We asked our resident marketing expert (Philip Davenport works for an ad agency in Brooklyn) to take a look at two ads from the California governor's race: Matt Mahan's and Tom Steyer's. We asked Philip to keep the politics out of it, and just view the ads as he would if he were a client giving feedback to the agency. Philip is not a CA voter and assures us he wouldn't vote for either candidate. An Opportunity Now exclusive.
Matt Mahan is the “sole gubernatorial candidate emphasizing governmental accountability,” says Johnny Khamis, president of the Silicon Valley Business Alliance. But, he argues, the SJ mayor’s state spending plan doesn’t go far enough: Mahan should commit to veto any tax-raising measures until politicians do much better at resolving the issues facing California. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
Regional planners aim to fix transit, housing, the environment, and the economy in their Plan Bay Area 2050+, a long-range nine-county development blueprint that hinges on high-growth estimates. But in a letter to MTC/ABAG, Marin County Executive Derek Johnson rejects the plan’s assumption of 22,200 new county residents. Actually, the state predicts Marin will lose 6,437 residents. Stopping short of demanding a rethink, Johnson instead recommends the planners do better next time. H/t to Susan Kirsch.
Sure, the SJ mayor is right to point out that California’s budget is broken, but by what standard will Mahan measure his results, asks Mark Moses, author of The Municipal Financial Crisis. He says the CA gov candidate’s spending plan doesn’t even hint at what real accountability would look like. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
“Even some who favor preferences in admissions would likely balk at a better package of aid simply because of an applicant’s race,” writes William McGurn in a WSJ opinion piece: ACA 7 would allow schools to offer more financial aid money to a wealthy black student, and on better terms, than to a poor Asian student.
A special local tax in California needs two-thirds voter approval to pass. The “affordable housing” Measure E was never going to get that. But as a general tax it slipped through with a simple majority. So says twice-elected D6 Councilmember Dev Davis, who opposed it because now, as she predicted, there’s a yearly fight over how to spend the money. From the December ep of her excellent podcast The Upside of Down with SJ Chief of Staff Lam Nguyen.
With a heavy application of performance metrics, Matt Mahan’s statespending plan draws from the same formula as his San Jose mayoral race, says SVBA’s Pat Waite. He warns that a Governor Mahan would have to work through intractable grit at the state level. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
ReAlpha (AI-powered real estate concern) ranked California cities for safety and affordability in November, 2025. Only one Bay Area city makes the top tier of the Safety listings--Sunnyvale. And none —that’s right, zero—made the combined Safety+Affordable listing.
Gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan’s spending plan for CA does a good job of diagnosing California’s fiscal maladies, but his proposed treatment is not enough to cure the patient, according to Marc Joffe. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
