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higher goaLs not the most practical way of determining who has the best chance of defeating McClintock in the fall.” Research shows an endorsement can boost a candidate’s share of the vote by 7 to 15 points, according to a forthcoming paper in Political Research Quarterly. Lowell, a Morse-supporting delegate, took issue with the way she was characterized by Calderon and Bateson’s statement. “The people who are here at the convention are grassroots activists,” she said. “These are not party elites. These are people who volunteer their time, who come to the convention on their own money. These are not people with a lot of money. These are people who care passionately about the party and state and are willing to do the hard work.” u.s. navy captain dave cutter, who was quoted in the Bee article that touted its investigation into Morse’s record, wrote a post on Medium criticizing the piece. Cutter wrote that the article “attempts to minimize and dilute Jessica Morse’s work.” Morse’s former boss, Cutter gave Morse extensive credit for her work, reporting that she was in fact a member of a four-person team advising a four-star general, and that she was “the adviser who rewrote the India strategy” for the U.S. Pacific Command—both facts that were brought into question in the Bee article. “Our community knows me,” Morse said. “Because we have built a campaign on integrity, people can see that and see through anything that’s misrepresenting who I am.” Morse said the misstatements attributed to her were one-offs cherrypicked from countless speeches she’s given as a candidate—mistakes such as saying “the” adviser instead of “an” adviser.” President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, endorsed Morse on February 24. Morse said this turn in the race was a distraction from the issues, as she had hoped to use this week to highlight Republican declarations that more guns are needed in schools following the shooting in Parkland, Fla., on February 14. As someone who spent a year in Iraq, Morse said that isn’t a solution. “I’ve lived in a world where everybody’s armed and it’s called a war zone,” she said. “It’s not safer.” Joanne Neft is a prominent political figure in District 4 who identifies as a moderate Republican, but helped prior
McClintock Democratic challenger Lowell said that for the last two Charlie Brown. Although she’s been weeks, Bateson’s campaign has made active in politics for decades in the a “ridiculous amount of phone calls to district, she said, she hasn’t paid much delegates,” which only entrenched their attention to this race as she is grieving support for Morse. Lowell applauded for her husband who recently passed Morse for sticking to her promise to run a away. As a result, she said, she would positive campaign, seeing it as a sign that “probably” throw her support behind she’d keep promises as a representative whomever the Democratic Party in Congress. But for now, the intraparty endorsed. bickering has brought back the familiar “The majority of people don’t know refrain that Democrats can’t get their [the candidates],” she said. “All they’re act together to beat even unpopular voting for when the time comes Republicans. is a D or [an] R.” “This kind of behavior Neft said she undermines the entire believes Calderon process,” Lowell “We need to has been “disruptive said. “It just makes be able to get the and distracting,” people look at the but that Morse Democratic Party resources and the and Bateson were and scratch their energy consolidated nearly equivalent heads. Like, ‘what against McClintock. We candidates. She are you guys wished they had thinking?’” can’t wait until June.” joined forces in one campaign morse said she was Jessica Morse against McClintock, open to working with Democratic candidate, CA-04 who has been seen Bateson and Calderon, as vulnerable due to whom she felt “honored” to his lockstep support of run alongside. Trump and his failure to put forth Pelleg said in the past, all three any legislation that made a meaningful candidates had pledged to drop out of the difference in his district. race if the state party endorsed one, but McClintock has also penned 20 suggested that Bateson’s position might opinion pieces for the far-right media have “changed after meeting so many platform Breitbart (which published an people across the district.” article last week aggregating the Bee’s McClintock and Calderon didn’t reporting). respond to repeated requests for comment. Instead of Morse, Bateson joined forces One positive for the Democrats came with Calderon, a candidate that has faced a day before Calderon and Bateson’s allegations of embezzling funds from statement. Flip the 14, a statewide the Placer Women Democrats (Calderon organization focused on defeating all denied the charge but returned the $1,900); 14 Republican members of Congress in carrying on a romantic relationship with California, and the Sacramento Central the leader of an ostensibly