In the midst of Berkeley’s election season, Cal Berkeley Democrats held a meeting Thursday night in which they endorsed 10 candidates, including mayoral candidate and City Councilmember Kriss Worthington.
Mayoral, City Council and rent board candidates introduced themselves and their platforms under allotted time limits. Once CalDem members had asked questions of all the candidates, the candidates left the room so CalDems could decide whom to endorse.
The motion to endorse Worthington failed the first vote during the CalDem student debate, but with miniature American flags in hand, members voted to support Worthington in the end.
Out of the six mayoral candidates, three were present at the meeting — current Mayor Tom Bates, Worthington and small-business owner Jacquelyn McCormick. Several Berkeley City Council members sent representatives to the forum.
In a room of more than 47 students, the CalDem student debate became heated when the mayoral candidates left the room, focused mainly on a divide between those who wished to support Bates and those who favored Worthington.
”In Cal Dems, specifically the more left-leaning progressives voted for Worthington, and the more moderate-leaning progressives went for Bates,” said ASUC Senator Klein Lieu after the meeting.
Lieu, a CalDems member, supports Worthington and believes he is the best candidate to represent students.
“He’s at the ASUC Senate,” he said. “This guy actually cares.”
In his speech that night, Worthington said he has personally appointed more than 100 students to city commissions, more than any other council member in the history of Berkeley.
Anais LaVoie, a fifth year at UC Berkeley and the former president of CalDems, spoke out in favor of Worthington during the CalDems debate because of his reputation as a student advocate.
“Kriss has come to every first meeting and every welcome back BBQ since I’ve been here,” LaVoie said.
LaVoie said she also had an experience with Bates during the planning process for Measure R — a ballot measure that would amend the city charter and allow the creation of a student supermajority district — that dissuaded her from supporting him.
“In the first meeting on the student district — before Measure R was on the ballot — Mayor Bates explicitly stated in public comment, to my face, that students do not belong on City Council and are not fit to govern themselves,” LaVoie said.
Some students said they were unwilling to endorse Worthington, citing Worthington’s temperamental relationship with certain City Council members as one point of criticism.
“I don’t have faith in (Worthington’s) leadership abilities,” said UC Berkeley freshman Woody Little, who said he identifies with progressivism but has some reservations about Worthington as a leader.
“I think there’s a tendency to jump on the bandwagon for progressives,” he said.
Additionally, CalDems endorsed the progressive pro-tenant rent board slate for the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, which includes Alejandro Soto-Vigil, Igor Tregub, Asa Dodsworth and Judy Shelton.
“We have fought individually and collectively for renters’ and tenants’ rights … We are diehard for the people,” said Soto-Vigil, who is a legislative aide for Councilmember Jesse Arreguin.
CalDems also endorsed Max Anderson for City Council in District 3. Anderson was not present himself but was represented by Worthington.
“(Anderson) fights so passionately for his constituents,” Worthington said.
CalDems listened to candidates speak from City Council Districts 2, 5 and 6, but upon debating, the club was too divided to reach the necessary two-thirds vote required to endorse, so a no-consensus vote was reached for each of these districts instead.
CalDems also endorsed Dianne Feinstein for the U.S. Senate, Rep. Barbara Lee for the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Skinner for the California State Assembly and Loni Hancock for the California State Senate.
“I think we had a really valuable discussion,” said CalDems President Daniel Tuchler. “I think more groups on campus should have these discussions.”
Contact Gladys Rosario at [email protected]
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
Cal Dems also endorse the murder of unborn children.
Sorry, Anais ,but your comments reveal that you are nothing more than a partisan hack.
Kriss may pay lip service to the students by coming to barbecues but when it comes to real student issues like student safety and commercial development, Kriss has stood in opposition for years.
Secondly, I attended the Cal Dems meeting at which the Berkeley Student District Campaign was endorsed and you, Anais, stood in opposition. You stood in opposition against overwhelming support for the campaign from Cal Dems. If Bates really made those comments to you, which is highly unlikely considering HE HIMSELF WROTE MEASURE R, then you should support him because you have long expressed your opposition to a student district.
This opposition, grounded not in an ideological opposition to having students represented on the council, but in am imagined partisan struggle to protect Kriss and his cronies, is embarrassing and has placed you squarely on the wrong side of history.
Actually, Kriss has worked on all kinds of student life issues, such as working to extend by-right business hours of businesses on Telegraph, advocating for public safety (i.e. quick street light repair), bringing benches to Telegraph, more community policing involvement, and preserving and building more affordable housing.
I remember when the same smear tactics on Kriss were prevalent in the comments section of the Daily Cal just prior to his overwhelming reelection in 2010. Berkeley_voter is certainly entitled to his/her opinions, but fortunately most voters in Berkeley don’t let them obfuscate the facts of Kriss’s leadership for students around affordability, safety, and student life issues.
His overwhelming re-election following his utter rejection by the wider AD 14?
Under Kriss’ watch, the Berkeley police spend more money and time policing drunk college students on Piedmont than the actually dangerous areas that students have to walk through everyday.
Under Kriss’ watch, Telegraph remains an underdeveloped, urine-soaked and bile-drenched mess.
Until South side experiences a rapid improvement, Kriss is overseeing one of the worst student-heavy commercial zones near any major campus in the country.
Kriss got in the race after he asked Nancy Skinner if she was running and she said no. Later, she got on. He had no intention to run against Nancy, and wouldn’t have commenced his campaign had he known that she was leaning towards doing it.
You seem to forget that it takes 5 on the City Council to get things moving. Under Kriss’s watch, he has actually gotten the Council to fund additional staffing for community police (cops on bikes that get to know the frequent offenders and can more effectively provide oversight).
Businesses in the area can now stay open later without requiring a special permit, leading to more lighting and eyes on the street.
He has exercised leadership in taking the step that has taken far too long – the city’s suing Ken Sarachan for the property on Telegraph and Haste that was promised for years but never built.
Finally, police reports show that Berkeley – including the Southside – is actually safer than it was four years ago. Until you produce some facts to show otherwise, your will remain an opinion – which, of course, you’re entitled to.
I have to admit that I agree with Mayor Bates about not having a student on the city council. For example, this CalDem meeting didn’t show me that students recognize the importance of running a city. There is much too much focus on social issues and too little focus on things like infrastructure. For example we have a city with horrendous streets and too many students dropping out of high school. These are issues that Cal students are not ready to address based on that CalDem meeting.
good job caldems. kris is really connected with progressive student politics of all sorts. would be nice to have him as a mayor
Sorry, but Kriss may be aligned with the progressive social issues that politically active students care about but he’s definitely not a supporter of improving student life.