You should have read the rules to filling out your ballot and the possibly also the information about the Dad Guide before progressing to this page.

November 2005

The state election that should never have happened. Arnie abuses his authority as Governor, and chooses the ballot box as an alternative to actually trying to work with the Legislature and solve problems for real.

State Propositions

Just vote no, all the way down. This is the best way to tell Arnie and the Legislature to do their jobs, govern, work out compromises rather than pose for office. There are some very terrible proposals on this ballot, loaded with unintended consequences that will inevitably prove bad for the state and all of us. There are plenty of odd companions urging no on almost everything.

Just vote no.

73

Parental permission for abortions for minors

No. This is a radical right stealth measure to whittle away at women’s health issues and choice. Sure, we all would like all families to be healthy, intact, and rational. Those aren’t the ones affected by this proposition, however. This is about girls in broken homes with abusive parents who need to have a safe way out of a very difficult position. Even more sinister, this erodes physician-patient confidentiality and would require doctors to rat out their patients. Even straight-laced Republican Becky Morgan is against this one.

74

Teachers Are No Damned Good So Lets Make Them Squirm For Five Years Act

No. The first of Arnie’s stupid and vindictive measures that plays to ignorant demagoguery but would not improve schools or get good teachers.

Unfortunately, the argument and rebuttal against 74 violate the Dad Guide typographical rules. No matter. Vote no.

75

Stick It To The Public-Employee Unions Act

No. The second ill-conceived and vindictive measure by the Gov. Public employee unions have been the only ones to tell the public that the Governor’s policies are phony, so he turned around to try to gut their ability to voice their concerns.

76

Let’s Screw Up The State Budget System Even Worse Than It Already Is Act

No. Truly awful. Each time an initiative proclaims to fix the budget system, we all pay a steep price of unintended consequences for a measure that is far too complex for an initiative. This is not a matter of symbolism. This gives the Governor far too much authority over an already weak Legislature that has been gutted by term limits, and it puts the budget on autopilot. Stupid stupid stupid. Fails by several Dad Guide rules—Howard Jarvis taxpayers are for it, the Governor’s stooges are for it; too complicated; creates new problems without fixing the old ones.

77

Redistricting

No. The last of Arnie’s follies. We all can agree that current legislative districts are bizarre, uncompetitive, and lead to a polarized Legislature. Having a non-partisan expert panel create districts that respect community boundaries could be a good thing. But this measure has too many question marks. The sheer logistics of getting it into effect would screw up next year’s elections across the state. Who picks the retired judges, and what makes them so impartial? Can you really take the politics out of politics? Who’s accountable here?

78

Discounts on Prescription Drugs—voluntary

No. This one was put on the ballot by big Pharma. Enough said. Poison pill for Prop 79.

79

Prescription Drug Discounts—mandatory

No. Although better than Prop 78, for this election just vote no on everything. Neither measure belongs on the ballot. This special election should never have been scheduled.

80

Re-regulation of the Electric Power Industry

No. Actually, a good idea, though I don’t know if this measure would accomplish the right results. Too complex for an initiative. Stay the course. Vote no on everything on the state ballot this year.

Foothill DeAnza Board of Trustees (vote for two)

• Laura Casas Frier
• Bruce Swenson

Using the principle of who’s for whom, former UC regent Dolores Huerta has endorsed Casas Frier. Both of these candidates are smart, which is good for a change. Casas Frier is a lawyer who’s been fighting for the right kind of things, and she has been in the trenches for the district fighting the depredations of the Legislature. Swenson is a retired district finance guy and math professor. The potential knock on them both is that they are staff “insiders.” On the other hand, they know the territory. And I’m pretty sure that Dennis would like Laura.

Fong has been on the board three terms already. He doesn’t offer any compelling reasons to reelect him, other than he’s already there. He’s not a bad guy, and has emerged as a kind of godfather for local Asian-American politicians. Nothing wrong with that, but there doesn’t appear to be any meat on his tenure as a trustee.

Then there’s Julia, who has a history of peculiar divisiveness on the Sunnyvale Council. She has no direct knowledge of education or college issues, but she has been energetic in lining up endorsements—my theory, people say yes to get her out the door faster. It’s time for her to retire from local elections, since she doesn’t bring anything fresh or useful to the table, but does get people’s backs up fast.

Sunnyvale Elementary School District (vote for three)

• Jeff Arnett
• Anita Herrmann
• Wendy Bockholt

There are four candidates, so one approach is to eliminate the worst. The other approach is to just vote for the one who’s best.

Elimination is easy. Since Flores didn’t even bother to submit a candidate’s statement for the sample ballot, he fails one of the fundamental rules of the Dad Guide. He doesn’t respect me as a voter, so a definite no. This is at least his third run at a local office, and he has wasted our time each time.

