Print our guide for the 2022 Midterm Election

IF NOT YOU, WHO?

Local and state governments decide everything from what classes are offered to the sales tax you pay every day, where you can buy, or smoke weed to which neighborhoods get new parks. If you don’t vote, you let others speak for you.

Politics can be difficult to understand. Community college students have many responsibilities that can leave learning to navigate voting in the back burner for many. The el Don has compiled a General Election guide to assist in your understanding of the local election. Read to know more about citywide measures, mayoral candidates, district trustee runners, how to vote and our state propositions. Print the PDF at the end of this information to make your own zine! When printing out our election guide fold the copy in half vertically.

Measures

Citywide measures are initiatives submitted to voters for their approval or rejection.

Measure W- Will make the city business tax lower for small businesses and will also make it easier for new home businesses to get a license.

Measure X- Changes the rules dictating how Santa Ana city hall operates, including by imposing term limits. The mayor would be ineligible to serve after completing four terms. Councilmembers would be ineligible after three terms. The measure would also require two-thirds council to adopt a budget and utilize gender neutral language.

District trustees

Role-One of the most important responsibilities of both the city council and the district trustees is to approve the annual budget. The budget dictates what facilities get replaced or upgraded, what services can be funded for students, how many staff are hired (or not), and what courses can be supported.

John Hanna

Hanna is an attorney who has served on the RSCCD board since 1998. He is the chairperson of the Board Bond, Facilities, and Legislative Committees which advise the board regarding how bond money is spent, and education related legislation.

Steve Rocco

Rocco has run for various local offices in Orange and Santa Ana over half a dozen times in the last 20 years. He last held office as a member of the Orange Unified School District board in 2006, where he won witthout doing any campaigning whatsoever.

Mayoral Candidates

Role-The mayor acts as the main face of Santa Ana. While each of the other members represents a specific area, or ward, the mayor serves the city at large, and represents its interests to higher governing bodies like the county Board of Supervisors.

Sal Tinajero

Tinajero is a current RSCCD trustee. His priorities include increasing parks and affordable housing, defending rent control and the just-cause eviction ordinance. He wants to increase spending on community and youth programs and redirect police funds to mental health and community-based specialists to quickly respond to non-violent emergencies. He also wants to establish a civilian police oversight commission, citing the over $24 million paid out to misconduct lawsuits against the Santa Ana police department.

Valerie Amezcua

Amezcua retired in 2017 after 30 years as a probation officer and has sat on the board of Santa Ana Unified School District since 2014. If elected, she plans to work on shortening 911 response times to make neighborhoods safer and reducing homelessness through a focus on mental health services and supportive housing. Additionally, she hopes to build more parks, expand youth services and ensure clean air. She intends to help Santa Ana businesses grow and recruit more employees.

Jose Solorio

Solorio previously served on Santa Ana City Council, as a state assemblyman, and has been on the RSCCD board. His primary issues are homelessness and reducing crime. Solorio’s goal is to maintain strong police staffing levels and use increased enforcement of anti-camping laws combined with partnering with the state, nonprofit and faith-based organizations to get homeless individuals into mental health and drug treatment facilities, effective shelters and job training programs.

Jesse Nestor

Nestor is the youngest candidate at 19 and describes himself as a “Ron Paul Libertarian.” Nestor works as a server at The Original Pancake House and previously attended Cal State Northridge. If elected, he says he says he would address homelessness by helping those that could be helped through community programs, and “banish” those who couldn’t from the city. He supports the death penalty for violent offenders, creating a nuclear power plant in OC, and removing the minimum wage.

Propositions

Statewide propositions are proposals to enact or repeal laws or constitutional amendments.

Proposition 1

Would add the right to reproductive freedom to the state constitution. This means services such as birth control and abortion access couldn’t be revoked in California if a pro-life state administration takes over in the future.

*A yes vote means the state can’t restrict abortion access

Proposition 26

Would allow in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and race tracks. It would also allow roulette and dice games, like craps, at tribal casinos. Betting at race tracks would be taxed, however, betting at tribal casinos would not.

Proposition 27

Would allow online sports betting. Companies would have to partner with a tribe to be eligible. The $100 million licensing fee could shut out smaller companies, but could generate several billion annually that would be split between addressing homelessness, gambling addiction help, and non-gaming tribes.

Proposition 28

Would require the state to allocate an estimated funding of $1 billion annually toward art and music programs in public schools and community colleges. Schools with a high number of students from low-income households would get more funding.

Proposition 29

Would make several changes to how dialysis clinics are run and regulated. The most notable change would require a physician, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant on site during all hours of treatment.

Proposition 30

Would create a new revenue stream to subsidize zero-emission vehicles and fund wildfire response and prevention by increasing personal income tax for Californians making more than $2 million per year by 1.75%.

Proposition 31

Would decide whether to uphold the ban on certain flavored tobacco products, like JUUL e-cigs. A “Yes” vote would uphold it, a “no” vote would overturn it.

General Election: November 8, 2022

Print the below PDF to create your zine! When printing out our election guide select “Booklet style”, then fold the copy in half vertically.

General Election Guide Download