Not Visible

So okay, people have been asking me how I’m voting. Even my sister has called from Santa Cruz to ask. Well, sadly, no dice. It’s Sunday afternoon, and I still haven’t opened my ballot envelope. When I do, I will consult the letters from people I trust which have already appeared in the Planet. Those would be:

How Margot is Voting Margot Smith 02-13-2024

Lybarger for State Senate! Rob Wrenn 02-13-2024

Arreguin's Senatorial Sloganeering Invites Parody Zelda Bronstein 02-13-2024

Berkeley Independent Voter's Guide (3/5/2024) Abe Cinque 02-13-2024

They don’t all agree, but in a couple of races there’s more than one pretty good candidate.

Note I say “pretty” good. We’ve gotten ourselves here in California into being the equivalent of a single party state. For the most part, decisions are made behind the scenes, and elections are just ratifications of choices made by the big machers behind closed doors. Not, of course, that they’re necessarily bad decisions.

Take the senate race: three of the candidates would probably be fine if chosen by some deus ex machina. I expect many of our readers will wish to vote for Barbara Lee out of love and respect for her years of courage but will actually pick Katie Porter to make sure to keep the Republican (his name escapes me, but it doesn’t matter to Berkeleyans) off of the November ballot. Which, of course, will insure ultimate victory for Adam Schiff, the money man in this group, who is considerably to the right of the women. But he’ll be fine if elected, except perhaps re the war on Gaza.

The state legislature race in this district is a perfect example of back room dealings. Buffy Wicks parachuted in from god knows where to win her first race for the state legislature, allied herself promptly with the Wienerite construction industry cabal in Sacramento, and this time began running unopposed. This outraged longtime Berkeley activist Margot Smith to the point that she jumped into the race with a bare bones budget. It would be interesting if she got a substantial vote. Needless to say, Margot’s great.

Which leaves the disgraceful state senate race. I expect many readers will have gotten the incredibly nasty hit pieces going after labor stalwart Kathryn Lybarger, which are funded by landlord and construction industry PACs. I’ve never met her, but the article by Rob Wrenn is consistent with everything I know from other sources. The YIMBY mayor of Berkeley, her main opponent, endorsed and funded by the same building interests who paid for the hit pieces against her, has been a great disappointment to those of us who supported him in his progressive youth.

As far as the down ballot races, you won’t go wrong with the candidates backed by Margot , Rob, Abe and/or Zelda. Just throw away those glossy mailers, which will not predict elected performance in too high a percentage of the cases. Watch what they do, not what they say.