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EDITORIAL & OPINION
Thursday, February 16 - Wednesday, February 22, 2023
www.HSJChronicle.com
The problem with ranked-choice voting THOMAS BUCKLEY | CONTRIBUTOR
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anked choice voting is the answer to a question only a bureaucrat would even think to ask. To simplify, RCV is a voting method used most recently in the 2022 Alaskan congressional election which Sarah Palin notoriously lost -- that in theory blurps out a winner that is actually (really really trust us on this) the most representative of the wishes of the electorate. This magic trick is accomplished by people voting for their first choice, second, etc. and then the numbers are added up and moved about and cut and pasted and then the registrar of voters announces a winner a few weeks after Election Day (here is a more
technical description of the process from a D.C.-based group that supports the idea.) The specifics of the process are not complicated but they are intensely obtuse, leading to one of the major criticisms of RCV: trust in election systems is the foundational bedrock of a democratic republic and if that system is turned into a complicated black box, then that trust is damaged, harming the nation as a whole. But the overly complicated specifics of the system may, in fact, be the least of its problems. In reviewing pro-RCV articles and editorials and papers, one thing becomes very clear: political insiders, especially of the “progressive” stripe, love it. It is popular in that milieu in part because of its complexity -- it needs more
government workers to count and explain than regular voting. It’s also popular because it favors a certain type of candidate and a certain type of campaign, to whit “moderate” and “nice.” In an RCV election, the candidate wants to get the largest number of votes while infuriating the least number of voters; in other words, campaigns become more personality driven, more milquetoast, more sound bitey, less aggressive, less issue-oriented (taking a definitive stance on a specific issue could alienate folks who might otherwise pick you as their second vote, etc.) In head-to-head elections, none of those concerns apply, allowing (admittedly this is currently theoretical) voters to see a far more complete picture
Veterans Corner RUSTY STRAIT | SENIOR REPORTER
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tarting this year, all veterans, except those with a dishonorable discharge, will be able to access emergency mental health care free of charge at any veterans medical facility or other clinics, whether or not they are already enrolled in Department health care services. This is all part of a nationwide effort to prevent suicides in the veteran population. New department data shows that about 17 veterans a day commit suicide, a figure unacceptable in any society. Veterans in suicidal crisis may now receive the worldclass emergency health care they deserve, no matter
BIDEN from B1
$6 trillion enterprise that is the federal government. A January poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that a mere 23% of U.S. adults have “a great deal” of confidence in Biden to effectively manage the White House, down from 44% when he took office. The president told PBS in a interview last week that he thinks polling is irrelevant. But for the next two years, he’s telling staffers and donors, voters need to get a fuller sense of everything his administration has done, from $35 price caps on insulin for older people to more than 20,000 infrastructure projects in the pipeline. “It’s really important we let people know what we’ve done — let people know,” Biden recently told donors. They were gathered for a fundraiser in the living room of a posh New York City apartment, but his remarks focused more on the needs
NIKKI HALEY from B1
looks like more of the same, a career politician whose only fulfilled commitment is to herself.” Before entering politics, Haley was an accountant. She defeated the longest-serving member of the South Carolina House in 2004 in her first bid for public office. Three terms later and with little statewide recognition, Haley mounted a long-shot campaign for governor against a large field of experienced politicians. She racked up a number of high-profile endorsements, including from the sitting South Carolina governor,
POLITICS from B2
all 99 state legislative chambers are polarized, that is, with party medians signifi-
of the candidates. It is also true that in a regular election the winner is really undoubtedly the winner and did not fluke in to office by being everyone’s second favorite. This “bridesmaid effect” has led to a number of first round “winners” eventually losing to candidates who racked up more impressive second and third choice votes (if everything is counted right, which is not exactly a guarantee). The certainty of victory created by the one-on-one duel allows the winner to approach their new job from a position of confidence, which is crucial when dealing with the unelected bureaucrats all electeds must deal with every day (I know this from personal experience.) Therefore, anyone elected by RCV will be in an
inherently weaker position that they would normally be vis-à-vis the permanent government and therefore far less likely to be able to reform said government. And they will be less likely to be the type of person who is inclined towards rocking the boat. That’s why bureaucrats love it. The positive press around the issue uses buzzwords that most of the public should, by now, know are red flags: RCV is praised because it increases diversity, allows more disenfranchised people to run for office, and favors more moderate candidates in this “time of polarization.” In other words, RCV is being supported by the very same forces that are intent on preserving the woke class in perpetuity and see RCV as a way to muddy the
Thomas Buckley | Courtesy Photo of California Policy Center
waters, confuse the public, and in fact tamp down direct participation in our governance. Sounds pretty rank to me. Thomas Buckley is the former mayor of Lake Elsinore, Cal. and a former newspaper reporter. He is currently the operator of a small communications and planning consultancy and can be reached directly at planbuckley@ gmail.com. You can read more of his work at: https:// thomas699.substack.com/
where they need it when they need it, or whether they’re enrolled in VA care, according to VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “This care expansion will save veterans’ lives, and nothing is more important.” America has 18 million veterans but only fifty percent are currently enrolled in veterans’ health care through the department. Under this new policy, VA will either waive costs for care of, in cases of, visits outside the VA system or provide reimbursements for emergency mental health care. This plan is based on legislation adopted by Congress nearly two years ago. House Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member (Congress-
man Mark Takano of Riverside), who authored the measure, praised the department for its implementation. Congressman Takano added. “This new benefit removes cost from the equation when veterans are at imminent risk of self-harm and allows them to access lifesaving care when they need it most, regardless of whether the veteran has ever enrolled in or used VA healthcare benefits.” Veterans experiencing a mental health emergency can contact the Veteran Crisis line at 988 or at 1-800273-8255. Select option 1 for a VA staffer. Veterans, troops or their family members can visit: VeteransCrisisLine.net for help.
