And the Silicon Billionaires cry
Silicon Valley's wealthy elite sunk millions into two campaigns in California. The first was for Marshall Tuck for Superintendent of Public Education. Tuck is a champion of regression, masquerading as a Democrat. He's pro-testing, pro-charter school and anti-Union. He loudly cheered the anti-tenure decision last June and had promised to do for California what he did to LA. According to his supporters (including Arne Duncan, Eli Broad, the widow of Steve Jobs, Bill and Melinda Gates, Mayor Kevin Johnson and his wife Michelle Rhee, etc) in the press he was wonderful. But, other places, I've seen less than stunning appraisals.
Almost every major newspaper in California endorsed him. I thought that was impressive, until I started thumbing through some of the on-line editions and discovered that many of them had the exact same homepage save for the name of the paper.
Example: San Jose Mercury news had an almost identical home page to the Contra Costa Times including how you could get election coverage - same page and not the Sec of State office either.
Well, with 100% of the vote counted, Torlakson won by about 4.2% of the vote. He was endorsed by almost every single union in the state, both public and private (Teachers, Police, Firefighters, Teamsters, SEIU, etc) and the Democratic establishment, a far cry from the narrow defeat the Mercury News was predicting.
Number 2
Ro Khanna, the man that Silicon Valley and the press got behind. This was a Democrat vs Democrat battle. Honda, a pro-union, pro-environment, unashamed liberal against Khanna, a corporatist, no-labels shill.
The man who called Honda an 'old school liberal' in a derisive tone, as if being liberal was a bad thing. He was supported by the Silicon Valley uber rich, but Honda had the support of Obama, Jerry Brown, Lt Gov Newsome, and others in the California Democratic Party.
The Contra Costa Times seemed certain Khanna would win or that it would take several days before we knew the outcome.
100% counted Honda 52.2%, Khanna 47.8%
Just wish to say Fuck You to the Billionaires who supported these anti-union, anti-working people hacks. An especially loud HA! HA! and Fuck You to the newspapers that endorsed the two losers.
Though, I no longer live in California (work overseas) I am proud of the good things that happened in the state this election