John Garamendi, Jr. Decides To Forgo Run For State Senate Seat

The Vanguard has received word that John Garamendi, Jr. has opted to not challenge Assemblywoman Lois Wolk for the Democratic nomination for the 5th Senate District. That leaves Assemblywoman Wolk from Davis as the only announced Democrat in a bid to succeed current Democratic State Senator Mike Machado.

In 2004, Mike Machado won a very hard fought battle against Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto. In a race that went back and forth up until the end, Machado ended up edging out Podesto by a margin of 52.2 to 47.8.

The closeness of that race and competitiveness of the district will likely make this race one of most heavily watched and financed State Senate races in the state. Indeed, the race has drawn a top notch Republican in Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian.

There is however, word now from some people close to the scene that has suggested that neither the Democratic leadership nor Senator Machado himself are convinced that Assemblywoman Wolk can win this seat. Part of that has to do with the southern portion of the district¬the locations that Wolk does not currently represent¬being larger than the north. In addition, that portion is much more conservative than the northern part.

There is thus increasing speculation that Democratic Party leaders are looking around for a top notched successor from the southern portion of the fifth district. Therefore, while Assemblywoman Wolk has dodged one large bullet, she may not escape without a hard fought primary election against a well-financed and party-backed challenger.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Assembly Committee to Hear Police Oversight Legislation on Tuesday

For those who watched the Davis City Council debate on Tuesday regarding the Human Relations Commission and the proposed changes to the anti-discrimination ordinance, one of the huge subtexts was the extent to which the HRC could conduct actual investigations whereby they subpoena records. The debate turned because some on the council apparently received the "new information" that the Davis Human Relations Commission in fact, never had such powers and never attempted to exercise such powers.

Belying that debate was the entire legality regarding the ability of a public body to obtain records from police officers and conduct hearings of allegations of police misconduct. Since the August 2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, California law has prevented the public from learning about police officers who have been disciplined because of misconduct. Hearings and records that previously were public are now closed.

According to the ACLU:

"Unlike similar records on all other public employees, doctors, and lawyers, records on serious police misconduct and any resulting disciplinary action are now classified as confidential—that is, not public. This decision hides not only the extent to which problems may exist within a police department, but also the ways in which management addresses misconduct when it occurs."

State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero said:

"Members, if your attorney is disciplined, you can find that out. It's public information. If your doctor loses his or her license, you can find that out. It's public information. If anyone of us in this room is arrested, not convicted, just arrested, or any one of our friends, our staff or family, we can find that out. It's public information. If the same peace officer who arrested you is disciplined or even terminated for serious misconduct, it, now after the Copley case, is completely secret."

Davis City Attorney Harriet Steiner went through a similar song and dance to what she did last year when the issue of a police oversight commission was first raised, explaining that state law prevents the airing of such hearings in public.

What she failed to mention on Tuesday, was that there is legislation moving through the California State Senate and Assembly, that would restore the legality of civilian review, effectively leaving the law as it was prior to the Copley Press decision where local jurisdiction would have the ability to create complaint review processes that are open to the public.

We discussed this legislation back in May as it was about to be heard on the Senate Floor. Since then, on June 4, 2007, the California Senate approved SB 1019. Our local State Senator Mike Machado voted for the bill as did Sacramento State Senator Darrell Steinberg and Contra Costa County State Senator Tom Torlakson.

Having passed the California State Senate, the bill is moving on to the Assembly Public Safety Committee. Next Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 9 a.m. the committee will have a hearing on the legislation.

The Vanguard will be there to cover this important issue and organizers would like as many supporters as possible to attend the hearing.

The Assembly Public Safety Committee is a six member committee chaired by Jose Solorio from Southern California. The Vice Chair is Greg Aghazarian, who represents San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties. He will be the likely Republican Nominee for the open 5th Senate Seat. Assemblywoman Lois Wolk who represents the 8th AD and Yolo County will be seeking the Democratic Nomination as may John Garamendi, Jr.

It is unclear if Governor Schwarzenegger would sign such legislation, but there is a renewed pushed in the wake of the police incident that occurred in Los Angeles during the May Day protests. There was also a well publicized incident on the UCLA campus where a UC Police Officer used a taser multiple times on a student in the library that was caught on video. Such incidents have led to both Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton to endorse the measure.