bureaucracy that favored process over production.” This new process was made possible when Governor Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 434 by former Assemblymember Tom Daly (D – Anaheim), which allowed for multiple housing applications to be narrowed down into a single award process. Under this new approach, requests for housing development funds have soared. The first round of new Multifamily Finance Super Notice of Funding Availability (Super NOFA) received more than $3.5 billion in developer requests – a sharp contrast to years of undersubscription.
““The California Multifamily Super NOFA transformed a once burdensome and lengthy funding application process into an accessible and smart one-stop shop that will get more housing built faster,” said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “This results in new homes for struggling working families, veterans, farmworkers, and people exiting homelessness. California will continue to act with urgency to find new, innovative solutions to fast track housing development.” The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) last year combined state-funded multifamily housing programs to make
of blue collar workers. Many voters want leaders who echo their frustration rather than provide policy fixes, said Shawn Parry-Giles, a professor of political communications at the University of Maryland. She noted that Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, won the presidency by expressing the rage that many felt. “Candidates like Trump seemingly gain traction because they speak to such anger that makes people feel like he understands them,” she said. “Biden doesn’t tap into that anger, but he does try to make inroads through empathy.” Trump also had the ability to take credit for any successes, claiming strong economic growth when the data suggested it had changed little from Barack Obama’s second term. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said Biden has not been “as adept at credit-taking” as was Trump. “If his policies are benefiting the skeptical public, he ought to be able to show
them proof of it and in the process increase their perception that he cares about them,” she said. Plenty of presidents have aimed to show empathy for everyday Americans: Obama stressed the 10 letters he read every day from people around the country. George W. Bush offered himself as a “compassionate conservative.” Bill Clinton famously declared during the 1992 presidential campaign, “I feel your pain.” Biden tries to put himself in the scuffed shoes of a worker and asks Ivy League educated aides to do the same. He repeatedly tells them that real people must be able to easily apply for the government resources being created for them. When Gene Sperling took on the role of overseeing the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief programs in 2021, the president gave him direct instructions. “When you are guiding implementation of these programs, I want you every time to imagine a couple of parents coming home from a
10 hour shift, trying to make dinner and help a child with homework,” Sperling said Biden told him. That meant helping in personal ways as well as with broad steps. Sperling worked with Treasury and the IRS to ensure that the child tax credit’s monthly payments arrived on the same day each month. He told the team it was something of a victory if someone complained on Facebook or Twitter that their payment was late, since it meant people knew about the program and valued it. Those now-lapsed payments pulled child poverty to its lowest level on record. And when some in Congress suggested the benefits should only be targeted to the poor, the president pushed back. In an Oval Office meeting, he told aides it also mattered for middle-class parents to have a sense of dignity, that they should be able to afford a prom dress or a Little League uniforam for their kids. Biden referenced the frustrations of his own father at tax time. Parents got an income-tax deduction for their
children then. But if the parents’ income fell because of a layoff, the value of the deduction also fell. The president remembered his father asking how it could be fair to give parents less when they were enduring a rough year and needed more help. Aides tell stories of a president who has made snap decisions based on what he felt people needed, stressing that the government must act with ordinary Americans in mind and make it easier to receive benefits. After Hurricane Ian struck Florida last year, Biden flew down to survey the damage. Homeowners were crowding “insurance villages” to apply for damages, something that Biden learned about during his flight. He ordered the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to send teams to expedite relief. Julie Rodriguez, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, said the mandate from Biden was to deliver services and not “allow the guts of government
to get in the way.” In last week’s State of the Union address, Biden said the coronavirus emergency is ending, that “we have broken the COVID grip on us.” But the pandemic still matters for the president. Each day, he continues to tuck a card into his suit jacket that lists the deaths and infections from COVID-19, according to aides. He references the numbers in meetings, knowing they represent people and families. Even with abysmal approval ratings, the best strategy for Biden might be to simply keep doing what he’s doing, giving speeches about what he’s achieved, with lines that reporters might have heard before but that seem fresh to local audiences, said William Howell, a professor at the University of Chicago. “The thing to do is what Biden is doing right now,” Howell said. “It’s really about repetition, not just him saying it over and over again, but his surrogates saying it, and have these messages break through.”
