LA Progressive Voter Guide General Election 2020

LOS ANGELES AREA PROGRESSIVE VOTER GUIDE

November 3, 2020 General Election

The following are recommendations for the most progressive candidates and measures on the ballot based on reviewing resources listed at the bottom o lol f this guide, news articles, and candidate statements. I encourage you to do your own research as well! After writing the date/your address on and signing your envelope, return your ballot via USPS or dropbox as early as possible. If you vote in person, bring your mail-in ballot with you. This guide was prepared by Kris Rehl.

*Indicates a Democrat running solely against a Republican opponent.

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL

4th District: Nithya Raman - Nithya served as executive director of anti-sexual-harassment group Time’s Up and is an MIT-trained urban planner who founded SELAH, a local homeless services organization. Nithya’s direct work with our unhoused neighbors has provided her with insight into the failure of our city’s homelessness services, which has highlighted the need to expand these programs and remove the many barriers that prevent unhoused Angelenos from accessing the help they need. Nithya is our city’s best chance of reversing the homelessness crisis with plans to stop evictions, freeze rents, and pursue cheaper, more effective alternatives for public and affordable housing. Nithya is also focused on improving city transit, creating free public broadband internet, fighting the climate crisis, and improving our city’s air quality. Nithya is not accepting corporate donations and has run a transparent campaign, pledging to end the rampant corruption in LA City Hall. Her opponent, the District 4 incumbent, has been charged with raping an unconscious woman, which was witnessed by a third party, but the charges against him were mysteriously dropped when the district attorney's office said it was unable to proceed within the statutory period. The incumbent, David Ryu refused to denounce local police violence, including the LAPD officer who ran over protesters with a police SUV in DTLA earlier this year. Under Ryu’s leadership, homelessness in District 4 increased by a staggering 53% last year. The Los Feliz Ledger filed an ethics complaint against his campaign earlier this summer.

10th District: Mark Ridley-Thomas - I’m deferring to KTown For All on this race because they do amazing work in this district and have personal experience with both candidates: “Ridley-Thomas has been a consistent voice advocating for homeless housing and services. His mixed record on criminalization and policing raised concerns, but he is moving in the right direction on these issues. His long tenure in office gives him expertise, but also suggests he may not move the city in new directions. [His opponent Grace] Yoo’s stances on tenant protections and housing policy lean in the correct direction, but her opposition to a local shelter and her lack of deep knowledge on housing and homelessness issues raises concern. Her campaign has also failed to meet the moment, lacking a real platform on policing.”

BURBANK CITY COUNCIL

Councilmember: Konstantine Anthony - Konstantine is a disability, homelessness, and workers rights advocate who has autism, has previously been homeless, and is raising a son with disabilities. He has pledged not to take donations from corporations, corporate PACs, property developers, realtors, landlords, fossil fuel executives, or police associations. He wants to build a fully functional homeless shelter in Burbank and is endorsed by the Sunrise Movement and Democratic Socialists of America Los Angeles.

WEST HOLLYWOOD CITY COUNCIL

Councilmember: Sepi Shyne - Shyne is a strong progressive candidate who refuses to take money from developers. She’s focusing on affordable housing and renter’s rights, which are all extremely important as we potentially face an immeasurable eviction crisis in the coming months. She also wants to expand homeless services, including bathroom and laundry access for WeHo’s unhoused residents. Her opponent John Erickson has solid policy but has some shady dealings, including exchanging politically-motivated endorsements with David Ryu and accepting developer money.

ALHAMBRA CITY COUNCIL

Councilmember: Sasha Renée Pérez - Sasha is an educator, community activist, and housing commissioner who comes from a working-class, pro-union Latinx family. She will fight for an ambitious Climate Action Plan that would eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, maximize green space in Alhambra, and create alternatives to gas cars with increased access to bike lanes, electric charging stations, and improving public transit. Sasha advocates for increasing composting by incorporating it with recycling services. As housing commissioner, Sasha knows better than anyone how to tackle the housing crisis with renter protections and working to expand federal, state, and county homebuyer programs to Alhambra so that low- and moderate-income families can access homeownership. She wants to increase language interpretation services for non-English speaking residents at town halls to increase citizen participation in local government by making it more accessible. Her opponent is a conservative LAPD officer.

LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION

District 3: Scott Mark Shmerelson - The incumbent, Scott is not a particularly progressive choice, but he’s further left and anti-charter. His challenger, director of Granada Hills Charter School, refuses to take a position on several issues and has dodged questions about sex education and declined survey and record requests from local journalists. Both Shmerelson and his opponent support maintaining the LA School Police Department, despite the efforts of student-activist group LA Students Deserve to defund, abolish, and replace them with school nurses and counselors. Schmerelson has been an advocate as the head of the Special Education Committee, delving into issues facing our most vulnerable students. Scott will continue to fight for fair and adequate funding of our public schools at the same level as other states where per-pupil funding is nearly twice as much as in California.

District 7: Patricia Castellanos - Endorsed by the Unified Teachers of Los Angeles, Patricia co-founded Reclaim Our Schools LA, a teachers union–allied organization that advocated to bring wraparound services into schools to turn campuses into community hubs. If elected, Patricia would be the only board member with a child attending an LAUSD public school. She will bring the personal experience of her second grader’s distance learning, its impact on families, and her work on COVID-19 relief to the School Board. Patricia will fight for smaller class sizes and more nurses, social workers, and counselors, who are critical to mental health services, special education, and clean, safe learning environments. Her opponent refuses to take a stance on charter schools, is backed by charter school advocates, and has taken harmful positions on special education programs, leaving them on the chopping block.

LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Office 1: Dr. Andra Hoffman - Hoffman is an incumbent, president of the board, a professor, and endorsed by LACCD faculty union. She’s worked hard to protect students during the pandemic, fought to make LA community colleges sanctuary campuses, and believes in reimaging public safety on campus.

Office 3: David Vela - Vela is an incumbent and endorsed by LACCD faculty union. During his tenure on the board, he has been a strong advocate for students, fighting to expand much needed resources for students inside and outside of the classroom.

Office 5: Dr. Nichelle Henderson - Henderson is a Cal State Los Angeles professor and is endorsed by LACCD faculty union and Black Lives Matter LA co-founder Dr. Melina Abdullah. If elected, she would provide much-needed representation on the board, which currently has no Black members and no women of color. The incumbent Scott Svonkin has a history of racism and harassment.

Office 7: Mike Fong - Fong is an incumbent and endorsed by LACCD faculty union. He’s an advocate for moderate reforms to LACCD’s relationship with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department and has been a champion for workforce development.

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY

36th District: No Recommendation - The only non-Republican in this race is Steve Fox, a conservative Democrat who used to be a Republican. He also has credible sexual harassment allegations against him, costing taxpayers $100,000. He wants to expand police presence in schools.

38th District: *Write In* Dina Cervantes - This race has two Republicans on the ticket, so write in Dina Cervantes, a Democrat who ran in the primary. A child of immigrants, community activist, small business owner, and former preschool teacher with a strong record on education and environmental issues.

39th District: Luz Maria Rivas* - The incumbent, Rivas has a solid record on immigration and housing. Luz sponsored a bill that required investigations into officer-involved shootings and co-authored a bill to create the first state-level office on homelessness. She also founded a nonprofit in Pacoima to encourage school-aged girls to pursue careers in STEM.

41st District: Chris Holden* - The incumbent, Holden has fought to expand funding for disability programs and to increase lead-level testing in drinking water at childcare centers, and he passed legislation to improve safety on electricity systems that caused the 2017 wildfires. He has a mixed record on some other policies, but he recently supported police reform legislation.

43rd District: Laura Friedman* - Friedman is the incumbent and has a mostly progressive voting record, which includes supporting the end of Section 8 discrimination and authoring several environmental and sustainability bills.

44th District: Jacqui Irwin* - The incumbent and facing a Republican challenger, Irwin has focused heavily on gun violence prevention legislation and strengthened gun violence restraining orders since the 2018 Thousand Oaks shooting. She also accepted large contributions from police and prison groups and abstained from voting on a bill that would have increased oversight of sheriffs’ departments.

