[Lapg] Voting recommendations from Faramarz Nabavi

[Lois Arkin]

All,

Faramarz is a long time Green and environmental activist who has 
researched quite a bit on many of the local elections, including the 
judges.  He has been doing this for several years.

It's long, but you can skip down to the headings that are of interest to 
you or pass along to your friends of like mind in other local cities. 
He includes quite a few brief explanations on the propositions and 
several on the candidates.  His research on the judges is especially 
helpful.

Note especially why Faramarz recommends "no" on propositions 1B and 1E 
differing from those Katrina just sent with recommendations from Jim 
Stewart of EarthDay (whom I also have great respect for).  Also included 
are a few additional "no" arguments from Joe Linton on 1B and 1E). 
Wording of the actual proposed laws are included in your big (8-1/2 x 
11) "California General Election" book.

democracy depends on the well-informed.  Good luck to us all.

Lois
L.A. Eco-Village

Voting recommendations w/judges, propositions, local races


2006 GENERAL ELECTION VOTING RECOMMENDATIONS

Election Day: Tuesday, November 6, 2006
Hours of voting: 7:00 A.M. - 8:00 P.M.

To find your voting location or sample ballot,
go to http://www.lavote.net or call 800-815-2666

VOTING LIST ON TOP
EXPLANATIONS FOLLOW BELOW
SOURCES LISTED AT BOTTOM

NOTE: To the best of my ability, I have listed candidates who are
anti-war/pro-civil liberties for federal office, and for state office 
who are not prominent promoters of the death penalty. The 
recommendations listed here do not represent the views of any particular 
organization.


STATE

Governor:		Phil Angelides (D)
Lieutenant Governor:	John Garamendi (D)
Secretary of State:	Debra Bowen (D)
Controller:		John Chiang (D)
Treasurer:		Gerald Sanders (PF) or Mehul Thakker (G)
Attorney General:	Jerry Brown (D)
Insurance Commissioner:	Cruz Bustamante (D)
Member State Board of Equalization 4th Dist: Judy Chu (D)


UNITED STATES SENATOR

Marsha Feinland (PF)***
*** this is important not only because Dianne Feinstein (D) is pro-war,
pro-business, and anti-civil liberties, but also to keep the Peace and
Freedom Party on the ballot; the Green Party won't lose ballot status
because it has a sufficient number of registered voters as party members.


UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE

28th:	Byron De Lear (G)
29th:	Lynda Llamas (PF) or Bill Paparian (G)
30th:	Adele Cannon (PF)
31st:	Xavier Becerra (D)
32nd:	Hilda Solis (D)
33rd:	Diane Watson (D)
34th:	Lucille Roybal-Allard (D)
35th:	Maxine Waters (D)
36th:	James Smith (PF)
39th:	Linda Sanchez (D)


STATE SENATOR

24th:	Gloria Romero (D)
28th:	Jenny Oropeza (D)


MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY

37th:	Ferial Masry (D)
39th:	Richard Alarcon (D)
41st:	Julia Brownley (D)
43rd:	Paul Krekorian (D)
44th:	Anthony Portantino (D)
47th:	Karen Bass (D)
49th:	Mike Eng (D)
51st:	Curren Price (D)
53rd:	Karl Abrams (PF)
56th:	Tony Mendoza (D)
57th:	Ed Hernandez (D)
61st:	Nell Soto (D)


JUDICIAL - SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

YES	Joyce L. Kennard
NO	Carol A. Corrigan


JUDICIAL - COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE
(Counties: Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura)

YES	Robert M. Mallano
?	Frances Rothschild
NO	Roger W. Boren
NO	Victoria M. Chavez
NO	Patti S. Kitching
NO	Richard D. Aldrich
NO	Norman L. Epstein
NO	Thomas L. Willhite
?	Nora M. Manella
NO	Steven Suzukawa
NO	Richard M. Mosk
NO	Sandy R. Kriegler
YES	Arthur Gilbert
YES	Dennis M. Perluss
NO	Fred Woods
YES	Laurie D. Zelon
YES	Candace D. Cooper
YES	Madeleine Flier


