Election Section

After attending a few candidate forums, so you don’t have to, I offer you these a-la-carte suggestions for voting your primary ballot. Please mix and match, do your own research, and decide for yourself.

Anywhere I say “we,” I mean I or the consensus of the Cinque family, not any publication hosting this. I address mostly races that are realistically contested, and/or controversial, in our precincts.

U.S. Senator, full term and partial term: Katie Porter. With Adam Schiff in a comfortable lead, this race is really about keeping Republican Steve Garvey out of the November top two. Porter has by far the best shot at this. A progressive populist, she strikes the tone that most Democrats would be wise to imitate. Between her Mom-in-a-minivan persona, and her recovered-law-prof-with-whiteboard persona, she has strong crossover appeal. She flipped a GOP-leaning Orange County seat to get to the House, and we see her pushing either slot on a future Dem presidential ticket to victory. We share Berkeleyans’ respect for hometown hero Barbara Lee’s peace and justice advocacy. But at age 77, we think her 11 years in Congress (without getting a single bill passed) represent her peak. In candidates’ debates, she’s seemed somewhere between sideshow and lost.

12th Congressional District: Tony Daysog is the only qualified candidate for this seat. A longtime progressive Alameda City Councilmember, he has deep experience in the most important thing individual Reps can offer: strong constituent services. His responses to candidate questionnaires have been personal, humble, and well-researched – with citations and links. As for endorsement magnet Lateefah Simon, she was unqualified to serve on the BART Board in 2016, when BART unions recruited her to knock off a director who cared about the budget. And she’s spectacularly unqualified for Congress now. In between, Simon has served with the opposite of distinction – opposing safety improvements, and even illegally living outside the district she represented. In candidate forums, she’s offered plenty of preaching but near-zero policy. 

Alameda County Supervisor, 5th District: Nikki Fortunato Bas is well-qualified and well-intentioned. A former progressive organizer and activist, she’s part of the new blood that’s made Oakland’s slumbering City Council more functional. She’s wisely seeking to move up after serving six years there, and she’s ready. (Note: Although we’ve just endorsed two candidates with Pinoy/Pinay heritage, this was strictly on their merits, and unrelated to the Cinque family’s background.) 

14th Assembly District: Dr. Margot Smith is a retired public health researcher, and longtime distinguished activist with groups like the Gray Panthers. She’s ready to provide this district with the responsive representation we’ve sorely lacked. Incumbent Buffy Wicks has been a study in arrogance since before her election. A D.C.-based political operative with no elective experience, she moved to Oakland in 2018 – with a high-donor Rolodex – specifically to outspend and nab this seat from candidates who had local roots and records. In her first term, she was seen only once in Berkeley: in a ticketed event that allowed no open audience questions. She evidently listens only to developers and their lobbyists. Send a message about the democracy part of democracy. 

7th State Senate District: You have two good options here, but only one vote. Kathryn Lybarger is the pragmatic choice. A UC Berkeley employee who’s risen to statewide labor leadership, she’s consolidated union support to make the November top two against leading fundraiser Jesse Arreguin. Arreguin has built a sorry record as Berkeley mayor – he designed the region’s only failed affordable housing bond in 2022, and he’s presided over a City Council so acrimonious that most Councilmembers have run for the exits. But his developer-friendly stance has raked in independent expenditures from development and realty interests, a few trade unions, and anti-union forces. Like the notorious Uber – which doesn’t want its drivers to be unionized, or even employees. Uber has so far spent at least $1 million to promote Arreguin, and to slam Lybarger with repulsively false hit pieces. If big money weren’t the reality here, we’d favor Sandré Swanson, an honorable candidate who presents this race’s most accomplished elective and administrative experience. Had Swanson not been outspent when he first sought this seat in 2016, we would have had much better representation over the last eight years. 

Superior Court Judge: Mark Fickes, with reservations. In 2020, we supported Fickes as the most thoughtful, compassionate, and well-qualified candidate for a different judgeship. But he got steamrollered by a better-funded opponent. This time, he’s clearly the progressive alternative to Michael Johnson, a proud longtime corporate attorney for AT&T and WarnerMedia. But we have some qualms. Fickes apparently violated judicial ethics by publicly stating whom he’d voted for in a past election. (As a sitting traffic Commissioner – basically a junior judge – he should have known better.) His candidate’s statement in your Voter Guide misspells his campaign site’s URL. In electing a judge, you want empathy. But you also want someone who can follow rules as they make rulings, and get details right. Flawed judgements won’t stand, let alone set precedents. 

Statewide Propositions 

Prop. 1, Mental Health Treatment Facilities: No, with regrets. Intuitively common-sense but controversial, Prop. 1 would redirect voter-approved mental-health funds toward affordable and supportive housing, to get troubled people off the street. It would also authorize a $6.4 billion bond to build the housing. The controversies include: Shifting funds and control from counties to Sacramento; reducing local flexibility and funding for valuable programs; involuntary commitment; the bond’s cost, whether too high or too low; research suggesting that mental illness is as often a consequence as a cause of homelessness; and enabling more showboating by Prop. 1’s main sponsor, Gavin Newsom, who’s made a career out of talking about homelessness while accomplishing little. We could swallow all that, if not for the poison pill that supporter (and longtime Sacramento pol) Darrell Steinberg proudly points out: Prop. 1 states that the new treatment facilities shall be sited “by right,” with basically no local say. State preemption of local housing policy began with the disastrous Costa-Hawkins law, a major cause of current homelessness – and it needs to stop here. The benefits aren’t worth the impacts: In your Voter Guide, the state Legislative Analyst concludes: “The number of housing units built by the bond would reduce statewide homelessness by only a small amount.” For comparison, Bay Area counties are preparing a November affordable-housing bond measure three times as high ($20 billion) for our region alone. We’ll hold out for responsible measures that meaningfully address homelessness, while respecting home rule and without starving local programs. 

Alameda County Measures 

Measure A, Civil Service Examinations: OK. This shortens the required notification period before County hires. There are some concerns about accentuating inside-track hiring. But this item is widely supported, including by County employees, as a way to accelerate hiring into vacant jobs. 

Measure B, Recall Procedures: No. Hadn’t the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ office already disgraced itself enough by declaring and certifying the wrong candidate in a ranked-choice 2022 school board race? Well, no. Now they’ve set up this disgraceful mess, claiming that a County recall law neglected for 98 years suddenly needs to be rewritten amid active recall campaigns. However the recall efforts proceed, they’ll be ensnared in litigation – that’s the mess. But we’re strongly opposing this measure on principle, because retroactivity is repulsive. Shame on everyone involved – very much including the three sitting County Supervisors who voted to put this on the ballot (and signed the “For” argument in your Voter Guide). 

Berkeley Measures 

Measure H, Yes. For the children! This simply renews an existing bond that’s sustained high-quality academic and arts/music instruction in Berkeley’s public schools. 

Democratic County Committee 

You can vote for seven or fewer candidates. Our choices – based on their records, endorsements, and coherent candidate statements: James Chang, Igor Tregub, John “Chip” Moore, Dyana Delfin Polk, Andy Kelley, Wendy Bloom, Michael Cheng. 

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