November 4, 2014 Voter Guide

Hi all,

I am back at it again with some voter recommendations. I have to confess that I have been a bit swamped and have not done as much research as I would have liked. That said, there are a few really exciting things on the ballot. I am very excited about Prop 47 and Sheila Kuehl. I hope that you will get out there on Tuesday and make you voice heard. As always, these recommendations are my personal opinions. I hope that they are helpful, but take what you like and ignore the rest.

Governor - Jerry Brown

LT. Governor - Gavin Newsom

Secretary of State - No opinion

The LA Times is backing the Republican candidate Pete Peterson, and it appears that is true of all the major newspapers. In contrast Alex Padilla has endorsements from all the major democrats in the state. I am not a big fan of either and will probably sit this one out.

Controller - Betty Yee

State Treasurer - John Chiang

Attorney General - Kamala Harris

Insurance Commissioner - Dave Jones

Congressional District 34 - Xavier Becerra

State Senator District 24 - Kevin De Leon

State Assembly District 51 - Jimmy Gomez

Justice State Court - I unfortunately do not have time to research judges this time around

Superintendent of Education - No opinion

The LA Times is backing Marshall Tuck, who is a big fan of charter schools. Tom Torlakson is much more aligned with teachers’ unions. Unfortunately I am not a big fan of either charter schools or teachers’ unions, so this is another race that I am sitting out. 

LA County Supervisor: 3rd District: Sheila Kuehl

If you live in the Valley, on the Westside, or in the Hollywood/Silver Lake I highly encourage you to vote for Sheila Kuehl. While I like both Bobby Shriver and Sheila Kuehl, I think Sheila is more highly qualified to sit on the board of supervisors. The board is hard place to get anything done, but Sheila has shown that she can work with diverse colleagues to create momental change in public policy. She is what we need on the board. 

Assessor - No opinion

Sheriff - Jim McDonnell

Prop 1 (Water Bond) - Yes

Prop 1 authorizes $7.12B for water infrastructure projects. It has essentially no opposition. 

Prop 2 (State debt payments) - Yes

Prop 2 would change the rules that govern how state debt is paid down, state budget reserves, and community college reserves. It has strong bipartisan support and is supported by all of the major newspapers in the state. There is minimal opposition. 

Prop 45 (Health Insurance Rates) - Yes

Prop 45 is extremely contentious and pits democrats and consumer watch dogs against republicans and health insurance companies. It would require the state Insurance Commissioner to approve rate increases before they take effect. It also increases public notification requirements for rate increases. It is supported by many progressive groups, but opposed by mainstream newspapers, like the Los Angeles Times.

Prop 46 (Medical malpractice cap) - No

This is a strange proposition being driven by medical malpractice attorneys who want to increase the cap on malpractice awards, which would increase their income. To make this more palatable to the public they have combined the increase in the malpractice cap with a bunch of provisions about drug testing doctors. The argument is that there are irresponsible doctors out there who are high and hurting patients and that if these doctors where drug tested there would be fewer malpractice suits. There is no evidence drug testing reduces malpractice suits.Every major medical group in the state is opposing this including the CA Hospital Association, the CA Medical Association, Planned Parenthood, etc.

Prop 47 (Reduced criminal penalties) - Yes!

Finally an initiative I can get excited about voting for! Prop 47 would require that nonviolent and non-serious property and drug crimes be classified as misdemeanors. The list of crimes that would reclassified as misdemeanors all seem like crimes that should have been misdemeanors in the first place - drug possession, shoplifting, theft of property with a value of less that $950, forgery, writing a bad check, etc. It’s kind of hard to believe that we even need a proposition to clarify that these crimes are not felonies. The proposition is expected to save the state $150M to $250M a year, which would be redirected to schools, re-entry programs and victim compensation programs. 

Prop 48 (Indian gaming) - Yes

Prop 48 is the worst kind of proposition because it is a veto referendum, which means that a yes vote maintains the status quo and a no vote overturns a controversial law, AB 277. A yes vote to support AB 277 would allow the North Fork Indian Tribe to build a casino in the Central Valley. The North Folk have a reservation that is too remote and environmentally sensitive to build a casino on, so the state approved AB 277 to allow them to build a casino 38 miles away from their reservation in the Central Valley. The tribes in the Central Valley don’t like this and have bankrolled the campaign to overturn AB 277. The LA Times supports, but the SF Chronicle opposes. The SF Chronicle’s argument is that gaming should be limited to reservations.