November 2024 Ballot for Sunnyvale, California — My Slate
By request of exactly nobody, in pursuit of having somewhere to write this down and cross-check it against the opinions of my friends, I am going to go through the ballot and write about it. I will do candidates from the “top” of the ballot to the “bottom” of the ballot, and then do Ballot Propositions likewise.
I would generally have a prefatory note talking about how I don’t vote for Republicans as a general rule, but none of them has the slightest chance. And good riddance to bad rubbish.
President of the United States: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
United States Senate (Partial Term & 6-Year Term Starting January 3, 2025): Adam B. Schiff. I’d rather have had Katie Porter, but whatever.
United States House of Representatives, District 17: Ro Khanna. Voted for her in the primary, too.
State Assembly, District 26: Tara Sreekrishnan. I am disappointed that Omar Din didn’t make it through, I guess? Both Sreekrishnan and Ahrens have things about their campaigns and planks that bother me (in particular Sreekrishnan seems too excited about having kids working, and Ahrens with his concerns about the deficit), but they would both be fine, so whatever. This is State Assembly and they’ll be reliable D voters, and both of their campaigns say all of the right things about housing, the environment, etc.
Judge of the Superior Court, Office #5 / Santa Clara County: Stebbins, I guess??? I frankly don’t like either of them and their tough-on-crime posturing. Why can’t we have Public Defenders running for judgeships instead of DAs? But there are more PDs endorsing her than there are endorsing Boyarsky. That’s the basis on which I’m making this decision.
Mayor of Sunnyvale: Larry Klein. Sunnyvale is doing fine, more or less, and Larry Klein seems to be a perfectly fine Mayor and I don’t see why he shouldn’t continue to be so. His opponent wants to cut taxes and hire more police officers, so… Klein!
El Camino Healthcare District Directors (Select Three): Miller, Somersille, Zoglin. The three to be reelected. Thank you, Eng, for touting your work against the proliferation of 5G towers. That made it very easy for me to rule you out. Bonus: the old white B-school dude is like “the single biggest threat to our healthcare district is a private equity hostile takeover” and yeah I don’t want that to happen either.
California Proposition 2, Public Education Facilities Bond Measure (2024): Yes. Yeah yeah I’d rather have taxes pay for this shit. We could even afford it! California’s tax base is high enough that we could increase taxes, roll the infrastructure spending into the general fund instead of borrowing for it. But in the meantime we still need to keep building and repairing things.
California Proposition 3, Right to Marry and Repeal Proposition 8 Amendment (2024): Yes. About time we took that fucking thing off the books. Never should have been on them in the first place. Eat shit, theocrats who are mad about this proposition, it’s going to pass.
California Proposition 4, Parks, Environment, Energy, and Water Bond Measure (2024): Yes. Again, I think we should have higher taxes and pay for things through those taxes. Again, since we’re not going to we need to keep doing this shit because there’s work that needs doing.
California Proposition 5, Lower Supermajority Requirement to 55% for Local Bond Measures to Fund Housing and Public Infrastructure Amendment (2024): Yes. Since we need to take out bonds to fund things, bring it closer to a majority instead of a massive supermajority. Budgetary stuff shouldn’t be subject to a supermajority.
California Proposition 6, Remove Involuntary Servitude as Punishment for Crime Amendment (2024): YES. Let slavery be struck from the world, one step at a time. Anyone voting against this is quite literally voting in favor of slavery. And a lot of people will do that. And I am mad about it.
California Proposition 32, $18 Minimum Wage Initiative (2024): Yes. I was very bemused to see that this Proposition is the brainchild and walletchild of one single ultra-rich guy who said “Yeah, I think the minimum wage should be approximately one dollar higher than it would otherwise be and I am going to say that out loud with ten million of my dollars”. Uh. I didn’t know you were allowed to do that, as an ultra-rich person? I thought you had to do the opposite. Anyway, sure! You go, buddy, I’m proud of you.
California Proposition 33, Prohibit State Limitations on Local Rent Control Initiative (2024): No. For the love of civics, I know you hate the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act, but please stop trying to eliminate specific pieces of legislation at the ballot initiative level. Call your legislators instead, or primary them. Wait, what’s that? You can’t because you’re the AHA (that’s who’s pushing this, yet again) and everyone knows you suck and are awful? Ugh.
California Proposition 34, Require Certain Participants in Medi-Cal Rx Program to Spend 98% of Revenues on Patient Care Initiative (2024) [Alternatively: The Fuck the AHA Specifically Initiative]: No. (I renamed this measure for readability.) A little bit of background: the extremely misnamed AIDS Healthcare Association is an organization which makes its money through a form of arbitrage in federal prescription drug discounts. Every election cycle (or so it seems), they put up a ballot proposition to repeal Costa Hawkins; this year’s attempt is just above, California Proposition 33. This ballot initiative from the California Apartment Association targets the AHA (and only the AHA), seeking to gut their ability to do anything with their revenue other than spend it on their claimed mission of helping patients. Given that the AHA is a bunch of scumsucking shitbag corrupt slumlord parasites and nothing of value will be lost if they pass from this world, this has merit! BUT. But this is not the correct way to rebuke them! I will weep no personal tears if this passes, but also it would be extremely bad process and have a huge chilling effect. Gawker should not have been sued into nonexistence by a vengeful billionaire, and the AHA should not be assaulted via targeted ballot initiative. That’s not what ballot initiatives are supposed to be for.
California Proposition 35, Managed Care Organization Tax Authorization Initiative (2024): No? I guess? So, this sets in stone a particular tax on MCOs that’s related to Medi-Cal and federal subsidies and… look, this is technical shit. I’m probably going to vote No. I agree with the League of Women Voters that earmarking revenue for specific purposes is Bad, Actually and that we should be putting the money into the General Fund. And I don’t think budgeting should happen at the ballot box, especially not by citizen initiative, especially for complicated technical shit. At the same time both the Republican and Democratic Parties have endorsed the measure? So what the hell do I know.
California Proposition 36, Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies Initiative (2024): No. This might as well be called the “put more people in jail for longer” initiative. The “actually we think Three Strikes was a great idea” initiative. The “we don’t have enough of a carceral state” initiative. Fuck this “tough on crime” bullshit. You wanna be tough on crime, arrest some of the cop gangs. This sucks. The treatment centers mandated upon people by this Proposition don’t even exist!
Sunnyvale Measure E: Yes. Sent to the ballot by the City Council for ratification. I am in favor of libraries. I will vote in favor of library bonds. Yay libraries! Especially yay libraries that will now be earthquake-proofed and won’t have failing plumbing!
Sunnyvale Measure F: Yes. Non-citizens/non-voters being on commissions is perfectly fine. They live here, after all! And they’re already eligible for half of the commissions; Charter vs Non-Charter commissions is a bullshit distinction to draw a line on.
Sunnyvale School District Measure Y: Yes. This one is even paid for with taxes! I mean, it’s not a property tax per se because of Prop 13, but it’s a parcel tax and that’s a tax. Funding the damn schools. It’s a good thing.
