Sierra Club 2018 November General Election Candidate Endorsements
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Congress (CD-18) Anna Eshoo
https://eshoo.house.gov/
Congress (CD-20) Jimmy Panetta
https://panetta.house.gov
Governor: Gavin Newsom (D)
Secretary of State: Alex Padilla (DI)
Controller: Betty Yee (DI)
Attorney General: Xavier Becerra (DI)
Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara (D)
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony Thurmond (D)
Assembly member Mark Stone (AD-29)
https://a29.asmdc.org
Assembly (AD-30) Robert Rivas
http://rivasforassembly.com/
Santa Cruz County Supervisor -- 4th District Greg Caput
In his seven years in office, Greg Caput has served his constituents and the County well on environmental issues from water to traffic to land use to pesticides. He opposes Highway 1 widening; he supports expanded bus lines along with rail and trail; and he advocates for environmental and agricultural land protection. Caput’s vocal opposition to Measure T helped to strongly defeat a June 2013 initiative to alter Watsonville's voter-approved Urban Growth Boundary that would have permitted big box stores on prime agricultural land. Supervisor Caput is closely connected, personally and politically, to his diverse district; he lives in a bilingual household with his wife, Carmen, and five children and makes it a point to listen respectfully to the views of others.
Santa Cruz City Council – Vote for TWO
Dr. Justin Cummings
A remarkable environmental leader, Justin Cummings earned his doctorate at UC Santa Cruz in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology through research on plants in the rainforest. He went on to open doors behind him, by co-creating a program within the Doris Duke Foundation to help increase the social diversity of the field of Conservation Biology nationwide. He will infuse the City Council with intricate knowledge of both energy and ecological issues, helping make informed environmental decisions on topics important to us. He has taken strong stands against the proposed new parking structure on the downtown farmer's market site and against widening Highway 1; he understands and supports transit and traffic demand reduction; and he fully comprehends the policies needed to protect our rare species and support local open spaces. As someone whose entire educational and professional career has been about environmental conservation and sustainability, Dr. Cummings has the knowledge and experience needed to advocate for these values on our council. He commits to prioritize affordable housing for the most vulnerable, protect neighborhood integrity, and only support building that is at the forefront of green industry standards.
Drew Glover
Drew Glover is an environmentalist born and raised in Santa Cruz (alumnus of Monarch elementary, former Harbor High class president, and current Cabrillo College student) who is dedicated to sustainability and education. Glover provides a strong voice for underrepresented community members and the environment, protecting open space and improving access for all residents of Santa Cruz. Currently, Glover is engaged in environmental advocacy through Project Pollinate, a nonprofit he founded in 2014 with the goal of “building community through pollinator preservation." Through his work at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, he leads food justice community-service trips to Selma, Alabama, to “broaden perspectives and cultural awareness.” Glover's courage and personal conviction to sustainability is consistent with his stances as an environmental activist and public figure. As a Councilmember, Glover will actively and publicly oppose the proposed new multi-story parking structure in downtown Santa Cruz and the widening of Highway 1 over the San Lorenzo River. He has pledged to resist overdevelopment and gentrification of Santa Cruz neighborhoods, while prioritizing the construction and protection of sustainable and affordable housing. He is on record unequivocally supporting the purchase of the Beach Flats Garden for the residents of the predominantly Latinx neighborhood, as well as implementing the biotic management plan for the Jessie Street Marsh in the Lower Ocean Neighborhood of Santa Cruz.
Watsonville City Council
District 5 Rebecca Garcia
Experienced incumbent Rebecca Garcia has both understanding and accomplishments related to local and national environmental issues, including climate change and transportation, as well as habitat and agricultural land protection. She is committed to successfully implementing the City’s Climate Action Plan, and she “supports policies and practices to promote conservation through a stable rural boundary between urban and environmentally sensitive and agricultural areas.” She has opposed widening Highway 1 as well as a trail with transit option to improve the transit corridor within Santa Cruz County, stating, “a passenger rail with a trail for bicycling or walking gives options to our residents.” Over the last four years, Garcia has supported and collaborated with the two leading local environmental organizations, Regeneration Pajaro Valley Climate Action and Watsonville Wetlands Watch.
District 7 Steve Trujillo
Steve Trujillo is deeply connected to environmental enhancement. As an activist and public figure, his actions have included advocacy to ban Roundup in the local neighborhood clubhouse grounds; leadership as a member of the Santa Cruz City School District Board of Trustees with installation of solar panels on the first three schools in the district; and community organizing to pressure a local agricultural corporation to inform neighbors of when and what sprays they will be using. Trujillo advocates for local environmental issues ranging from eliminating single-use plastics “destroying our sloughs, our fresh water creeks and ponds, the Pajaro River and our beaches,” to “NOTHING but solar power from panels in every city-owned building, including the youth center and senior center in downtown” to phasing out “ALL gas or diesel-powered city vehicles,” supporting electric recharging stations throughout the city. Trujillo hopes to remove fireworks stands from Watsonville, recognizing that fireworks are “toxic to birds, fish, water quality and the sense of well-being to our elder residents.”
Ballot Measures
State Proposition 1 (Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2018) – YES
State Proposition 3 (Water Supply and Water Quality Act of 2018) – OPPOSE
State Proposition 6 (Repeal of Recently Enacted Transportation Funding) - OPPOSE
State Proposition 10 (Rent Control Initiative) – YES
State Proposition 12 (Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act) – YES
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY MEASURE H (Affordable Housing Bond Issue) - YES
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