Big Things You Can Do at the Ballot Box

Build a Better Future for Our Region: Vote Yes on Measures B & D and elect Cody Petterson to San Diego Unified School Board & Jose Rodriguez as Mayor of National City

By Jim Miller

Nationally, as we head into tomorrow’s midterm election, the mainstream media narrative has become increasingly negative for the Democrats as their chances of holding the House are long gone and even their hope of retaining fifty seats in the Senate seems to be hanging on by the barest of threads.  

Some have countered that many of the polls shaping this perception are either oversampling Republicans or are funded by GOP outfits.  Tomorrow, the only poll that counts will show who is right.  

If the dire straits for the Democrats’ story is proven true, the recriminations will begin in earnest, as a New York Times piece last week outlining insider critiques of the party’s strategy previewed  In any event, several big questions will be answered. 

Was the bet on a huge backlash against the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe a smart one?  Did the Democrats underplay or overplay how much voters cared about the looming threat to democracy posed by the wave of election denialism and violence on the right?  Would it have been better for Democratic candidates to have stepped into the economic argument forcefully rather than largely evading it?  

On the other hand, if recent polling proves to be wrong, we’ll wake up happily surprised that the country did not take another step down the dark path toward authoritarianism.  That would certainly make for a cheerier Wednesday even if the ratings of MSNBC would suffer and some of us would have to spend less time doom scrolling.  

With most of the attention directed at national midterms that will largely be determined by what happens outside of California, it’s easy to forget that there are still a few very good things that could happen here in San Diego County if the votes break the right way.  While I have mostly left the analysis of local electoral contests at Words and Deeds in Doug Porter’s capable hands and highly recommend you take his voter guide to the polls with you if you have not already cast your ballot by mail, there are a few races I think are worth highlighting.    

Here is my short list of the most important local contests:

Vote Yes on all the San Diego Local Measures, B and D in particular:  I agree with Doug’s endorsement of all the San Diego measures, but passing Measures B and D is the most crucial task before us as doing this would help fundamentally change the trajectory of San Diego politics by ending our city’s revenue averse history with the passage of B, and overturning a longstanding, reactionary, anti-union policy by enacting Measure D.  

San Diego will never become a truly progressive city if we hold onto these unfortunate legacies of our conservative past.  Let’s kiss “Indy by the Sea” goodbye.

Elect Cody Petterson to the San Diego Unified School Board in Sub-District C: If you think our politics would be better if we elected activists who have spent time in the political trenches AND worked hard in local government to move our community in the right direction with regard to environmental, labor, and other social justice issues, there is no better champion than Petterson who will bring idealism, deep concern for the future of our children, educational experience, and keen intelligence to the position.  

Put him on the school board and make Carl DeMaio and friends unhappy.  

Vote for Jose Rodriguez for Mayor of National City:  Councilmember Rodriguez was my student at City College, and I have watched him pay his dues as he made his way through local labor and activist circles, doing the work at the grassroots level before running for National City Council and winning.  Jose comes from a working-class immigrant family in the Coachella Valley and knows the struggles of working people from the inside out.  He outworked the incumbent and has earned the endorsement of Labor, the Democratic Party, and key environmental groups in the community and has likely walked every house in National City himself.  He is a young, dynamic, and bold progressive who would never forget where he came from and who elected him to office.  

As John Lennon once sang, “a working-class hero is something to be.”  Let’s elect one.

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Lead photo by Doug Porter