DEBBIE POOCHIGIAN: OFF THE CHART
At this point, we’re only scratching the surface of Evans’ report.
I’ll speed things along with 10 quick highlights.
1.) Green and red boxes are used to identify where key “players” land on the line graph. For example, the Unitarians are viewed as “active support” of Progressive causes who “can get attention.” The Business Leadership Council lends “active support” for Conservative causes with “power to have major influence on decision making.”
Who are the “die hards” on each side, regardless of their level of influence?
Sierra Club, peace groups and the Left’s third parties for the progressives.
Right-wing radio, the Tea Party and the Right’s third parties for the conservatives.
2.) The Power Elite’s agenda includes growth at all cost, keeping wages down, “safe” communities/reducing crime (quotation marks are in the report), rolling back further regulation, raising Fresno’s prestige.
3.) But there is a split, a civil war if you will, among Power Elite players.
One camp wants a degree of smart growth. It sees air quality as a compelling issue. It focuses time and energy on improving schools.
Soldiers in this camp include Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, urban members of elected bodies and some developers.
The opposing camp wants unfettered growth and, in the report’s words, to “pollute like mad.”
Soldiers in this camp include most developers, agribusiness, the Christian right, the cities of Clovis and Sanger and the Fresno Business Council.
4.) The Progressive Agenda includes a living wage for all workers, police accountability, immigrant rights, civil liberties, transportation, ending homelessness and police accountability.
5.) There is no split, no civil war, among supporters of the progressive agenda.
6.) There are five key groups of decision-makers at the level of local government: Fresno County, city of Fresno, regional bodies (such as Fresno Irrigation District and Fresno Council of Governments), other cities, boards of education.
These five have immense responsibility and oversee huge budgets. We’re talking about land-use decisions, curriculum decisions, public safety decisions, taxing decisions, public assistance services. We’re talking about billions of dollars spent every year.
All five of these pivotal decision makers are placed completely or almost completely in the Republican/conservative camp.
7.) Debbie Poochigian, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, is not listed as a “die hard” for Republican causes. She is to the right of “die hard.”
Poochigian also is listed as the most powerful person among the five supervisiors.
8.) District 1’s Esmeralda Soria is the most progressive member of the Fresno City Council. She’s just a bit to the left of “Inclined toward” on the Evans’ line graph.
District 2’s Steve Brandau (a Tea Party member) is the conservative bloc’s only “die hard.”
The most powerful council member is District 6’s Lee Brand, who, located midway between “active participant in decision making” and “decisive decision-making power,” ranks a smidgen below Swearengin in the power rankings.
Brand wants to move up in the rankings – he’s running for mayor in 2016.
9.) District 7’s Clint Olivier won a second term to the Fresno City Council in June 2014 with 2,077 votes (54.3% of the total).
That was in a district with more than 70,000 residents and nearly 25,000 registered voters.
10.) The color-coded map of Fresno for the last two presidential elections is no secret. Almost all precincts south of Shaw Avenue were blue – a majority of voters went for the Democrats’ Obama. A fair number of precincts north of Shaw also were blue.
But those two elections were of a historical nature. Turnout was strong.
Evans points to the color-coded map of the Measure G special election as a better hint of Fresno’s changing political currents.
The June 4, 2013 election had just one question: Should the city’s residential trash service be privatized? Swearengin, a Republican, said yes. City unions, backed by the Democrats, said no. It was close, but “no” won.
Just about all precincts south of Shaw on Evans’ Measure G map are blue. All but a handful of precincts in the fast-growing areas of Southeast Fresno and west of Highway 99 are blue.
Evans likes to joke that in a hundred years every seat on the Fresno City Council will be in the Democratic Party camp – except District 6 (far northeast Fresno).
