Santa Cruz Local published 3,600 print election guides for South County voters for the March 2024 election. Stephanie Barron Lu, executive director of Positive Discipline Community Resources, shares the guide at the group’s office in Watsonville in February. Watsonville resident Roció Navarro reads the guide at left. (Contributed — Positive Discipline Community Resources)
Feb. 15, 2024
By Stephen Baxter, Editor of Santa Cruz Local
Since Santa Cruz Local’s first Election Guide in 2020, tens of thousands of Santa Cruz County voters have turned to the guides for complete, nonpartisan information. More readers visit the Election Guide than any other part of SantaCruzLocal.org. Since we cover local government in depth, the Election Guide is our Super Bowl.
In this fourth edition of the guide, Santa Cruz Local went all out:
- We hosted a live candidate forum in the District 2 county supervisors race.
- We printed 3,600 bilingual Election Guides for South County voters.
- We delved deeper into candidates’ stances and records.
The project started with you, the voters, last summer and fall. Santa Cruz Local surveyed and interviewed more than 350 Santa Cruz County residents about what issues you wanted the local candidates to address.
Concerns varied from disaster recovery and evacuation routes in the San Lorenzo Valley to a lack of affordable housing and safe bike routes in Live Oak. We took those problems and questions to the candidates, and we pressed them to respond.
Some key features of this Election Guide include:
- Simple charts to help voters differentiate the candidates’ stances in each race for Santa Cruz City Council and Santa Cruz County Supervisor.
- Policy records of the three incumbents: Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig and Santa Cruz City Councilmembers Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and Sonja Brunner.
- Analysis of proposed sales tax hikes in Santa Cruz County and the City of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz Local reporting explains how the descriptions of the measures on the ballot are different from how the money actually can be spent.
- Analysis and legal details on Measure M, the Housing for People initiative in Santa Cruz.
- The campaign money trail for each local race.
This Election Guide was funded by donations from more than 250 locals like you. It is free and accessible to every voter in the county. We are grateful to the donors who allow us to do this work.
Invaluable efforts to create this guide were made by Santa Cruz Local Reporter Jesse Kathan, Copyeditor and Fact Checker Nik Altenberg, CEO Kara Meyberg Guzman, Community Engagement Manager Natalya Dreszer and contributors Tara Walker, Michael Warren Mott, Julie Rovegno and Inspira Studios.
Please spread the word about this guide. Send us an email about how we can improve our coverage ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