45th District: Jesse Gabriel* - Gabriel has enacted more than a dozen new gun safety measures, championed efforts to address California’s housing and homelessness crisis, and strengthened public education. Gabriel does not have a good record with police accountability, refusing to support a state law that would have decertified officers found to have committed serious misconduct.

46th District: Adrin Nazarian - A strong charter school opponent who has fought to increase public school aid by $23 billion over the past five years with a fairly progressive record across the board.

48th District: Blanca E. Rubio - Running unopposed, Blanca was born in Mexico and came to Texas with her family, where she grew up undocumented until she became a citizen in 1994. She is a former public school teacher and an advocate for victims of domestic violence. Unfortunately, Rubio is a moderate Democrat who has taken lots of corporate money.

49th District: Edwin Chau* - Born in Hong Kong and raised in LA, incumbent assemblymember Chau is facing a Republican challenger. He’s focused on legislation to prevent elder abuse and authored bills to address the affordable housing crisis as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act, enhancing protections for internet users’ personal data. He has a problematic legislative record on police accountability and expanding housing.

50th District: Richard Bloom - Authored some strong housing bills with a heavy focus on environmental legislation, helping establish the most stringent protections in the country against the dangers of hydraulic fracking. His challenger is an extremely conservative Democrat.

51st District: Wendy Carrillo - Running unopposed, Wendy supported the $15 state minimum wage and supports efforts to provide a permanent source of funding to build affordable housing as well as a statewide housing bond.

52nd District: Freddie Rodriguez* - Freddie is a moderate Democrat who supports increasing the number of trauma centers and healthcare facilities, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and developing additional wellness and nutrition programs for seniors.

53rd District: Godfrey Plata - Plata is an aggressively progressive challenger to an establishment Democratic incumbent who has a disappointing record on housing policy. Plata is a gay Filipino immigrant who, if elected, will become the first person in the California Assembly's 140-year history to be an out LGBTQIA+ immigrant. Plata’s campaign is focused on affordable housing, strengthening public schools, and universal healthcare. He is the only new State Assembly candidate who is a renter.

54th District: Tracy B. Jones - A special education teacher, Jones is a strong advocate for increasing public school funding for improvements. He supports Medicare for All and a ban on fracking.

55th District: Andrew E. Rodriguez* - One of the most fiercely contested swing seats of the year, he has the endorsement of virtually every major California Democrat. Expanding his environmental work on the Walnut City Council, Andrew wants to open more green space, protect our air, land, and water, and create jobs to increase the use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to help reduce pollution. Rodriguez is prioritizing affordable housing, improving education, and paid family leave. The incumbent is a Republican cop.

57th District: Lisa Calderon*- With massive funding passed by the state, Lisa is fed up with the lack of progress in addressing the homelessness crisis. She will demand that drug treatment, new housing, and mental health service providers work together on this crisis or lose their funding. She wants to increase money targeted at low-performing schools, recruit more and better teachers, support more training for them to keep up with the latest advances, and reduce state university costs.

58th District: Margaret Villa - A Green Party candidate, Villa supports rent and mortgage forgiveness, free public college, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and getting money out of politics. The incumbent Democrat she’s challenging (Cristina Garcia) previously made false claims about earning a graduate degree, has several sexual harassment accusations against her from her own staff, and was investigated for her rampant use of racist and homophobic language in the workplace. Vote for Margaret Villa instead!

59th District: Reggie Jones-Sawyer - A strong progressive incumbent with a focus on police reform, Reggie comes from a family of pioneers in the civil rights movement and is the nephew of one of the Little Rock Nine and a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus. He co-authored legislation to provide re-entry assistance like housing and job training for persons that have been wrongfully convicted and consequently released from state prison. He also led an effort to secure nearly $100 million for recidivism reduction grants. His moderate Democratic challenger is backed by police groups.

62nd District: Autumn R. Burke* - Autumn has authored bills establishing Transformative Climate Communities to help disadvantaged neighborhoods heavily impacted by pollution. However, she has accepted money from the fossil fuel industry and refused to support limits on oil and gas extraction in California. She helped expand access to quality maternal health care and advocated for new investments in affordable housing and transportation infrastructure.

