2026 General Election Endorsements

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2026 General Election Endorsements

We’ve got an upcoming election — better enjoy it, it’s not entirely clear how many more we’ll have! Below is how I'm voting, and — if my rationale makes sense for you — please consider voting this way too. If you don't like my takes, I hope that I provided enough information to help you develop good-quality opinions of your own. As always, my criteria for endorsement are based on Kaizen and Catholic Social Teaching:

Is the policy fixed and static in the future, or can we learn from it and change it if needed? If current policy is not fixed and static in the future, does this policy change increase our ability to learn?
Are we repeating success — either ours or someone else's — or at least not perpetuating failure? If the current policy is failing, are we trying something new?
In general, local government is more responsive to feedback and faster to change, as it is in the gemba for most policies. Does the policy localize authority?
Is the policy based on explicit goals and objective, measurable reality? Goals are best achieved through a series of small, measurable, achievable steps, which helps prevent muda and muri.
Does the policy rest on a coherent model of action, in which we can predict the result of a series of actions; predict if we will get the outcome we think we'll get; and measure our results?
Is revenue net positive or neutral?
Are the endorsers of the policy suspicious?
Given the opportunity to be kind or the opportunity to be mean, does this policy choose kindness?
Does this policy respect the inherent dignity of the individual, and ideally help that dignity grow? Intolerance and anger are a form of muri.
Do we seek the common good through this policy? Does this policy help us do our duties to others?
Are the poor and vulnerable put first with this policy?
Does this policy respect and celebrate life, across the whole life of the individual — not just pre-birth?

Looking out over a landscape of jungle, with hills in the left, ferns in the front, and the ocean far ahead.

Federal Candidates

United States Representative, 36th District — Ted Lieu (D)

Ted Lieu is running for re-election against the fantastically-named and mustachioed Houston Brignano, in a veteran vs. veteran matchup.

When considering voting for an incumbent, the most important things to ask are:

Has this incumbent brought success, or will that require new blood?
Is this incumbent learning, or is a change needed to meet future challenges?
Does the incumbent authentically show solidarity with the full range of folks they represent?

Ted Lieu has done a good job of all of these. In particular, he spoke out against the Iran war early, quickly bringing up the war’s illegality and then digging down to the effect on our magazine depth¹, two of my key concerns about the war.

Lieu has also been active in bringing housing to the district, in particular fighting for Veteran housing in the West LA VA campus, and co-sponsoring bills that provide housing and services to prevent homelessness.

Brignano is worried about our national debt, which is hilarious for a Republican, and suggests he doesn’t know how we got here. Vote Lieu here.

Statewide Candidates

Governor — Xavier Becerra (D)

Ultimately, Becerra is the only serious candidate here. He’s served in the US House, chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was Attorney General of California, and was Secretary of Health and Human Services. Some on the left accuse him of not being sufficiently supportive of trans athletes², but the reality is that he has a long history of supporting queer folks. He’s clearly qualified for the job, and has strong connections within the state that suggest he can actually run California.

Steve Hilton has no public history in California. He was an advisor to UK PM David Cameron, but his role in US politics has been limited to appearances on Fox News. His policies are principally things like “end environmental rules that increase gas prices but make our air clean,” as if having school cancelled for smog days³ is not a tax on Californians. He also has ads that are weird and, frankly, insulting, given GOP policies towards LGBTQ+ folks. Explain why I should take this candidacy seriously? It’s a publicity stunt.

Lieutenant Governor — Fiona Ma (D)

Fiona Ma’s opponent is Gloria Romero, and, let’s be clear, any California resident should think twice before overlooking Romero. Gloria Romero was a pioneer of Progressive government in California, and women’s and Latin rights in the state. She has often described herself as having been left behind by the modern Democratic Party, so anybody who shares the values she championed for so long should ask if they have as well.⁴

Ultimately, I disagree with Romero’s understanding of the trends she sees driving the Democratic Party in California.⁵ CA isn’t a one-party state because the Democrats are cheating; the GOP just can’t manage to stop shooting itself in the foot, chest, and face with its policies. I understand why she wanted more parent control of schools, but Charter schools don’t have the history of success that would justify a switch towards them. And requiring schools to disclose details of their students’ sexual orientation and gender identity to parents is simply an invitation to domestic violence.

Fiona Ma, on the other hand, has built a strong record as California’s Treasurer. She’s been an icon of financial rectitude and efficiency, saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars by timing bond sales. She’s also been active in working to structure and release state funds for homeowners and for minority small businesses.

