Before we start with the races, we asked the question – “Why are city races still run as “NON-PARTISAN?”
This video is from 2018, but is still relevant.
One party has overwhelmingly stood for climate change denial, structural racism denial, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ, suppressive policing, the disintegration of the wall between church and state, and disdain for science and public education. These attitudes don’t just affect the progress of our nation and our state, but also that of the communities in which we live. And in this article, someone has actually quantified the effect of partisanship in city councils.
Political parties are irrelevant to providing services. (IV: See video above – this is not true.)
Cooperation between elected officials belonging to different parties is more likely.
Proponents of nonpartisan ballots suggest that:
The absence of party labels confuses voters; a voter who must choose from among a group of candidates whom she knows nothing about will have no meaningful basis in casting a ballot.
In the absence of a party ballot, voters will turn to whatever cue is available, which often turns out to be the ethnicity of a candidate’s name.
Non-partisanship tends to produce elected officials more representative of the upper socioeconomic strata than of the general populace and aggravates the class bias in voting turnout, because in true non-partisan systems, there are no organizations of local party workers to bring lower-class citizens to the polls on election day.
Our takeaway? VOTE BLUE – from mayor to dogcatcher.
We’re including this video from Rise Simi Valley, the same group of amazing young people that put out the great video “Dear Simi Valley.” This video addresses both a hateful action instigated by a water board candidate against them and racism within the Simi Valley city council.
More info: Conejo Indivisible Non-partisan guide here.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 