On June 7, 2007, the Sacramento Bee joined 13 other California Papers including the Fresno Bee, Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, Orange County Register, San Diego Union Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle in supporting this legislation.

The Bee writes:

"One of the most important elements for maintaining the public's trust in law enforcement is how police departments and police boards handle investigations of members of their own forces.

Keeping those records secret, in the end, doesn't serve the police departments or the public, but for those officers who have been disciplined it's obviously in their interest to keep matters under wraps."

Predictably the Professional Peace Officers Association is strongly opposed to such legislation. What is interesting is that in an email, John Stites, the President of PPOA threatened to retaliate against legislators.

However, he did so by threatening to oppose legislation that would reform term limits:

“As I have said all along, PPOA and SCALE adamantly oppose this legislation to the point that if it is passed we will move quickly to oppose any term limit reform legislation publicly. There is no compromise on this. Ensure that it be understood that this will only be the beginning. I do not know how I can be more clear on this issue. Jim Vogts has been informed of our position.”

Tuesday's hearing should prove insightful, but it may also be moot if the Governor ends up opposing such legislation aimed to re-open the process of police oversight to the public.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Key Issues Facing the Legislature in Upcoming Races

Barring something very much unexpected, it seems that Yolo County voters will have two contested Democratic primaries for the state legislature. One that is already well underway is the 8th Assembly District Race between West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon and Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada. That one had their first debate last week, if you can believe that.

The other one may be getting underway soon, is the Fifth Senate District where current Assemblywoman Lois Wolk is widely expected to face John Garamendi, Jr, son of the current Lt. Governor and likely 2010 Governor candidate, John Garamendi. Last Sunday, Garamendi, Sr. spoke in Davis and sounded not only like a candidate, but looked like a frontrunner for the nomination and probably the Governor's Mansion itself. He may be the strongest candidate the Democrats have had in California in a generation.

Key issues face both races, perhaps none bigger right now than the healthcare issue. On June 28, 2007 at 1 pm on the West Side of the Capitol Steps will be a massive rally for healthcare. Currently a couple of versions of universal single-payer health care are making their way through the legislature.

A number of advocacy groups have gotten together with some of the larger labor unions to really press the issue, but you have to wonder with Governor Schwarzenegger still in office, if all of this is a moot point. This is where Lt. Governor Garamendi spoke so forcefully, calling for a single-payer system and describing in detail how the system has worked with Medicare and that we need simply to begin expanding that system and its coverage to the rest of the population.

In the course of the push for health care and support of a number of proposals in the legislature, it was shocking to learn that one of the members targeted by the group for their weak and/ or lukewarm support was our own Assemblywoman Lois Wolk. While former Assemblywoman Helen Thomson was always a stalwart on health issues on a broad array of fronts, it seems that Wolk has been less of a champion. She was on the list of legislators to lobby, hopefully the hundreds of cards and letters have pushed her into stronger support for health care reform.

Given the number of uninsured Californians, the effect on their quality of life and the effect on the overall economy, this bill is essential. Last summer, I witnessed first hand what happens to people without insurance. My friend experienced a catastrophic illness while he was unemployed and uninsured. The county system is insufficient to deal with the needs. Even for the indigent, the result is a huge medical bill and perhaps a lifetime of debt. And when the system knows that you cannot pay, they give you substandard care. Twice Sutter Davis released a man who was too weak to walk by his own devices, once he was found sitting on the curb on Covell too weak to walk any further and the other time they gave him a cab ride home but he could not climb his stairs to get inside. It was unconscionable and yet somewhat the standard operating procedure.

Education is a perennial issue of importance. This year we see that budget shortfalls once again lead to tuition hikes for UC and CSU students. This is far from the only issue facing higher education. The loss of affirmative action in 1996, means that the then-meager numbers of African American students and instructors have fallen still further. I would like to hear from all of the candidates as to how we can reverse that trend. This is of course not just a problem of higher education, but of all levels as Davis Joint Unified has struggled to bring in minority teachers.