Ultimately, the budget here in CA is a critical issue. Ma has the skillset we need to meet that problem.

Secretary of State — Shirley Weber (D)

It’s difficult to understand why one would vote for a Republican candidate for an election supervision position these days. The Brooks Brothers Riot was the foundational event for their current approach to voting (message: stealing elections is fine, actually); the lie that the 2020 election is stolen is core to their current identity. These folks need to be kept away from votes.

Shirley Weber is a good candidate. She oversaw the switch to universal vote-by-mail in California, and it’s been flawless.

Controller — Malia Cohen (D)

Republican Herb Morgan is running on the idea that there’s “fraud” in government, which is rich given that, for my entire life, Republicans have been running on getting rid of “wasteful” bureaucracy and oversight.

Morgan does have good ideas around transparency. The problem with his comprehensive white paper is that it calls things “fraud” that aren’t necessarily fraud, like “local program didn’t submit receipts.”⁶ It’s also not entirely clear that some of his ideas are constitutionally within the Controller’s remit.

Fraud is also a term that has been leveraged in a racially biased way against people of color, by the national Republican Party. There’s no reason to think that Morgan would do an effective job of decreasing (real) fraud, rather than leveraging threats of enforcement against people of color and the most vulnerable.

And Cohen has done specific things to improve California’s tools to prevent fraud. She’s rolled out a centralized system to manage spending statewide; created new leadership positions to provide data and audit leadership; and pushed to speed financial reporting. All of this is, frankly, a prerequisite to doing the kind of AI-driven auditing that Morgan prefers.

Treasurer — Eleni Kounalakis (D)

I’m not a tremendous Kounalakis fan, but it’s not clear to me that her opponent, Jennifer Hawks⁷, understands the difference between the jobs of Treasurer and of Controller⁸. One of the biggest jobs of the Treasurer is to manage the sales of state bonds, which bring revenue that is then used to carry out the spending the Legislature has already authorized. Hawks wants to require greater transparency and audit quality, by the departments that would benefit from the bonds she sells. It’s good to require all of this, but it’s important to understand that the Treasurer doesn’t get to tell the Legislature “actually, we’re not going to do what the law says and raise money for authorized spending.”

Attorney General — Rob Bonta (D)

Bonta has done a tremendous job ensuring that California cities build the housing that they’re legally required to, and of defending the state against a range of Trump administration attacks. Gates, by contrast, has been central to helping Huntington Beach avoid building housing, as well as being a pretty cookie-cutter Republican lawyer in his US Justice Department run. Why change?

Insurance Commissioner — Ben Allen (D)

To be frank, we have an embarrassment of riches at this position. Both Ben Allen and Jane Kim are great candidates with solid ideas. Allen pulls ahead for me because he is more prepared to push the concept of “strategic retreat.” We have a significant problem: we’ve put homes in parts of the wildland-urban interface where these homes can’t be made safe. Allen says: it’s ok to retreat from these! Jane Kim says: we should have a public option to finance those who live in those areas!

But the problem is that, thanks to climate change, there are absolutely areas that will burn, and areas that will be devastated by the sea and waves, and areas where there isn’t any water to drink, and more. I love a public option, but it doesn’t solve the problem where folks should not be living places. Jane Kim wants to make a public option solve these problems, which is just not possible.

Board of Equalization, District 3 — Sam Sukaton (D)

If you’re tired of how things are going in California, then you need to shake things up — even at the smaller seats. Sam Sukaton has experience coordinating with all of the state environmental agencies, and he stands for transparency in taxation and revenue.

Superintendent of Public Instruction — Richard Barrera (D)

Look, I hope Barrera is good. He ran San Diego Unified, which definitely makes him qualified. He has endorsements from teachers, who actually know about education. He even wants to do things like invest the money to get nurses back in schools!

But the real deal is: his opponent is the kind of Republican crank you see in Bible Belt states. She made her reputation on Covid denialism and wants to harm LGBTQ+ students. So, let’s not do that.

Justices of the Supreme Court

Retain Kelly M. Evans — Yes

When should one vote "No" for this kind of question? Only if it's important to essentially veto the Governor's decision to appoint the jurist of their choice. No reason to do that here.

Retain Josh Groban — Yes

Despite his music, Groban's done nothing so wacky as to require his removal.

