My California Ballot Thoughts

A lot of people depend on me for recommendations on how to vote. I’m not necessarily comfortable with that role but the way I make my recommendations generally gives you an idea of how and why I choose my candidates and positions. Education should concentrate on teaching people how to think about things-such as teaching formal logic-not what they should believe. That goes for public educational institutions and those who engage in political education as well.

PRESIDENT - If there was any realistic possibility that Romney could win in California I’d have to think about this, but I’ve voted my conscience for Roseanne Barr on the Peace & Freedom Party ticket. There isn’t a red-cent’s worth of difference between the Peace & Freedom Party, the Green Party, the Freedom Socialist Party, the Party of Socialist Liberation, and the Socialist Party USA in how they’d govern if they actually got their candidates elected, which they won’t. There are however some specific reasons I’m voting for Roseanne.

Roseanne is not some rich dilettante, she’s been down in the trenches of social and political activism - Before becoming rich and famous she was with the Big Mama Rag feminist collective in Denver and worked with Corky Gonzales’ El Partido de La Raza Unida (LRUP) organization there. Because of her experience, she became the first celebrity and the only Presidential candidate to have endorsed freedom for Chicano Political Prisoner Ramsey Muniz, former Texas LRUP gubernatorial candidate who’s serving life in prison over a fairly obvious frame-up [see http://www.freeramsey.com].

Roseanne is also familiar with specific civil liberties issues that are near and dear to my heart: I have a Class M1 endorsement on my California Driver License. Bikers will understand what I’m talking about and because I’ve done criminal defense work over the years for bikers, I appreciate the fact that Roseanne is a Harley rider and knows the issues faced by “1 percenters” in the biker world (not talking about economic class here).

During the campaign, I personally spoke with Jill Stein, Steve Durham, Peta Lindsey, and Alejandro Mendoza (Stewart Alexander’s running mate) about how application of Article 21 procedures under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo should be brought to play in resolution of immigration and other issues between the United States and Mexico. Not one of them has gotten back to me on the question as they’d promised. Now, I recognize that all of them are busy, but I did ask each of them in person. I also know just how busy Roseanne is so I haven’t even brought the issue up with her, but I look forward to doing so after the election, as well as with the PFP groups in other states (the leadership of the California PFP will not give me the time of day on the issue simply because I have something to do with it).

UNITED STATES SENATE-hold your nose and vote for Dianne Feinstein. Aside from the fact that as Mayor of San Francisco she vetoed same-sex partnership benefits for municipal employees, in 1994 I personally caught her campaign pirating both Allied Printing Trades and Graphic Communications International Union printing labels on a statewide fundraising mailing. Kam Kuwata, her campaign manager, tried to get Dave Sickler, then head of Region 9 of the AFL-CIO to “call Tucker off” of exposing this publicly. When he explained to Dave what they’d done (used a Texas scab printing plant to export jobs from California while she’d been ranting and raving a couple of years earlier that so-called “illegal aliens” were taking jobs from California) Dave to his great credit told him that if anything, he’d unleash me on the issue.

That said, Feinstein is the best choice given that the state has implemented top-two and gotten rid of third party candidates out of our partisan elections.

30th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT-Brad Sherman and I’m enthusiastic about this pick. See my reasons at: http://janbtucker.com/blog/2012/10/13/same-page-coalition-endorses-brad-sherman-steve-fox-dan-mccrory/ and at: http://janbtucker.com/blog/2012/10/18/sherman-vs-berman-in-the-30th-district/

36th ASSEMBLY DISTRICT-Steve Fox and I’m equally enthusiastic about my old college buddy’s candidacy (see my above 10-13-12 blog).

39th ASSEMBLY DISTRICT-Richard Alarcon, another old college buddy. I’m disappointed that neither Richard nor his opponent Raul Bocanegra submitted responses to the Same Page/Misma Pagina coalition questionnaire. I have friends supporting both sides on this race. One important point is that while I think that the District Attorney’s prosecution of Larry “Nativo” Lopez for registering at an address he didn’t live at was NOT politically motivated (it was initiated by the Secretary of State’s office), I DO believe that the prosecution of Richard Alarcon is not just political but ridiculous and a waste of time and money. Richard has a great record in office.

The Propositions

30 and 38-See my blog at http://janbtucker.com/blog/2012/10/29/proposition-30-important-opinions/ and then make your own decision on how to vote on 30 and 38 regarding taxes

31-If you trust your local government officials to handle your tax dollars wisely and honestly then vote for this. If you don’t, vote against it.

32-NOT! Definitely freaking NO! This is a Trojan horse to prevent unions from protecting their members politically. That’s really all there is to it. Rather than taking the controversial step of restricting who can contribute and how much in politics, which is highly controversial and of dubious constitutionality, real reform would entail putting a floor under candidates to ensure that their legitimate messages get out to the public rather than trying to find a constitutional way to put a ceiling over contributions.

For example: (a) abolish filing fees to run for public office and make all candidates, rich or poor, get the current “nomination signature” requirement to get on the ballot; (b) abolish fees to put any campaign statement in the ballot pamphlet, especially for judicial and statewide candidates and insure a minimum statement for every candidate running for office as a service to the voters; (c) amend the Corporations Code to prohibit non-profit media corporations (radio and television) from restricting debates to Democrats and Republicans and create a California equivalent rule to keep non-profit status that would re-instate the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Opportunity rule as interpreted by former FCC Chair Nicholas Johnson.

33-No recommendation. This will help some consumers and hurt some consumers.

34-Yes, even though abolishing the Death Penalty is against my own economic interests. Death Penalty cases have different rules for appointment of counsel and defense investigators that are better than the way it’s done for all other cases in Los Angeles County. The legislature should take some of the money it will save by getting rid of the death penalty, if this proposition passes, to standardize and improve wages and working conditions for court appointed investigators, including but not limited to permitting collective bargaining rights.

35-Yes. There are a lot of reforms that need to take place to deal with human trafficking and frankly, I’m not sure (to figure it out I have to go line by line through the legislation) if this will take care of the problem, but people who pimp or pander with adults do not have to register as sex offenders, a very serious omission in state law, whereas people who get convicted of misdemeanor pissing in public do. Go figure. Read the resolution I authored (which the Peace & Freedom Party has not allowed a vote on) at: http://janbtucker.com/blog/2011/07/09/konversations-with-kevin-5/

36-Yes. This is not as simple and direct as limiting the application of the “Three Strikes” law to serious and violent felonies only-as the California Three Strikes Project initiative proposed in 2000 (co-authored by myself and my then-significant other, Attorney Valerie Monroe, and coordinated by the mother of my Godson, Malinda Rosell), but it’s a big step in the right direction and the best we’re going to get.

37-Yes. More information is better than less.

38-See above with #30.

39-Yes. This wouldn’t even be an issue if California had not done what the Democratic and Republican candidates for Lieutenant Governor in 1978 (I was the only candidate that opposed repeal) teamed up to campaign for, repeal of the “Unitary Tax.” See http://janbtucker.com/blog/2012/02/15/obama-puts-unitary-tax-in-spotlight/

40-Yes.