Lesser-known positions: why students should care and which candidates to vote for in upcoming elections

This is the second column in a two-part series on which candidates are best for lesser-known positions. These positions are important and the office holders make decisions that impact us in significant ways.

I have talked to most of the candidates and tried to figure out who is best for UCLA students to vote for and why. This series is meant to get you thinking about the elections, and should serve as a springboard to further research.

Insurance Commissioner

The position: The California insurance commissioner is responsible for regulating insurance companies from all industries in California. This person is responsible for acting as a consumer protector, as policies and rate changes are made from this office.

The position is important to students because the commissioner has regulation authority over our campus health insurance and any other insurance we will be purchasing as we graduate, and our parents slowly wean us off their plans.

The issues: “Obamacare,” as many are calling the policies that emerged from national federal health care reform, has a long time line of when its policies will begin. Implementation of these new policies is a duty of the insurance commissioner.

The best candidate: Dave Jones ( D ) is the clear choice in this race, as his main opponent, Mike Villines ( R ), has a campaign funded in large part by the insurance industry. It would be hard, if not impossible, to regulate or punish the companies that got him in office.

He accepted $1.4 million from the insurance companies. This can be a major conflict of interest, and it will be hard for Villines to bite the hand that fed him while campaigning.

But that is not to take away from the fact that Jones is indeed qualified for the job. The next insurance commissioner will be tasked with regulating the new national health care policy that allows students to remain on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26.

Jones has been a supporter of health care reform, and has fought to eliminate discrimination issues in insurance.

Board of Equalization, District 4

The position: This board administers California’s state taxes and acts as a quasi-judiciary committee for the state in tax matters. The board is divided by district, and UCLA falls under the fourth district.

The issues: The board litigates and administers tax issues to make sure the state’s money is coming in regularly. The members do not decide taxes; that is done in the state Senate and Assembly.

The best candidate: Incumbent Jerome Horton* ( D ) is the best bet for this race, as he has more than 20 years of board experience and specializes in business tax law.

One of his opponents, Pedro De Baets ( Lib ), an UCLA alumnus, has idealistic views on limited government and reducing taxes, but this is not the time for the state to reduce taxes, as its bank will be close to running dry.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

The position: The California superintendent of public instruction is the executive officer of the state’s Department of Education, which oversees K-12 public education in the state. This nonpartisan office is critical in deciding what students are learning, how they learn it and evaluating how well it’s being taught. It is a particularly important position for us because this person serves as a UC regent.

The issues: A big issue for this position right now is teacher evaluations; including test scores in teacher evaluations is one of the hot topics in education policy right now, but curriculum-tweaking and teaching style are important factors of the job as well.

Teachers have a tenure system that is codified in law and makes it difficult to fire them after a certain amount of time, which means bad teachers keep teaching.

Further, the lack of technology use in California public schools is a problem because education can really benefit from using up-to-date instruction styles.

The best candidate: Larry Aceves ( NP ) is the better choice of the two nonpartisan candidates, who agree on a number of issues. It’s hard to disagree with the fact that schools in California need to improve, but Aceves understands public education administration as he has been a teacher, principal and local superintendent. Aceves is in favor of using test scores as a part of teacher evaluations, and retraining and working with teachers who are not performing at optimal levels. Advocating for this will be difficult because the teachers’ union will lobby against it, but Aceves points out that the union and lawmakers should be working together, as both groups agree that education needs reform.

Controller

The position: The controller is the state’s chief fiscal officer, responsible for overseeing all state funds. This means that the controller deals directly with the UC budget and Cal Grants.

The issues: Since the state is in dire fiscal conditions, having a strong controller is critical so that state funds are not wasted and government entities are held accountable. Most importantly, if the state’s bank account comes close to zero, it is the controller who decides to issue IOUs for state programs like Cal Grants.

The best candidate: The incumbent, John Chiang* ( D ), should remain in office. He has been successful in auditing the state and found $2.4 billion in waste. While he was the man who decided that Cal Grants would be delayed when the state was handing out IOUs, his office got on the phone with the UC, CSU and community colleges to ensure that students would get the money in one way or another. He cares about students, even though it’s not in his job description.

Chiang stood up for students in the past and believes in higher education. He is the candidate we want in office.

If you’d like more information on the candidates or races above, e-mail Ramzanali at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].