As for the others. Arnett, the sole incumbent running, seems to have a decent and appropriate background for the position. Local knowledge, credentialed teacher, ex-Marine, legislative experience.

Herrmann and Bockholt are parent volunteers, and are both engineers. Their statements are generic motherhood and education apple pie, which is OK, but nothing concrete about how we need to crack the nut of our state’s stupid school finance system. Experience as a PTA volunteer is good, but not necessarily enough.

Sunnyvale City Council

Seat 1

A very reluctant nod for Tim Risch.

As Jim Hightower has said, if God meant for us to vote, he would give us candidates. A very ugly choice. On the one hand, a candidate who has already joined Fran Rowe in the rare distinction of not winning reelection and who has alienated everyone on the current council and is widely distrusted in the community. On the other, a candidate who has left snail tracks in Sunnyvale politics for 30 years, is in the pocket of the public safety union, and has a record of demonstrated personal financial incompetence not paying taxes or his mortgage to the point of bankruptcy.

This race is a good argument for “none of the above.” Neither would be good for the council or fro the community, yet one will be elected. Which will cause the least damage? A terrible way to vote, but in a way, Risch might cause the least damage because he’ll never get a second to his motions, and as an engineer, at least he takes the budget process seriously. Spitaleri could be very expensive, perhaps ruinous, if he votes the straight PSOA ticket for retirement enhancements, salaries, staffing, etc., at the expense of budget prudence and other pressing community priorities.

Seat 2

Chris Moylan.

The book on Moylan is that he is a bit too impressed with himself and his exalted status as Stanford faculty member, and comes across as a know-it-all. The upside for Moylan is that he has not been endorsed by the Public Safety junta. He has decent involvement in community and school issues, and has been active in community theatre, which is a plus. His ballot statement is plain vanilla, however.

The Dennis Rule could kick in for this race because Ghaffary asked me to sign his nomination petition after noticing our Kucinich bumper sticker, figuring that our politics would be compatible. He’s a fresh face, without being part of the Sunnyvale Council weirdness of the last six years, and has done his share of community participation. He should have run in the Seat 1 contest instead so we would have a choice instead of the two bozos on the ballot. The downside for Ghaffary is that he’s very innocent about politics, and that he has been endorsed strongly by various police and firefighter organizations, including the Neanderthal state association of police. Will Darab be able to tell them to stuff it when they ask for budget-busting payback? Unclear in this world that needs a plentiful supply of strap-on spines.

Pete Richards is a well-intended but clueless candidate.

Seat 3

Nancy Smith

Smith is running against incumbent John Howe, who has had a strange history with the whole LaSala mess. This one is about intuition and trust. As mayor, Howe demonstrated a remarkably clumsy political hand with media, open government, and consistency. He wimped out on putting a relatively trivial tax increase on the ballot last year that would have been fair and would have mitigated budget cuts to basic services.

Smith is a relative newcomer, but she has been appropriately engaged in civic matters.

Sunnyvale Charter Amendments

These are a combination of long overdue charter clean up items and tax measures. Yes on all.

D

Increase the business license tax.

Yes. Hasn’t been increased since it was first imposed in 1968. It’s a flat rate based on headcount, so it’s about time that these fees caught up with inflation over nearly 40 years. The mystery has been, why didn’t the council do this before? Because of timidity on the Council from a handful of mossbacks grumbling in the chamber of commerce. Instead of being honest about increasing the business tax two years ago, they sneaked in a “handling fee,” which disproportionately assessed small businesses and by-passed the required vote. Way to go to earn public trust, Council!

E

Increase the hotel tax to 9.5% from 8.5%

Yes. See above. New rate will still be under the TOT in other neighboring cities, and will help basic services such as libraries, parks, and streets. The handy thing about TOT is that other people, visitors, pay it.

F

Board and commission terms consistency

Yes. This cleans up inconsistency in how terms are set for various commissions. No big deal, although it does allow a person to be reappointed from board to board to board over time instead of being ultimately termed our, though you couldn’t stay on the same board for more than two terms.

G

Repeal City Manager residence requirement

Yes. Although requiring residency by the top city official makes sense, it’s tough to apply in this housing market because it becomes a barrier to recruiting. Since the courts struck down municipal employee residency requirements years ago, this just brings our local city charter up to date. The real story here, however, is that this also would make the current city manager, who lives in Palo Alto, finally legal.

H

Heritage Preservation policy

Yes. This clarifies and broadens the advisory heritage commission’s scope of review by including heritage preservation matters that are not necessarily buildings or properties. No real change in actual practice.