JUDICIAL
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
(County: Los Angeles)

Office No. 8: Deborah L. Sanchez
Office No. 18: John C. Gutierrez
Office No. 102: George C. Montgomery [with reservations]
Office No. 104: [do not have a recommendation]
Office No. 144: Janis Levart Barquist


STATE MEASURES

YES on 84, 86, 87, 89
neutral on 1C, 1D
NO on 1A, 1B, 1E, 83, 85, 88, 90

NO	1A	Transportation Funding Protection
NO	1B	Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction
?	1C	Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund
?	1D	Kindergarten - University Public Education Facilities Bond
NO	1E	Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond
NO	83	Sex Offenders Sexually Violent Predators
YES	84	Water Quality, Safety and Supply [with reservations]
NO	85	Waiting Period and Parental Notification
YES	86	Tax on Cigarettes
YES	87	Alternative Energy Tax on California Oil Producers
NO	88	Education Funding Real Property Parcel Tax
YES	89	Political Campaigns Public Financing Corporate Tax Increase
NO	90	Government Acquisition, Regulation of Private Property


CITY

ALHAMBRA
City Council Dist 5: Adele Andrade-Stadler

CLAREMONT
YES	S	Wilderness Park Expansion

LOS ANGELES CITY SPECIAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION

YES	H	Affordable Housing General Obligation Bonds
YES	J	City of Los Angeles Proposition J Technical Change for Proposition F
Fire Stations
NO	R	Councilmember Term Limits of Three Terms; City Lobbying, Campaign
Finance and Ethics Laws

PASADENA
NO	A	Rose Bowl Renovation and Lease by NFL

SANTA MONICA
City Council:	Terry O'Day, Jonathan Mann, Linda Armstrong
YES	Y	Lowest Enforcement Priority for Adult, Personal Use of Marijuana


DISTRICT

Water Replenishment Board, District 3
Lillian Kawasaki

Castaic Lake Water Agency
Jan Heidt – Division 1
Cam Noltemeyer – Division 2
Carole Lutness – Division 3
Isaac Lieberman – At Large



EXPLANATIONS
EXPLANATIONS
EXPLANATIONS



STATE

Governor: Angelides (D) has had a progressive record as Treasurer,
shifting state pension funds from the stock market to community
reinvestment, and promoting shareholder activism against irresponsible
corporations. He supports universal health care, public campaign
financing, and strong environmental protections. Schwarzenegger has vetoed
universal health care and almost every environmental bill this year, as
well as pushing hard to prevent the unjust "3 Strikes" law from being
voted out in 2004.

Lieutenant Governor: Garamendi (D) has defended consumers' interests
several times as Insurance Commissioner. McClintock is an
arch-conservative, anti-tax, anti-abortion, anti-environment, anti-union,
pro-business ideologue. More than a token position, the Lieutenant
Governor sits on several important state boards and casts tie-breaking
votes in the state Senate, in addition to filling in when the Governor is
not available.

Secretary of State: Bowen (D) is the rare state legislator who has given
large amounts of time and staff resources to supporting a grassroots
movement - in this case, to protect our right to vote and to have our
votes counted. Republican incumbent Bill McPherson (R) has been trying to
push through the same faulty Republican-owned electronic voting machines
that produced surprising Republican victories in other states.

Controller: I personally asked Chiang (D) what he would do if elected, and
he replied that going after the tax breaks for oil producers and
refineries would be one of his top goals. He is the only elected state
official to have organized free tax assistance for the indigent.

