On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, many Americans will have one thing in common – they will vote. The airways have been filled for the last year with pundits predicting who will be President of this country for the next four years. There has been a lot of debate about polls across this country. One of the major topics has been voter turnout. Who will turn out to exercise their right to vote?

According to Gallup, voter turnout is expected to decline this year compared with four years ago. Only 58% of the voting age population voted in 2008. This is a far cry from the 81.8% voter turnout that was experienced in the controversial election of 1876 between Hayes and Tilden. The last time this nation experienced 60% voter turnout was the 1968 election between Nixon and Humphrey.

I have heard many people say that the reason why voter turnout is so low is because elections are on Tuesday. If the elections were moved to the weekend, the argument is that voter turnout would be much higher. Without getting into this argument that voter turnout would be greater if elections were held on a different day, it is a sad commentary on our country that we have such low voter turnout.

Think about it; in 1876, in order for some people to vote, they would have to travel one day just to get to their polling place. This meant that many individuals were away from their farms or ranches a minimum of two days. If it was as hard to vote today as it was in 1876, a person would have to drive from San Diego to Sacramento in order to cast their vote. Could you imagine how low voter turnout would be today if everyone who voted in California could only vote in Sacramento?

Today it is much easier to vote than it was 136 years ago. Today our polls are open 13 hours (7:00 am – 8:00 pm). Neighborhoods have been divided up into precincts and you can now vote at a location very close to your home (Find your polling place – Contra Costa or Alameda). For those who find it too difficult to vote at their local precinct, here in California, we also have the ability to vote by mail.

This Tuesday, we must vote. We must vote; but before we do, we need to carefully examine the candidates and issues that are before us. We have very important decisions that will affect our future. Before we vote, we need to remember the words of John Adams about the importance of our vote:

“We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands; we have a check upon two branches of the legislature … the power I mean of electing at stated periods [each] branch … It becomes necessary to every [citizen] then, to be in some degree a statesman, and to examine and judge for himself of the tendency of political principles and measures. Let us examine, then, with a sober, a manly … and a Christian spirit; let us neglect all party [loyalty] and advert to facts; let us believe no man to be infallible or impeccable in government any more than in religion; take no man’s word against evidence, nor implicitly adopt the sentiments of others who may be deceived themselves, or may be interested in deceiving us.”

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Before you laugh at this man, this story is no different than politics here in California. How many times have you heard someone complain about politics? However, despite the fact that politicians have such a low respect in this state, people keep voting for incumbents.

However, the diner is not the only one who complains about the food but keeps going back to the same restaurant. Over the last several years, the Contra Costa Times has bewailed at length the problems in the state. Often the Times has blamed feckless, linguine-spined, gutless, sold-out-to-special- interest-group politicians for putting the state in the mess it is in. For the most part this is true.

At present, budgets are unbalanced, public pension are unfunded, roads are in need of repair, unemployment is too high, education is still not receiving a passing grade, …..and water, or lack thereof, are still burning issues. So after all the name calling and lamentations of the Contra Costa Times, it endorses the same politicians it had previously excoriated.

Are there any other comments? “Yes, the portions were too small, it costs too much, and it is the same thing election after election after election.” So evidently the cure to broken promises and a fiscal mess is to, yes, you guessed it, a larger portion of the same broken promises and fiscal messes. I ask you, do we really expect the same politicians to suddenly change their profligate ways or even their votes? I doubt it. If the past is prologue, we can expect more of the same problems of the past in the future.

It is the last full week of this political season. Some votes have been cast but most are still to be cast. You have a choice of candidates, local initiatives, and state wide propositions. For those ballots yet to be cast, it is prudent to consider what is really at issue.

Ideologies have consequences and these ideas translate themselves into votes for certain tax increases or other regulatory policies. The recurring pattern observed with the Democratic Party is higher taxes and more regulations. People mistakenly believe that the taxes are for the “rich” even when it is clear that it is a tax increase for everyone.

Some feel that “their” politician would do them no harm by his vote. On the surface this may seem true, but when similarly minded party politicians vote in concert, the results are felt not only at the state level but they trickle down to the local level as well.

So how do you vote? Ask yourself if you are totally content with the condition of the state of California, not just your personal neighborhood. If you are, then vote for the incumbent. However, if you have the feeling that the state is not as prosperous as it once was, if regulations are affecting your pocketbook, and if the present ideology is creating more problems than solving them; do not vote for the incumbent.

Einstein’s definition of insanity is a truism regarding California politics. Einstein said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

For too long we have voted for the same politicians again and again and have gotten the same disastrous results. It is time the voters try a different approach and vote the incumbents out of office. Just like we need to go to a different restaurant rather than complain about the quality of the food, the cost of the meal and the portions, we need to vote for fresh leadership.

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On numerous occasions, DeSaulnier has referred to himself as “a little left of center.” He has also made references to the fact that he used to own a restaurant in Concord and that he also was a Republican before he became a Democrat.

However, DeSaulnier’s true colors are revealed when it comes to the willingness to tax and spend; he can spend California’s taxes with the best of them. In fact, according to leading tax payer groups, when it comes to bills that raise your taxes or fees that you must pay, DeSaulnier votes over 90% of the time to increase taxes and fees on Californians. There does not seem to be many taxes or fees that he does not like. This is hardly “a little left of center.”

