Divided council vote on Prop 5 endorsement daylights concerns about lack of outreach re: city ballot endorsements

mage by Jana Kadah In a rare development, SJ City Council on August 27 couldn’t achieve a unanimous vote on endorsing Prop 5 (it passed 8–2). Prop 5 aims to lower from 66% to 55% the majority needed for new local taxes, undoing Proposition 13’s precedents. Prop 13 was passed by a large margin of Santa Clara County…
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☆ Election roundup (7/14): Gov’t dooms itself with math errors, thinly-disguised money grabs

Erik the Phantom, in trying to control the woman he loves (Christine, pictured with him), inadvertently wrecks his chance to win her affection. From the 1943 adaptation of Phantom of the Opera. Continuing our exclusive Election ’24 analyses, Opp Now contributors argue that local/State gov’t’s tax mania ultimately brought the chandelier down on themselves this…
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Opinion: Data disproves the myth that special elections are unrepresentative

SJ Council voted Tuesday to honor residents’ preference for democracy and hold a special election to replace D3 CM Torres. Dissenting CMs Jiminez & Cohen worry about low turnout favoring wealthier candidates—but a Governing.com study (explained below) finds that special elections tend to indicate regular election outcomes, accurately representing constituents’ picks. [Some people raise] a legitimate question of…
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☆ Libertarian VP candidate Mike ter Maat: Although tax leery, Californians still split the ballot to borrow billions more (2/2)

The fed’s unsustainable financial house may not yet be affecting Californian voters as they decide just how much they want to let their state government borrow. Economist Mike ter Maat says Prop 5 likely failed because it would have enabled indescribable future debt that affects voters’ taxes directly. Yet Props 2 and 4 sailed through,…
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☆ Election roundup (6/14): Local pols overlooked voters’ actual wishes when falling for Prop 5

Because Tom’s so obsessed with Summer, he ignores her insistence that she doesn’t want a relationship with him—and imagines he has a chance. Spoiler alert: Summer marries someone else. From (500) Days of Summer (2009). In Election ’24, elected officials were so infatuated with tax-raising Proposition 5 that—um—they didn’t realize the proposal would get an…
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Perspective: SCC voters decisively rejected rent control (via Prop 33) due to smarter messaging re: housing costs

roposition 33 tried—making this the third attempt in CA—to undo Costa-Hawkins’ rent control limitations (which housing providers cite as keeping them profitable). Below, housing policy expert Christian Britschgi says No on 33’s pivot from “landlord rights” to “housing affordability” messaging is what resonated with SCC voters (60.5% voting “no” this Nov. to expansive rent control).…
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Recent media regarding Smith D3 campaign and my perspectives on the special election

Friends, Below is a rundown of recent media in which I was included.  Feel free to use these clips on social media or forward around to your network if you are so inclined. I’ll be forwarding more along as the campaign progresses. We are just getting started.  Irene P.S. If you don’t want to receive…
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Opinion: Local ballot counting would be fast and efficient if CA started checking voter IDs

Political analyst Kira Davis explains, via X, why SCC is (you heard this right) still counting ballots and determining winners a week after Election Day. Since CA legally prohibits ID verification at the polls, volunteers must painstakingly—and often subjectively, Davis claims—verify signatures, one at a time. A lot of people ask why it takes California…
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One fish, two fish, smelt fish, true sitch

Image by Apionid on Flickr California has enough rainfall to address local droughts, claims CPC’s water policy director Edward Ring—but the State regularly and wastefully dumps water into SF Bay to try to save the Delta smelt fish. Why, decades after this program began, is the smelt fish population no better off—while Bay Areans are…
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☆ Tanaka takeaways on recent election: Time for smart, data-driven governance

Palo Alto councilmember Greg Tananka says that local governments should not ignore the real message of the November 5 election: The People want lean, efficient government. An Opp Now exclusive. The recent presidential election signals a growing demand for government efficiency at all levels. With the President-elect establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the…
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Breed’s more aggressive homelessness policies appear to be working

Image by Wikimedia Commons San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently celebrated new data showing that the number of people living in tents in the city has hit its lowest point in six years. This comes after Breed—in response to SCOTUS’ Grants Pass decision—began more vigorous encampment amelioration. KCBS reports on the latest numbers. In August,…
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Silicon Valley’s poor get poorer while the rich… also get poorer

Image by Bearrobotics.ai The data re: the impact of the State’s and Silicon Valley’s increased minimum wage for fast food workers is in, and it’s grim: jobs are down a net 5,400 this year, and employees have actually lost earnings amounting to $37 million. 93% of employers say they’ll need to further raise their prices…
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