California Teachers and Howard Jarvis join hands
Good morning. On behalf of The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board, welcome to The Take, your opinion-politics newsletter.
We start with legislative election games, move to banking and presidential politics, and visit the North Carolina restroom war.
The California Teachers Association views the coming initiative to extend the Proposition 30 income tax as its highest priority for 2016. The anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association will do what it can to kill the income tax on wealthy people earning $1 million or more.
Curiously, the teachers union and Jarvis join hands in at least one endorsement: Jordan Cunningham, a Republican running for the Central Coast Assembly seat being vacated by congressional candidate Katcho Achadjian. In addition to receiving the CTA’s blessing, Jarvis calls him “a proven taxpayer advocate.” Cunningham lists the Jarvis endorsement on his campaign website, but not the CTA’s, curiously.
Cunningham was one of only two Republican legislative candidates to gain the teachers’ blessing. The other is Bill Haldin, seeking the seat being vacated by termed-out Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, who moved to El Dorado Hills to run for an El Dorado County supervisor seat. The teachers union endorsed two incumbent Republican assemblymen, Brian Dahle of Lassen County and Jay Obernolte of Big Bear Lake. Jarvis gave ratings of 100 percent to Obernolte and 97.3 percent to Dahle last year.
Take a number: $613,347
In another head-scratcher, EdVoice, the charter school advocate that regularly clashes with the teachers union, has spent $613,347 to elect Assemblyman Bill Dodd, D-Napa, to the Senate seat being vacated by termed-out Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis. CTA is neutral in that race. In the race for Dodd’s Assembly seat, CTA and Dodd have endorsed Davis Mayor Dan Wolk, Lois’ son. In that race, EdVoice has spent $128,814 to elect Wolk’s rival, Winters Mayor Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.
Our take
Editorial: Customers finally get some help against big banks.
Editorial: We seem to be reaching a regulatory tipping point on vaping and e-cigarettes, at last.
Bill Whalen, among our regular columnists: In 2016, California politics look a lot like 1994, Mexican flags flying.
Their take
The San Diego Union-Tribune warns that the Clinton campaign shouldn’t be too cocky. The Trumpocalypse could happen.
The Orange County Register writes that like him or not, Trump has brought to the fore issues that have simmered for decades.
Katha Pollitt writes in The Nation on why she didn’t vote for Bernie Sanders: “There’s a difference between someone who votes the right way, and someone who introduces legislation and champions the issue.”
Take that
Time for North Carolina to flush its stinker of a bathroom law. The U.S. Department of Justice warns that House Bill 2 violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act by banning transgender people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity. The Raleigh News & Observer is making its opinion clear. The Charlotte Observer is doing the same.
Gov. Pat McCrory has a choice: Get rid of the law or lose billions of dollars in federal education funding. He has until Monday to decide. We hope McCrory chooses wisely. He signed the law on March 23, the same day North Carolina’s Legislature pushed the bill through in a special session convened solely to undercut a nondiscrimination ordinance passed by the city of Charlotte.
McCrory since has closed his ears and held his nose to the national stink led by California companies, including PayPal, which scrapped plans for a global operations center and 400 new jobs in Charlotte. The NBA also might move its 2017 All-Star Game and several musicians have canceled shows in the state, dealing a blow to the tourism industry. Even Beyonce had something to say.
Americans have far more important things to worry about than who is using what bathroom. No wonder people think politics is in the toilet. – Erika D. Smith, @Erika_D_Smith
The syndicates
Charles Krauthammer: Republicans turn their backs on conservatism.
Gail Collins: The Donald Trump new normal.
Eugene Robinson: Trump’s sacking of the GOP.
Michael Gerson: The Dalai Lama’s path to peace.
Nicholas Kristof: Caitlyn Jenner’s calling.
And finally,
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump – acting very presidential? or maybe trying to win Latino voters? – gets the award for the Tweet of the Day. You have to see it to fully appreciate it.
@realDonaldTrump: Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!
On Sunday, we’ll be recommend our choices for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer.
This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 5:31 AM with the headline "California Teachers and Howard Jarvis join hands."