Extra

Above all, remember these three important truths:

(1) We essentially live in a one-party state; a one-party county; and a one-party city.

(2) All are part of the Big Democratic Party Corporate Machine — the BDPCM.

(3) If you live in a one-party government such as ours, there’s no way you have anything like real democracy — because it’s literally impossible under such conditions.

If you doubt that we do live in a one-party city, just look at all of the election flyers, brochures, and mailers you’ve been receiving. You’ll see that all of the Democratic candidates just keep endorsing each other! It’s a closed circle.

What we have in Berkeley is a system of patronage, very similar to Tammany Hall, the powerful corrupt political machine that essentially ran New York City throughout much of the 19th Century.

(Look it up — it’s fun to notice all the parallels between New York City in the 1800s and Berkeley today!) 

When Jesse Arreguín first ran for the Berkeley City Council in 2008, he repeatedly and enthusiastically promised that he would undo the excesses, improprieties, and secret dealmaking that were Tom Bates‘ standard operating procedures when he ran the City of Berkeley with his velvet-gloved iron fist. 

Bates perfected his manipulative techniques during his long stint in the California State Assembly. 

After that experience in hardball state politics, corralling the Berkeley power brokers was a piece of cake for him when he moved into office. 

But Bates intentionally stepped on (and crushed) too many toes, leading to widespread dislike of his brand of politics. 

Jesse Arreguín and his handlers recognized the possibilities, and Arreguín entered the race for mayor in 2016. 

During his campaign, Jesse Arreguín decried Bates’ outrageous affronts to democracy, and promised to do away with his rotten system. Jesse explicitly positioned himself as the anti-Bates, and he rode the wave of demands for change into office as the shiny new progressive savior. After his victory, shouts resounded throughout the city: “Hip, hip, hooray! Arreguín will save the day!” (Note, this is a paraphrase of Arreguín’s actual campaign slogan.) 

But once in the office, Jesse turned his back on his true progressive supporters and broke almost all of the promises he’d made to them about meaningful citizen involvement; open government; true environmental protection; equity in financial matters; protection of quality of life for all; accountability of city employees; inclusive city planning; and curtailing UC‘s steady takeover of city land and resources. 

Jesse Arreguín soon became one of the biggest electoral disappointments we’ve ever had in Berkeley. He essentially revealed his true identity as “Tom Bates, Jr.”. If you talk with people who are knowledgeable about Berkeley‘s political history, many will say “Arreguín is not only just as bad as Tom Bates was – he’s worse.” 

On top of that, Arreguín’s cheerleading chumminess with UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ — as she continues taking over more city land and resources and flooding the overpopulated campus area with even more thousands and thousands of students — is breathtaking to behold! Back in the day, Arreguín was furious about Tom Bates’ secret dealmaking with UC Berkeley that allowed the current overbuilding and plunder we see around us today. Yet today, Arreguin is crowing about his own secret deal with UC Berkeley — that will inflict even more damage on Berkeley’s neighborhoods and on the city’s quality of life in general. 

Berkeley residents cannot afford to have any more hypocritical sellout political leaders. We deserve better – much better – than that. 

If measure L passes, it will give our own local patronage syndicate (the BDPCM) a big slush fund of money to use to entrench their own power even further. That would be a huge step in the wrong direction, and it would have harmful impacts for at least 48 years into the future. That’s how long Berkeley residents would continue paying off this ill-advised massive loan. 

Let’s be frank here: our city leaders had big dollar signs in their eyes — rather than the good of the community in their hearts — when they cooked up this huge money vacuuming scheme. They themselves recently recognized how shoddy Measure L is, so they passed a last-minute “fix-it bill” to try to minimize the major harm that would be caused if Measure L passes. Their attempted scotch-tape-and-bailing-wire correction does NOT correct Measure L’s major flaws and inequities – but it will make the measure impossible to enforce due to recurring legal challenges. What a colossal mess they’ve made! 

When voting, just remember this handy phrase: 

“L is a Loser.” 

Let’s vote it down in a landslide and start the momentum to dismantle our local patronage system that leaves so many people on the outside looking in. 

Vote NO on Measure L!