|
Election Report June 2008 Primary
Sierra Club endorsed candidates and ballot positions fared well in the June 3, 2008, primary election in northern California. The Sierra Club's positions prevailed on both statewide ballot measures, and all twelve Sierra Club endorsed candidates for congressional races in northern California prevailed in Tuesday's primary election. In races for the California Legislature, the Sierra Club endorsed twenty candidates for seats in northern California, seventeen of whom were successful. In local races, other than races in the San Francisco Bay Chapter, six Sierra Club endorsed candidates won outright, four lost, and twelve qualified for runoff elections to be held in November.
The results for Sierra Club endorsed statewide ballot measures and candidates in Northern California, except for local candidates in the San Francisco Bay Chapter, are posted here
Current Endorsements
The Loma Prieta Chapter is pleased to make the following endorsements:
US Congressional Districts
SD 5 Lois Wolk
SD 7 Mark DeSaulnier*
SD 9 Loni Hancock*
SD 11 Joe Simitian*
SD 19 Hannah-Beth Jackson
SD 21 Carol Liu
SD 23 Fran Pavley
SD 27 Alan Lowenthal
SD 39 Christine Kehoe*
A State Assembly Districts
AD 1 Wesley Chesbro
AD 6 Jared Huffman*
AD 7 Noreen Evans*
AD 8 Christopher Cabaldon
AD 13 Tom Amiano
AD 14 Nancy Skinner & Kriss Worthington
AD 16 Sandre Swanson*
AD 19 Jerry Hill and Richard Holober
AD 21 Ira Ruskin*
AD 22 Paul Fong
AD 23 Joe Coto*
AD 24 Jim Beall, Jr.*
AD 35 Pedro Nava*
AD 40 Bob Blumenfield
AD 41 Julia Brownley*
AD 42 Mike Feuer*
AD 43 Paul Krekorian*
AD 44 Anthony Portantino*
AD 45 Kevin De Leon *
AD 46 John Perez AD 47 Karen Bass*
AD 49 Mike Eng*
AD 50 Hector De La Torre*
AD 53 Ted Lieu*
AD 54 Bonnie Lowenthal
AD 55 Warren Furutani
AD 62 Wilma Amina Carter*
AD 69 Jose Solorio*
AD 76 Lori Saldana*
AD 77 Raymond Lutz
*
Denotes incumbent
CA State Propositions
NO on Proposition 98: Fake Eminent Domain Reform
YES on Proposition 99: True Eminent Domain Reform
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
District 2 - Richard Hobbs
San Jose City Council
District 2 - Ash Kalra
District 8 - Craig Mann and Rose Herrera
San Mateo County
Measure O: County Parks and Recreation YES
For more information, see our newsletter at: http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/LomaPrietan_MayJun08.pdf
Once or twice each year our committee endorses candidates for political office. The archive of past endorsements can be accessed below.
2008 results will be here
2007 results are here
2007 endorsments here
2006 results are here
Environmental Criteria & Process for Selecting Candidates for Sierra Club Endorsements
Ann Schneider, Tri-Chair, Political Committee
The Loma Prieta Political Committee would like you to know about the questions and criteria we use to evaluate the candidates in the races you will read about in this Endorsement Issue of the Loma Prieta. In the winter we ask all the Conservation Sub-Committees to tell us what they would like local government to be doing to support their issue. For example, will the City Council support implementing a form of extended producer responsibility to reduce plastic bags and other products commonly found in litter on the city streets (part of a zero waste plan). Another example is what the City is doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other energy conservation actions or increase development along existing transit corridors. You can find the exact list of questions on our website at http://www.lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/politics/index.html
Our questions this year included actions to reduce the generation of greenhouse gases (Cool Cities Campaign); support the creation of a citizen commission to work on environmental issues; landuse (density on transit corridors); transportation (alternative fuel options); zero waste (extended producer responsibility and moving towards zero materials sent to landfills); water conservation and restoration of watersheds; expanding access to nature and protecting local open space; green building; forestry (clear-cutting and urban forests, purchase of recycled content paper products); and reducing toxics in our environment by implementing integrated pest management practices in government property.
The hardest part of the job for the volunteers who serve on our Candidate Interview Teams is how to evaluate the responses candidates give to the written questionnaire and to additional questions asked at the one on one interviews. Many of our communities are already implementing innovative green programs. While other communities might be just getting started. We ask the same questions of all candidates but the grading scale is modified based on existing programs in that specific city. While we are looking for candidates who will be “Environmental Leaders & Advocates for the Environment”, we understand that not every person in every community will be at the same level.
We often hear from members “how could you endorse “Mr. Smith” he voted for “insert bad environmental decision 5 years ago”. We do look at voting records or records on involvement on environmental issues within the community. It is easier to find this information on incumbents who serve at the State or Federal level, e.g., Assembly or Senate. It is much more difficult to find this information about city council members or volunteers who serve on city commissions. But we do the best we can. If you think you can help, we would love to have you join our Cool Cities or City Watch program, as we know this is one of our weakest links. And we don't make a decision based on just one issue. We use in any given election, at least 10 different environmental issues to base an endorsement decision. A bad vote in the past will hurt a candidate but we allow that a person may change over time.
We also try to access if this candidate is someone we can work with in the future. Are they open to learning about the environment and then willing to make changes in city policy? Finally, we try to see if the candidate knows what it will take to win an election. In other words do they understand fundraising, precinct walking and other ways to meet the voters, do they have volunteers to help them. We don't just look for who can raise the most money. In fact, we do check, in those cities that have them, whether or not a candidate has signed a voluntary spending and/or donation limit. We call of this information a candidates “viability” as it is just one of the “datapoints” we use to figure out if we should endorse a candidate.
Please consider joining us for the 2008 election cycle. Contact Political at LomaPrieta.SierraClub.org if you would like to help us make future endorsement decisions.
|
