah benioff is pretty legit for a billionaire ceo

all the bonds except the admittedly slightly weird water bond passed

5 (extend limits on property tax) and 6 (remove gas tax and let the state fall apart) failed :-(

rent control wasn't even close though :-(

the charter guy is winning superintendent of public instruction but it's close and has not been called yet

kounalakis won lieutenant gov. did anyone have a strong opinion about that one? neither seems like particularly promising future governers.

looks like la county is about to vote out the sheriff for the first time in 100+ years. the replacement has the support of the LASD rank and file which is huge fucking red flag, but he ran on a "get ICE out of LA jails" platform (LASD runs the county jails).

la city public bank failed :-(

the NRA-sponsored judge lost in LA county :-)

proposition C passed though and by a lot1

Surely you meant to smile on 5 and 6 losing.

yeah idgi re: 6

Looks like the one District I was focusing on (10 - Harder vs. Denham) might still be too close to call, last time I checked the results were w/in 1,000 votes.

Looks like Rohrabacher is out though, which is awesome

yeah i got confused about smileys.

5 (extend limits on property tax) and 6 (remove gas tax and let the state fall apart) failed :-)

can't believe Nunes is still gonna be around

I can't believe Duncan Hunter is still going to be around

I get the idea of being in favor of term limits for people you don't like and in favor of no term limits for people you do like.

The way it works in SF right now, you can run for two 4-year terms, then you are termed out for 4 years, and then you can run again for two more 4-year terms, etc.

I'd like to announce my candidacy for 'random reasonably cool guy in SF,' and look forward to winning by acclamation for a however-long-I-want-it term.

can the bald british guy pulls a Schwarzenegger? I doubt it

Pfft, no.

Hilton is not going to win. Our next governor will be Xavier Becerra.

Measure B in SF (lifetime term limits for mayor/supervisors) finally passed, 7 days later

The delayed results and the disinterest in them is very strange - it's like nobody cares about the results, they just care about their own opinion

I was very interested in the results and happy with them.

I'm a big believer in them even for candidates I like because a fresh set of eyes is generally a good thing. Sometimes people stay in office so long they become the villain. Wish this was the case in Congress. House 3 terms/6 years and Senate 2 terms/12 years would be great

agree

So the two big liberal states — NY and Cali — will have total milquetoast governors. While the two big red states have these super partisan, vicious, cold-blooded cretins. Kind of U.S. politics in a nutshell.

unfortunately even though they are big liberal states they also have lots of middle of the road and conservative leaning people so that seems to be who is able to win at this time.

ranked choice voting for the primaries would have been nice, alas

Becerra leads Hilton by 20 points in the first post-primary poll.

Great SF Chronicle article detailing some recent elections. Fun times up north in Shasta County. A massive epidemic of leopards eating faces in the most far right county government of California. Apparently the locals have finally had enough of the dysfunction, but good luck finding a doctor!

https://archive.is/20260621142505/https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/shasta-county-maga-politics-california-22296455.php

Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, completing a turbulent year in office and unhappy with the results of the recent primary he lost, wanted more money so his fractured department could begin printing ballots in-house.

“Right now we have no idea where the ballots go, who mails them out or where they’re going,” Curtis said June 9, making three misstatements. (The ballots are currently printed by the county’s chosen vendor, Runbeck Solutions; mailed by the U.S. Postal Service to voters registered with Curtis’ office; then mailed back to his office or deposited in secure boxes.)

Shasta County Supervisor Kevin W. Crye, the far-right politician who helped author the rural county’s political makeover, told his handpicked registrar to “keep up the good work.”

The exchange occurred one week after voters in the ruggedly contrarian county decided they’d had enough of both men’s work.

Earlier this month, voters decisively ousted Crye and Curtis, and sent Supervisor Chris Kellstrom to the general election trailing a moderate challenger. Even if Kellstrom wins in November, the results of the June 2 primary tilt the county’s most powerful body back to the center-right — ending a five-year MAGA experiment and signaling trouble for President Donald Trump in one of California’s Trumpiest strongholds.

“People have seen the result of a MAGA-led government, whether it’s on a national level or a local level,” said Mary Rickert, a lifelong Republican who served two terms on the Board of Supervisors before losing to a Trump-aligned challenger in 2024. “They are seeing the consequences of putting people in positions they are not qualified (for).”

“The people of Shasta County, do you know how much money they lost?” said Rickert, who put the figure north of $200 million.

“It’s a real ‘mask off’ moment in the county,” said Korinke, co-founder of Grassroots Lab, a political consulting firm based in Long Beach. “It was flabbergasting. … That’s not fiscal conservatism.”

On Tuesday, supervisors decided they wouldn’t defend Measure B against California’s lawsuit accusing it of violating multiple state laws. In a statement, Curtis, who has yet to concede his own election, said he thought it “might be an error for the state to blatantly refuse to honor the will of the voters.”

“Now what you’ve seen is a lot of these folks have achieved their aims,” Korinke said. “To a large degree, they got what they wanted and now they’re not doing anything, and now these guys are losing.”

Any slippage of visible support is occurring at a time that Trump’s effect on the area grows more pronounced through his signature domestic legislation.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a fifth of Shasta County’s CalFresh recipients, about 6,000 residents, are at risk of losing the supplemental food assistance due to a waiver ending for so-called able-bodied adults without dependents. Almost a third of the county’s Medi-Cal population, 17,200 residents, could lose coverage due to new eligibility requirements, while another 5,700 beneficiaries will need to start requalifying twice a year if they want to keep their insurance, Health and Human Services Agency director Christy Coleman told supervisors June 11.

These changes are reaching into a county where the death rate is already 60% higher than the state’s, according to the California Health Care Foundation. At least one of the causes is self-inflicted. Along with elevated rates of chronic disease, gun suicides and drug overdoses, Shasta County’s political polarization has made it nearly impossible to recruit and retain qualified health professionals, the foundation reported this year.

The physician shortage prompted the county’s public health officer to declare a public health crisis last year and has been chiseling away at the county health agency, where staff vacancies approached or surpassed 200 in each of the past five years.

Even after the county deleted more than 150 vacant positions in 2024, many of them unfilled for a year, Coleman said her agency is carrying more than 170 openings this year. “Hiring qualified applicants in critical areas continues to be one of our greatest challenges,” she told supervisors.

A resident of McArthur, 80 miles north of the county seat, Rickert had intended to avoid local politics after losing her reelection bid to a Trump-aligned business owner who labeled her a fake Republican. She’d tired of the histrionics, she said, of MAGA supervisors’ investigations that went nowhere, of the ugly tone at public meetings and the uglier one in closed session, of good people leaving and ideologues taking their place.

Johnson said she isn’t sure to what degree Shasta County residents connect their pocketbook struggles, longer wait times at the ER or even the mass departure of county prosecutors to local or even national politics. “I know we live in echo chambers,” she said. “There’s some people that are just trying to put gas in their cars and do their jobs. They don’t understand the impact that this division has had, even on their own lives.”

But, Johnson added, she knows who feels it first.

“We’ve definitely experienced the worst of local politics and the effect that has on vulnerable communities,” she said. “The carnage that has been left in its wake … the truth is it’s destabilized a region.”