Editorials
Have you voted yet? If not, here are some ideas
The sample ballots for the June primary have arrived, and with them this request from a reader:
“I wanted to ask you to consider maintaining a sidebar on the online Planet site with such things as your endorsements for the county central committee. I just received my sample ballot and was looking over it and realized that I can’t remember who are the right people.”
He’s not alone. But it's not as easy a task as you might think given our balky legacy software. And in one case we haven't quite decided.
The delegate endorsements are easy, discussed in full here. But in case that link doesn’t work for you, these are the reform candidates, people I know and like: Brett Badelle, Floyd Huen, Kate Harrison, Vince Casalaina—and none of the incumbents, who will be identified as such on the Democratic ballot.
It’s complicated, because you have to ask for the Democratic ballot in the first place to find them, and then you have to look way down at the bottom.
Other choices on that ballot that I recommend: Sandré Swanson for State Senator. He’s independent-minded, not beholden to any special interests, has an illustrious record in the state assembly.
I am not pleased with the press releases the campaign for his opponent, Nancy Skinner, has been sending out, boasting about how much money she’s raised. Way too much of it is corporate, or from the more unattractive branches of big labor, especially the correctional officers. She’s endorsed by the Chron, no surprise there and not a plus.
I know little about Katherine Welch, who’s been endorsed by the Bay Area News Group organs, whatever they’re called these days, except that she’s from Over the Hill and is rumored to be the daughter of former General Electric CEO Jack Welch. She has a Harvard MBA, according to the Head-Royce school website, where she's a board member. Not a plus in my book—so did George W, Bush.,
The state senator from this district, which includes major parts of Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond, should represent our substantial communities of color, and a couple of nice upper middle class white ladies (though who am I to talk?) just don’t do that.
For the U.S. Senate, Kamala Harris is our Local Woman Made Good—how could we not support her? She grew up around here for much of her childhood, went to elementary school in Berkeley if memory serves, is smart and PC. Her Southern California opponent made some unfortunate comments about Muslims that she’s tried to walk back—there’s no reason to support Loretta Sanchez.
For President, you’re on your own. Anyone who’s not delusional realizes that Hillary Clinton has the nomination sewed up, so—realistically—it makes little difference who you choose. Voting for Bernie Sanders might be construed as endorsing his policy goals, a Good Thing, but if he can’t shed his current dog-in-the-manger posture I might have trouble doing that myself.
At one point I even thought about changing my registration in order to firmly stick the Republicans with Trump, but they seem to have done that on their own. As a member of a family with a number of respectable anti-slavery Republican antecedents in the 19th century, I’m kind of sorry to see the Grand Old Party (that’s why old-timers call it the GOP) collapse, but it’s all over but the decent burial.
Besides voting on June 7, what can we do to make sure that the November election turns out well? In case you’ve missed the memo, taking back the Senate and even the House are crucial, and that means turnout in swing states is the name of the game. More later on this, when I connect with my well-placed informants in the Berkeley Diaspora, aka Rest of World.
P.S. After I wrote this I got an email inviting me to go to meet Hillary Clinton at a school in Oakland this afternoon, so I went. Well, it turns out that some thousands of others had also been invited to the event, in a hall that held only 2,000, but we waited in line for two hours to confirm that we would not get in. I've seen Hillary before, so I was not deeply disappointed, particularly because it was what Oakland does best, a cheerily diverse crowd.
Anyone who tells you that young people don't support her doesn't get to Oakland much, because despite the timing (2-5 on a Friday) at least half the crowd was folks in their teens and twenties, of every colorful ethnicity and several interesting shades of hair, both male and female. Also, 30ish mothers and fathers with babies, and of course women of a certain age, mostly despite their seniority dressed in non-suburban get-ups which betrayed their ageing hippiedom. And even some older men: One I overheard saying somewhat apologetically that his younger friends supported Bernie Sanders. His elegant clothes, polished diction and discussion of "productions" suggested that he might be an actor, perhaps even a gay actor.
In front me in line were four girls of about 17 or 18 who told me they were from a high school in Moraga, and that they were there with their "Feminist Club". Unlike their surly 70s foremothers, they exuded unforced charm, amplified unashamedly by the usual teenage quota of red nail polish, skinny jeans and eyeliner. When an old guy who identified himself as a retired union member and a Socialist started haranguing the line with crazy objections to Hillary's politics ("she's in favor of starving the people of Haiti") they gave him as good as they got.
