November 2016 Summary

Here's a summary of all my recommendations -- the local measures, candidates at all levels, plus the state propositions I already posted. Click the underlined links for details.

Federal, State, and Judge candidates

• U.S. President and Vice President: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine
• U.S. Senator: Kamala Harris
• U.S. Congress, 11th District: Mark Desaulnier
• U.S. Congress, 13th District: Barbara Lee
• CA State Senator, 9th District: Sandre Swanson
• CA State Assembly, 15th District: Tony Thurmond
• Alameda County Superior Court Judge, Office #1: Jackson

BART, AC Transit, and Alameda County measures + candidates

• AC Transit Measure C1: YES YES to support bus service (AC Transit)
• AC Transit At-Large: Chris Peeples
• BART Measure RR: YES YES to keep BART safe and reliable
• BART District 3: Rebecca Saltzman
• BART District 7: Lateefah Simon
• BART Districts 1, 5, and 9: Contact me if you want my opinion
• Alameda County Measure A1: YES YES to build more affordable housing
• Contra Costa Measure X: Contact me about this transportation sales tax

Berkeley School and City Measures

• E1: YES YES for Berkeley’s schools
• T1: YES to fix city infrastructure
• U1: YES YES to fund affordable housing with a tax on landlord’s rent receipts
• DD: NO NO to reject large landlords’ deceptive smoke screen that has worse policy
• V1: YES to let the city spend money it has raised in taxes
• W1: YES to use citizen redistricting commission set city council districts
• X1: YES to give matching funds to Mayoral/Council candidates
• Y1: YES to allow 16&17 year-olds to vote in school board elections
• Z1: YES to allow city to build homes for low-income families
• AA: YES to clean up rent control provisions
• BB & CC: NO, because Berkeley City Council reached a good compromise on minimum wage

Berkeley Candidates for Mayor, Council, School Board, and Rent Board

• Berkeley School Board: Beatriz Appel Leyva-Cutler & Judy Appel
• Berkeley Mayor: Capitelli #1
• Berkeley Council District 2: Darryl Moore #1, Nanci Armstrong-Temple #2
• Berkeley Council District 3: Ben Bartlett #1
• Berkeley Council District 5: Stephen Murphy #1
• Berkeley Rent Board: Judy Hunt, Leah Simon-Weisberg, Alejandro Soto-Vigil, & Igor Tregub

And if you missed it from earlier, here are my positions on state propositions:

Nov 2016 State Propositions

• 51: YES for K-12 & Community College facilities
• 52: Leaning YES to Use Hospital Fees to get Federal Funds for Medi-Cal -- Comments welcome!
• 53: NO NO to Statewide votes on local projects
• 54: NO to Over-Complicated Prescription of Legislative Operations
• 55: YES YES to have the 1.5% pay for for Schools & Healthcare
• 56: YES YES for Cigarette Tax to Fund Healthcare and Tobacco Use Prevention.
• 57: YES YES for Criminal Justice Reform
• 58: YES YES to Allow Bilingual Education
• 59: YES to Clarify that Corporations are not Human Beings
• 60: NO to a Badly-written measure about condoms in porn films
• 61: Leaning YES to Reduce Costs of Drugs - Comments Welcome
• 62: YES YES, a million times YES to Repeal the Death Penalty
• 63: YES to prohibit possession of large capacity ammunition magazines
• 64: YES on Marijuana Legalization
• 65: Leaning NO on Deceptive Plastic Bags Measure
• 66: NO NO NO - Don’t make it easier to impose death sentences
• 67: YES to Confirm Legislature’s Ban on Single-use Bags

Federal, State, and Judge candidates

These are (mostly) easy. The competitive races are in bold: 

• U.S. President and Vice President: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine
• U.S. Senator: Kamala Harris
• U.S. Congress, 11th District: Mark Desaulnier
• U.S. Congress, 13th District: Barbara Lee
• CA State Senator, 9th District: Sandre Swanson
• CA State Assembly, 15th District: Tony Thurmond
• Alameda County Superior Court Judge, Office #1: Jackson

