Index-Tribune recommendations, and ruminations on the politics of the soul

Crazy political year or not, Election Day is always a good time to pause and consider where the country stands in its still-political infancy.|

INDEX-TRIBUNE RECOMMENDATIONS

Here's a rundown of the Sonoma Index-Tribune's recent endorsements in the June 7 election:

Measure AA: Yes

1st District Supervisor: Susan Gorin

5th District Congress: Mike Thompson

3rd District State Senate: Bill Dodd

4th District Assembly: we recommend both Dan Wolk and Don Saylor

10th District Assembly: Marc Levine

'The speaker speaks, but the truth still leaks – where even Richard Nixon has got soul." – Neil Young, 'Campaigner'

A political history of June 7:

1628 Charles 1 signs the Petition of Right, limiting absolute powers of English monarchs

1654 Louis XIV crowned King of France

1837 Birth of Alois Hitler, father of Adolf

1892 Benjamin Harrison is first President to attend a baseball game

1893 Gandhi commits first act of civil disobedience

2016 Donald Trump laps up all 172 state GOP delegates on way to party nomination

Where this Tuesday's June 7 California primary fits on the list only time will tell. But it's been an election year like no other, so perhaps President Harrison's witnessing the Reds beat the Senators in extra innings will one day pale in comparison.

Crazy political year or not, an election eve is always a good time to pause and consider where the country stands in its still-political infancy, our democratic growing pains hopefully to be mocked centuries from now in the utopian American society of the future.

And where exactly does the country stand? Well, a lot are standing with a guy whose most known for frequently shouting 'you're fired!' for much of the last 10 years. While many Sonomans scratch their heads at the ascendency of Donald Trump – and he certainly gives just cause – there's also an element of logic to his support among the Republican electorate: they feel their party leadership isn't delivering, and he's the only candidate who stepped forward who isn't one of them. Bernie Sanders, a frumpy East Coast intellectual, is the 'Bizarro Trump' of the election, but his popularity is essentially the same idea: progressives are frustrated with the Democrats' not-progressive-enough ways.

How much of the national dissatisfaction with the electorate trickles down to local politics is anybody's guess. However, one North Bay political consultant says he has a very good guess: It's trickling down plenty.

Marc O'Hara is a longtime North Bay political consultant, now based in L.A., who's working with the Gina Cuclis campaign for 1st District Supervisor. O'Hara says he's worked with a polling firm called Precision Politics to gauge Sonoma voter sentiment in this election cycle. And O'Hara writes that he's seeing 'something related to the Trump/Bernie phenomena.'

There's a lot to be said about the efficacy of internal campaign polls. (And if there is such 'phenomena' taking place in Sonoma, we could be saying the words 'Supervisor Rhinehart' a lot the next four years – as Santa Rosa substitute teacher Keith Rhinehart is definitely the outsider candidate in the 1st District.) But there's also a lot to be said about the 'Trump-Bernie phenomena' – which is predicated on the theory that the establishment is failing Americans and only a non-establishment candidate can right the ship.

It's an ill-advised disconnect, however, for voters to think that the remedy for an allegedly broken political system is in electing a single person – as opposed to overhauling the system itself.

It's like thinking you can save a root-diseased tree by pruning its branches.

Virtually all establishment politicians started as non-establishment politicians. Incumbency isn't the question – it's what one does with that incumbency that matters. And at almost all levels of politics, what's the typical thing officials do with their incumbency? Try and protect it.

The result is a general policy of pleasing the right people, and displeasing as few as possible.

Though perhaps voters would be better served by someone willing to displease the right people from time to time.

One of the more celebrated North Bay politicians of the last 20 years has been the late Mill Valley Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who took on PG&E in his fight to establish the state's first 'community choice' energy aggregator, Marin Clean Energy, in 2010, which established the blueprint for the Sonoma Clean Power we have today. McGlashan's David-Goliath struggle with the energy behemoth earned him national headlines – and lasting legacy after only a brief political career that was sadly cut short when he died of an apparent heart attack in 2011 at age 49. Speculation at the time was that the stress from the clean energy battle may have been a contributing factor in his health, but no one will ever know.

What we do know is that being an effective public servant is a tough job – and truly effective public servants are tough to come by.

But, whether currently holding political a seat or fighting to take one, they're out there somewhere. Maybe even right now on the campaign trail.

Where even Richard Nixon has got soul.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

INDEX-TRIBUNE RECOMMENDATIONS

Here's a rundown of the Sonoma Index-Tribune's recent endorsements in the June 7 election:

Measure AA: Yes

1st District Supervisor: Susan Gorin

5th District Congress: Mike Thompson

3rd District State Senate: Bill Dodd

4th District Assembly: we recommend both Dan Wolk and Don Saylor

10th District Assembly: Marc Levine

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