An issue dear to my heart is that of civil rights and unfortunately at the 8th Assembly District debate, I did not get to hear the views of the candidates on issues of civil rights. West Sacramento made news of course in recent months when its Gang Injunction was struck down. Cabaldon as mayor has been fairly quiet on that issue of late, despite his support for it in the past. Moreover, there are a number of bills currently moving through the legislature that would restore access to public records about police officers in citizen complaints as well as other civilian review functions that have been struck down by the courts who argued that they violated police officer's rights to privacy.

Finally, a big issue in recent months has been the potential outsourcing of state jobs. Governor Schwarzenegger has at times proposed outsourcing various state level jobs, such as printing, to outside of the state claiming that it would save the state money. While that may sound like a laudable goal, his ulterior motive is to cut jobs for state union workers. He has recently proposed privatization of the CA State Lottery in an attempt to lease the lottery operations to private companies such as Goldman Sachs. The result would be the loss of hundreds of well-paying unions jobs with wages and benefits.

Closer to home the burning issue of Sodexho Workers attempting to become university employees so that they can get higher wages and benefits has been thwarted by an indifferent upper administration. While Assemblywoman Wolk has made some overtures on behalf of the students, her recent actions this week call into question her commitment on that issue. Wolk walked right past protesters on her way to Chancellor Vanderhoef's end of the year party. In fact, the only public official who paid the protesters any heed was Assembly candidate Yamada.

Organizing and unionization should be core issues for any Democrat. Garamendi, Sr. has an excellent record on labor issues and always receives very strong union support. Wolk's record in the Assembly has made labor unions uncomfortable and many are actively encouraging Garamendi, Jr. to throw his hat in the race. Cabaldon has earned the ire of labor unions for a variety of policy positions including bringing a Wal-Mart Superstore to West Sacramento, whereas Yamada enjoys strong support from local and state unions. Will labor matter in the upcoming elections? We'll find out.

If Cabaldon and Yamada square off again, I hope they can ask questions that are more likely to bring out some of the differences in these candidates. Meantime, hopefully in the next month or so, we will find out if Garamendi, Jr. throws his hat into the ring. Regardless, this next year will be very interesting here in Davis and Yolo County.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Lt. Governor Garamendi and Many Local Candidates Highlight Champagne Brunch

The Davis Democratic Club had its annual Champagne Brunch Sunday, drawing around 80 people from Davis including two statewide officials and many local officials and candidates for local others.

The key note speaker was Lt. Governor John Garamendi, who represented Davis for eight years as a State Senator. He described Davis as home.

"It's good to be back in Davis, it's always good to be in Davis. Why? I don't know of another community in California that cares so much about the future, not only of its community, but the city, the county, and the state and beyond. And your caring and your concern about where we are today, where we're going to be tomorrow and beyond, really makes this an extremely important community, not only for California but really across the nation. You are leaders in many many ways. This incredible university here, the research that's going on, the educational facilities, and the opportunity to have three of my daughters go through this university makes this home."

Garamendi spoke about four key issues--calling these security issues as he talked about issues that go beyond simply what he called the horrific debacle of Iraq. Issues that are key to our well-being.

First he talked about the climate crisis.

"It is absolutely crucial that we immediately engage in reducing not just as far as we can, but even more than we can the greenhouse gases. If there is ever a community that has led the way it is this community with some extraordinary urban planning, and the community here with its awareness of climate, its awareness of urban planning. If there is ever a community that has led the way it is this community. But that is not enough, we have got to move beyond carbon based fuels, and we can."

He also talked about the water system, "the water system is not going to work as it has for the last century."

The second issue was education.

"This economy will not continue to be the strongest and the most robust in the world, giving us an opportunity to share the great wealth, with all of our people, if we don't have the best educated workforce in the world and we're not there. We have to talk about this as a national security issue, because it is. If the economy falters all sorts of bad things will happen in this nation and around the world."

Next was health care.

"Again this is a national security issue because the economy of this state and nation cannot continue to put money in this wasteful system. And it is a wasteful system as it puts a full 30% into administration costs... It is not just an economic problem, it is a human problem. One job, one illness, and you are out of luck."

He spoke in support of a single payer system. "When people say we can't do it, tell them we have done it." He was referring to Medicare. This is a system that has worked for fifty years, it is a single payer system. He talked about simply expanding that system to the rest of the country in order to provide the uninsured with affordable health care.