63rd District: Maria Estrada - Estrada is a community activist and Green Party candidate, challenging an incumbent establishment Democratic leader who stopped the passage of single-payer healthcare in the California legislature. Maria is running to end the culture of policies that are deferential to industrial polluters that continue to poison our communities.

64th District: Fatima Iqbal-Zubair - An immigrant, high school teacher, and union member from Watts, Fatima is challenging Democratic incumbent Mike Gipson, who takes money from Chevron, Valero, Pfizer, and Juul. She is campaigning to end environmental racism in her district, for affordable housing and rehabilitation services for the homeless, better funding for public schools, divesting from police and prisons, and making college accessible to everyone.

66th District: Al Muratsuchi* - Al is a fairly moderate Democrat facing a Republican challenger. He’s a former prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General, and a former Torrance School Board member. As Chairman of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, he helped restore $10 billion in funding to schools, community colleges, and universities. He has a solid record on environmental issues and supports the limiting of oil drilling.

70th District: Patrick O’Donnell* - A teacher for over 20 years, Patrick is a moderate Democrat with a weak record on justice reform and environmental regulation, facing a Republican challenger who denies climate science. He says he is dedicated to ensuring a quality education for California’s students.

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE

21st District: Kipp Mueller* - Mueller’s progressive platform focuses on homelessness, wage inequality, and the environment, calling out big oil in the Antelope Valley swing district.

23rd District: Abigail Medina* - The daughter of immigrant parents, Medina has been in the foster care system, worked as a tomato picker, and served on the board of the San Bernardino City Unified School District. She is the candidate with the boldest environmental platform in her district.

25th District: Anthony J. Portantino* - Portantino isn’t the most progressive senator, but the only alternative is his opponent, who wants to roll back gun control reform and progressive changes to California curriculum. Portantino used a pocket veto to block a bill that would have enacted reforms to address the California housing shortage by allowing more apartment construction near public transit and in suburbs. Some bright spots on his record include his support and authoring of bills that increase financial aid and expand HIV/AIDS resources.

27th District: Henry Stern* - A strong advocate for closing the Aliso Canyon gas facility and a fairly progressive candidate in a purple district. In addition to fighting big oil, he’s running on creating incentives for companies to switch to clean transportation and renewable energy infrastructure, improving the economy with small businesses and job training, supporting education by securing funding, and creating safer communities by providing funding to local governments. (Fun fact: His dad played Marv in the Home Alone movies.)

29th District: Josh Newman* - Newman won his Fullerton district in 2016, focusing on 100% renewable energy by 2045, affordable education, and homelessness and mental health services. He was recalled by voters in a low-turnout midterm primary, after being targeted by a Republican effort to break the Democrats’ supermajority. Despite the partisan recall over his vote to increase the state gas tax by 12 cents per gallon to fund $5.4 billion in annual road improvement and transit projects, Newman will again face the Republican he beat in 2016.

33rd District: Elizabeth Castillo - As a registered nurse, Castillo understands the importance of protecting essential workers from being infected by a highly contagious disease and providing much-needed PPE. Elizabeth will fight for legislation to grant rent and mortgage forgiveness, stronger worker protections, and single payer healthcare. She is refusing corporate donations.

35th District: Steven Bradford - A leader on police reform and accountability, he authored a failed bill that would have decertified police officers who engage in serious misconduct. He also passed AB391, a law restricting when police can use deadly force. Bradford is focused on lowering homelessness through affordable housing, enhancing access to healthcare, and expanding access to mass transit.

LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY

District Attorney - George Gascón - Gascón has become a symbol of hope for criminal justice reform in Los Angeles. He’s committed to addressing police violence, holding law enforcement accountable, and increasing transparency. Under Gascón’s leadership, San Francisco experienced a dramatic decline in youth crime, arrests, and incarceration rates, becoming the first major US city to close a juvenile hall. His Young Adult Court program is designed to address the needs of young adults ages 18–25, a group disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. He recognizes we cannot resolve our behavioral health (and by extension homelessness) crisis with a law enforcement response. The use of police, prosecutors, and jails results in individuals being released without adequate medication or prescriptions. He believes in the evidence-based practice of treating individuals with Integrated Dual Diagnosis Treatment, which treats mental health and substance abuse disorders simultaneously in the same setting. If elected, he would work to implement regional Behavioral Health facilities, where law enforcement would work hand in hand with public health officials. An immigrant himself, Gascón has been a major advocate for immigrant rights. He does not believe in the death penalty (unlike the incumbent, whose office sent 22 BIPOC to death row). He supports the end of money bail, and has pledged to focus on corporate and government corruption.