State Senator, District 28 — Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D)

Smallwood-Cuevas, the incumbent, has been effective for the area, with one of her signature achievements being shutting down the Inglewood oil field, the country’s largest urban oilfield still producing.

Chronic Republican candidate Joe Lisuzzo just parrots national GOP talking points... and, oddly, has the most ChiCom-looking campaign signs I’ve ever seen. Really, they’re red and yellow with three stars. Not meaningful⁹, but weird.

State Representative, District 61 — Tina McKinnor (D)

McKinnor, also the incumbent, has also been effective. Just recently she got a law passed that landlords have to actually provide a fridge, ending a bizarre quirk that annoyed the heck out of me when I was renting (and always had to shlep my own fridge around).

A closeup on the gnarled branch of a tree, with yellow flowers sprouting in front

Statewide Propositions

Prop 1 Authorizes Bonds For Housing Affordability Programs (Statute) — Yes

This provides $10B for housing in general and $1.25B for veteran housing. California needs housing. We can pay for it; or we can not have it.

Prop 2 Increases State’s Rainy Day Fund (Amendment) — Yes

Right now, California’s Rainy Day fund will sometimes refund money to taxpayers. The basic split in endorsement is that some folks want to ensure that the taxpayer refunds keep coming; others want to ensure that the Rainy Day fund is bigger. I’m on the “bigger Rainy Day fund” side. Recently we’ve had years in which we collected dramatically lower tax revenue than expected, because the overall stock market went down and our wealthy folks got temporarily less wealthy. Well, let’s not have those surprises. Let’s not be as vulnerable to the stock market as we are.

Prop 3 Provides Permanent Funding For Schools And Health Care By Extending Existing Tax On High Incomes (Amendment) — Yes

We need to be realistic that the Federal government will be providing less support to states, and particularly to Blue states, going forward. It would be self-destructive to respond to the likely Federal cuts in education funding by cutting our own education funding. I’m OK paying this tax rate.

Prop 4 Repeals Prohibition Against Public Funding Of Election Campaigns (Statute) — Yes

Whether or not we should have a public funding option, we should have the option to have that option. Prop 4 makes this possible.

Prop 5 Changes Recall Election Process For Statewide Officers (Amendment) — Yes

Our existing recall process is a mess; it’s basically a way for a minority party to take a seat with a minority of votes, and has been used that way by the Republican Party statewide. Pro 5 improves the process a little... less than I might like, but better than it is now.

Prop 37 Creates Loan Program For Middle Income Buyers Of Qualified New Homes (Statute) — Yes

Remember how I said we needed housing? Well, if someone’s going to build it, someone needs to buy it. I don’t love this program, but the housing industry does, so let’s go with that.

Prop 38 Authorizes Bonds For Immunology Medical Research (Statute) — No

So basically there’s this organization called California Institute for Immunology & Immunotherapy and... somehow they got this proposition on the ballot, to give them $4B in government money. I agree with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association here, which is weird enough, but let’s go with it.

Prop 39 Prohibits Citizens From Voting Unless They Present Government Issued Identification (Amendment) — No

Study after study has looked into whether or not there is any kind of voter fraud going on, and the answer is that there’s basically none. I’m not going to post a link to this mountain of evidence here, because, if you don’t already know this, there’s no amount of evidence that will prove it to you, you’re just stuck in the bullshit. Well, don’t make your racist bullshit my problem.

Prop 40 Imposes One Time Tax On Certain Taxpayers (Amendment and Statute) — No

I really feel bad saying “no” to this, because I don’t want billionaires to get the wrong idea: they really do have too much money, it is a threat to our democracy, and the best way to manage that threat and strengthen our democracy is to tax that money from them and spend it to help folks. I just don’t like that this is a one-time thing.

My biggest problem here is that I’m afraid to vote “no” because that will just empower billionaires to try to control the rest of us more. So... I reserve the right to change my mind at the last minute. It just won’t be for a good reason.

Prop 41 Prohibits New State Taxes That Exclude Revenues From State Spending Limit Requires Audits For New State Special Taxes (Amendment) — No

There is a set of folks in California who are unwilling to pay for the benefits they get from living here. They keep putting stuff like this on the ballot. If they don’t think they benefit from living here, they should move; otherwise, we should all pay our way.

