Carl DeMaio and Reform California have released their “Plain English” voter guide to give you an easy-to-understand explanation of the ballot measures and to grade candidates.
WARNING! CA politicians have placed several deceptively-worded measures on your ballot – and special interests are funding dishonest campaigns to trick voters and split the vote in key races.
Check out Reform California's “Plain English” Voter Guide below so you know what you are actually voting on – complete with ratings for all candidates on your ballot (including school board and judges) along with red flags on any measures with hidden tax hikes.
Review the guide below - and share it with your friends, family and neighbors!
No on Prop 1: Borrows $11.25 Billion for Costly Housing Projects
Politicians want to borrow $10 Billion on the taxpayers’ credit card — and you’ll pay back over $17 billion with interest. Provides taxpayer-funded subsidies to developers without reforming costly mandates that make housing so expensive. Prop 1 does nothing to make housing more affordable. Many of the boondoggle projects supported by this bond will cost more than $1 MILLION per unit! Campaign contributors to politicians also get special contracts under Prop 1.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 1
No on Prop 2: Guts State Budget Spending Limit and Cancels Tax Rebates
**DECEPTION ALERT: Appears on your ballot with the politicians’ FALSE ballot title of “Increases State’s Rainy Day Fund.”
Prop 2 claims to create a bigger rainy day fund in the state budget, but in reality it creates a new slush fund for politicians to engage in more wasteful spending. Prop 2 eviscerates the current voter-imposed spending limit on state politicians. Worse, it virtually eliminates the requirement that taxpayers receive tax rebates if revenues exceed the spending limit. With Prop 2, politicians get to keep more of your money so they can waste more of your money.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 2
No on Prop 3: Income Tax Increase
**DECEPTION ALERT: Biased title plays up funding for schools and health care without accountability for how the money is spent.
Makes permanent California’s highest-in-the-nation income tax rates at a time when California is losing employers, jobs and taxpayers to other states and seeing lower tax revenues as a result. Worse, Prop 3 does nothing to reform wasteful spending in the programs it purports to fund, so taxpayers will not see better services. This tax was sold as “temporary” in 2012, extended in 2016 and now politicians want to make it permanent before it even expires.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 3
No on Prop 4: Gives Your Tax Dollars to Politicians’ Campaigns
**DECEPTION ALERT: False cost estimate of only a “few hundred thousand dollars each year” when it will cost MILLIONS a year.
Repeals a previously approved ban on public financing of politicians’ campaigns. Voters wisely decided years ago that their tax dollars should never be used to fund the campaigns of politicians, but with Prop 4 the politicians are refusing to take no for an answer. They already tried to sneak this through the legislature in 2016. The courts threw it out and ruled that voters must decide. Ten years later they’re back, hat in hand, asking to spend your tax dollars on their attack ads. Tell them the same thing the courts did: NO.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 4
No on Prop 5: Weakens Citizens’ Right to Recall Politicians from Office
Makes it harder to Recall a politician from office and simultaneously replace them with a candidate of the voters’ choosing. Under Prop 5, if the voters recall the Governor, you don’t get to choose the replacement — the office is automatically handed to the political machine’s second-in-command. The decision will be entirely out of the voters’ control.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 5
No on Prop 37: Borrows $25 Billion for Costly Housing Projects
Provides taxpayer-funded subsidies to developers without reforming costly mandates that make housing so expensive. Worse, Prop 37 makes the State of California one of the biggest mortgage lenders in America overnight – and taxpayers are left holding the bag for any losses. Many of the boondoggle projects supported by this bond will cost more than $1M per unit! Campaign contributors to politicians also get special contracts under Prop 37.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 37
Yes on Prop 38: Public-Private Partnership Bonds for Immunology Research
Authorizes $8 billion in bonds to support immunology research with the repayment coming from proceeds of cures and treatments. This is the only bond on the ballot that puts the strings on the government instead of the taxpayer. Every drug and treatment developed with this funding must be sold in California at 20% BELOW the national average price. Half of the research money is required by law to target cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 38