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

23rd District: Kim Mangone* - Kim is a veteran running against Kevin McCarthy, one of the most far-right Republicans in Congress and the GOP’s current House Minority Leader. Kim supports the expansion of federal healthcare benefits and green energy. Vote for Kim and get McCarthy the hell out of Washington!

25th District - Christy Smith* - Christy is fighting to get dark, unaccountable money out of politics. She has pledged to fight corporate polluters and shut down the Aliso Canyon gas facility. She wants aggressive oversight of her district’s two toxic waste clean-up sites, Santa Susana Field Laboratory and Whittaker Bermite, and three landfills in Sunshine Canyon, Chiquita Canyon, and Simi Valley.

26th District: Julia Brownley* - The incumbent, Julia passed her Female Veterans Suicide Prevention Act in 2016, which requires the VA to collect data on women veterans to identify best practices and services to end female veteran suicide. She has a solid environmental record and passed a surface transportation bill to increase funds to invest in our crumbling infrastructure. Julia has been an advocate for women and working families, fighting to close the wage gap, raise the minimum wage, and expand job training and education assistance.

27th District: Judy Chu* - The incumbent, Chu is chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and has a strong record on immigration rights and reform. She supports Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, and has become a strong advocate for ending military hazing since her 21-year-old nephew shot and killed himself after enduring three and a half hours of discrimination-motivated assault and torture from his fellow marines in Afghanistan.

28th District - Adam Schiff* - While he has a way to go to match the progressive ideology of his constituents (he still supports PACs, has done little to address the worsening homelessness crisis in his district, and backed away from his support of Medicare For All), Schiff has moved to the left in recent years, cosponsoring the Green New Deal.

29th District: Angélica María Dueñas - The former president of her neighborhood council and a mother of five, Dueñas supports unions, Medicare For All, achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030, eliminating pharmaceutical subsidies, increasing taxes on the rich, universal basic income, guaranteed housing, and a humane path to citizenship.

30th District: Brad Sherman* - Sherman is a pretty moderate Democrat, but he’s a better option than his Republican challenger. He’s worked to prevent future bailouts for Wall Street, pledged to protect Medicare and social security, and supported some environmental conservation efforts.

32nd District: Grace Napolitano* - The incumbent, Congresswoman Napolitano is founder of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, promoting access to mental health for youth, improved resources for veterans and seniors, and increased mental health coverage for all. She supports the Green New Deal and co-sponsored legislation to cancel rent and mortgage payments during the pandemic.

33rd District: Ted Lieu* - Ted has been an outspoken critic of the current administration, bringing special attention to the treatment of migrant children in detention, separated from their families. Ted previously authored a bill banning conversion therapy and was a co-sponsor of Medicare For All and the Green New Deal.

34th District: David Kim - David Kim comes from a working-class immigrant family and is an immigration lawyer who wants to abolish and replace ICE with a humane system, expand and expedite the asylum-seeker track, and remove administrative roadblocks. Kim will fight to eliminate gerrymandering and the influence of corporate donors on elections, implement Ranked Choice voting, and replace the electoral college with a national popular vote. He supports the Green New Deal, Medicare For All, and believes the government should focus on a preventative public health approach that improves social determinants of health, including food and housing insecurity, access to education, and environmental impact. He wants to reallocate police funds to provide mental health, housing, and other community services. He will fight to demilitarize and disarm police and to end the disproportionate impact of policing on BIPOC communities. He wants to ban healthcare and housing discrimination against queer people and mandate federal recognition of non-binary gender identity, including in federal documents. While the incumbent has a fairly progressive record, he takes 98.8% of his money from large donors and corporate PACs.

