Dick Spotswood: Marin voters, candidates stack up well to others in the state

Marin County politics is misunderstood. Many presume that since county voters are overwhelmingly registered as Democrats, Marin is a hotbed of progressive “far-left” ideology. Returns from November’s election showed that view misses a nuance. Most are center-left traditional liberal Democrats, not hard-left progressives.

As in San Francisco where there’s one dominant party, Marin Democrats divide into two shades of blue: “progressives” and “moderates.” What’s called a moderate in San Francisco is regarded everywhere else as a liberal Democrat of the Jerry Brown, Joe Biden, Barack Obama strain. It’s the same in Marin.

Look at how Marin voters cast ballots for three state propositions:

• Proposition 3: Currently, the state constitution declares that only marriage between a man and a woman is recognized. While the law was previously ruled unconstitutional, there’s a fear that a right-wing federal Congress could try to outlaw same-sex marriage nationally. Proposition 3 enshrines marriage equity in California’s Constitution.

Statewide, Proposition 3 passed with 62.6% voting yes and 37.4% voting no. In Marin, it won by a landslide with 86% casting yes ballots. The measure did best in Mill Valley and Fairfax where the yes vote received 91.5%. In no Marin municipality did the percentage of voters marking yes receive less than 79.6% of the vote.

It wasn’t so much a progressive win as a demonstration that homophobia is rare in Marin. A large swath of local Republicans voted for Proposition 3. Oddly, Prop. 3 did better in Marin than in San Francisco, where 84.3% of voters marked yes.

• Elsewhere, Proposition 33 results were of interest. If passed, it would have given authority to local voters and governments to expand rent control. It was pushed by progressive rent-control advocates.

It lost statewide, with only 40% of Californians casting yes votes. About 64.2% of Marin voters cast no ballots. Rent control is the core issue for progressives and the Democratic Socialists of America group. On the November ballot, rent control ordinances were defeated in Fairfax, San Anselmo and Larkspur. If Marin was as progressive as some believed, rent-control expansion should have easily passed.

• Proposition 36 increases penalties for retail theft and drug trafficking. There’s widespread outrage over the visible rise in retail crimes and the general feeling that the drug epidemic does much to stimulate homelessness. Proposition 36 was a way for voters to express their opposition to the status quo.

It was overwhelmingly passed with the support of 68.45% of Golden State voters. In supposedly progressive Marin, 60% of registered Marinites voted yes for tougher criminal sentencing.

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Marin-Sonoma Assemblymember Damon Connolly made an impressive showing in November’s election. In California’s 80-member Assembly, the San Rafael Democrat received the highest raw vote total of any candidate.

In Connolly’s “deep blue” District 12, he was opposed by Novato Republican Andy Podshadley. He was reelected with 75.8% of the vote to Podshadley’s 24.2%.

Connolly received a total of 182,925 votes. Statewide, the second-highest Assembly vote total was achieved by Chris Ward (D-San Diego) with 173,775. That’s not impressive given that Ward was unopposed. In third place, Republican Joe Patterson, representing Placer and El Dorado counties, scored 170,925 votes in his District 5 race.

At the bottom is Sade Elhawary in South Central Los Angeles’ District 57. She won her seat in the Assembly with only 50,005 votes. That’s 30% of the raw vote Connolly received. Only 88,458 people voted in the District 57 election. That engagement does not compare well to the 241,279 votes cast in the District 12 race between Connolly and Podshadley.

What’s next for Connolly? That’s a big political question. He’s likely to try for the North Bay/North Coast state Senate seat now held by soon-to-be-termed out Sen. Mike McGuire. Alternatively, in 2030, he could make a long shot statewide run for attorney general when current officeholder Rob Bonta is termed out.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.