Berkeley Candidates: Mayor, Council, School, & Rent Board

• Berkeley School Board: Beatriz Appel Leyva-Cutler & Judy Appel
• Berkeley Mayor: Capitelli #1
• Berkeley Council District 2: Darryl Moore #1, Nanci Armstrong-Temple #2
• Berkeley Council District 3: Ben Bartlett #1
• Berkeley Council District 5: Stephen Murphy #1
• Berkeley Rent Board: Judy Hunt, Leah Simon-Weisberg, Alejandro Soto-Vigil, & Igor Tregub

Berkeley School + City Measures

• E1: YES YES for Berkeley’s schools
• T1: YES to fix city infrastructure
• U1: YES YES to fund affordable housing with a tax on landlord’s rent receipts
• DD: NO NO to reject large landlords’ deceptive smoke screen that has worse policy
• V1: YES to let the city spend money it has raised in taxes
• W1: YES to use citizen redistricting commission set city council districts
• X1: YES to give matching funds to Mayoral/Council candidates
• Y1: YES to allow 16&17 year-olds to vote in school board elections
• Z1: YES to allow city to build homes for low-income families
• AA: YES to clean up rent control provisions
• BB & CC: NO, because Berkeley City Council reached a good compromise on minimum wage

BART, AC Transit, & Alameda County measures + candidates

Yes on AC, BART, & Alameda County housing, and elect Saltzman and Simon for BART:

• AC Transit Measure C1: YES YES to support bus service (AC Transit)
• AC Transit At-Large: Chris Peeples
• BART Measure RR: YES YES to keep BART safe and reliable
• BART District 3: Rebecca Saltzman
• BART District 7: Lateefah Simon
• BART Districts 1, 5, and 9: Contact me if you want my opinion
• Alameda County Measure A1: YES YES to build more affordable housing
• Contra Costa County Measure X: Contact me

Nov 2016 State Propositions

How I'm voting on the November 2016 State propositions

Lots of propositions, lots of decisions. Here are my choices for the state propositions: details are in the many pages below the jump. I’ll write up local measures and candidates in a separate post.

51: YES for K-12 & Community College facilities 52: Leaning YES to Use Hospital Fees to get Federal Funds for Medi-Cal -- Comments welcome! 53: NO NO to Statewide votes on local projects 54: NO to Over-Complicated Prescription of Legislative Operations 55: YES YES to have the 1.5% pay for for Schools & Healthcare 56: YES YES for Cigarette Tax to Fund Healthcare and Tobacco Use Prevention. 57: YES YES for Criminal Justice Reform 58: YES YES to Allow Bilingual Education 59: YES to Clarify that Corporations are not Human Beings 60: NO to a Badly-written measure about condoms in porn films 61: Leaning YES to Reduce Costs of Drugs - Comments Welcome 62: YES YES, a million times YES to Repeal the Death Penalty 63: YES to prohibit possession of large capacity ammunition magazines 64: YES on Marijuana Legalization 65: Leaning NO on Deceptive Plastic Bags Measure 66: NO NO NO - Don’t make it easier to impose death sentences 67: YES to Confirm Legislature’s Ban on Single-use Bags

How I'm voting, June 2016

Here's a summary of how I'm voting in the June 2016 primary. Since this is a relatively short ballot, I'll put it all in one post, starting with the bottom of the ballot and moving up to the top (I know, most people do it the other way, but I think my biggest value-add is the down-ballot races that you're less likely to research). 

On the local elections, I feel very strongly about Scott Jackson for Judge (Seat #1).

I also put some thought and research into the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee, 15th Assembly District (vote for 9 of 17): Brett Badelle, Elizabeth Echols, Bonnie Wheatley, Vincent Casalaina, Andy Kelley, Floyd Huen, Kate Harrison, Dianne Martinez, and Cecilia "Ces" Rosales.

On the state & federal elections, I’m voting Democrats. In contested races, I'm voting Harris (U.S. Senate) and I'm leaning towards Swanson over Skinner (Senate D9).

For details of these and lots of other races, see the rest of this post.

As always, thoughtful comments welcome, and I encourage you to sign in so I know who's commenting.