June 2014 Voter Guide

Here are my recommendations for the June 3rd ballot:

Governor - Jerry Brown is going to be re-elected. There is not going to be a surprise here.

LT. Governor - Gavin Newsom

I cannot point to one thing the Lt. Governor does, but I generally like Gavin Newsom. I look forward to the day when he has a job where he actually gets to do something of substance again.

Secretary of State - Derek Cressman

The Secretary of State is the state’s Chief Elections Officer, overseeing elections and campaign finance law enforcement. Derek Cressman was VP of Common Cause, a great government watch dog group. He is deeply committed to political reforms that promote transparency and reduce the influence of money in politics. 

Controller - John Perez

I don’t love any of the candidates for controller and have my fears that Perez wants to use the seat as a stepping stone, but Perez in competent and will be able to work with his colleagues. 

State Treasurer - John Chiang

John Chiang is termed out from continuing to be State Controller, but he was a strong controller and will take the experience to his roll as State Treasurer and is expected to do an equally good job in this new roll. 

Attorney General - Kamala Harris

I love Kamala Harris. Her focus on smart justice and improving public safety through sound public policy verges on revolutionary for an attorney general. I support her 110%. 

Insurance Commissioner - Dave Jones

Dave Jones is the current Insurance Commissioner and is widely viewed as having done a good job there.

US Congressional Representative - 34th District - Xavier Becerra

Becerra does not have much competition, but it is worth going out of your way to support him anyway. Becerra is one of the most powerful democrats in the House. He is smart, practical, and committed to important issues like immigration reform and the social safety net. 

State Senator - 24th District - Kevin de Leon

There does not seem to be much competition to unseat incumbent Kevin de Leon for this seat. de Leon has been tapped to take over as Speaker Pro Temp of the Senate when Darrel Steinberg steps down. 

Judicial

It is extraordinarily difficult to get good information on candidates for judge of the superior court. I strongly believe that we should not elect judges. That said, I am not in charge of how judges are chosen and the current system is what we are stuck with. I do not feel strongly about any of the following candidates and will opt out of voting for anyone in office 48 or office 87 because the LA Times and Bar Association either do not recommend the same candidate or there is not a qualified candidate.

Office	LA Times Endorsed	LA County Bar Association Rating	Notes
Office 22	Pam Matsumoto	Well Qualified	Highest rated candidate by Bar Association
Office 48	Charles M. Calderon	Not Qualified	No candidate was deemed qualified
Office 54	Debra L. Losnick	Well Qualified	Both candidates deemed well qualified by Bar Association
Office 61	Jacqueline Lewis	Exceptionally Well Qualified	Highest rated candidate by Bar Association
Office 76	Alison Matsumoto Estrada	Well Qualified	Highest rated candidate by Bar Association
Office 87	Andrew M. Stein	Not Qualified	Bar Association rated Steven P. Schreiner “qualified”, a higher rating than Stein
Office 97	Songhai Sunny Armstead	Qualified	Both candidates deemed qualified by Bar Association
Office 107	Emma Castro	Qualified	Highest rated candidate by Bar Association
Office 113	Stacy Wiese	Qualified	Highest rated candidate by Bar Association
Office 117	James B. Pierce	Well Qualified	Highest rated candidate by Bar Association
Office 138	Donna Hollingsworth Armstrong	Qualified	Both candidates deemed qualified by Bar Association
Office 157	Andrew Cooper	Qualified	Both candidates deemed qualified by Bar Association

Superintendent of Public Instruction - no recommendation

County Assessor - no recommendation

None of the candidates for this seat seem great, but I will share that the times endorsed John Morris.

County Sheriff - Jim McDonnell

I recently attended a debate for the Sheriff’s race and was shocked to see that the majority of candidates had worked under Lee Baca. Given that it has come to light that the Sheriff’s Department is full of “cliques” (AKA gangs) it would seem reasonable to assume that it is critical to bring someone in from the outside who can reform the internal culture. Jim McDonnell is currently the Chief of the Long Beach Police Department and was previously second in command at LAPD. I strongly support him for this seat.

