Brown Leads Parade of Winning CPF-Backed Candidates
California’s first responders have some strong new support on both sides of the political aisle in the wake of November’s general election.
Statewide Offices
At the top of the ticket, former Gov. Jerry Brown became Gov.-elect Jerry Brown, having won the office in which he served from 1975-1983. Brown handily defeated former eBay executive Meg Whitman, who spent more than $140 million on a campaign largely based on attacking public service workers.
Brown has a 40-year record of standing up for first responders, having signed the nation’s first firefighter cancer presumption law. He was out-spent by almost five-to-one by Whitman, but got critical help from CPF and other advocates of working families, whose efforts countered Whitman’s free-spending campaign.
"Our members stepped up and took a stand this year in a big way, and we are proud and humbled by that support,” said CPF President Lou Paulson. “We were never going to out-spend Meg Whitman, but we were able to out-work her.”
CPF-backed candidates were clear winners in six of the other seven statewide offices, re-electing Secy. of State Debra Bowen, Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Controller John Chiang, and electing Gavin Newsom as lieutenant governor, Dave Jones as insurance commissioner and Tom Torlakson as superintendent of public instruction.
The seventh statewide contest – for attorney general – is still too close to call. CPF-endorsed Kamala Harris currently leads by a razor-thin 22,000 votes (out of more than 6.5 million votes cast) over Steve Cooley.
State Legislature
CPF’s success in electing firefighter-friendly legislative candidates continued this year. A whopping 96% of CPF-backed Assembly candidates and 95% of our endorsed Senate candidates won their races. CPF made endorsements in all but five of the 101 seats up for grabs, backing Democrats and Republicans who stood up for first responders.
“When it comes to candidates, CPF has never looked at party label, but at where candidates stand on the issues that matter to firefighters and their families,” noted Paulson. “In tough times like these, it is all the more important to have lawmakers who will listen and stand up for first responders."
Statewide Propositions
On the ballot front, voters sent mixed messages, particularly on the subject of breaking through the state’s budget gridlock. CPF-backed Proposition 25, which brings the majority vote back to the state’s budget process, won favor with voters. However, voters also blew a $1 billion to $2 billion hole in the state budget by passing Proposition 22, the League of Cities’ redevelopment set-aside.
“Obviously, we’re concerned that Proposition 22 will only heighten the dysfunction at the state level without providing a single new dollar for public safety services,” said Paulson. “We’ll be closely watching to insure that city managers do not use their new-found constitutional protection to ramp up the fiscal shell games that have resulted in layoffs and station closures.”
In other ballot measures, voters rejected Proposition 23, an oil-industry effort to roll back environmental protections. They added a new 2/3 vote requirement for local fees by passing Proposition 26, and turned back an effort to roll back corporate tax breaks by rejecting Prop. 24. CPF opposed Props. 23 and 26, but supported Prop. 24.
CPF didn’t take a position on Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure, which voters rejected. CPF also took no position on Props. 20 and 27, dealing with redistricting, and on Prop. 21, dealing with park fees.