35th District: Norma Torres* - The incumbent, Norma Torres is actively working to pass comprehensive immigration reform while addressing the root causes of immigration by supporting the development of neighboring countries through her work on the Foreign Affairs Committee. She is strongly opposed to the barbaric practice of family separation at our nation’s southern border and continues to hold this administration accountable for the damage they have done to immigrant families.

37th District: Karen Bass* - Leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, Karen has focused on criminal justice reform, a national minimum wage increase, and foster care. She co-sponsored Medicare For All, supports tuition-free community college, The DREAM Act, and capping the interest rate for federal student loans at 3.4 percent.

38th District: Michael Tolar - Supports Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, criminal justice reform, rent control, closing private prisons, getting money out of politics, and banning military-style weapons.

39th District: Gil Cisneros* - Cisneros was a $266 million Mega Millions winner and became a philanthropist before deciding to run for Congress in 2018. Gil is a veteran and education advocate who has stood up to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to lower healthcare costs, protected education funding, and worked to create good-paying local jobs. Gil recognizes that the ADA does not do enough to protect Americans with disabilities and strongly supports the Disability Integration Act, which prioritizes community-based services to individuals with disabilities over institutionalization. Gil believes corporate money is corrosive to democracy, refuses PAC money, and will co-sponsor legislation for a Constitutional amendment that overturns Citizens United.

40th District: Lucille Roybal-Allard* - Lucille was the first Mexican American woman elected to Congress, was an original co-author of the DREAM Act, and authored the HELP Separated Children Act, to protect the safety and well-being of minor children who have been left alone and vulnerable following the arrest or detainment of their parents by US immigration authorities. She does have a mixed record, voting to fund ICE, taking a moderate stance on healthcare, and voting for the president’s National Defense Authorization Act.

43rd District: Maxine Waters* - Maxine has been an outspoken advocate for women, children, people of color, and the poor. She has proven to be a leader on issues of housing and homelessness. She has strongly condemned the actions of the current administration and is facing a Republican challenger.

44th District: Nanette Diaz Barragán - Elected in 2016, Nanette became the first Latina to represent her Congressional district. She is a strong advocate for immigration and supports Medicare for All.

45th District: Katie Porter* - Katie is a survivor of domestic abuse and a former consumer-protection attorney. She impressively won a swing district on a progressive platform, supporting Medicare for All, gun safety reform, and legislation to reduce the influence of dark money in politics. She has been a strong consumer advocate, making a name for herself by taking on corruption in her freshman term.

47th District: Alan Lowenthal* - Lowenthal is a co-sponsor of Medicare For All and the Green New Deal. He is chairman of the Green Schools Caucus, which works to promote green schools, and co-sponsored the Ending Homelessness Act.

JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT

Office No. 72: Myanna Dellinger - Dellinger is passionate about gender-related employment discrimination, harassment, and violence cases. She believes people of color and lower incomes are disproportionately affected by environmental problems such as air and water pollution and that the law should help remedy that. Dellinger also advocates for gender-affirming treatment of everyone in and out of the courtroom. She is a former Fulbright Scholar in climate change law and policy and is endorsed by the Sunrise Movement.

Office No. 80: Klint James McKay - McKay is an administrative law judge with social services and has a history in the Public Defender Union. He has focused on an empathetic approach and understanding for all people who pass through the court. He was chosen for the Alternative Sentencing Court Designee Program, where he’s worked within the criminal justice system to find alternatives for non-violent candidates. Klint’s opponent, David Berger, is endorsed by the problematic current DA, Jackie Lacey

Office No. 162: David D. Diamond - Diamond is a career attorney who, as a Grade IV attorney for the LA County Indigent Criminal Defense Appointments Program, represents indigent criminal defendants in the LA County Superior Courts when the public defender is unavailable. His opponent is a Deputy District Attorney who is endorsed by the Burbank Police Officers' Association and Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY MEASURES

Measure J - YES: A simple majority vote on Measure J would amend LA County’s charter to permanently allocate at least 10% of existing locally controlled revenues (growing close to $1B once fully phased in) away from law enforcement and toward investment in under-resourced communities, providing improvements to healthcare, housing, alternatives to incarceration, community counseling, mental health services, job development, youth development, and restorative justice programs.

LAUSD Measure RR - YES: An upgrade and safety measure that would authorize bonds to update classrooms, labs, and technology in our public schools by addressing facility inequities, removing asbestos, addressing earthquake and water-quality hazards, and renovating aging classrooms. For reference, more than 70% of district school buildings were constructed more than 50 years ago, and many are deteriorating, failing to meet today’s standards for learning. More than $50 billion in unfunded facilities are needed at roughly 1,100 school campuses districtwide. The bond measure would not increase property taxes but rather continue the existing tax rate, which would otherwise decrease when the prior bonds expire.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERVISOR

2nd District: Holly Mitchell - A champion for progressive causes in the State Legislature, Mitchell has called for 20% affordable housing in every new development and a compassionate, non-criminalization approach to the homelessness crisis. Mitchell supports legislation limiting police violence, including banning the use of tear gas, and she co-authored a bill to reduce sentencing for juvenile offenders while placing more focus on preventative and rehabilitative services. She also introduced the recently enacted CROWN Act, the first state law to ban discrimination based on natural hair or styles like locs, braids, and twists in workplaces and public schools.

CALIFORNIA STATE BALLOT PROPOSITIONS

Prop 14: NO - Prop 14 is a costly handout that would continue funding to and expand research at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. However, it is directly opposed by one of their own board members, Jeff Sheehy, who says the research is already well-funded and that Prop 14 lacks transparency and oversight. Current state funding for CIRM has been widely criticized due to board members representing institutions that receive the bulk of CIRM’s spending, and Prop 14 fails to remove this conflict of interest. Prop 14 also fails to ensure that medical improvements created with our taxpayer funding will be made available to the public at an affordable cost.

Prop 15: YES - Prop 15 will end a tax loophole that benefits large commercial property owners and wealthy investors who only pay tax rates that were frozen at their property’s valuation in the 1970s. The reclaimed $10–12 billion will be reallocated to public schools, community colleges, and local public services, such as parks, libraries, homeless services, health clinics, and public transit. The current and foreseeable economic distress triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for racial justice make the funds from Prop 15 especially urgent to provide needed resources to working-class communities of color that are underserved and underfunded.

Prop 16: YES - California is one of only nine states that ban affirmative action as a tool to fight discrimination. Prop 16 is our chance to change that by repealing conservatives’ deceptively anti-affirmative-action Prop 209 from 1996. Latinx students make up over half of our state’s public school students but just 25% of University of California undergraduate students. Endorsed by Bernice King and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, Prop 16 will help create a stronger economic future for women and communities of color.

Prop 17: YES - If passed, Prop 17 would change the California constitution, restoring voting rights to every person who has completed their prison sentence, removing a condition that prevents those on parole for a felony from voting. About 50,000 Californians have returned home from prison and are working, paying taxes, and positively contributing to their communities, yet remain unable to vote at any level of government.

Prop 18: YES - The passage of Prop 18 would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary and special elections if they will be 18 and eligible by the next general election. This is already allowed in 18 states, and expanding the franchise is what the left is about. General election voters should have a say in the primary.

Prop 19: NO - Backed by realtor groups, Prop 19 would give Californians 55 or older a big property tax break when buying a new home, carrying the tax rate of their previous home at the time of its purchase with them. This would benefit the wealthiest Californians and allow them to avoid paying their fair share. It would also limit the value of the capped assessment on homes inherited from parents and grandparents to $1 million, allowing the value above that amount to be assessed at a higher rate—which would be detrimental to working-class Angelenos inheriting homes in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, potentially pushing them out.

Prop 20: NO - Prop 20 would roll back years of progress in criminal justice reform by increasing penalties for certain property crimes and parole violations, and by making it more difficult for some convicted felons to qualify for early parole and release from prison. It would increase penalties for former inmates who violate the terms of their supervised release three times, making it more likely for them to be sent back to jail or prison and doubling the number of felonies that disqualify early parole consideration. Prop 20 would also violate citizen privacy by collecting DNA samples from those convicted of certain misdemeanors, including shoplifting, forgery, and illegal drug possession, to be stored in a state database. Prop 20 would balloon our already over-capacity prison system, costing taxpayers tens of millions more dollars, which will inevitably cut into other programs thanks to our cash-strapped status.