Yes on Prop 39: Voter ID to Improve Trust in Elections
**DECEPTION ALERT: Appears on your ballot with the politicians’ FALSE ballot title of “Prohibits Citizens From Voting.”
Prop 39 is a bipartisan solution for Voter ID! That’s why it is supported by large majorities of Democratic, Republican and Independent voters. Prop 39 requires cleaning up and auditing of voter rolls and citizenship verification of anyone registering to vote. It keeps voting simple while adding integrity reforms to make voting more secure. The politicians falsely claim Prop 39 prohibits citizens from voting when it will only prevent non-citizens and ineligible individuals from voting. Prop 39 protects the right of every citizen to vote and restores public trust and confidence in our elections.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 39
No on Prop 40: “Billionaire” Tax that Is Really an “Everybody” Tax
Prop 40 is deceptively being sold as the "Billionaire's Tax" but it is really the "Everybody Tax!" Worse, Prop 40 creates the first-in-the-nation Wealth Tax (or Savings Tax) on Californians. Prop 40 contains a provision allowing state politicians to expand the Wealth Tax to everyone without another vote of the public. Prop 40 allows government to tax the value of your savings, checking account, 401k, stock portfolio, and current equity in your home. If you don't have the cash to pay the Wealth Tax, then you'd be forced to sell some of what you own.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 40
Yes on Prop 41: Audit Special Taxes
Prop 41 would make it harder for state and local politicians to impose special taxes on you. Prop 41 requires that all special taxes include audits on all revenues raised and programs funded through the tax to prevent waste, fraud and abuse or diversion of the funds by politicians. Prop 41 also requires that these special taxes adhere to the state's constitutionally-mandated spending limit. Under California law, when two conflicting measures pass, the one with more votes wins. Even if Prop 40 passes, a bigger yes on Prop 41 cancels it.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 41
Yes on Prop 42: Stop the Savings Tax
Prop 42 would prohibit state and local politicians from imposing a Savings Tax on Californians. Prop 42 would prohibit politicians from taxing the value of your savings, checking account, 401k, stock portfolio, and current equity in your home. We already pay the highest taxes on income, sales, property, gas and our cars— we don't need a Savings Tax on top of all that! If Prop 42 gets more votes than Prop 40, the Wealth Tax dies even if it passes. Every YES on 42 is a second NO on 40.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 42
Yes on Prop 43: Local Taxpayer Protection Initiative (Saves Prop 13)
**DECEPTION ALERT: Appears on your ballot with the FALSE title of “Limits Voters Ability to Raise Revenues for Local Government Services.”
Prop 43 is known as the Save Prop 13— Local Taxpayer Protection Initiative. Prop 43 makes it harder for local politicians to raise your taxes by restoring the two-thirds vote requirement on any local tax measures. It also closes loopholes the politicians have created in Prop 13 to violate the property tax caps that voters originally imposed. Opponents of Prop 43 simply want more of your money to fund their waste and fraud. Vote Yes on Prop 43 to turn the tide to make California more affordable.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 43
No on Prop 44: Imposes Costly Mandates on Community Health Clinics
Increases mandates and costs on community health clinics, threatening their ability to provide patient care. Clinics that miss the arbitrary 90% mandate pay penalties into a government account and hotwired to a narrow special interest group who is one of the politicians’ biggest campaign contributors. Trusted healthcare experts warn that Prop 44 would trigger $1.7 billion in penalties in the first year alone and force clinics across California to close their doors.
>> Watch Short Video Explaining Prop 44
Yes on Prop 45: Reduce Housing Costs by Cutting Red Tape
Reduces regulation and combats frivolous lawsuits that have increased the cost of housing projects. California’s environmental review law (CEQA) has been weaponized to block and delay housing, adding years and millions of dollars to every project. Prop 45 is the first time voters have ever been handed the chance to reform CEQA at the ballot box.
Measure A (NO)
Laguna Beach Unified School District Property Tax Increase
Imposes a new costly property tax despite massive levels of wasteful spending, giving government workers massive salary hikes and pension spikes, and awarding contracts to political supporters without fair and open competition.
