In This Newsletter:

June 7 Primary Election

Democratic Party Endorsements

Local Campaigns Need Your Help

Bredefeld’s Accusation Strategy

Ukraine Conflict Signals Return of Numbered Worlds

Volunteers Needed to Help with Campaign Signs

Annalisa Perea Phone Bank

National Union Awakening Could Be Our Salvation

Precinct Captains

Fellowship Program

Democratic Party Website and HQ

June 7 Primary Election!

You should have received your ballot via the mail, and perhaps you’ve already voted. If you have, then it is now your turn to spread the word to your social net and ensure that everyone you know does so as well!

Political commentators always say that Democrats have a disadvantage on voter turnout, despite our great numbers. Let’s do our part to prove them wrong.

Fresno County Democratic Party Endorsements

It seems as if we were just filling out our ballots for the last special election, but we have another round of voting currently under way. The Primary, done in California’s characteristic “jungle” free-for-all style, will be on June 6, and it is joined by a second round of voting to fill the last few months of Devin Nunes’ abandoned term and a particularly odd special election involving Alex Padilla’s U.S. Senate seat.

Get ready; being an informed citizen requires homework. What follows are endorsements from the Fresno County Democratic Party along with descriptions of a few candidates and races.

Our Party Endorsements

U.S. Senate (Special): Alex Padilla

U.S. Senate (Regular): Alex Padilla

(Yes, you need to vote for Alex Padilla twice.)

Other Statewide Races

Governor: Gavin Newsom

Lieutenant Governor: Eleni Kounalakis

Secretary of State: Dr. Shirley Weber

Attorney General: Rob Bonta

Treasurer: Fiona Ma

Controller: Malia Cohen

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond

Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara

Local Races

Board of Equalization District 1: Braden Murphy
U.S. Congress District 5: Mike Barkley
U.S. Congress District 13: Adam Gray
U.S. Congress District 20: Marisa Wood
U.S. Congress District 21: Jim Costa
U.S. Congress District 22 (Special): Lourin Hubbard
U.S. Congress District 22 (Regular): Rudy Salas

State Senate District 12: Susanne Gundy
Gundy spent 21 years administering programs in Tulare County’s public health department. She has highlighted the potential for innovation and investment in projects such as solar farms and other forms of clean energy as part of California’s survival-dictated transition away from carbon pollution. Her opponent, Shannon Grove, is solidly in the pocket of the Bakersfield oil industry and has been vocal against any government efforts to help reduce fossil fuel consumption.

State Senate District 14: Anna Caballero
Senator Caballero is up for reelection in the changed landscaping of post-redistricting California. In the Senate, her record speaks for itself. She was instrumental in crafting and passing the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program, which helped many weather the quarantines. She has also advanced legislation to support rural broadband, empower rural pharmacies to administer certain flu and COVID-19 tests, and close the tax loopholes tobacco companies use to push vape products. She has improved our air and temperature control with programs that assist with tree planting, care and maintenance in urban, rural and disadvantaged communities.

Assembly District 27: Esmeralda Soria
Soria hit her term limit on the Fresno City Council and is now looking to carry on her good work at the State Assembly. Soria worked alongside her parents in the fields and packing houses throughout her childhood, then worked her way through college and law school, and eventually was elected to the City Council. During her service, she has helped to create thousands of jobs, provide affordable housing and homeless shelters, expand Fresno City College, create a scholarship fund for DREAMers, deliver millions in emergency funding for safe drinking water and secure funding for new health clinics and local schools.

Assembly District 31: Joaquin Arambula
Dr. Arambula’s good work in the State Assembly has earned him another term in office. Prior to his election, he was an emergency room doctor in Selma, and he has used his medical experience to author legislation that improves health and mental health services for Californians while fighting for cost transparency. He has championed legislation for groundwater recharge projects, secured millions for Transformative Climate Communities to invest in disadvantaged communities and directed funds our way to repair roads, improve public safety and assist local food banks in combating hunger.

Assembly District 33: Jose Sigala
Jose Sigala is the proud son of Mexican immigrants and a UC Berkeley graduate with more than 25 years of legislative and public policy experience working in the State Legislature and local government. Sigala has served on the Tulare City Council since 2016 and was mayor from 2018 to 2020. He stepped up to the newly created Tulare County Regional Transit Agency Board of Directors and quickly became the board chair. The Agency is organizing Tulare County’s transit systems into one regional transit system to provide the public with a more effective, reliable and efficient system.

This Assembly District, held by an incumbent Republican, has an even split between Republicans and Democrats going into this new election. There is an opportunity here to give the people a forward thinker in Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties, including the cities of Kingsburg, Reedley, Avenal, Corcoran, Hanford, Lemoore, Dinuba, Farmersville, Lindsay, Porterville, Tulare, Woodlake and a portion of Visalia.

Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 4: Jose Ramirez
Ramirez worked for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and later founded Community Development Inc., which handles project development, affordable housing and consulting. Ramirez was the city manager of Orange Cove and later took that role in Firebaugh and Livingston. He is endorsed by former Assembly Member Juan Arámbula and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

His incumbent opponent, Buddy Mendes, is a Republican who infamously verbally attacked a presenter during public comment because he disagreed with her.

Fresno City Council District 1: Annalisa Perea
District 1 will not feature an incumbent as Esmeralda Soria is stepping out at the end of her term limit to run for State Assembly. Perea is an experienced city planner and former president of the State Center Community College District board. Our sprawling centerless city certainly needs someone who understands how to let traffic flow while also allowing for anyone to get around easily without driving a car. Her approach to law enforcement and homelessness is focused on providing off-ramps to crises. For the police, she supports 911 operators, community service officers and diversion programs providing internships to teens on a path to criminal behavior. She proposes construction of tiny homes to house the unhoused and day centers to help them shower and get back into steady jobs.

Fresno City Council District 3: Miguel Arias
Council Member Arias has made continuous efforts to keep his constituents informed with information on how to access services, apply for assistance programs and participate in community events. He has concrete plans to expand housing in Fresno, reorganize our harmful zoning system, while also repairing the public spaces we all depend on. He recognizes the benefit of planting trees to lower energy costs, clean the air and cool our urban heat islands. For all this and more, he has secured the Fresno Bee’s endorsement.

Fresno City Council District 5: Luis Chavez
Council Member Luis Chavez is running for his second elected term, after filling in for the end of his departing predecessor's term. His work has shown his quality. He successfully guided money from the federal Democrats’ American Rescue Plan to finally start the long awaited Southeast Fresno Sports Complex and greenspace. He has consistently advanced Covid vaccination to all communities, seen that key roads in his district got needed repairs and worked hard to beautify Fresno.

Fresno City Council District 7: Nelson Esparza
Council Member Esparza has many achievements under his belt, including securing a $345 million infrastructure investment into the Blackstone Corridor and Downtown Fresno over the next 50 years through creation of the Fresno EIFD, and reforming and overhauling the Code Enforcement Division to be more effective in cleaning up Fresno neighborhoods.

Local Campaigns Need Your Help!
 

Bredefeld’s Accusation Strategy

Fresno City Council Member Garry Bredefeld wore through his ration of benefit of the doubt approximately six scandals ago, so when the far-right conservative came forth with his accusation of corruption against City Council President Nelson Esparza, any sensible person should raise a skeptical eyebrow.

Bredefeld recently announced that City Attorney Doug Sloan had told him that City Council President Nelson Esparza had tried to extort Sloan. Bredefeld then went to the Fresno Police himself. The claim says Esparza told Sloan that he must only work for the Council majority.

This appears to reference a City resolution passed on April 21, which states in any investigations of public documents by a Council member against another Council member the documents are to be provided to the entire Council, not just the requesting party. Bredefeld had recently ordered investigations of every progressive member of the City Council, claiming every one of them was overcharging their office credit accounts.

Esparza says that he told Sloan that several Council members were displeased that the City Attorney’s Office “had been weaponized for partisan purposes” by Bredefeld, and emphasized to Sloan the new resolution that prohibits secret investigations directed by any one member of the Council. And it seems Sloan was already on the way out as he nearly instantly announced he has already accepted a new job as city attorney of Santa Monica.

Esparza has responded with a defamation suit against Bredefeld. 

Bredefeld has perpetually ensured he is in the headlines with his own behavior. Previously, he has accused others of embezzlement, while his colleagues claim Bredefeld is depriving his own constituents by not organizing community events and acts of service similar to what they expended.

Meanwhile, Bredefeld has fended off his own scandals stemming from sticking with his staffer convicted of domestic violence, fighting against City support for LGBTQ+ persons and abortion rights, opposing the Advance Peace program to reduce gang and gun violence, and inciting his supporters to enact a violent confrontation at Miguel Arias’ home.

But worryingly, this time, our Republican mayor, Jerry Dyer, is giving air to Bredefeld’s latest claim.

Ukraine Conflict Signals Return of Numbered Worlds

First world, second world, third world; today, they are used to refer to relative levels of national prosperity and technological advancement. However, their original meanings are emerging again.

Russia’s imperialist war of conquest in Ukraine might crystalize what 30 years of post–Cold War international politics tried to hold at bay—a fissure across the globe between the democratic republican world, a totalitarian world and those nations that try to balance between the avarice and disinterest of those two camps.

The post–Cold War liberal order hoped to make wars of conquest unprofitable by holding out the threat of severing from the vast web of international commerce. And for three decades, it appeared to succeed. Wars framed as police actions or involvement in civil wars still abounded, but it seemed that simple mutual greed might have slain one of the horsemen of conflict.