Treasurer: Lockyer (D) led the public lynch mob campaign to execute
Stanley "Tookie" Williams, which alone should disqualify from any office,
as well has having supported predatory lending, taking contributions from
companies he was supposed to regulate as the state's chief law enforcement
officer. By contrast, Sanders (PF) and Thakker (G) have both put forward
progressive visions about how the state should handle its finances, such
has moving its deposits away from corporate banks and investing in
renewable energy.

Attorney General: Brown (D) has publicly stated his personal opposition to
the death penalty, so although he will uphold his legal obligation to
support the prosecution in death penalty appeals, he hopefully won't
cynically use his position to curry favor with voters at the expense of a
person's life. His record on police issues in Oakland has not been
progressive, though.

Insurance Commissioner:	Bustamante (D) supports public campaign finance
reform, but his staff accepted, then returned contributions from the
insurance industry. On the other hand, every Republican who has held this
office has been so bad for consumers that Bustamante would not be worse.
On balance, Bustamante is better; had I felt strongly that his record was
negative, I would not have recommended him over his rival.

Member State Board of Equalization 4th Dist: Chu (D) has been one of the
most progressive legislators in the state.


UNITED STATES SENATOR

Marsha Feinland (PF)***
*** this is important not only because Dianne Feinstein (D) is pro-war,
pro-business, and anti-civil liberties, but also to keep the Peace and
Freedom Party on the ballot; the Green Party won't lose ballot status
because it has a sufficient number of registered voters as party members.


UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE

28th: De Lear (G) is a peace activist running against the only CA Democrat
who supports the war, Howard Berman (D), who mis-represents a heavily
liberal district. Berman has been bad on so many issues - civil liberties,
corporate accountability, and anything on foreign policy - that you should
not only vote for De Lear (G), but give him money and tell every one of
your friends to vote for him too or bring 10 years of bad luck on
themselves!!!

29th: Llamas (PF) is a peace activist who has led solidarity caravans to
Cuba, and Paparian (G) is a progressive lawyer and former Pasadena mayor,
whereas the incumbent, Adam Schiff (D), has a voting record on war, civil
liberties and foreign policy that is almost as bad as Berman.

30th: Cannon (PF), a long time progressive activist, is running against
Henry Waxman (D) because he supported the war and the Patriot Act. Waxman
mis-represents a very progressive district: he needs to get a message that
it's not enough to challenge the Republicans on corruption; he needs to
take a stand against the Iraq war and against starting a war on Iran.

31st: Becerra (D) opposed the war, supported civil liberties.

32nd: Solis (D) is a consistent progressive advocate on most issues.

33rd: Watson (D) opposed the war, supported civil liberties.

34th: Roybal-Allard (D) opposed the war, supported civil liberties.

35th: Not only is Waters (D) is a consistent progressive advocate on all
issues, she personally tried to save the South Central Farm and also
worked very hard to overturn the Bush Administration's coup d'etat against
the democratically elected government of Haiti, and denounced the
attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

36th: Smith (PF) is a peace and labor activist running against the
wealthiest member of Congress, Jane Harman (D), who made her money through
military contracts, which is part of why she supports every war and
restriction on civil liberties.

39th: Sanchez (D) opposed the war, supported civil liberties.


STATE SENATOR

24th: Romero (D) has been a leading advocate for stopping the emphasis on
imprisoning youth.
28th: After surviving cancer, Oropeza (D) has become one of the strongest
advocates for environmental justice.


MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY

39th: Alarcon (D) has made addressing poverty a focus of his work.
41st: Brownley (D) has good positions on the environment and health care.
43rd: Krekorian (D) has supported green building policies at the Burbank
school district.
44th: Portantino (D) has a good record of supporting open space and has
avoided the temptation of being a "centrist" even though he represented
a
heavily Republican town. Costa (G) is also a good candidate with a clearly
progressive agenda.
47th: Bass (D) is a strong voice for progressive causes.
49th: As a Monterey Park councilmember Eng (D) has supported environmental
bills at the state level.
51st: Price (D) supported the campaign to stop Wal-Mart in Inglewood.
53rd: Abrams (PF) is a solid progressive; the incumbent, Ted Lieu (D), is
pro-war and has had a bad voting record on environmental and consumer
issues.
56th: Mendoza (D) was endorsed by labor and environmental groups in the
primary.
57th: Hernandez (D) was endorsed by labor and environmental groups in the
primary.
61st: Soto (D) has a good record as a state senator.


