Democracy got a healthy workout last week. The president-elect’s persistent claims of voter fraud and election stealing evaporated on Tuesday when results showed that he had won a majority of both the nation’s electoral votes and the popular vote. Alameda County defied the national trend, giving hometown candidate Kamala Harris 73% of the vote.
The county’s district attorney was recalled by voters who felt Pamela Price was soft on crime. Public safety and homelessness figured heavily in the talking points of local city council and mayoral candidates who tapped into voter nervousness about keeping neighborhoods clean and safe.
Another sign voters want to get tougher on crime is the passage of California’s Prop 36, which will increase penalties for retail theft. It won by 65% in Alameda County, 4% less than statewide.
In Fremont, Raj Salwan was elected as the new mayor, and Teresa Keng and Yajing Zhang won seats. Teresa Cox appears to have edged out Raymond Liu by 62 votes.
Newark re-elected Mayor Michael Hannon, gave Terrence Grindall a full term and green-lighted Eve Marie Little for the remainder of an unexpired term.
Gary Singh was elevated to Union City mayor after eight years on the council, and Lance Nishihira was top of three for the District 1 city council seat.
Voters here seem pretty happy to invest in local schools. Bonds were passed for Fremont Unified, New Haven Unified and Newark Unified. Ka-ching!
Newark approved a transient occupancy tax and voters in Union City ratified a gross receipts tax on businesses that will give the city $3.5 million a year to spend on essential services,
Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna will continue to represent the region in U.S. Congress, after each collected almost two thirds of the votes; Assemblyman Alex Lee slam dunked by a similar percentage. Swalwell and Khanna will be limited in what they can do, however, with a split house, a Republican president and U.S. Senate and a packed Supreme Court.
Elon Musk will spend even less time at the Fremont Tesla plant as he takes up as the White House’s cost-cutting billionaire in residence.
The stock market is way up. The election is a nice holiday present for the ultra rich, bad news for the unhoused, the undocumented and the unlawful. For the rest of us in the middle, well, it’s worth paying attention.