Putin, whether through deliberation or delusion, has now triggered that threat and the global liberal order is inflicting the threatened consequence.

Other countries are watching to see exactly how high the cost of imperialism will rise. Immediately after Putin’s Russian Federation succeeded in annexing Crimea through the farce of a denied occupation, the People’s Republic of China grossly stepped up its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

Now, as Putin’s claims of the illegitimacy of Ukraine’s statehood mirror PRC claims about Taiwan, it is certain there are people in Beijing budgeting out if they could weather equivalent sanctions.

If the conservative totalitarian countries believe they can weather the “West’s” withdrawal, we might see a splintering of the globe and an end to the period of growth that allowed China to leap to superpower status and the United States to bask in global hegemony. A smaller world is one with fewer opportunities, and three smaller worlds cannot fix the globe-sized problems that climate change is slowly killing us with.

Volunteers Needed to Help with Campaign Signs

It’s an unfortunate reality that the general voter has a short memory and a strong herd instinct. Political signs fulfill a valuable function of increasing name recognition and swaying the public perception of levels of support. Democrats across Fresno County need volunteers to help place and install high-visibility signs. 

Locations will be provided along with training and everything needed to place the sign. A pickup or SUV is recommended, and your schedule can be accommodated. As little as a few signs a week is appreciated. Once you’re shown the method, it takes moments and provides a visible mark in the world of your efforts to improve our region.

National Union Awakening Could Be Our Salvation

A Starbucks location in northwest Fresno is currently fighting to be the first Starbucks in the Central Valley to successfully unionize. These workers join a growing movement, as four other California stores have unionized in the past few months with two dozen more reaching out to Workers United to begin the process. The Herndon and Marks location is beside the Mad Duck Brewery,

These workers deserve to be empowered after everything they have had to deal with in recent years, including a man slashing someone with a sword in their parking lot. Management has faced accusations of hostility and discrimination against a trans employee. On a national level, Starbucks has faced defeat in court for firing employees at other locations for attempting to organize a union.

As wealth inequality rises to levels far beyond those of the gilded age robber barons, working-class Americans are managing to pierce a century of conservative propaganda minimizing the good of unions. There is no protection that workers have now that came out of the goodness of profit driven corporate boards, without the threat of labor mobilization.

Just recently, DC circulator bus drivers succeeded in their strike, securing wage increases, full employer (no matching) contributions to a benefit plan, and an 18% increase over three years for top of the scale drivers.

Even the current Goliath, Amazon, has begun to feel a few uncomfortable bouts of unionization, despite the overwhelming anti-union propaganda the industry titan puts out.

For the past 30 years, American progressives have had faith in being on the right side of history. That attitude might be California’s own contribution to the political landscape. Our state has always had an attitude that we exist about 10 years in the future to the rest of the country.

If our state has a problem, we assume that the rest of the country will be grappling with it in a decade. If our state does something new, we assume it will just be a matter of time until the rest of the United States “gets with the program.” It’s not even the condescension or pride that Californians are usually accused of, but an unshakable confidence that California is the prow of the American experiment and faith in the inevitability of the future.

This faith has weakened the vital machinery of the progressive cause. Unions were once the foundation and cornerstone of American democratic socialism. With this new attention, perhaps unions can overcome the shackles that have been placed on them over the decades.

Precinct Captains!

Want to help us win in 2022? Be a precinct captain! Join and become a part of our team! To join us, e-mail [email protected].

Fellowship Program!

We are helping create the next generation of Democrats in the Central Valley! Are you a student interested in getting involved and learning more about the political world? You would be ideal for our fellowship program! For more information, e-mail [email protected].

Democratic Party Website and HQ

Visit Your Democratic Headquarters! Our office is now open, and we can’t wait to see you again! Help us register people to vote or change to vote by mail. Pass out candidate or issue literature and pick up candidate swag! Sign up to help us around the office!

News and events will alway arise faster than this newsletter can come out. That is why the Fresno County Democratic Party website is the best place to get regular updates on upcoming events in the area, as well as information on ways to get involved. There is also information on scheduled meetings of the many Democratic clubs in Fresno County, so you can find one that most suits you and your interests

https://fresnocountydemocrats.org/

The Democratic Party HQ (1033 U St.) is open 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday–Friday. Call 559-495-0606 or e-mail [email protected] for information or to volunteer.

Support your local Democratic Party by donation via ActBlue or by mailing a check to Fresno County Democratic Party, P.O. Box 5795, Fresno, CA 93755.

Our newsletter is prepared by Francis Horan.

Democratic Party Headquarters: 1033 U Street, Fresno, CA 93721

[email protected]
559-495-0606

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