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When I went to bed in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday, I wore a huge smile.
In the morning, I told my wife I cannot remember another national and local election where the results delighted me.
In my hometown of Pleasanton, the current City Council was repudiated by voters by a wide margin. The majority of the council, including Mayor Karla Brown and Councilwoman Valerie Arkin, put a 1/2-cent increase in the sales tax for 10 years on the ballot after spending $380,000 on a consultant evaluating the chances of passage.
Councilman Jack Balch, who could have run for mayor from a safe seat two years ago, gave up his seat to challenge Brown and is a happy guy today. His opposition to the tax in favor of pruning the budget resonated with a majority of voters. There were few public backers for the measure, most notably the public employee unions who see more revenue as higher salaries.
The latest results from Wednesday afternoon show Measure PP losing by a 53-46 margin—not close.
The mayor’s race has Balch comfortably ahead 54-46 over Brown. In the contested council race former Pleasanton Police Chief Craig Eicher was ahead even more against Arkin, 58-42.
That’s the voters saying it’s time for a U-turn and taking fiscal management seriously instead of profligate spending on unnecessary projects that the majority had engaged in before reining it in over the last year.
Meanwhile in Livermore, voters continued their pattern of voting down the Friends of Livermore (etc.) Joan Seppala/Jean King backed slate. Steve Dunbar won over Jeff Kaskey with 39% of vote to 32% in a three-way race. In the other race, Kristie Wang topped Thomas Soules 54-46.
Jean King also invested in Dublin, giving $100,000 in the campaign to stop the extension of Dublin Boulevard to Livermore. She was joined by the Sierra Club and Save Mt. Diablo. Voters ignored their smoke and upheld the decades-old plan to connect the roads on the north side of Interstate 580. The plan utilizes high-value freeway frontage real estate for commercial development while open space in the hills behind already is preserved.
It continues the trend in Dublin of voters sticking with those long term plans despite the rapid growth of the city with plenty of new people.
In the council races, Sherry Hu easily won the mayor’s seat that Melissa Hernandez left when she was appointed to the BART board (she won election for that seat). Yu received 37% while fellow councilwoman Jean Josey polled 27%.
In the broader Alameda County picture recalls took center stage. To see voters overwhelmingly recall District Attorney Pamela Price by about a 2-1 margin affirmed that voters knew what a mistake they made electing her to fill the vacant seat two years ago. She’s done all she could to dismantle what was a quality office, chase veteran prosecutors and aim policies at offenders avoiding prison.
The same can be said for Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a lightweight in a job that requires the opposite. She won the job thanks to Oakland’s ranked choice voting and was over her head from the get-go. The legion of mistakes she made in two years made it clear to voters they needed to change now.
It’s infrequent—at best—when I agree with Rep. Eric Swalwell, but he’s got it entirely right when it comes to the unqualified recalled Price. Swalwell worked as a prosecutor for the county under former DA Nancy O’Malley. Both she and he came out in favor of the recall.
Price responded by slamming his record and that set him off. He’s served formal notice of a potential law suit for damaging his professional reputation. Go for it Swalwell.
I look forward to an uninterrupted twelve-year conservative president run in the white house.
One shouldn’t count one’s chickens before they’re hatched, Michael.