2018 California Statewide Midterm Election Guide | Los Angeles & San Francisco

Rants, resources, recommendations, and irreverence to prepare you for the most important midterm election in the history of the United States

10 min readOct 23, 2018

The Big One. 😱

November 6, 2018. Historians and pundits agree that this election is the most important midterm ever in the history of the United States. This is not hyperbole. We have never before seen such an eye-watering combination of:

Threats to democracy, including Russian meddling, fake news, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and the unchecked power of corporate and billionaire lobbies—all of which prove how consequential voting is, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many concerted efforts to manipulate the electorate
Voter apathy, in which a substantial portion of the population (100+ million) does not vote, particularly young people
Incompetent, traitorous, plutocratic leadership throughout all three branches of government and critical agencies (EPA, DOE, DOT, etc.)
A history in which two consecutive Republican presidents lost the popular vote (2000 and 2016) and went on to appoint Supreme Court justices (two each; more forthcoming from Donald Trump), as well as hundreds of federal justices in the lower courts
The abandonment of nearly all norms that have been respected by both parties for decades

So! The stakes are high. And the most effective instrument of change we have is voting. It is an instrument we failed to use four years ago in the 2014 midterms—which saw the lowest voter turnout in over 70 years—as Democrats lost a whopping nine Senate seats. Had Democrats not lost all nine seats, Merrick Garland would be sitting on the Supreme Court now. See? Elections have lasting consequences, especially when lifetime appointments are involved.

You’re Doing It Wrong ❌

In every election for the past 16 years (as long as I’ve been writing these election missives), my message has always been “just vote, and I’ll make it easy for you.” Well, I’m changing my tune. Your one vote is no longer sufficient. If you are not in some way engaging others to vote, you are not helping, and that is no longer acceptable.

The single largest voting bloc in this country is non-voters. What are you doing to convert at least one non-voter into a voter? If you get just one non-voter to vote, you’ve doubled your impact. Focus on people in your community who have never voted, or weren’t planning to vote in this election (and yes, they are more likely to be left-leaning). Can’t find any? They’re out there! Head on over to Swing Left to find a swing district near you where you can hit the streets and make sure everyone is voting—not just so we can broaden the electorate, but specifically so we can take back the House of Representatives.

Teens Are Like, Really Mad 🙅🏻‍

And they should be. And that’s good. Here’s the sad truth: In politics, some of us are just waiting around for a lot of old folks to die. But until that happens, teens who are coming of age right now are smart enough to see how important this election is and why they need to #GetInTheBooth. How do I know? I worked with a bunch of talented folks to create a series of videos on this very topic. We interviewed first-time teen voters in Orange County (a conservative stronghold), and this is what we got:

#GetIntheBooth

These teens are not messing around

It’s Good to be Hopeless 🖕🏽

Yeah, we all know things are bad right now. Do not waste your time “hoping” for better days. Hope is lazy. Fuck hope. This is about damage control, not inspiration. We’re in crisis mode.

I liken the state of our nation to an amputee: We’ve lost the left arm. It’s gone. It can’t be reattached. Do not “hope” for it to grow back, because it won’t. The president will not be impeached, the Mueller investigation will render no consequences, the Supreme Court and lower federal courts will be stacked with more demonic white men appointed for life, military spending will increase, the rich will get richer while the poor get poorer, policy will be reshaped to favor the few at the top, school shootings will continue, minorities will suffer, vacancies at government agencies will be filled by increasingly incompetent clowns, the economy will crumble and Democrats will have to rebuild it again, the environment will be destroyed as climate change marches on, and every expression of liberal outrage will continue to be rocket fuel thrown onto the conservative fire that propels us straight into Fuckshittington, DC. This is the horror of a unilateral Republican government. Expect it, so you can stop wasting time being shocked when you read the headlines. This is the government we willfully allowed to happen, and now we’re paying the price.

But! This is not forever. People are waking up. While we’ve lost an arm that’s not growing back (primarily because of the courts), we can—and must—learn to use our remaining limbs to pull the levers of government harder than ever before. If you’re hopeless, that’s good because it probably means you’re angry. Anger can be sublimated into direct action. Direct action is the only thing that matters right now. Sure, we need heroes, and Colin Kaepernick is cool and all, but he doesn’t vote. I’m frankly not interested in leaders who don’t incorporate the tremendous power of the voting booth into their messaging. The real heroes will be the ones who affect massive change not by deploying symbols, but by empowering voters and taking control specifically through the electoral process. Can you be one of those heroes?

