4 ms·

I think he meant (and I'm also curious) what we could individually do that would have a tangible difference. Not what could a large swathe of people in the US d

I think he meant (and I'm also curious) what we could individually do that would have a tangible difference. Not what could a large swathe of people in the US do collectively, which is a different question.

x0x0 11y ago
Kamala Harris beat Steve Cooley in the 2010 CA attorney general election by 74k votes. That's a relatively direct impact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Attorney_General_election,_2010 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Attorney_General_el...
- savanaly 11y ago
  One vote is nowhere close to making a difference there? And that is the edge case, 99.9% of elections won't even come down to that.
  - x0x0 11y ago
    when the margin of victory is under 1%, then yes, a relative handful of people can swing an election Far more than 0.01% of elections have narrow margins of victory, particularly less well known ones like attorneys.
- mistermann 11y ago
  Did Kamala Harris turn out to be any better?
  - x0x0 11y ago
    Steve Cooley -- and I believe he would agree with this characterization -- is enthusiastically for the death penalty in the right circumstances, and campaigned against Prop 34. In his own words [1] There are some offenses that demand the ultimate sentence. We’ve got individuals down in Los Angeles — for example, the Grim Sleeper case which is pending — this gentleman killed 23 young women, in the most cruel, inhumane way. Life without possibility of parole is not the appropriate sentence for somebody who slaughters so many of his fellow citizens. Cop killers, baby killers, serial killers — they deserve the death penalty. In my county, we only seek the death penalty in 11 percent of the special-circumstance cases, and they are well-selected and well-deserving of the death penalty. Kamala Harris is not a shining light, but she took no public position on Prop 34, and while she has supported a state appeal to defend the constitutionality of the death penalty [2], as sf da, she stated she would never charge the death penalty [3]. So the contrast is a full supporter on one hand, and someone who, at minimum, is conflicted about the use of the death penalty and widely acknowledges the racial disparity in its application. I would call that a real difference, though in case it isn't clear, I would support banning the death penalty on both humane/equality and financial grounds. NB: Prop 34 would have banned the death penalty in California. It lost by a couple percent [4] [1] http://blogs.kqed.org/election2012/2012/10/11/two-district-attorneys-two-different-views-on-the-death-penalty/ http://blogs.kqed.org/election2012/2012/10/11/two-district-a... [2] http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-death-penalty-kamala-harris-appeal-20140824-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-death-penalt... [3] http://ballotpedia.org/Kamala_D._Harris http://ballotpedia.org/Kamala_D._Harris [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_34_(2012) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_34_(201...

x0x0 11y ago

Kamala Harris beat Steve Cooley in the 2010 CA attorney general election by 74k votes. That's a relatively direct impact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Attorney_General_election,_2010 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Attorney_General_el...

savanaly 11y ago
One vote is nowhere close to making a difference there? And that is the edge case, 99.9% of elections won't even come down to that.
- x0x0 11y ago
  when the margin of victory is under 1%, then yes, a relative handful of people can swing an election Far more than 0.01% of elections have narrow margins of victory, particularly less well known ones like attorneys.
mistermann 11y ago
Did Kamala Harris turn out to be any better?
- x0x0 11y ago
  Steve Cooley -- and I believe he would agree with this characterization -- is enthusiastically for the death penalty in the right circumstances, and campaigned against Prop 34. In his own words [1] There are some offenses that demand the ultimate sentence. We’ve got individuals down in Los Angeles — for example, the Grim Sleeper case which is pending — this gentleman killed 23 young women, in the most cruel, inhumane way. Life without possibility of parole is not the appropriate sentence for somebody who slaughters so many of his fellow citizens. Cop killers, baby killers, serial killers — they deserve the death penalty. In my county, we only seek the death penalty in 11 percent of the special-circumstance cases, and they are well-selected and well-deserving of the death penalty. Kamala Harris is not a shining light, but she took no public position on Prop 34, and while she has supported a state appeal to defend the constitutionality of the death penalty [2], as sf da, she stated she would never charge the death penalty [3]. So the contrast is a full supporter on one hand, and someone who, at minimum, is conflicted about the use of the death penalty and widely acknowledges the racial disparity in its application. I would call that a real difference, though in case it isn't clear, I would support banning the death penalty on both humane/equality and financial grounds. NB: Prop 34 would have banned the death penalty in California. It lost by a couple percent [4] [1] http://blogs.kqed.org/election2012/2012/10/11/two-district-attorneys-two-different-views-on-the-death-penalty/ http://blogs.kqed.org/election2012/2012/10/11/two-district-a... [2] http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-death-penalty-kamala-harris-appeal-20140824-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-death-penalt... [3] http://ballotpedia.org/Kamala_D._Harris http://ballotpedia.org/Kamala_D._Harris [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_34_(2012) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_34_(201...