Finally, he spoke of the need to protect civil liberties and civil rights from government encroachment.

"The security of this nation is in fundamental jeopardy, when we forget the bill of rights, when we forget to fight each and every day for every one of the bill of rights. And what's happened the last six years with the Bush administration is incredible erosion of our civil liberties, in ways that most of us don't understand yet."

Garamendi's speech highlighted the day, but we also got a visit from Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who said a few brief words late in the event.

The other important aspect of the day, was the number of local candidates who came, some of whom spoke briefly, others did not. The Vanguard will be the top place in the coming year for local campaign and election information. There will be feature interviews with several of the local announced candidates in the coming weeks.

We start at the top of the local ticket, State Assemblywoman Lois Wolk was there introducing Lt. Governor John Garamendi, which is of some intrigue because John Garamendi, Jr. was also at this event, although he did not speak. The younger Garamendi is widely expected to run against Assemblywoman Wolk for the State Senate seat that his father previously held.

Both candidates for the 8th Assembly District spoke, Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada and West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon. These two will face each other this evening in Fairfield in their first debate.

Two of the three candidates for 4th District Yolo County Supervisor were there. Jim Provenza, currently a school board member. And John Ferrera was there with literature and endorsement forms. Ferrera is State Senator Denise Ducheny's chief of staff and this was almost his formal announcement.

Three likely Davis City Council candidates were there--all incumbents--Mayor Greenwald, and Councilmembers Stephen Souza and Don Saylor.

Two school board candidates were there, Richard Harris who spoke and Bob Schelen who did not speak.

Undoubtedly there will be more candidates for these offices as time goes on, but here we are in June of 2007, and we already have a large slate of candidates lined up.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Thursday Briefs: A look at the 5th Senate District Race and More

A look at the 5th Senate District Race

From yesterday’s column, Davis Enterprise Columnist Bob Dunning appears to be calling the race for current Assemblywoman Lois Wolk.

Writes Dunning:

“SACRIFICIAL LAMB … wow, was that a scary headline or what? … you know, the front-page, above-the-fold, double-bold beauty that said "Republican gears up for Senate run," and featured mug shots of the Republican, Greg Aghazarian, and a Democrat by the name of Lois Wolk … is this guy off his rocker or did he lose a bet and this is the way he has to pay it off? … if Lois wants this job, she's a lock …”

Perhaps the “Wary One” has simply confused this with the 8th Assembly District that Assemblywoman Wolk currently holds which is indeed a safe Democratic seat. The 5th Senate District, if one might recall, is anything but a safe seat for Democrats.

In 2004, incumbent Senator Mike Machado had to stave off a furious challenge from Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto to eke out a narrow 52.2 to 47.8 win. A race that for most of the election was a complete toss-up and Machado was widely viewed as endangered. He managed to stave off the challenge by making the case that Podesto was too conservative for the district.

While it is true that the district has around a 12 percent registration advantage for Democrats, many of those are more conservative valley Democrats rather than the more liberal Democrats of Yolo County and particularly Davis. Though Wolk is not a typical Davis liberal, it might be easy to paint her as one to voters in the southern part of the district.

Greg Aghazarian is a sitting Assemblyman who will have the full backing from the State Republican Party because this is one of the few seats that are in play—especially with no incumbent in the race and possibly two legislators squaring off. This will be a hard fought battle for the Democrats to hold this seat.

However, before we get to November 2008, we might want to look at June of 2008. Because there is a formidable opponent awaiting Wolk for the Democratic Nomination. That is current UC Merced Vice-Chancellor John Garamendi, Jr. His father is currently the Lt. Governor of the State of California. Garamendi, Jr. has strong ties to Davis and Yolo County as well. His father represented the area when he was State Senator. And Garamendi, Jr. has resided in Davis himself.

Garamendi has let it be known that he will be a candidate and he will announce sometime early this summer. In the meantime, it appears that unions and other interests are quietly lining up behind him. Wolk has been scrambling for the last four months for endorsements.

