Concern of a Younger Voter

Filed Under California, Election 2006 | Leave a Comment

I sent the following email to both the Steve Westly and Phil Angelides for Governor campaigns on May 23, 2006. For some reason, I am compelled to share this email at this time.

Greetings!

I am a registered “Decline to State” voter for I have yet to commit myself to a political party.

After returning from UC Merced to Los Angeles to spend the week with my family and friends, I have had an opportunity to watch both of your television ads.

Both of your ads, with respect to your opponent, are counter-productive and detrimental to your respective candidacy and the Democratic Party in general.

I would highly encourage each of your campaigns to stop airing negative political ads and focus on the issues at hand because personally I am not persuaded by a negative ad and I expect many other Californians, and younger voters in general, are not.

Frankly, your negative ads add to the political apathy of our state and this is of great concern to me because for our state to best confront today’s problems, we need tomorrow’s change agents participating in the political decision making process.

However, deficit politics is prevalent throughout the state and it ruptures during the campaign season, a time in which more people should be engaged and included in the politics but they are turned off by such negative tactics.

More people can be actively involved and it should be the responsibility of candidates to help ensure that.

I would hope that with the millions of dollars your campaigns have, you would work towards practicing new politics a politics that better engages, educates and empowers the public and younger people more specifically.

I sincerely recommend that you change your campaign tactics for the good of politics in California.

For in the final analysis, the Golden State needs to return to a position of political national and global prominence because we are experiencing the economic, environmental, political and and social problems that much of the nation will be facing in the future and the globe is already facing now.

The state’s return to such prominence is dependent largely on the actions of those who lead it.

Best regards,
Josh Franco

CC:

Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California

Oct

7

Letter to the editor: Take part in valley effort

Filed Under Central Valley, Letter to the Editor | Leave a Comment

I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Merced Sun-Star about the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley and it was published today!

Editor:

I write to the people of the San Joaquin Valley about the future of the region.

Over the past year, I have closely observed the progress of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.

The partnership was established to engage the public, formulate recommendations and spark action to further improve the economic, social and environmental well being of the Valley.

From Bakersfield to Stockton, the 26-member partnership has engaged the public about the future of the San Joaquin Valley. Agricultural, business, community, educational, environmental, government, and student leaders from across the San Joaquin Valley have participated in the public forums and shared their vision for the future of the region.

Now, the partnership has published the draft Strategic Action Proposal and it is available online at http://www.great valley.org/sjpartnership/index.aspx.

I write to energetically encourage the public to download the proposal and share their thoughts about the proposal and the future of the San Joaquin Valley.

Young or old, native or transplant, rich or poor, the future of the San Joaquin Valley belongs to everyone for the Valley is California’s 21st Century Opportunity!

JOSH FRANCO

President, UC Merced student government

URL: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/12849523p-13532814c.html