JUDICIAL - SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

YES Kennard - had pro-defendant dissents on death penalty cases.
NO Corrigan - arch-conservative appointed by Schwarzenegger.


JUDICIAL - COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE

YES Mallano - Progressive rulings.
? Rothschild - Could not determine.
NO Boren - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Chavez - Endorsed by Republicans.
NO Kitching - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Aldrich - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Epstein - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Willhite - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
? Manella - On balance liberal, but some cases give pause.
NO Suzukawa - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Mosk - Consistently anti-Iranian rulings on Iran-U.S. Tribunal.
NO Kriegler - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
YES Gilbert - Gave clear thought to clemency for death penalty cases.
YES Perluss - Progressive rulings.
NO Woods - Wrote ruling restricting sex discrimination cases.
YES Zelon - Champion of improving legal rights of the indigent.
YES Cooper - Strong advocate of affirmative action.
YES Flier - Progressive rulings.


JUDICIAL
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT

8: Sanchez's opponent is a death penalty prosecutor.
18: Gutierrez's opponent is an anti-gang prosecutor.
102: Montgomery is less objectionable since he gives support to due process.
104: [no position]
144: Barquist leans liberal; her opponent is an anti-gang prosecutor.


STATE MEASURES

NO 1A Gas taxes are already designated for transportation. This would 
also add the sales taxes on gas to the the amounts for spending on 
highways. We need to shift this money to more public transit and 
renewable energy.

NO 1B Road building pork barrel. Very little for public transit. Will
damage open space.  [And additional "no" argument from river activist 
Joe Linton: 1B proposes solving transportation issues by focusing 
building infrastructure for cars (not bikes, peds, transit.) Having 
fought against a number of bad bridge projects over the LA River, even 
the bridge projects are more often than not destructive (excessive 
widening for more and more cars, inattention to preservation of many 
historic bridges).]

? 1C We need more affordable housing for everyone, not just small 
specific groups. Bond financing is regressive.

? 1D Funding formula is not favorable to districts that have the 
greatest need. Bond financing is regressive.

NO 1E This is meant to benefit agribusiness and large real estate
developers. It is not an environmental bill. [Additional "no" argument 
from Joe Linton:  1E proposes solving watershed issues largely by 
building single-purpose "flood control" infrastructure.  These issues 
would be better solved by making the watersheds more healthy - 
re-forestation, restoration of wetlands, detention and infiltration of 
stormwater, etc.]

NO 83 Most sex offenders are actually relatives of victims, not 
strangers; this does nothing to protect most victims. It does give 
Republicans one more excuse to enact more police state measures to take 
away civil liberties. First child molesters/gang members/terrorists, 
then everybody else will get hit - just look at the Patriot Act. If the 
Republicans are serious about stopping sex offenders, they should have 
been policing their own members of Congress like Mark Foley (R-FL)!!! 
While we need to have strong laws and programs to eliminate rape and 
molestation, this particular initiative is part of the fascist state 
many Republicans (and some Democrats) are pushing.

YES 84 [with reservations] Having worked for two environmental 
nonprofits on water issues I think that the current framework for giving 
bond grants is ineffective; I feel lukewarm about supporting yet another 
bond that systematically favors big projects of modest benefit.

NO 85 This is an attack on abortion rights, defining life at conception,
and targets youth in particular through parental notification.

YES 86 A cigarette tax for public health expenditures.