Prop 42 Prohibits New State Personal Property Taxes And Certain Retroactive State Taxes (Amendment) — No

Prop 43 Limits Voters Ability To Raise Revenues For Local Government Services (Amendment) — No

Rather than repeat myself, let’s talk about what the effect of this would be: it would make municipalities more dependent on Sacramento. It would actually be worse for red areas that want to be low-tax, because they would have fewer options to manage their revenues. It would also be worse for blue areas that want to do more for their residents. Let’s manage not to screw everybody here. (As stated above: local ability to do stuff is more important than state ability to do stuff.)

Prop 44 Requires Community Health Clinics Spend 90 Of Revenue On Program Services (Statute) — No

These kinds of laws always backfire, because they never take into account the places money needs to be spent. The net effect is almost certainly going to be to drive community clinics that actually are providing services out of business.

Prop 45 Modifies Environmental Review For Certain Projects (Statute) — No

I think we need less review in some cases, particularly community review; after all, we don’t build enough housing, so let’s learn from what’s preventing construction. But, somehow this proposition is not actually supported by most of the construction industry. Weakening environmental review without helping construction seems like the worst of all worlds.

The steel arch of a bridge spanning a body of water

County Candidates

Sheriff — Robert Luna

I can’t believe we’re doing this again, but, somehow, Palpatine Villanueva returned. Villanueva is an authoritarian martinet who hired his friends, protected deputy gangs, resisted civilian control over law enforcement, and created a special unit to investigate his enemies. Luna is... ok. He doesn’t do any of that.

Superior Court Judge

Office 64 — Rhonda Haymon

Haymon has gained a range of endorsements from orgs like La Defensa, which is good enough for me.

Office 65 — Anna Reitano

Reitano was part of the Defenders of Justice slate that I supported years back, and I see no reason to change my mind.

Office 87 — Anthony “AJ” Bayne

Bayne is an experienced Public Defender who has worked with cases at every level.

Office 131 — David Ross

All Public Defenders are not created equal, and Ross’s opponent, Tryfman, made a bit of a negative reputation for herself in the Beverly Hills School Board, where colleagues claimed she was abusive. Ross has La Defensa’s endorsement.

County Propositions

Charter Amendment A Reiterating Good Faith Negotiation Obligations And Establishing Impartial Binding Arbitration For Certified Public Safety Employee Disputes — No

The Sheriff's department, and law enforcement in general, need to learn that they are the servants of the civilians they police, and are managed by the government those civilians have elected. Binding arbitration is not the way to do that.

Charter Amendment E County Of Los Angeles Ethics Commission And Community Investment Budget Allocation Charter Amendment — Yes

OK, so a few years back we passed Measure J, to fund a permanent Ethics board. There was a whoopsie and somehow the full text of the measure wasn't incorporated into law? Then, we passed Measure G, to reform the County Charter, and that absolutely wiped out every trace of Measure J, by accident. So, pass E so that we can get J that we already wanted, without losing G which we also wanted. Make sense?

Citywide Candidates

Mayor — Nithya Raman (D)

I’ll be honest, I was a strong supporter of current mayor Karen Bass. But, look, I can’t support someone who just can’t get it done. In a lot of ways, Bass’s term has been bookended by fires: the Palisades/Altadena¹⁰ fires to start it, and the Lineage Warehouse fire to end it.

After the catastrophic Palisades/Altadena fires, the City did the right thing and held a postmortem... which Bass softened. After the Lineage fire, Bass didn’t stand up for the poor, mostly nonwhite folks who lived near the warehouse and were victims of toxic gas, and, after the fire, odors and pests like rats. Sure, there were other failures on Bass’s part¹¹, but it’s difficult to think that Bass could possibly have the cojones to stand up to any of the entrenched power bases in LA. (And, of course, she hasn’t.)

Raman has her ups and downs, but she’s been effective in her district and — most importantly to me — managed to decrease homelessness in the area without approaching it Traci Park-wise¹² and just trying to get the homeless folks to move out of your district. She’s also shown exceptional ethics in recusing herself from political questions that have affected her husband, a successful TV writer. We could use someone who actually understands Hollywood!

City Attorney — Marissa Roy

People didn’t listen to me and elected Hydee Feldstein Soto as City Attorney, and it has been a disaster, costing the city millions that we didn’t need to spend, while not accomplishing anything meaningful. Well, we have another chance to elect someone qualified, and Roy is the one.

Her opponent, John McKinney, wants to be tough on crime. A problem with this perspective is that this is not the primary job the City Attorney has; in fact, the City Attorney only prosecutes misdemeanors, so McKinney wants to be really hard on vandals. And, look, fuck vandals¹³, but that’s not an actual political platform!

