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Marin’s Diana Conti enters Assembly Race for AD 10

DIANA CONTI FOR ASSEMBLY 2014

    “Because California Deserves Better”

College of Marin Trustee Diana Conti  is running for Assembly because she believes California and the 10th District needs someone who will stand up for a good affordable education for all, including higher education that will prepare our young people for the good well-paying jobs of the 21st century, that our coastline is a resource for all Californians and not something to be exploited by oil companies and large developers and that special interests have too much influence on who makes our laws in California.  She would fight for a true single payer system in California.

“California is in a crisis,” said Conti. “With a drought, the specter of fracking and loss of funding for essential services such as education and parks, and the true crisis in trust and confidence in our legislators felt by a majority of California.

“We need someone strong enough to stand up to special interests in the legislature, and experienced and practical enough to work for consensus,” said Conti. “This means a government that is focused on the needs of the people of the state, not the needs of special interests and big contributors; all people deserve the right to live with dignity and know they can have a safe place to live, a good education for their children and jobs that are meaningful and pay a living wage,” stated Conti, currently in her second term as a trustee for the College of Marin.

As a College trustee, Diana has seen the devastation that lack of funding and the loss of courses students need to succeed can have. She has worked to build consensus with her Board colleagues and the surrounding community in the expenditure of bond funding for new classrooms and infrastructure improvements.

Conti has been called a “pragmatic peacemaker,” a description that has served her well in her career working with social service agencies in both Marin and Sonoma and the non-profits she has led, such as in her former position as Deputy Drug Program Administrator for the County of Sonoma, executive director of the Marin Institute, and Executive Director of the Novato Human Needs Center.

She currently is CEO of Parca, an organization that helps people with developmental disabilities and their families and serves on the Board of West Bay Housing Development Corporation (housing for people with special needs). She is a member of the Governing Council, and past Executive Board member, of the American Public Health Association.

Contact Diana at 415-990-8798 or email her at [email protected]

See her Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/n3eqwhp

 

Election 2010

Beware the “Voter Information Guide” scam

Back in 2008, I pointed out a suspicious flyer that looked like it held the Democratic Party endorsements, but didn’t. Well, it’s back! Take your pick: Democrat or Independent, you probably got a flyer this week that looks like a very handy voter guide.

And the source of those recommendations?

This time I dug a bit deeper, looking up the return address. It turns out that the flyer comes from Political consultant Larry Levine, who is happy to endorse you on his flyer – for a price.

He’s probably not breaking any laws with this, but it is sure slimy; especially the flyer for Democrats that looks like an official Democratic Party slate card (which I am still waiting to receive).

If you look very closely, you will see that candidates Gavin Newsom, Alberto Torrico, and Dave Jones paid for his endorsement at the statewide level, and John Creighton paid for the endorsement as Superior Court Judge locally.  And of the propositions, PG&E and Mercury Insurance paid for Levine’s endorsements of Propositions 16 and 17.

How does that compare to the Democratic Party endorsements? The only overlap is that Dave Jones got the party’s endorsement.  (I’m disappointed in Jones for participating!)  All other races either didn’t have party endorsements, or are the opposite of the Democratic Party endorsement.

It’s really a shame that thousands of voters around California are probably going to actually look at, and use this flyer in making their judgments.

(And check out this for a laugh: There’s a “No on Prop 14” blurb on the flyer, which does correspond to the Democratic Party endorsement. On the flyer targeted to Democrats, it has a quotation attributed to California Democratic Party chair John Burton.  (This makes the flyer seem legitimate, right?) On the flyer targeted to Independents, it has the same quotation, except that it substitutes “Independent voters” for “Democrats,” but this time It’s attributed to Allan Clark, President of the California School Employees Association. Hmmmm.)

At least it’s nice to see that this flyer is getting some attention as being a scam.  One blog post on Daily Kos uncovered it a several years ago; a concerned citizen has created a website www.VoterInformationGuide.org warning people who may have googled the flyer about its true origins.  And just today, a SFWeekly blog post has a great headline: Gavin Newsom Pays For Endorsement in Bogus ‘Voter Information Guide’.

It’s important that the old-school, cigar-smoking, deal-making, money-grubbing political operatives are exposed.

It’s no surprise that on his flyer, Levine recommends a NO vote on Proposition 15.  He didn’t need anybody to pay him for that position – Proposition 15 is the first step in putting the likes of him out of business.

Let’s put him out of business.

(Cross-posted from A Progressive Alamedan)