YES 87 This is NOT, NOT a gas tax, and won't raise your gas prices. What
it will do is make companies extracting oil out of California pay a
similar amount of money as they do in states like Texas and Alaska -
incredibly, California basically gives away our resources virtually 
free, unlike everywhere else - and invest that money in alternative 
energy. You know it has to be something real good if the oil companies 
are spending $100 MILLION (!) to defeat it. Tell the oil companies to 
drop dead - instead of sending Americans to fight and die for their profits!

NO 88 No folks, this is worse than Prop. 1D because it uses a very
regressive type of tax by property parcel: in other words, a retired widow
on a minimal fixed income living in a small house in Compton would pay the
same tax as the owner of a high rise office building or shopping mall! The
benefits will also go disproportionately to charter schools vs. regular
public schools. Those are two of the reasons why Chamber of Commerce types
are supporting it: because the rest of us will foot the bill. Not every
initiative claiming to promise money for education is a good thing.

YES 89 Public campaign financing makes a real difference in leveling the
playing field: Maine passed a universal health care plan thanks to
grassroots candidates being able to challenge the insurance-funded
incumbents. The money for the campaigns will come from a corporate tax
increase. This system has proven to loosen the death grip corporate
lobbyists hold over government, though it won't make every politician
honest!

NO 90 This is about giving property owners even more rights to strangle
the public interest and steal our money. It is not going to eliminate
eminent domain, which is in the United States Constitution, but it would
give any property owner the right to sue any city or district that passes
a regulation which could cause a potential loss of profits, which the city
or district then have to pay. Although the transfer of property from one
private owner to another through eminent domain has been abused and needs
to be drastically curtailed, this is a "cure" that's even worse than
the
disease. We need to be yanking the charters of criminal corporations, not
giving them the right to blackmail us out of protecting our communities!


CITY

ALHAMBRA
City Council, District 5: Andrade-Stadler advanced progressive issues as
the District Director for Rep. Hilda Solis (D) and continues to be a
strong supporter of the environment and unions.

CLAREMONT
YES S will protect endangered open space.

LOS ANGELES CITY SPECIAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION

YES H Will help generate badly-needed affordable housing for everyone.
YES J Will save money.
NO R Most of our city council consists of a bunch of lackeys for
developers. The last thing we should do is give an extra term in office to
the same bunch of crooked politicians who handed the South Central Farm to
a developer at a fraction of the market value, without any public notice
or comment. "arrgh" - VOTE NO ON R!!!

PASADENA
NO A Tell the NFL, a private for-profit entity, to invest its own money if
it wants a stadium built to its specs.

SANTA MONICA
City Council: O'Day is a visionary leader in the environmental movement.
Mann and Armstrong have better positions than the incumbents. If you're
only voting for one of the three, vote for O'Day.
YES Y The cops need to be reminded that we really want the drug war to end
- even people like me who think smoking anything is bad for your health.


DISTRICT - these are recommendations from the Sierra Club. For Castaic
Lake, it is especially important because the agency has input into
approval of mega housing developments that require access to water
supplies in order to destroy large areas of wilderness to build thousands
of cookie-cutter houses.

Castaic Lake Water Agency
Jan Heidt – Division 1
Cam Noltemeyer – Division 2
Carole Lutness – Division 3
Isaac Lieberman – At Large

Water Replenishment Board, District 3
Lillian Kawasaki


SOURCES CHECKED:

League of Women Voters - www.smartvoter.org
Court of Appeal -
www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/courtsofappeal/2ndDistrict/justices.htm
LA County Democratic Party - www.lacdp.org
LA County Peace & Freedom Party - www.la-peaceandfreedom.org
Green Party of California - www.cagreens.org
LA County Federation of Labor - www.launionaflcio.org
Sierra Club - angeles.sierraclub.org
Google - www.google.com
Southern California Republican Coalition - www.socalgop.com/voting_guide.htm
Ventura County Republican Party - www.vcrcc.org
[almost every judge endorsed by the GOP got an automatic "NO" on this
list]

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