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Hey Focus fans!
Big shoutout to all of you who came to our VotingMatters event last week. If you missed the invigorating discussion (and free tacos), here are a couple of things I said about local ballot measures that haven’t made it into our reporting:
- About 47,200 voters in mostly northeast Modesto are seeing both school bonds on their ballots – Measure N for the Sylvan Union School District and Measure K for the Modesto City Schools high school district.
- Critics of River Walk in Riverbank needed 1,400 signatures to force a referendum on the project, and collected more than 1,700. This could eventually reverse the Riverbank City Council’s 3-2 approval of River Walk decided only 42 days before Election Day, when residents across the city decide the fate of Measure M.
- Meanwhile, developers – hoping to build 18 villages with 2,600 homes in a 1,000-acre expansion west of Riverbank to McHenry Avenue – ponied up $120,000 to oppose Measure M.
See Ken Carlson’s write up in The Modesto Bee for more information on protestors paid to try to dissuade people from signing referendum petitions.
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Voters are finding Modesto Focus recorded debates and interviews helpful in assessing local candidates’ views, priorities and personalities. Among those recently posted:
- Turlock mayoral debate – A spirited contest between incumbent Amy Bublak and challengers Jim Reape and Kelley Coelho before a standing-room-only audience at Stanislaus State University, co-hosted by The Turlock Journal. This might be worth seeing even if you don’t live in Turlock.
- Adam Gray interview – The 13th District Democratic congressman shares his views on affordability, ICE detentions and the war in Iran. Republican challenger Kevin Lincoln didn’t respond to multiple invitations to debate.
That’s a bit weird, because candidates who shun such opportunities usually are front-runners (think Republicans Tom McClintock and Heath Flora). And Lincoln isn’t, especially since last year’s Proposition 50 tilted the 13th District’s registration a bit to the left.
It’s less weird after you see Lincoln freeze in a studio interview with KCRA 3 three years ago, when he was running (unsuccessfully) against Rep. Josh Harder. Don’t take my word for it – see it yourself at 2 minutes 14 seconds in, and ask yourself this: If you were Lincoln’s advisors, would you let him debate?
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The Lincoln-Gray race is picking up steam in the media.
- Our CalMatters friends did their usual illuminating job in a recent article highlighting the millions of dollars Republican bosses have poured into supporting the former Stockton mayor.
- USA Today ran an op-ed by Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi of New York noting that he and Gray were the only Democrats to flip House seats two years ago in districts won by President Donald Trump (the column was picked up by The Bee as well).
- The San Francisco Chronicle did a piece comparing Gray with Randy Villegas – the Democrat in this campaign season’s most-watched House race, trying to oust Republican Rep. David Valadao in the south San Joaquin Valley. It’s a fascinating look at Villegas’s far-left approach contrasted with Gray’s walk down the political center, the way he’s always done it since representing Stanislaus and Merced counties for 10 years in the California Legislature.
Remember that Gray in 2024 won by the slimmest margin in a House race that year to turn out former Congressman John Duarte, who had barely edged Gray two years before that.
How slim? In 2024, by a mere 187 votes out of more than 210,000 votes cast. That’s less than 0.09%, or less than one-tenth of 1%.
No wonder Lincoln’s party keeps bringing House Speaker Michael Johnson to the Valley, as it did Wednesday for a third time, to drum up support for Lincoln.
Feel free to share notes, tips and insights for Stanislaus-centric campaign coverage at garth@themodestofocus.org.