A cassowary bird is giving you a vicious side-eye

City Propositions

Proposition TE — No

I actually think it would be amazing to create a carveout for victims of national disasters to unload their property at discounted tax rates. However, cutting that out just for the right white folks from Pacific Palisades... that’s not the right choice.

Charter Amendment LA — Yes

I hate that common political budget cycles are 1 year; the reality is that a lot of the things our government should do need to be planned on a longer timeline. This amendment moves a bunch of City activities to a 2-year budget timeline. This should help us spend money more parsimoniously and, yet, more effectively! Let’s do it. This is a good use for an amendment.

Charter Amendment PL — Yes

So one of former, fantastically corrupt City Councilman Jose Huizar’s favorite techniques was to... just prevent stuff from getting a vote. PL would prevent the City Council from blocking a bunch of kinds of developments by just not voting on them. Have I mentioned we need to build homes, and part of that is considering developments promptly? This is also a good use for an amendment.

Charter Amendment EE — No

I actually like every single thing in this amendment, but, two things are true:

Amendments suck! Try to pass a law where you can!
Any law or amendment that tries to pass a variety of different regulations should, itself, be a variety of different laws or amendments. This is the opposite — a grab-bag of good ideas. Well, split them up and I’ll vote for them.

Charter Amendment PRK — Yes

Parks! Parks! Parks!

Literally... what’s better for most everyone than a park? Hardly anything. Help the parks out.

Charter Amendment PRT — Yes

I am confused by this amendment. However, it grew directly out of a serious of scandals in our airport commission. I didn’t like the scandals; it’s not now appropriate to vote against the fix proposed by those who have studied the scandals’ root cause.

Charter Amendment SC — Yes

This amendment is as wonky as you can get, but it seems like this is “should our rules be consistent?” And there’s no reason not to have rules (about campaign financing) be consistent here. Consistency is, in fact, a virtue.

Initiative Ordinance FD — No

To be frank, having not properly done a retro on what happened with the Palisades and Altadena fires, I’m not entirely convinced we should give more money to the Fire Department. Thanks to Mayor Bass’s mismanagement, I think the LAFD needs to wait on this money.

A beach on a gray day, with low breakers in the front and gray-green hills in the distance

If we fire all our weapons at Iran, we won’t have them to fire at anyone else, such as, say, China. ↩︎
Certainly true, in that very few folks, and almost no institutions, in this country are actually, in implementation as opposed to in theory, as supportive of trans folks as they should be. ↩︎
I came to California for college in 1993. Every year there would be many days with unhealthy air, when we were advised to stay indoors. These days don’t occur anymore. ↩︎
I absolutely agree I’ve been left behind by the modern Democratic Party, just in the other way. So, I sympathize; and I also don’t. ↩︎
Here’s a point where you may want to be suspicious: Romero was CA Senate Democratic Leader until 2010, and I’m some white guy. However, Romero broke with the party over the California Teachers’ Association’s opposition to charter schools. You know, the CTA, one of the biggest unions in the state. Which she broke with, in the name of working-class people and labor. So, maybe she’s missing something somewhere. ↩︎
Which can mean that the organization did something fraudulent; that the organization lacked controls; or that the organization has controls and submitted receipts to local oversight, forgetting the State. ↩︎
Great name! Jennifer Hawks is absolutely an ‘80s TV show heroine. Knight Rider spinoff or something. ↩︎
To oversimplify, the Treasurer is the State’s banker, the Controller is in charge of managing expenses. ↩︎
Probably. I mean, he could be a tool of Chinese influence, I wouldn’t put it beyond the modern GOP; but there’s no reason to think he is, other than weird-ass signs. ↩︎
Often called the Palisades fire, which I fear is because Altadena is a diverse city of mostly non-white folks, while Pacific Palisades is all rich white folks. ↩︎
Karen Bass tried to do a Mamdani and actually execute the thing that folks count on government to do, live, but hilariously failed ↩︎
I don’t want to make this a referendum on my councilperson, Traci Park... well, I hate her for her unethical joy in harming the homeless, so actually I’d like to make everything a referendum on her... but, the answer is that there’s tools other than using the cops to scare someone down the street, to manage folks on the streets. ↩︎
I mean, I’m fine with the Vandals, and I’m fine with anyone who needs to deface publicly-viewable property to get their message heard... but you message shouldn’t be “look at me!” ↩︎