“I’m an idiot and forgot to register!” 🤡

That’s actually not a problem. California has same-day registration, also called conditional voter registration. This is a safety net for Californians who miss the October 22 deadline to register to vote or update their voter registration information. Eligible citizens can go to their county election office, designated satellite location, or polling place to register and vote conditionally on Election Day. These ballots will be processed once the county elections office has completed the voter registration verification process. Do not abstain from voting just because you are either not registered or your registration needs to be updated. Do it all in person on Election Day!

The Stuff You Came For 📝

New readers: I’ve written these election guides for every single election since I turned 18, which was 16 years ago. Use my guide to help you vote a complete ballot, and share it with your friends, acquaintances, family, coworkers, roommates, babysitters, dog walkers, social media fans, enemies, exes, and Tinder matches.
Veteran readers: You know what to do. Thanks for voting.
San Francisco residents: I no longer live in San Francisco but I’m still including local resources for you! Read on.
Los Angeles residents: You get the full treatment as I am now an Angeleño.
Orange County residents: I have some nuggets for you too.
People whomst hath already voted: Good work! You don’t need me and my snarky rantings! Now make sure everyone in your community is voting the entire ballot, and/or try to convert at least one non-voter into a voter, especially if they’re young.
People whomst hath moved outside of California: Girl bye, please send this to your California friends.

References & Resources 📚

I do my own research using a range of sources that inform my recommendations for candidates and propositions. Here they be:

Let’s begin. There’s a lot. Stay with me!

Offices (ballots vary—when in doubt, vote Democrat) 🏛

If your local candidates / offices are not listed below, see all CADEM endorsements here and all DSA-LA endorsements here.

Governor: Gavin Newsom
Lieutenant Governor: Eleni Kounalakis
Secretary of State: Alex Padilla
Controller: Betty T. Yee
Treasurer: Fiona Ma
Attorney General: Xavier Becerra
Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara
United States Senator: Kevin de León (Dianne Feinstein is also acceptable if you prefer)

State Board of Equalization, 3rd District (SoCal): Tony Vazquez
State Board of Equalization, 2nd District (NorCal): Malia Cohen
State Board of Equalization, 1st District (Eastern CA): Tom Hallinan

United States Representative, 33rd District (LA): Ted W. Lieu
United States Representative, 28th District (LA): Adam B. Schiff
United States Representative, 43rd District (LA): Maxine Waters
United States Representative, 30th District (LA): Brad Sherman
United States Representative, 25th District (LA): Katie Hill
United States Representative, 48th District (OC): Harley Rouda
United States Representative, 45th District (OC): Katie Porter
United States Representative, 12th District (SF): Nancy Pelosi

State Assembly, 50th District (LA): Richard Bloom
State Assembly, 45th District (LA): Jesse Gabriel
State Assembly, 68th District (OC): Michelle Duman
State Assembly, 73th District (OC): Scott Rhinehart
State Assembly, 44th District (OC): Cottie Petrie-Norris
State Assembly, 17th District (SF): Alejandro Fernandez

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony K. Thurmond
Los Angeles County Assessor: Jeffrey Prang
Los Angeles County Sheriff: Alex Villanueva

Mission Viejo City Council (OC): Mahmoud El-Farra

Justice Confirmations 👨🏻‍⚖️

Endorsements for San Francisco Superior Court justices can be found here.
Carol A. Corrigan: NO
Leondra R. Kruger: Yes
Victoria G. Chaney: NO
Helen Bendix: Yes
Elwood Lui: Yes
Victoria M. Chavez: NO
Luis A. Lavin: Yes
Halim Dhanidina: Yes
Anne H. Egerton: Yes
Nora M. Manella: Yes
Thomas Willhite: NO
Dorothy C. Kim: Yes
Carl H. Moor: Yes
Lamar W. Baker: Yes
Arthur Gilbert: Yes
Martin J. Tangeman: Yes
Gail R. Feuer: Yes
John L. Segal: Yes
Tricia A. Bigelow: NO

