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2024 Primary Election Endorsements

Wade Armstrong -

2024 Primary Election Endorsements

Super Tuesday is coming up, and I’ve got a bunch of propositions and seats to vote for! If you have some of the same stuff on your ballot, you may find something interesting here. For all seats, because of California’s jungle primary, I’ll be offering two endorsements.

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?

Order of endorsements is the order on my ballot. Sorry if yours is in a different order!

TL;DR

  • Assembly, 16th District: McKinnor
  • US Representative, 36th District: Ted Lieu
  • Measure HLA: Yes
  • Supervisor, 2nd District: Holly Mitchell
  • District Attorney: George Gascón
  • Superior Court, Office 39: George A. Turner, Jr.
  • Superior Court, Office 48: Ericka J. Wiley
  • Superior Court, Office 97: La Shae Henderson
  • Superior Court, Office 124: Kimberly Repecka
  • Superior Court, Office 130: Christopher Darden
  • State Measure 1: No
  • President: Joe Biden
  • Senator, Full Term and Senator, Short Term: Barbara Lee or Adam Schiff

LA City

Assembly, 16th District: McKinnor

While both candidates will advance, I’ve failed to find out anything meaningful about Al Hernandez; he doesn’t even seem to have a web site. I recommend not voting for him.

US Representative, 36th District: Ted Lieu

I’m not excited that Lieu has been vocal against a ceasefire in Gaza. However, our alternatives are reactionary Republicans and people with no web sites. I guess... let’s make sure that Lieu proceeds to the General. And vote for him there. Which I don’t care for, but I care for the alternative less.

Measure HLA: Yes

Last year, more Angelenos died from traffic deaths than from homicide. Back in 2015, the City made a plan to fix this problem; the issue is, we haven’t implemented the plan. HLA would ensure we carry out those changes1 and also provide a way for the public to track our progress on those changes.

The major objection to HLA comes from public safety organizations, which express concern that these changes will increase traffic jams and make it impossible for emergency vehicles to get through. This message has two problems:

  1. It fundamentally misunderstands the goals of some of the changes, which are to decrease overall traffic by moving some commuters to bikes and busses, by making those safer and more efficient options.
  2. Data show that the kind of changes we see in the City’s Mobility Plan, which HLA implements, decrease traffic and do not impact response time, or have a positive impact on response time (see here and here, among other places).

County

Supervisor, 2nd District: Holly Mitchell

Overall, Mitchell has done a very good job. I’m not happy that we haven’t had meaningful jail reform, but she responded well to COVID and has been an aggressive advocate of good government (any meaningful implementation of which which would decrease her power or even eliminate her position). Her opponents on the left failed to get endorsements from major LA-area leftist organizations; her opponent on the right, Daphne Bradford, is behind the idiotic save the 90 freeway campaign that prefers keeping our small local freeway that goes literally nowhere and is mostly empty apart from rush hour,2 instead of building housing, parks and storefronts there.

District Attorney: George Gascón

The only reason not to vote Gascón is if you think his policies are increasing crime. The LAPD tells us crime is decreasing; therefore there’s no reason to worry about an increase in crime.

Superior Court, Office 39: George A. Turner, Jr.

Turner gets the Defenders of Justice endorsement, so I’ll second that here.

Superior Court, Office 48: Ericka J. Wiley

Wiley gets the Defenders of Justice endorsement, and adds on one from the LA Times, which thinks highly of her record.

Superior Court, Office 97: La Shae Henderson

Henderson, who has been a leader in implementing the Racial Justice Act, also gets a Defenders of Justice endorsement.

Superior Court, Office 124: Kimberly Repecka

The incumbent in 124, Emily Spear, was admonished by the state bar for her absenteeism. Her opponent has no such bar findings against her. We ought to have a judge who shows up for court.

Superior Court, Office 130: Christopher Darden

Yes, that Christopher Darden — the one who prosecuted OJ. His opponent, Leslie Gutierrez, has been highly-supported by police unions, and I tend to be suspicious of police unions

State

State Measure 1: No

Measure 1 has an odd couple set of opponents: the right and the left. The right objects to the debt; the left objects to how the measure may remove money from proven, locally-based programs, and will increase the use of involuntary treatment. Such bipartisan opposition is usually a sign to vote against something, and this certainly violates my principles of locally-based response (moving money/implementation authority to the state level) and the dignity of the individual (vastly more involuntary commitments).

National Races

President (Democratic Slate): Joe Biden

I was going to endorse Marianne Williamson here, about whom I have historically been tremendously skeptical, but who has also made a lot of specific political and policy predictions that have proven to be true; I think she has the right mental model of our country and our future. She’s also dropped out, oh well. Biden is passable. His main opponent, Dean Phillips, is implicated in an AI robocall campaign against Biden, which is just evil.

Senator, Full Term and Senator, Short Term: Barbara Lee or Adam Schiff

We’re voting on the Short Term because Feinstein died in office, years after she should’ve retired. While there are 27 candidates, only 4 are really viable — Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee, and Katie Porter from the Democrats; and former Dodger Steve Garvey from the Republicans.

It’s difficult to take Garvey seriously; he’s not participated in candidate forums, his web site is free of specific policies, and, for a family values candidate, he doesn’t seem to have put those values into action.

Lee has an amazing record, in particular voting against the invasion of Afghanistan, which looks visionary in retrospect. Despite her Progressive label, she’s passed legislation during this current term with Nancy Mace. While typically I decry the Bay Area dominance of CA politics, with one Senator already from Southern California, there’s some value to getting the North represented.

Schiff also has a strong record. He led the first impeachment of Donald Trump, quite effectively; he’s been a stalwart for good government and antitrust; and he’s a man with big ideas on insurance for California (and we need big ideas on insurance for California). I can’t hold his Zionism against him, given all the hours I spent with my staunch Zionist Jewish grandmother, whom I’m sure would be just as horrified by what’s going on in Gaza now as anyone.

I love Katie Porter, and I love how much she stands out with simple explanations and a strong focus on good government. She just doesn’t have the record of either Lee or Schiff. Voting for Porter is taking a big swing based on potential.

Other Endorsement Slates

If you find this interesting, I suggest you check out:

Hope this helps!

  1. Which are mostly in re-striping and providing light plastic lane barriers, not fully reconfiguring our streets. ↩︎
  2. I used to commute on the 90; it only seems full because it’s basically an onramp to Interstate 405. It’s only an onramp to the 405 because the entire plan to build the freeway fell apart in the 1960s. This has literally been a failure for more than 60 years. ↩︎