Mark Sanford, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party darling. With her 2010 victory, Haley became South Carolina’s first female and minority governor — and the nation’s youngest at 38. She earned a speaking slot at the 2012 Republican National Convention and gave the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union in 2016. The defining moment of Haley’s time as governor came after the 2015 murders of nine Black parishioners in a Charleston church by a selfavowed white supremacist who had been pictured holding Confederate flags. For years, Haley had resisted calls to remove the Confederate flag from the State-
house grounds, even casting a rival’s push for its removal as a desperate stunt. But after the massacre and with the support of other leading Republicans, Haley advocated for legislation to remove the flag. It came down less than a month after the murders. In the 2016 presidential primary, Haley was an early supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, later shifting to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She ultimately said she would back the party’s nominee. Shortly after Trump’s victory, he tapped Haley to be his U.N. ambassador, a move that rewarded Henry McMaster, the lieutenant governor who was the nation’s first statewide elected official to back Trump’s 2016 campaign. Ha-
ley’s departure cleared the way for McMaster to ascend to the governorship he had sought, since losing a bruising primary to none other than Haley seven years earlier. With her Senate confirmation, Haley became the first Indian American in a presidential Cabinet. During her nearly two-year tenure, Haley feuded at times with other administration officials while bolstering her own public persona. One of her most memorable moments as U.N. ambassador came in 2018 after National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow suggested Haley had suffered “momentary confusion” when she said Russian sanctions were imminent.
“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” she responded. The first half of the quote became the title of her 2019 memoir. Her departure from the job later that year fueled speculation that she would challenge Trump in 2020 or replace Pence on the ticket. She did neither. Instead, Haley returned to South Carolina, where she bought a home on the wealthy enclave Kiawah Island, joined the board of aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co., launched herself on the speaking circuit and wrote two books, including the memoir. After the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, Haley initially cast doubts on Trump’s political future but said she wouldn’t
challenge him in 2024. She later shifted course, citing inflation, crime, drugs and a “foreign policy in disarray” among her reasons for considering a White House campaign. During his South Carolina stop last month, Trump told WIS-TV that Haley had called to seek his opinion on running for president. Trump pointed out her earlier pledge not to run against him but said he made no attempt to stop her. “She said she would never run against me because I was the greatest president, but people change their opinions, and they change what’s in their hearts,” Trump said. “So I said, ‘If your heart wants to do it, you have to go do it.’”
cantly different from each other,” they continue. “In 88 of those 99 chambers, the parties are getting even more significantly distant from each other over time.” California, not surpris-
ingly, is a leader in what is not a positive trend. “The five most polarized states in the country in 2020 are, in order, Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, and Washington State,” the
study found. “While California was for a long time the most polarized state, it was overtaken by Colorado in 2017.” Overall, Shor and McCarty concluded, shifts to the
left by Democrats, more than shifts to the right by Republicans, account for the increase in legislative polarization – a contrast with the GOP’s dramatic rightward march in Con-
gress. “The ‘smoking gun,’ however, remains elusive,” they say. “No one ‘cause’ has been identified as dominant, nor is there likely to be one.”
HOUSING from B1
them accessible to more communities, more equitable in serving the lowest-income Californians, and more targeted toward achieving better outcomes in health, climate, and household stability. “California continues to advance our commitment to building 2.5 million homes — with one million affordable homes — by 2030, as outlined in our Statewide Housing Plan,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. “Our simple approach to funding helps us accelerate much-needed construction and ensure the lowest-income Californians have access to quality homes near jobs, transit, schools, and other necessities that will make our communities more inclusive for decades to come.”