This will be one of the toughest primary challenges we will see in the state and with a 25,000 vote registration advantage in the part of the district which Wolk does not represent, it is not clear that this is hers to win. She is certainly far from a lock. Stay tuned…


Update on the DHS Situation

In a letter dated May 1, 2007, Davis Senior High School Principal Michael Cawley informed parents that the teacher involved in the Malcolm X Poster incident has now taken a leave of absence. The teacher had previously with the backing of the DHS contingent of the DTA requested that the student be moved to another class. The district has apparently denied that request and now the teacher has refused to teach.

With the AP Calculus Exam pending, the school is making several tutoring sessions available to students during lunch and after school in an “effort to ensure students receive extra time and support necessary to be successful on their upcoming AP exams…”

This situation has still not been put to rest and I must now question the leadership of the Principal and Vice Principal who have apparently failed to bring the situation to a more amicable conclusion. It is my opinion that a good Principal could have stepped in long ago to allow both the teacher and student to return to class. At this point, we also have to question the judgment and maturity of the teacher. It was clear from the beginning that the situation was poorly handled by the teacher and administration; however, to allow this to continue is irresponsible. The school board and superintendent need to begin to quietly ask the tough questions as to why this has continued for as long as it has.

Good Quotes in Response to “Illegal Immigration Capture the Flag” Game

Davis Enterprise Reporter Claire St. John has written an excellent piece covering the ill-fated and ill-advised “Illegal Immigration Capture the Flag” Game by the Davis College Republicans on the UC Davis Campus.

There were two outstanding quotes, one by Babajide Olupona, a UC Davis student who went to Davis High School and served as youth commissioner to the HRC:

"The thing about it is, as a student out here, the idea of having this (game) on this particular day and during La Raza Cultural Days shows how narrow-minded these people are," said fourth-year sociology and African American studies student Babajide Olupona. "I really thought this was a joke. I can't believe this."

And UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, himself a target for some of the May Day protests in Davis:

"I was very disappointed that a small group of our students yesterday attempted to play an 'Illegal Immigrant Capture the Flag' game," Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said in a statement e-mailed this morning. "In my view, it was clearly disrespectful and violated our Principles of Community.

You can read these Principles of Community here.

One that stands out in violation:

“We affirm the right of freedom of expression within our community and affirm our commitment to the highest standards of civility and decency towards all.”

Chancellor Vanderhoef is exactly right, the counter-protest did not adhere to those standards of civility and decency. This was clearly a case where a group of people were treated without dignity and civility and the Davis College Republicans not only deserve criticism, but as many pointed out, probably hurt their own cause by performing a game that would have been more likely to alienate and anger, than build bridges of understanding. Whose mind would they have changed by playing this game?

I believe deeply in the right to free speech and I wish they would have been allowed to play their game. But I also believe in the right to criticize and ridicule people’s choices for modes of expression. This one was not a good one and it deserved to be criticized. I hope that the organizers can learn from this experience, but from the quotes, it seems all they can see is that their rights to expression were violated rather than what they perhaps could have done differently next time to be a more effective voice for their own cause.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Commentary: Beware of Reforms Wrapped As Sheep's Clothing

In 2000, Californians weary of the ever-rising cost of campaigns and perceived influence of big money passed Proposition 34 which seemed to be a constitutional answer to the problem of campaign spending limits. It did several notable things--first, it limited the size of contributions from groups and individuals to candidates--something that the courts had allowed already at the federal level. Individuals are limited to contributions in the range of $3,000 for the legislature, $5,000 for the constitutional offices, and $21,000 for governor.

But the big reform is that it set set "voluntary" limits for campaign spending. It was voluntary in that in order to have a ballot statement in the sample ballot, you had to accept the limits. But you could not accept the limits and forgo having a ballot statement. It seems that probably two-thirds or more have accepted these limits in the three subsequent elections. It also have cost of living increases so that the number unlike federal limitations is constantly adjusted for inflation. So for a State Assembly Primary the initial number was $425,000 in total spending, now it is about $483,000.

Here were the original limits:

	Primary	General
Governor	$6,374,000	$10,624,000
Other Statewide	4,249,000	6,374,000
BOE	1,062,000	1,594,000
Senate	637,000	956,000
Assembly	425,000	744,000

The law is well written enough that it will be tough to find loopholes in the language except for one very big exemption. There is no limit to the amount individuals can donate to political parties and there is no limit as to how much political parties can spend at the behest of candidates. "A campaign expenditure made by a political party on behalf of a candidate is not attributed to these spending limits." Moreover, "Prop. 34 states that it is designed to strengthen the role of political parties in financing political campaigns. " (See: FPPC).