Measure B (NO)
Westminster School District Property Tax Increase
Imposes a new costly property tax despite massive levels of wasteful spending and awarding contracts without fair and open competition.
Measure C (NO)
City of Costa Mesa Business Tax Increase
Imposes a new costly business tax despite massive levels of wasteful spending, giving government workers massive salary hikes and pension spikes, and awarding contracts to political supporters without fair and open competition.
Measure D (NO)
City of Irvine Ranked-Choice Voting
Replaces a ballot voters can understand and a vote count they can check with rounds of behind-the-scenes redistribution of votes that discard ballots failing to rank enough candidates. Delays election results for weeks and forces taxpayers to buy new equipment and conduct voter education to solve a problem Irvine does not have.
Measure E (YES)
City of Laguna Beach City Council Term Limits
Citizen-initiated measure that finally caps how long Laguna Beach politicians can hold the same seat, breaking up the entrenched incumbency that makes local government unaccountable and nearly impossible to challenge.
Measure F (NO)
City of Lake Forest Term Limit Repeal
Allows current politicians to serve more terms in office.
Measure G (NO) City of Alamitos TOT Increase
Imposes a new costly business tax despite that will destroy jobs to simply support more massive levels of wasteful spending by the city.
Measure H (NO)
City of Newport Beach Land Use Amendment for Affordable Housing
Asks Newport Beach voters to surrender the Greenlight protection they wrote into their own charter, rezoning five neighborhoods for 2,900 units at up to 50 dwellings per acre before state density bonuses stack on top to push the real number higher still.
Measure I (NO) City of Orange Sales Tax Increase Imposes a new costly sales tax despite massive levels of wasteful spending, giving government workers massive salary hikes and pension spikes, and awarding contracts to political supporters without fair and open competition.
Measure J (NO)
City of Orange TOT Increase
Imposes a new costly business tax despite that will destroy jobs to simply support more massive levels of wasteful spending by the city.
Measure K (YES)
City of Orange New City Charter Changes
Locks term limits, a balanced budget requirement, a ban on rent and price controls, and voter approval before open space is developed into the city's founding document, where a future council cannot repeal them on a 3-2 vote.
Measure L (NO)
City of Placentia TOT Increase
Imposes a new costly business tax despite that will destroy jobs to simply support more massive levels of wasteful spending by the city.
Measure M (NO)
City of San Clemente Sales Tax Increase
Imposes a new costly sales tax despite massive levels of wasteful spending, giving government workers massive salary hikes and pension spikes, and awarding contracts to political supporters without fair and open competition.
Measure N (NO)
City of Santa Ana Sales Tax Increase
Imposes a new costly sales tax despite massive levels of wasteful spending, giving government workers massive salary hikes and pension spikes, and awarding contracts to political supporters without fair and open competition.
Measure O (NO)
City of Westminster TOT Increase
Imposes a new costly business tax despite that will destroy jobs to simply support more massive levels of wasteful spending by the city.
Governor: Steve Hilton
Lt. Governor: Gloria Romero
Attorney General: Michael Gates
Secretary of State: Don Wagner
Treasurer: Jennifer Hawks
Controller: Herb Morgan
Insurance Commissioner: You are Doomed
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Sonja Shaw
State Board of Equalization: Denis Bilodeau
Every four years voters get to decide whether to vote to retain or not retain justices to the CA Supreme Court and the six Court of Appeals.