Judicial Offices ⚖️

Office №4: A. Verónica Sauceda
Office №16: Patricia (Patti) Hunter
Office №60: Tony J. Cho
Office №113: Javier Perez

California Statewide Propositions 🐻

1: YES — $4 billion in bonds to fund existing affordable housing programs.
2: YES — Uses a “millionaire tax” (on incomes of $1 Million or more) to fund housing for people with mental illness.
3: YES—Bonds to fund important water infrastructure projects.
4: YES—Bonds to fund improvements to children’s hospitals.
5: NO—Would cut taxes for elderly property owners who sell their properties, resulting in $1 billion in annual losses for schools and local governments. Yeah no, and by the way, fuck you for suggesting so.
6: NO—Would repeal a gas tax that was already approved in 2017 to fund road repairs and public transit.
7: YES—Allows the legislature to do away with stupid, archaic seasonal time changes (we’d be on Daylight Savings Time year-round).
8: YES—Regulates dialysis clinics. Look no further than who’s funding the opposition: dialysis clinics themselves, with $66.97 million donated by DaVita alone.
9: {Removed from ballot}
10: YES—Allows cities and counties to enact or expand rent control if they wish, at their discretion. Please tell all the greedy, selfish property owners and armchair economists to come for me with their garbage excuses about why rent control supposedly doesn’t work — I can’t wait to tell them all to go fuck themselves. And then tell them to go build more housing. Well, maybe not in that order.
11: NO—A cunning move by ambulance companies (chiefly American Medical Response) that would absolve them of liability in pending employment lawsuits, this proposition is a total ruse and they’ve spent $22 Million to support it. All emergency medical personnel I’ve spoken to strongly advise a NO vote here.
12: YES—Sets minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens, pigs, and baby cows; bans the sales of meat and eggs from farmers that aren’t in compliance; requires all egg-laying hens to be cage-free by 2022. We can afford it. Also consider eating less meat. I started doing so in February!

Los Angeles County & City Measures 🌴

W: YES—Water quality protection and improvement.
B: YES—Allows the City of Los Angeles to create its own financial institution, sort of (but not quite) like a credit union.
E: YES—Lines up the dates of City and State elections for increased efficiency!
EE: YES—Lines up the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education’s elections with the State primary for increased efficiency!

San Francisco County & City 🌉

First, please review the following resources for insight on San Francisco’s ballot:

ByTheBay.cool » (scroll down)
San Francisco Chronicle » (scroll down)
SPUR » (also includes guides for Oakland and San Jose!)
Democratic Socialists of America, San Francisco »
San Francisco Superior Court Justice endorsements »

The San Francisco propositions are pretty self-explanatory and the resources above will give you everything you need, but the most controversial issue looks to be Proposition C—a new tax on large businesses (of which there are many in San Francisco). It is endorsed by Salesforce CEO & billionaire Marc Benioff, and opposed by Twitter & Square CEO & billionaire Jack Dorsey. Here’s the deal y’all, it’s pretty simple: This tax is 0.175% to 0.69% on gross receipts for businesses with over $50 million (FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS) in gross annual receipts, or 1.5% of payroll expenses for certain businesses with over $1 billion (ONE BILLION DOLLARS) in gross annual receipts that have administrative offices located in San Francisco. Any IDIOT who opposes this tax to fund permanent housing and mental health services is a selfish, greedy gonif who has no interest in addressing the homeless crisis. Take a seat in your gilded throne and shut the fuck up whilst we attempt to redistribute some of your extreme wealth in the form of social programs. Jeez.

We’re done. 🗳

God, saving democracy is exhausting. Now get out there and make some shit happen. Remember, as I said above, your vote alone is no longer sufficient—you gotta do more. When you’re old and a young person opens her history book and asks you, “what did you do?”, you’ll need a better answer than, “I voted and I shared a few posts on Facebook.” Directly educate your family, friends, community, strangers. If you’re not doing that and more, you’re not helping.

I leave you with this gem from Remy Ma’s Instagram. Watch it. And then “PUSH THEY ASS TO THE POLLS.”

💙💙💙