The result of this loophole is twofold. It is possible that in contested primaries, the state party can intercede on behalf of one candidate over another. This will be of particular interest to watch as Yolo County will have two possible contested legislature primaries--The Assembly where it is Mayor of West Sacramento Christopher Cabaldon against Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada and in the State Senate where it is Assemblywoman Lois Wolk against John Garamendi.

Second, in targeted general elections, the state parties can spend what they want, which means essentially that spending and influence of money will remain the same but the state parties will be more important since they control the unlimited money.

We now see a similar type of reform effort in the term limits reform--"The Term Limits and Legislative Reform." As I have expressed in the past, term limits in my opinion has not been a good thing for California. UC Berkeley researcher Bruce Cain, one of the preeminent scholars on California Politics recently wrote in a Sacramento Bee Op-ed:

"But some aspects of term limits have not been beneficial. A recent comparative term limits study sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislatures discovered that term limits have weakened legislative expertise and leadership in many states.

This is particularly evident in California, where members rarely serve long enough on committees to learn the complexities of the relevant subject matter, and where the Assembly chairs are frequently first-term members.

This has several bad consequences, including a significant decline in legislative oversight -- the sometimes tedious task of scrutinizing how agencies spend money. Oversight requires knowledge of what agencies have promised in the past and detailed questions about their current operations. The best time to hold agencies' feet to the fire is during the budget process, but increasingly members have opted out of using budget hearings for that purpose. There is just not enough time to develop the knowledge to match the agencies' expertise. The public wants to be assured that public money is well spent, but without the proper checks and balances, bureaucrats face less scrutiny than ever before.

A proliferation of silly bills in the Legislature is testimony to the dual imperative of the term-limited politician: Get something out as quickly as possible so you can set yourself up to run for another office, and work on bite-size problems rather than tough, long-term problems since that is all you have time for. But some of our problems require a long-term perspective: improving schools and fixing the prison system."

Professor Cain in the end supports this reform as a means for gaining expertise in the legislative leadership. While I respect Cain's expertise and body of work, I disagree with his final conclusion here. I am just not certain in the long run it really accomplishes those goals. I say this as a virulent critic of all term limits. In my opinion we have a perfectly good term limits law already on the books, they are called elections.

What the law does is instead of limiting members to three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the Senate, it limits the total time in the legislature to twelve years, regardless of office. So you can foresee some members spending twelve rather than six years in the Assembly and I think that will help the Assembly. But what happens to the State Senate? That is less clear, it is not generally an entry-level office, so you would assume most members will still serve in the Assembly first in order to get elected to the Senate, that will mean they can only serve two terms in the Senate, which is what we have today. In the end, we are not really increasing expertise and leadership ability with this reform.

A more realistic approach would be to expand the amount of terms in each branch slightly. Would the voters go for that? Hard to know. The voters may go for this, although it would be fairly easy to as Cain suggests, "argue against changes in term limits by suggesting that sitting members will benefit: It plays to the public's populist suspicion that elected officials are out for themselves."

In the end, the I see this as a ploy by the current leadership to maintain their leadership positions that would expire this year. So what you have is an early Presidential primary in February with this proposition on the ballot, that would given them time if the measure passes to run in June for their old seats. I see this as a cynical ploy for the leadership to maintain power rather than a serious effort for reform.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Monday Commentary

Caesar Chavez Day in Davis Draws Sparse Crowd

The New Human Relations Commission put on their first Caesar Chavez Day event in Davis. Much as the case was with the Martin Luther King day events, the minority community mostly stayed home. That point aside, the city needs to change the location of this event, the sun is not in a good location, there is very little shade, and most of us who are melanin challenged cannot sit in the seats for a prolonged period of time.

As usual there were a number of elected officials there--Supervisor Mariko Yamada, Mayor Sue Greenwald, Councilmember Lamar Heystek, and Assemblywoman Lois Wolk.

When Assemblymember Wolk closed her speech with "¡Sí, Se Puede!" it just did not sound right. It wasn't just because she sounded like an Anglo, but rather it is her record on helping the farm workers.