DeSaulnier claims he likes smaller government, but his voting record does not support this assertion. Instead, he is constantly voting for new commissions, new regulatory agencies, and new boards. When problems of accountability arise in government, he recommends some new oversight committee or some new level of government.

Many cities and counties are being crushed under a load of unfunded public pension liabilities. In fact, when DeSaulnier, was a county supervisor, he voted to increase pension benefits on county employees even though he admits that he knew it would be difficult for the county to maintain this higher level of benefits. Now that he is a state senator and sees the problems that pensions are having on cities and counties, he has done very little to help the cities and counties. Instead, DeSaulnier supported legislation that made it harder for cities to file bankruptcy. It sounds to me like DeSaulnier wants to support the public unions who donated money to his campaign rather than the taxpayers who pay the bill.

Does DeSaulnier mention his past affiliation with the Republican Party to portray the image that he really is more moderate than liberal? Is this reference to the distant past a ploy to make him appear “moderate” rather than the liberal that his voting record reveals?

It is one thing to vote for liberal legislation; that is the elected senator’s prerogative. However, it is another thing to come home to the voters with the line that you are “a little left of center” when in reality you vote for liberal legislation. DeSaulnier should at least admit that he is a liberal rather than hide behind the inaccurate phrase, “a little left of center.”

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Very few will argue that California used to have one of the best educational systems in the United States if not in the world. Very few will argue that California now has one of the worst educational systems in the United States according to a plethora of leading indicators.

Californians are concerned about their children’s education; however many will say that this concern does not translate to the state spending on education. The question is, what can we do about this problem? I will be the first to admit that I do not have a magic wand that will return California’s educational system back to a world leader. However, that being said, I wanted to take a minute to remind everyone how things were different in this state when we led the world and where we are now. Maybe in understanding our past, our state legislature can start making some decisions to help us restore California greatness.

Many love to point a finger at Proposition 13 as the culprit for why California has so many problems in this state. However, I would like to make the case that the problem actually started several years before with a bunch of trial lawyers who pursued a case to level the playing field between the rich and the poor.

In the 1960s, California’s schools were funded by property taxes. The vast majority of each school district’s funds were based upon how much each school district was willing to tax itself to pay for its student’s education. School districts were full of local businessmen who derived a benefit from having a better school district.

However, in 1971, the California Supreme Court ruled that the way California funded its school system was unconstitutional because each child in California did not have equal educational resources. The result of Serrano was that there was a shift in funding from local school districts to Sacramento.

The state of California saw a transition where local school districts lost a lot of their control. Collective bargaining for teachers soon arose and school boards found it next to impossible to get rid of under-performing teachers. Basically, it was the golden rule, he who holds the gold, makes the rules. Sacramento was now paying for education and thus they were controlling the rules of the game.

In 1970, almost 50% of the money that was spent on education was actually spent on teacher’s salaries. This percentage has been dropping steadily ever since. In the mean-time, while the percentage of school budgets being spent on teachers has been declining, the percentage of money being spent on school administrators has steadily been increasing. Sacramento keeps imposing more rules upon the school districts thus resulting in school districts having to hire more administrators in order to deal with all these new rules.

As a result of Serrano, what has happened in this state is that we have made what was supposed to be a local issue into a state issue. By trying to be fair to all students, we ended up hurting all students. Rather than helping the students who were the most economically depressed, we ended up hurting all Californians.

The problem with having Sacramento in charge of schools is that there is limited control by those who are the most affected. When you had local school boards in control, if a school board made a mistake, it did not take too much community involvement to get rid of an entire school board. However, it would take billions of dollars to drastically change the state legislature in order to change the way that the state is handling education.

I was recently talking with one teacher who says that he does not have enough time to teach the United States Constitution. Teacher after teacher informed me that Sacramento has imposed so many rules upon them that students are not learning the basics. They feel that regulations are ruining our student’s future to allow some administrator can simply check off a box and report back to Sacramento that minimum requirements have been met.

I believe that if we want to see our schools succeed, we need to return power back to the people by returning control of our schools back to our local school boards. We need to let teachers teach. According to the Contra Costa Times, my opponent, Mark DeSaulnier believes that it is the state’s responsibility to hold school districts accountable.
What incentive do voters in San Diego have to replace their local senator because there is a problem with schools in Contra Costa County? A state senator is not the proper person to be holding school boards accountable; the local school board should be accountable. Rather than watching our local taxes go to the state and then having a portion sent back to the school districts, it would be better if the local tax remained local.

If elected, it is my goal to help restore California greatness. In order to do this, we need to start going back to the principles that were in place when California had one of the best educational systems in the world. Instead of dumbing down our schools to the lowest common denominator, it is time to push our schools to excel in every level.
For 40 years we have tried Sacramento’s control over our school system; Sacramento’s grade on running California’s school system is an F-. If we want to return to the best schools in the world, we need to take what is being treated as a state issue and return it to a local issue. Local control is how we succeeded before and it is how we will succeed in the future.

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