Warning: Measure A passage prompting other CA counties to copy SCC playbook

After Santa Clara County (with support from Mayor Mahan and other faux fiscal moderates like CM’s Mulcahy and Dean) muscled through Measure A last year, other counties are looking to replay SCC’s template to unnecessarily raise taxes. Jon Coupal explores in Orange County Register.

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christopher escher
Agitprop, by any other name

City workers are busy scrubbing Cesar Chavez' name from statues, murals, and websites. Yet amid all the verbose, narcissistic signalling from local leaders, the key question remains unaddressed:  why is our government even in the business of telling us who we should (or should not) honor? Cato Institute explorers. 

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christopher escher
☆ Cruz: Calls for "strategic" voting undermine democracy

Opp Now contributor Cristabel Cruz says people should ignore requests to vote for the lesser of two evils, and should vote their consciences instead. What a refreshing concept. An Opp Now exclusive.

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Why voting should not be a game

Sabine McGinley from the U.K. says electoral systems should be designed to help voters express their authentic preferences, not something they have to scheme around. From the Electoral Reform Society. 

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christopher escher
Far-left leaders embrace "Lesser of Two Evils" voting strategies

Because the issue is never the issue--the issue is the revolution. Quirky lefty academic Noam Chomsky explores why some people oppose strategic voting, but nonetheless concludes that it's worth it to make compromises to advance the cause.

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christopher escher
Strategic voting as a system of control

Reddit thread explores how strategic voting imprisons independent voters inside a two-party system monopoly, and ends up empowering that system. 

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christopher escher
Munson: County hospitals' lack of fiscal sustainability creating budget crisis

D1 supervisor candidate Rebecca Munson says Measure A won't fix gaping shortfall created by county hospitals' systemic overspending. The banking pro outlines a fiscal discipline approach to increase efficiencies and realize a saner county budget.

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christopher escher
☆ Stroll: to demonstrate that government works, Mahan should reform the VTA

While the SJ Mayor offers a state-level plan to spend better, he currently sits on the board of the VTA, an “extremely costly” and structurally defective transit agency. So says past state Assembly candidate Ted Stroll, who wants voters to elect VTA board members directly. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.

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Mattammal: seeking accountable state spending, a Gov. Mahan would “quickly learn the limits of his power”

Sacramento’s supermajority won’t now all of a sudden “start getting behind accountability and transparency,” says Gus Mattammal, candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. While he lauds Mahan’s back-to-basics plan for its specificity, he wonders how much is possible if the Mayor couldn’t even get accountability measures through the SJ City Council. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.

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christopher escher
SJ traffic fatalities nearly double, year to year, according to Merc

On the heels of reports that the murder rate in SJ is up 75% compared to this time last year , the streets of SJ are also proving to be increasingly unsafe. The Merc reports. 

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christopher escher
☆ A good start by Mahan, but the wrong path forward

Mayor Mahan is right about one thing: Californians shouldn’t be asked to pay more until the government does better. But his spending proposal amounts to managerial reform, not structural reform, according to Peter Verbica, Candidate for U.S. Congress, CA-19. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.

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American Civil Rights Project: ACA 7 “on the wrong side of history and morality”

“Californians simply do not like race discrimination,” says Daniel Morenoff in a letter to CA Assemblymembers. But this year’s ACA 7 is yet another attempt to degrade Prop 209’s Nondiscrimination Amendment. CA voters will again reject the “racists,” writes the American Civil Rights Project Executive Director: even if they don’t, ACA 7’s discriminatory provisions are banned by the U.S. Constitution.

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christopher escher