Memo to Senator Richard Pan

Write a memo to Senator Richard Pan convincing him to vote YES for Bill SB 827

You are an aide to a member of California’s Assembly in the 2017-18 session, writing a memo recommending how your boss should vote (i.e., for or against) on one of two bills introduced in that legislature and listed below. You need to tell your boss what the main policy question is, what effect the bill will have on the state, and what effect the bill will have on your boss’ district. To answer these questions, read the analyses of the bills available on the course website and use other sources to tell us:

• What is your boss’ political and personal history? How much did she win by in her last election, and when is she running for reelection? What sorts of interest groups or individuals contributed large amounts of money to her last campaign?

• What is the geographic, ethnic, and political profile of her district? Tell us where her district is located, what sorts of areas it covers, and give its racial/ethnic breakdown. Using the Secretary of State’s reports, tell us what party its voters register with and how the county or counties that your boss represents voted on initiatives that address similar policy issues. (Past votes on initiatives, broken down by counties, are reported in the Secretary of State’s “Supplement to the Statement of the Vote.”) Relate relevant district characteristics to the bill.

• What interest groups are on record as supporting or opposing the bill, or who might be the winners and losers if it passed? Are they tied to your boss? (The Legislature’s committee analyses report the formal positions taken by groups, at the end of the analysis.) You will write to the member you are assigned below, and chose one of these bills from 2017-18:
Senate Bill 827, Transit-Rich Housing Bonus