California Supreme Court
Kelli Evans - DO NOT RETAIN
Joshua Groban - DO NOT RETAIN
4th District - California Court of Appeal Justices
Marsha Amin (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Eran M. Bermudez (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Martin N. Buchanan (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Jose S. Castillo (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Carol D. Codrington (Associate Justice) - RETAIN
William S. Dato (Associate Justice) - RETAIN
Thomas A. Delaney (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Truc T. Do (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Richard T. Fields (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Martha K. Gooding (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Julia C. Kelety (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Corey G. Lee (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Juliet O. Macaulay (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Judith McConnell (Administrative Presiding Justice) - RETAIN
Art W. McKinster (Associate Justice) - RETAIN
Frank J. Menetrez (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Douglas P. Miller (Associate Justice) - RETAIN
Eileen C. Moore (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Joanne Motoike (Presiding Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Terry B. O'Rourke (Associate Justice) - RETAIN
Manuel A. Ramirez (Presiding Justice) - RETAIN
Michael J. Raphael (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
David M. Rubin (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Maurice Sanchez (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Nathan R. Scott (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
Deborah C. Servino (Associate Justice) - DO NOT RETAIN
U.S. House of Representatives
District 38: Pedro Antonio Casas
District 40: Ken Calvert
District 41: Mitch Clemmons
District 42: You are Doomed
District 45: Chuong V. Vo
District 46: David Pan
District 47: Jenny Rae Le Roux
District 49: You are Doomed
Senate
District 30: Araceli Martinez
District 32: Kelly Seyarto
District 34: Rhonda Shader
District 36: Tony Strickland
District 38: Laura Bassett
Assembly
District 59: Phil Chen
District 64: Raul Ortiz Jr
District 67: Paulo Morales
District 68: You are Doomed
District 70: Tri Ta
District 71: Kate Sanchez
District 72: Gracey Van Der Mark
District 73: Urson Russell
District 74: Laurie Davies
County Board of Supervisors
4th District: Tim Shaw
5th District: Diane Dixon
Aliso Viejo
Council District 2: Max Duncan
Council District 3: Garrett Dwyer
Anaheim
Mayor: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 2: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 3: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 6: Natalie Meeks
Brea
Council – At Large: Cecilia Hupp, Blair Stewart, Steve Vargas
Buena Park
District 2: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 5: YOU ARE DOOMED
Costa Mesa
Mayor: Michael Buley
Council District 3: Daniel Thomas Morgan
Council District 4: Fisher Derderian
Council District 5: Steve Smith
Cypress
Council District 1: Anne Mallari
Council District 2: Bonnie Peat
Council District 5: Randy Harper
Fountain Valley
Council Candidate: Dan Hay
Council Candidate: Jim Cunneen
Council Candidate: Kim Constantine
Fullerton
Council District 3: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 5: David Fischbein
Garden Grove
Mayor: Stephanie Klopfenstein
Council District 1: Roger Flanders
Council District 3: Cindy Tran
Council District 4: Phat Bui
Huntington Beach
City Attorney: Mike Vigliotta
Council Candidate: Andrew Gruel
Council Candidate: Brian Thienes
Council Candidate: Casey McKeon
Council Candidate: Pat Burns
Irvine
Council District 1 John Park
Council District 5 Steven Alves
Council District 6: YOU ARE DOOMED
La Habra
Council Candidate: Susan Pritchard & Miles Mathias
La Palma
Council District 2: Nitesh Patel
Council District 4: Jonathan Dinwiddie
Laguna Beach
Strategic Voting: Vote only for these candidates. Leave all other choices blank.
Council: Nick Aronoff
Laguna Hills
Council District 1: Laura Thies
Council District 4: Scott Miller
Laguna Woods
Strategic Voting: Vote only for these candidates. Leave all other choices blank.
Council: Carol Moore
Lake Forest
Council District 2: Benjamin Yu
Council District 3: Tom Grable
Council District 4: Shari Rhodes
Los Alamitos
Council District 4: Joe Hastie
Council District 5: Emily Hibard
Mission Viejo
Council District 1: Bob Ruesch
Council District 2: Saga Conroy
Council District 3: Bryan Zahn
Council District 4: Rhonda Reardon
Council District 5: Steve Thornton
Newport Beach
Council District 1: Joe Stapleton
Council District 3: Erik Weigand
Council District 4: Robyn Grant
Council District 6: Lauren Kleiman
Orange
Mayor: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 1: AJ Ricci
Council District 4: Denis Bilodeau
Council District 6: Brendon Moeller
Placentia
City Clerk: No endorsement.