County Supervisor District 1 - Hilda Solis

There is no race here, Hilda is expected win outright.

County Supervisor District 3 - Sheila Kuehl

Most of you will probably not be able to vote in the 3rd district race because the 3rd district is the Westside and the Valley. If you do you live in the 3rd, I highly recommend voting for Sheila Kuehl. Sheila served in the CA legislature for 14 years. While there she fought for a single-payer health system and authored legislation creating paid family leave in CA. She has extraordinary credentials, but beyond her experience she is the rare politician who not only deeply cares about disenfranchised populations, but can relate to people facing great struggles in their lives. We need more politicians like Sheila who do not live in a bubble. 

Prop 41 - Yes

My employer, CSH, helped author Prop 41, so I may be biased, but is hard to find a reason not to vote for 41. Prop 41 will re-purpose bonds that were approved by voters previously to fund low-interest mortgages for veterans. The CA Veterans Home Loan Program has been unsubscribed for a variety of reasons, #1 of which is that veterans can get better rates on the private market. As a result, John Perez introduced the bill that became Prop 41 to repurpose $600 million of the bond authority to provide affordable rental housing for low-income and homeless veterans, which is desperately needed in CA. 

Prop 42 - Yes

Everyone agrees that Californians should not have to vote for Prop 42 because it simply reiterates that local governments have to follow the existing CA Public Records Act and the Ralph M. Brown Act, but sadly we do. The reason is that the state used to reimburse local municipalities to comply with these laws, but stopped during the recession. Local municipalities then argued that they did not have to comply if the state was not footing the bill. Obviously, that is ridiculous and local municipalities should continue to comply with these “sunshine” or good governance laws regardless, which is what Prop 42 ensures. 

The Tackiest Birthday We Could Find

Birthday party #2 was on Jack and Sadie's actual birthday, which due to it being the day after Easter and two days after our return from Key West needed to involve essentially no work. The kids have been begging all year to go Chuck E. Cheese's on their birthday so that they could go in the ticket blaster. We couldn't quite succumb to dragging our friends to this place, so J., Pud and I sucked it up and spent the birthday night with the big rat. As you can see, the kids did not have our reservations and yucked it up. Even I got sucked into the gambling nature of the video games and wasted one too many tokens trying to get the "big spin". Let's hope that this does not lead to an adulthood spent in Vegas.

Note: We learned that the "E" in Chucky's name stands for entertainment. Some MBA somewhere is laughing at us for patronizing this place.

6th Birthday!!!

We are finally winding down from the never-ending 6th birthday. We had the third and final birthday party of the season yesterday at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. The kids had a great time swimming with 20 of their friends when they were not running around screaming their heads off. The lifeguard looked pretty frightened when all 20 kids descended on the pool at once, but no one was kicked out or drowned so it was a success! More photos to come...

PS I love Meghan photo-bombing this family photo. Particularly since she is the most enthusiastic of the bunch!

Malibu after the Rain

El Matador Beach could not have been more beautiful today. LA sparkles after the rain and we had a storm yesterday that left a gorgeous day in its wake.

Thanksgiving in Ohai

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in the mountains of Ohai with our friend Tamarind and her family. You can just see a corner of Jack peeking out from the end of the table and Sadie doing what she can to throw off the picture.

Halloween

We may have had our best Halloween yet last month. We had way too much fun dressing up as Kiss. Between the kids seeing Kiss on Scooby Doo and J.'s stories of being in the Kiss Army as a child, Jack and Sadie were sold on dressing up as Kiss. Sadie choose to be front man Gene Simmons and Jack wanted to be the drummer Peter Chris. I choose Paul Stanley and J. Ace Frehley. Our neighbors were pretty darn psyched when they opened their doors and found the four of us on their door steps. One father told us that we had "won" Halloween.

Aldama Community Workers

I am back! I could not resist sharing these photos from Jack and Sadie's kindergarten class. They have been learning about community workers and these pictures of them dressed up as the workers they chose and some of their classmates were just too cute!