impartial Labor Council, or AFL-CIO, which political group; and accepting an improper consists of more than 100 labor unions campaign contribution from the CEO of a in Northern California, announced social media company. a strategic partnership to defeat Pelleg clarified that Bateson and McClintock. Calderon’s partnership applies only Even with this momentum building, to “a shared view about this specific a lot will have to go right for the left if [endorsement] process.” She declined they hope to reclaim a seat they haven’t to comment on the campaign’s stance occupied since 1993. Morse seems ready regarding the Bee and SN&R’s reporting, for her second marathon. beyond saying that she believed people “McClintock only represents his should decide for themselves what they political party, and there’s a cost of make of the information. doing that to our community,” she said. “The reporting’s out there,” she said. “Whether it’s forest fires, workforce “And people can make a determination as housing, access to broadband, to how that weighs into their calculations healthcare, education—these are issues for how they evaluate a candidate. Let that impact every member of our people decide what matters to them or community, regardless of party, and not. And you know what? Maybe none of need a real advocate to be working on it does matter to any of them.” solving them.” Ω
Latino students continue to fall between the cracks of California’s education system despite composing 51 percent of the state’s overall student population, according to a study from the western division of the Education Trust. The report found that the number of Latinos receiving associate’s and bachelor’s degrees doubled over the last decade, yet Latino adults continue to be “the least likely to have a college degree.” The percentage of adults graduating college in that category only rose by 1 percent from 2005 to 2015. The Education Trust is a coalition of groups advocating for greater higher learning participation, especially among people of color. The organization’s report identified a number of challenges when it comes to Latinos finishing college, including few Spanishfriendly or bilingual programs in preschools, a lack of access to classes that qualify students for state universities, and bias—knowingly or not—among teachers against steering Latino students toward rigorous coursework. On the bright side, high school dropout rates for Latino students fell from 27 percent in 1994 to 13 percent in 2015. State Sen. Ben Hueso said that California’s localized tax funding system for schools has created a “modern segregation system.” Hueso is a San Diego Democrat who leads the Latino Legislative Caucus. “A working-class family can only afford a cheaper home—that means your school district gets less funding,” Hueso said in a phone interview. “If we really want to make education equal in the state, every system has to get the same money on a per-pupil basis.” Regional universities have made some strides in Latino enrollment. Sacramento State’s Latino student population is on the cusp being the largest ethnic group of students. Across the 2016-17 school year, sac state’s total enrollment was 28 percent Latino, 29 percent white, 20 percent Asian and 5.5 percent AfricanAmerican. (Felicia Alvarez)
cLean ride As Uber and Lyft outrun public transit, more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases get pumped into the air. It’s part of a wider commuting trend that is giving the capital region the eighth-worst air quality in the country, according to the American Lung Association. One state senator is convinced it’s time to turn ride-hailing services fully electric. Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat, introduced legislation that sets a target for companies like Uber and Lyft to replace their fleets with clean-burning vehicles over the next 10 years. The bill would try to accomplish this by setting aside $300 million from the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. Not all transportation advocates are convinced of the ambitious bill’s merits. Joel Espino, legal counsel for the economic justice nonprofit Greenlining Institute, stressed that ridesharing services pull dollars from buses and light rail. “We want to get folks out of cars and into high-occupancy transit,” Espino noted, adding that Skinner’s strategy would actively compete with public transit while dissuading car-pooling and increasing congestion. Espino’s concerns don’t come in a vacuum: A 2015 study by UC Davis suggested that ride-hailing services do indeed pull ridership from public transit. But Matt Baker, land use and conservation policy director for the Environmental Council of Sacramento, said that Skinner’s bill would make good use of funds that are already meant to help California’s broader goal of putting million zeroemission vehicles on its roads by 2030. (Michael Mott) This story was made possible by a grant from Tower Cafe.
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