Council District 2: Matt Waugh
Council District 4: Chad Wanke
Rancho Santa Margarita
Council District 1: Josh Bastian
Council District 2: Anne Figueroa
Council District 4: Brad McGirr
San Clemente
Mayor: Victor Cabral
Council District 1: Steve Camp
Council District 2: Steve Knoblock
San Juan Capistrano
Council District 2: Jeff Moore
Santa Ana
Mayor: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 2: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 4: YOU ARE DOOMED
Council District 6: YOU ARE DOOMED
Seal Beach
Council District 1: Perla Mendoza
Stanton
Council District 1: Thomas Frazier
Council District 3: Deborah Donathan
Tustin
Mayor: Austin Lumbard
Council District 3: Ray Schnell
Westminster
Mayor: Chi Charlie Nguyen
Council District 1: Amy Phan West
Council District 4: YOU ARE DOOMED
Yorba Linda
Council Candidate: Carlos Rodriguez
Council Candidate: Janice Lim
Anaheim Elementary School District
Trustee Area 2: YOU ARE DOOMED
Trustee Area 4: YOU ARE DOOMED
Anaheim Union High School District
Trustee Area 1: YOU ARE DOOMED
Trustee Area 2: YOU ARE DOOMED
Brea Olinda Unified School District
Trustee Area 4: YOU ARE DOOMED
Capistrano Unified School District
Trustee Area 4: Marco Carralero
Trustee Area 6: NO ENDORSEMENT
Trustee Area 7: Linda Shepard
Coast Community College District
Trustee Area 1: Austin Edsell
Trustee Area 3: Conrad Mazeika
Trustee Area 5: Xerxez Calilung
Cypress School District
Trustee Area B: Jon Peat
Trustee Area C: Vernon Miller
Fountain Valley School District
Trustee At-Large: Dennis Cole
Trustee At-Large: Rick Nichols
Trustee At-Large: Eugene Murray
Fullerton Joint Union High School District
Trustee Area 1: Matthew Matias
Trustee Area 5: Marilyn Buchi
Fullerton School District
Trustee Area 3: Amy Choi-Won
Garden Grove Unified School District
Trustee Area 2: Lan Quoc Nguyen
Trustee Area 4: Quang Vuong
Huntington Beach City School District
Trustee Area 4: Laura Costelloe
Irvine Unified School District
Trustee Area 2: Ron Scolesdang
Trustee Area 4: YOU ARE DOOMED
La Habra City School District
Trustee Area 4: Bertha Manzanares
Laguna Beach Unified School District
Strategic Voting: Vote only for these candidates. Leave all other choices blank.
Trustee At-Large: Dee Perry
Trustee At-Large: Elizabeth Bates
Lowell Joint School District
Trustee Area 4: Karen Shaw
Magnolia School District
Trustee Area 5: NO ENDORSEMENT
Newport-Mesa Unified School District
Trustee Area 2: NO ENDORSEMENT
Trustee Area 7: NO ENDORSEMENT
North Orange County Community College District
Trustee Area 1: Rama Maline
Trustee Area 3: Larry Andre
Trustee Area 6: Zonya Townsend
Ocean View School District
Trustee Area 5: David Clifford
Orange Unified School District
Trustee Area 1: Ivan Kokos
Trustee Area 4: Crystal Miles
Trustee Area 5: Chip Ahlswede
Trustee Area 7: Jack Chang
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District
Trustee Area 4: Todd Frazier
Trustee Area 5: Justin Aguirre
Rancho Santiago Community College District
Trustee Area 2: YOU ARE DOOMED
Trustee Area 4: Daisy Tong
Rowland Unified School District
Trustee Area 5: YOU ARE DOOMED
Saddleback Valley Unified School District
Trustee Area 5: Kris Spowart
Santa Ana Unified School District
Trustee Area 4: YOU ARE DOOMED
Trustee Area 5: YOU ARE DOOMED
South Orange County Community College District
Trustee Area 4: John Black
Tustin Unified School District
Trustee Area 3: Kelly Fulton
Trustee Area 5: Ziggy McBride
NOTE: If we do not make a recommendation on a candidate or ballot measure, we either could not support the measure or candidates running in that race, or do not have enough information to make an informed recommendation.
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