Prop 21: YES - This rent control proposition was written by AHF/Housing Is A Human Right to eliminate a requirement that rent control cannot be applied to any housing more recent than 1995. Prop 21 would create a “rolling” rent control in which any housing unit that becomes 15 years old would become eligible for local rent control policy. It also allows for vacancy control to be implemented. In addition to limiting annual rent increases, Prop 21 will preserve current affordable housing and incentivize the construction of badly needed new housing. Endorsed by the LA Tenants Union.

Prop 22: NO - Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and Doordash wrote Prop 22 to create a special exemption for themselves from California law that requires app-based companies to provide basic protections to their workers. These companies spent more than $190 million on Prop 22, the most expensive ballot measure in US history, to boost their profits by denying their drivers’ right to a minimum wage, paid sick leave, and safety protections. These companies are trying to get out of providing insurance and liability, anti-discrimination, and sexual harassment policies for their workers. Rideshare Drivers United strongly opposes Prop 22.

Prop 23: YES - Currently, kidney dialysis centers are largely unregulated. Put forward by healthcare workers union, Prop 23 requires that a licensed physician be on site when patients are treated, which seems like it should be the bare minimum. Prop 23 would require reporting of exposure to dangerous infections and diseases like hepatitis, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and other unsanitary conditions to the state.

Prop 24: YES - Prop 24 expands internet privacy measures and creates a 50-person state privacy-protection agency to enforce laws. Since we passed the California Consumer Protection Act, some of the world’s largest companies have actively and explicitly prioritized weakening the law, and technological tools have evolved in ways that exploit a consumer’s data with potentially dangerous consequences. Prop 24 would provide the ability to browse without pop-ups or sale of your information and create penalties for companies that let your email and password be stolen due to negligence.

Prop 25: NO - Prop 25 would replace an unjust cash bail system with an even more discriminatory risk-assessment algorithm, which digitally racially profiles a defendant’s likelihood of missing a court date based on information like age and arrest record. Ending cash bail is vital to ending the incarceration of nonviolent offenders who can’t afford to pay it and often sit in jail for weeks or months awaiting their court date. The approximately 46,000 people awaiting trial in local jails cost California $5 million a day. Prop 25 also expands funding to law enforcement agencies and the power of judges to incarcerate people without a conviction.

PRESIDENT & VICE PRESIDENT

JOSEPH R. BIDEN & KAMALA D. HARRIS - There are only two possible outcomes to this presidential election. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Do you want the next 4+ years to be like 2020 or worse? Me neither. Vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

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FOR ADDITIONAL RACES/MEASURES FOR ALHAMBRA, BALDWIN PARK, BURBANK, CENTRAL BASIN MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT, CULVER CITY, DOWNEY, EL CAMINO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT, EL MONTE, LONG BEACH, MANHATTAN BEACH, MONTEBELLO, MONTEREY PARK, MOUNTAINS AND REC CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, SANTA CLARITA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT, SANTA MONICA, WATER REPLENISHMENT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, WHITTIER, AND WEST HOLLYWOOD, I RECOMMEND CHECKING OUT KNOCK LA AND DSA-LA’S EXCELLENT VOTER GUIDES.

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This guide was prepared by Kris Rehl.

ADDITIONAL VOTER GUIDES & RESOURCES

https://lavote.net

https://laist.com/elections/

https://votesaveamerica.com/plan/#basic-block

https://knock-la.com/los-angeles-progressive-voter-guide-november-general-election-2020-fe6e286b3feb

https://justicelanow.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Coalition-Voting-Guide-2020-9-21.pdf

https://www.sunrisemovementla.org/endorsements

https://dsa-la.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/DSA-LA-2020-General-Election-Voter-Guide.pdf

https://thelapod.com/posts/la-podcast-voter-guide-2020-general-election/

https://www.lataco.com/voter-guide-la-2020/