Some elections, especially in these fraught times, crackle with excitement. The upcoming June 7 primary election is not one of them.

For openers, there isn’t a single state proposition on the ballot. Perhaps that’s because the pandemic kept the ubiquitous signature gatherers at home instead of clogging the entrances to supermarkets. And you thought there was no upside to the coronavirus!

So, we’re seeing a ballot with just candidates for office, one countywide measure and one local measure (in Bolinas). Even the races for political office are almost all yawners devoid of serious competition, and their outcomes mostly look like foregone conclusions.

There are, however, two local-interest exceptions. Our longtime incumbent assemblymember, Marc Levine, has chosen to run for state insurance commissioner instead of a final term in the legislature. That opens up the assembly race to a newcomer, and four impressive candidates have stepped forward.

But perhaps of greater consequence is that Levine’s decision may not be as quixotic as it would appear to be. In fact, he stands a chance of unseating incumbent insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara. You may recall that I’ve never been a fan of Levine, and I have consistently recommended that you vote for one of his opponents. So am I now supporting him for a statewide office? Yup, I am. The reason is that Lara’s scandal-plagued tenure as insurance commissioner has been mired in ethical lapses, a lackluster record on the job and an appalling willingness to accept big bucks in campaign contributions from the very insurance industry his office is supposed to be regulating. We’ll be much better off with Levine. 

State offices

Let’s begin by sweeping away the cobwebs collecting around the ho-hum races for the other state offices. Here are my recommendations. Governor: Gavin Newsom. Lieutenant Governor: Eleni Kounalakis. Secretary of State: Shirley N. Weber.

Controller: Malia M. Cohen. Treasurer: Fiona Ma. Attorney General: Rob Bonta. Insurance Commissioner: Marc Levine. Board of Equalization: Sally J. Lieber. State Superintendent of Public Education: Tony K. Thurmond.

Legislative offices

Next on our ballot come the legislative offices, beginning, interestingly, with two races for the same United States Senate seat. The incumbent, Alex Padilla, was appointed to the seat by Governor Gavin Newsom when Kamala Harris stepped down to become Joe Biden’s vice president. Voters now have to weigh in on who will hold that office during the few weeks between the election and the normal end of the term on Jan. 3, 2023. This is called the short term.

The election for the regular term that will run for six years beginning on Jan. 3 is also on the ballot. Padilla is running for both the short term and the regular term, and he gets our vote for both.

Especially deserving of our community’s longtime enthusiastic support is our member in the House of Representatives, Jared Huffman. Another officeholder who has done a bang-up job is our delegate in the state senate, Mike McGuire.

That takes us up to the race for the state assembly, as well as the local Marin County offices and issues.

12th assembly district

The four candidates for the newly-numbered Marin and southern Sonoma assembly district 12, in the order they are listed on my sample ballot, are Ida Times-Green, a social services worker who is a Sausalito Marin City School District board trustee; Steve Schwartz, a Sonoma County farmer and founder of food and farming nonprofit organizations; Sara Aminzadeh, an attorney for environmental causes and a California Coastal Commissioner; and Damon Connolly, a Marin County supervisor and former California deputy attorney general.

There are no bad choices here, and I would be comfortable recommending any of them to you. Connolly has the best name recognition, many years of service in elective office in Marin, and a record of strong environmental and civil rights leadership. Aminzadeh entered the race virtually unknown within the district, but she has corralled an impressive array of endorsements from up and down the Democratic Party’s local and state machinery.

Schwartz impresses me with his range of experience, from the Peace Corps and a United States Environmental Protection Agency graduate fellowship to a stint on a local school board and the valuable experience of having served as chief of staff to two state assemblymembers. Times-Green is a longtime influential activist on issues of concern to southern Marin and especially to the community of Marin City, where she grew up.

It’s a close call, initially among all four candidates, and then between Times-Green and Schwartz. I am attracted to how Times-Green bootstrapped her way from a working-class family with five children in public housing to a B.A. from Dominican University and a master’s from C.S.U. East Bay. She has an instinct for grassroots politics, and the diversity of her interests and policy positions demonstrates that she will bring to the job a well-rounded portfolio of core issues that address the needs of her constituents. Not everyone who goes to Sacramento makes much of a mark there. Ida Times-Green is one who will be noticed and whose voice will be heard.

Marin County

Of special interest to West Marin residents is the race for County Superintendent of Schools, because John Carroll, currently superintendent of the Lagunitas and the Bolinas-Stinson school districts, is one of the candidates. He deserves our vote. 

The three county elective offices on West Marin ballots are Assessor-Recorder, District Attorney and Sheriff-Coroner. For each of these offices, there is only one name on the ballot, so vote for them or not as you see fit.

The countywide Measure A is a renewal of an existing quarter-cent sales tax that supports open space, parks and sustainable agriculture. This dedicated revenue lifeline is critical if we want to keep rural Marin rural, agricultural Marin in agriculture and the county’s open space and parks healthy and properly maintained (including to minimize fire danger). There’s a lot of misinformation being thrown about by people who haven’t done their homework and who think that somehow this tax is ending up in the pockets of mega-rich farmers. That’s laughably untrue!

Keep in mind that when the way was cleared for A-60 zoning for ag land, the court’s finding was explicit that if agricultural viability collapses in Marin, A-60 falls with it. If that disaster should occur, all of West Marin will be up for rampant development. Measure A is an essential building block in the wall we’ve created to keep suburbanization from overwhelming our communities and every pastoral acre in between them. Yes on A.

Finally, Bolinas is considering Measure M, which will reauthorize an existing parcel tax that supports the town’s public parks. The measure increases the tax from $49 annually on each improved parcel to $75. The increase is necessary because the community park agency now also oversees the Bolinas Downtown Park in addition to the original Mesa Park. Keeping two parks in operation for four more years on just $40,000 a year, which is what this tax will provide, is a very good deal and plays an outsized role in keeping the town viable as a place where people actually live (as well as for those who appear only on weekends). Yes on M.

Wade Holland of Inverness has been sharing his election recommendations with Point Reyes Light readers since 2012.