One of the most significant pieces of legislation passed by the legislature in the days since the death of Cesar Chavez was AB 923 in 2003. This bill authored by Assemblymembers Herb Wesson, the late Marco Firebaugh, and then board of equalization member Carole Migdon was a very innovative piece of legislation that would redirect state resources to bolster medical care for some of California poorest workers--most of whom have no health coverage--without raising taxes.

This was a revenue neutral bill that required the Board of Equalization, Employment Development Department and Franchise Tax Board to work together to convert the sales tax exemptions into farm worker health insurance tax credits.

So why did Assemblywoman Lois Wolk oppose it?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (6/10/03):

Wolk voted against the bill and said she was opposed to it on a number of grounds, including the belief that it should not be permanent -- that it should contain a "sunset," in legislative parlance.

This would of course lead to memorable showdown between Richie Ross, the campaign consultant who also lobbies on behalf of the United Farm Workers and Craig Reynolds, the architect of developer Davis campaigns for issues such as Covell Village and many of the developer council, supervisor, and Assembly campaigns. Reynolds also worked as Lois Wolk's chief of staff after serving six years as Helen Thomson's chief of staff when Thomson was in the Assembly.

This leads to the question--why did Wolk want such pivotal legislation to be sunsetted? It also leads one to question her commitment to health care expressed on Saturday at the event. Wolk is going to run for the State Senate and may have Democratic opposition in the form of John Garamendi, Jr.

Should the county hold off on the library tax?

The school district will have most likely two parcel tax measures on the ballot this coming November. Is it wise for the county to have a third one, in the library tax?

This is not a question of supporting libraries--I support libraries and I support taxation to fund the public libraries more fully. This is a question of timing. Having three tax measures on the ballot is poor timing. The school district must renew their parcel tax.

According to the Enterprise the tax would go from $42 to $88--more than doubling the current tax. The tax is certainly needed, the question is when can it pass.

The Davis Enterprise reported yesterday that Katy Curl, Yolo County's new library director said that there may be no more time to delay:

“But now the fund the library has been using (to replace the amount from the state) is empty,” she said. And even though the county has delayed putting the measure on the ballot, there may be no more time to delay.

There may be no more time, but you also want to do all that you can to assure passage and since it is a tax, it requires a two-thirds vote. Realistically I do not see three tax measures getting two-thirds majorities on the same ballot. There is a February election and a June election, those would seem better times. We cannot risk the school parcel tax not passing and we cannot risk the library tax not spending. Someone has to do the wise thing and delay the election otherwise that may be a distinct possibility. Right now, it appears that the county has more flexibility than the school district.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

John Garamendi, Jr to Run for the State Senate

Inside sources are suggesting that John Garamendi Jr., Vice Chancellor at the University of California at Merced and son of Lt. Governor John Garamendi will join Assemblywoman Lois Wolk as candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 5th Senate District of California.

Last week the Sacramento Bee reported:

On the Demo side, the names of Assemblywoman Lois Wolk of Davis and UC Merced Vice Chancellor John Garamendi Jr. have been thrown in the pot. On the GOP side, political watchers who know a thing or two about the district have offered up the names of Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian of Stockton and Dean Andal, a former legislator and Board of Equalization member, and a current board trustee of the Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton.

The 5th SD, currently represented by termed-out Dem Mike Machado, covers parts of Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties, with about half the voting populace in San Joaquin County. Registration is about 46 percent Dem, 33 percent Reep and 17 percent independent.

If the race holds true to early form, it could be to the 2008 Senate campaigns what the 34th SD was to the 2006 derby, when the race between eventual Dem winner Lou Correa and Reep Lynn Daucher wasn't decided until two weeks after the election, and the victory margin was less than 1 percent.

In 2004, Democrat Mike Machado won an extremely narrow victory over Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto. This time figures to be an extremely close race. Garamendi, Jr. has lived in Davis in the past and his wife is a faculty member at the UC Davis School of Medicine's Department of Public Health Sciences. This figures to be a tough fight for the nomination as Wolk is a longtime officeholder in Yolo County first as Davis City Councilmember and Mayor, then as County Supervisor, and since 2002 as Assemblywoman for the 8th Assembly District.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting