CLOSER LOOK AT CONTESTS FOR STATE OFFICE
The race for superintendent of public instruction is a hard-fought battle between charter school supporters and detractors. Either candidate who wins the insurance commissioner’s race will make history.
Among several higher-profile contests, voters will choose California’s next lieutenant governor, treasurer and other statewide officeholders on Nov. 6. Some of them are real battles: The race for superintendent of public instruction is shaping up to be an expensive showdown between unions and charterschool advocates. In the contest for attorney general, appointed incumbent Democrat Xavier Becerra faces statewide voters for the first time, hoping to hold on to his seat against a GOP challenger. Either candidate running for insurance commissioner will make history with a win.
While the races for governor and senator are drawing most of the attention, these “downballot” offices are important both for the jobs themselves and for the launching pad they offer, as Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Attorney General and Secretary of State Jerry Brown can attest.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
The contest is a Democraton-Democrat matchup after no Republican finished in the top two spots during the June primary. Eleni Kounalakis, a former diplomat, and Ed Hernandez, a state senator, advanced after raising substantial money to get their names in front of voters as they seek to replace Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor.
Although the job holds some real power, its main importance seems to be as a step to higher office.
The lieutenant governor serves as a University of California regent, as a California State University trustee and as a state lands commissioner overseeing conservation and public access. The lieutenant also acts as governor when the top executive is away.
Both candidates say they want to lower college costs, and both oppose oil drilling off the California coast.
If elected, Kounalakis would be the first woman to hold the position. She emphasizes her background as a developer and former ambassador to Hungary.
Kounalakis vows to fight sexual harassment in workplaces, hold perpetrators accountable and ensure women receive equal pay for equal work.
Hernandez, chair of the Senate Health Committee, authored a bill increasing transparency around drug pricing last year. It passed over opposition from pharmaceutical companies.
He also had a hand in passing laws to protect access to clean air and water, increase funding for schools and career education programs, and provide one year of free community college.
He says he wants to protect against sexual harassment, hold abusers accountable and remove offenders from office.
Read our recommendation on how to vote at www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/11/editorial-they-werent-our-firstpicks-but-now-they-are/.
INSURANCE COMMISSIONER
Either Republican-turnedindependent Steve Poizner or Democratic Sen. Ricardo Lara will break ground for a California statewide office. Poizner, a former insurance commissioner, would be the first independent to win such an election, and Lara would be the first openly gay statewide officeholder.
The Department of Insurance enforces insurance laws, licenses and regulates companies, and investigates fraud.
Poizner, a wealthy Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur who lost a bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010, ran as an independent because he said the insurance commissioner’s office should be free of politics.
Lara, who authored a failed bill that would have provided state-run health insurance, Eleni Kounalakis, center, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in the November midterms, greets supporters at a rally in Sacramento in June. Kounalakis is a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary. Democrat Ed Hernandez, also vying for the lieutenant governor post, speaks during a debate in Sacramento in April. Hernandez is a California state senator and chair of the Senate Health Committee. Retired Judge Steven Bailey is an attorney general candidate.
said that remains a top priority.
Poizner has said he would focus on making sure homeowners have adequate protection against wildfires and other natural disasters.
Both have promised not to take insurance money, though Lara had to give back money he took from the political action committee of the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer.
Read our recommendation on how to vote at www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/07/editorial-poizner-is-best-choice-forinsurance-commissioner/.
confrontations with the Trump administration.
He has led the state in suing the federal government more than 40 times — over environmental regulations, health care and more — and is mounting California’s defense against the Trump administration’s challenge of three state laws to protect undocumented immigrants.
But the job of attorney general involves more than just legal jousting with the feds — a point retired Judge Steven Bailey, Becerra’s Republican opponent in the November election, makes as he challenges Becerra.
Bailey, a strident critic of California’s sanctuary state laws, also says Becerra is soft on crime and too adversarial against the Trump administration.
Both Democrats and Republicans, including Bailey, have criticized Becerra for not doing enough to seize guns from Californians prohibited from owning them because of criminal convictions or mental illness — a power he has as attorney general.
In addition to being the state’s top lawyer, the attorney general also is its top cop, with duties to support and oversee law enforcement agencies up and down the state. Becerra agreed in March to investigate the Sacramento police shooting of unarmed Stephon Clark, after African-American leaders criticized him for not paying enough attention to police shootings.
Bailey endeavors to put an end to what he refers to as “the California Democrats’ crime wave” in part by reversing Proposition 47, which in 2014 reduced penalties for certain nonviolent drug and property crimes.
Read our recommendation on how to vote at www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/11/editorial-they-werent-our-firstpicks-but-now-they-are/.
TREASURER
Democrat Fiona Ma and Republican Greg Conlon are vying to replace outgoing Treasurer John Chiang.
The treasurer manages the state’s money and sits on the boards of California’s public employee pension funds.
Ma, a State Board of Equalization member and former assemblywoman, says she would make socially responsible investments with the state’s money. She says her experience as a certified public accountant will help keep the state’s fiscal house in order. She touted her experience balancing budgets at the local level and at the state level during the Great Recession, and overseeing the collection of $60 billion in state revenues.
Conlon, also an accountant, challenged Chiang in the last general election. He served on the California Public Utilities Commission as president for two years and commissioner for four. He also was a member of the state’s Transportation Commission for two years.
He wants to overhaul public pension programs by starting a new defined-contribution plan for new employees. He promises to eliminate the $800 minimum State Franchise Income Tax to help start-up businesses.
Read our recommendation on how to vote at www.mercurynews.com/2018/08/11/editorial-they-werent-our-firstpicks-but-now-they-are/.
CONTROLLER
Democrat Betty Yee faces Republican Konstantinos Roditis in her re-election campaign.
The California controller serves as the state’s top accountant and audits various state programs. The controller sits on several state boards and the State Lands Commission.
Roditis says he would advocate cutting government spending and auditing highspeed rail, a project Republicans frequently criticize because of rising costs.
Yee says she has promoted tax policies that are equitable for vulnerable populations, including people living in poverty and LGBT people.
Read our recommendation on how to vote at www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/18/editorial-betty-yee-the-only-qualified-option-for-state-controller/.
SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
The race to become the state’s top public education official has become a proxy battle in a larger fight over how best to improve California schools.
On one side of the debate are powerful teachers unions, which back Assemblyman Tony Thurmond.
On the other side are wealthy charter-school and educationreform proponents, which support former Los Angeles school executive Marshall Tuck.
Thurmond has stressed his opposition to the Trump administration’s education agenda, including proposals to transfer money from traditional public schools to charters.
Tuck has emphasized giving families a choice in the schools their children attend, including nonprofit charter schools. His donors include charter school advocates such as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Tuck ran for the seat unsuccessfully in 2014. Incumbent Tom Torlakson beat him with union backing.
Tuck and Thurmond both want to spend more on public schools and support the state’s ban on for-profit charter schools.
Thurmond and Tuck are Democrats, but the race is nonpartisan, and their party affiliation won’t appear on the ballot.
Read our recommendation on how to vote at www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/26/editorial-elect-reformer-marshalltuck-state-schools-chief/.