They should state their un-endorsement explicitly and explain their reasons for it
By Roberta Millstein
As I documented in a past article, Eric Jones is not a progressive. Now it seems that Our Revolution, which Wikipedia calls “an American progressive political action organization founded as a continuation of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign,” has finally figured out the same thing. Having previously endorsed Eric Jones in his run to unseat Mike Thompson in CA-04, Our Revolution seems to have quietly withdrawn that endorsement.
I want to be clear: this is not a critique of Our Revolution. I consider myself to be a progressive and I generally support their mission. I contributed to Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, voted for him twice, displayed the swag. But organizations can make mistakes. So it is no surprise to me that they would withdraw their endorsement once that they had the complete picture of who Jones is.
OK, I admit it… I’m a political nerd. Many years of campaigns, more FEC filings read than I’d like to admit. And I had never heard of “red-boxing” until a friend flagged it to me last week. Wait till you hear what it means — because once you see it, you can’t unsee it on every campaign website you visit.
Before I get to that: credit where it’s due. Roberta Millstein at Davisite already dug up the core of Jones’s Dragoneer ties and his Super PAC connections. Read her full series here: Who is Eric Jones? A summary of the series. This piece adds a few new pieces to her picture.
1. Red-Boxing: The website is talking to PACs, not to you
Jones’s campaign site has a page — not in the main menu, you have to know where to look — that reads less like a pitch to voters and more like a memo to an ad-buyer. It tells you what you “need to see,” what you “need to hear,” on what timeline. That’s a known, legal-but-gray tactic called red-boxing: campaigns aren’t allowed to privately hand a Super PAC their ad copy, so instead they post it publicly and let the PAC “discover” it — no phone call required, no coordination on paper. It’s used by both parties nationwide, so it’s not unique to Jones. What is fair to point out: he’s built his brand on refusing PAC money, while his own site is doing PAC-facing work in plain sight. That is red-boxing.
2. Follow the money, follow the name, follow the family
“Don’t build car parking spaces and they won’t come”. Pure fantasy. I live three blocks from the ACE project. I have no driveway so we have to park in the street. There are several similar properties nearby, mainly on corners. When the Capitol Corridor grew to a certain level and the parking lot reached critical mass, the cars overflowed en masse into our neighborhood. Yes, the project to keep cars off the road overflowed mass quantities of cars into our residential neighborhood.
I spearheaded a parking district that was implemented, but it took two years. We balanced this to allow open parking most of the time, but just enough to deal with Amtrak parking. There were times I couldn’t park within two blocks of my residence, again no driveway.
Now with ACE coming, we may have to redesign the parking district to keep the neighborhood from filling up at night. Simply declaring no parking does not mean people without cars will move in. As you know there is a huge business in Davis of people who rent out driveways and other spaces to students and others who can’t park. Also, these hundreds of residents will have visitors some of whom will drive. They will park in our neighborhoods.
The parking-free projects will reach a critical mass just like the Amtrak station did, and suddenly the parking districts as-designed won’t work anymore as these (dream on) ‘car free’ residents and their visitors park in our neighborhoods. Those most impacted, by far, will be those closest to project with insufficient parking-district protections. Old East and Huntwood neighborhoods between 5th and 8th will be adjacent to hundreds of carless (not really) residents who will park their non-existent cars and those of their visitors in an area with, currently at least, no parking district.
Also, all those alternative methods of transportation you (Rifkin) tout are wreaking havoc on Davis. Scooters, electric bikes and motorcycles are riding fast and in new patterns that involve riding on roads, bike paths, bike lanes and sidewalks in any direction. Discussing Davis with people, this is among the top concerns in Davis, and no one seems to have even an idea of a solution, and there is near-zero enforcement by UCD or City police.
Also, there are serious parking safety issues downtown already from Uber and Door Dash drivers who simply pull into the bike lane, turn on their hazard lights, swing their door open often without looking for bikes going around them that they just blocked, and taking up that space for as long as they want. Again, near-zero enforcement. Again, major issue for Davis and no solutions, and also a parking issue downtown.
People such as yourself (Rifkin) propose zero-parking projects as if having no parking means the people will have no cars and no visitors. Yes, on average fewer cars per resident, still more cars downtown and in central neighborhoods, and when this reaches critical mass, our neighborhoods will suddenly be impacted. I know how this happens, suddenly. I’ve been through it.
You won’t find a person who believes in and wants improved public and alternative transit than myself, and I’ve fought for this both as a private citizen my entire life and taken this as a career path. But the solution is building the infrastructure first, and maintaining it! Not fantasy ‘zero parking means zero cars’ projects.
With the state of many Davis roads in deterioration to the point bicycling can be hazardous, Thompson’s praise of Davis as a bicycle Mecca is borderline deranged. Politicians should stop praising themselves for a City that no longer should be proud of itself for being an innovator on bicycling, and instead go into emergency mode to prioritize fixing its streets and bike paths, and also come up with solutions on how to handle infrastructure and enforcement to make these new, heavy, fast ‘last mile’ modes part of the solution instead of new hazards.
So do we humans; some more than one; a few having many. Today or soon might be one for you. However the subject of this article is not good fortune or having a great day. It’s about dogs; a subject I approach cautiously having been accused of “fat shaming.”
Once I took and then posted on Instagram a photo of several round, young women shoveling into their mouths tasty creamy treats from gigormous cups standing in front of a shop sign that read “Fat Free Yogurt.” At the time I found it humorous and later suffered the blowback. I try not to make the same mistake twice.
I appreciate, admire and respect dogs and their owners, keepers – family members. Please do not accuse me of dog shaming.
Currently I am dogless but growing up our family included “Sandy,” a cocoa colored Cocker and “Curious,” a nervous Dalmatian. Raising young sons we loved two Bassets; “Floyd,” a French and “Sophie,” a British. My last two were both Jack Russell Terrier mixes – “Teddy” and “Lea.” Kind, gentle, quiet and endearing to their very end. Each of our dogs was different; leaving mostly wonderful memories.
(From press release) For 50 years, the Davis Farmers Market has brought together local farmers, artisans, families, and neighbors, becoming one of the region’s most cherished traditions. Saturday’s celebration will feature special anniversary activities, live entertainment, community partners, and opportunities to experience the vibrant atmosphere of this landmark event.
Event Details:
What: Davis Farmers Market 50th Anniversary Celebration When: Saturday, August 1, 2026 | 8:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Where: Central Park, Davis | 301 C Street
A young mother and her two children stand in their Yolo County apartment with the household goods and furnishings they received from Make It Happen for Yolo County. The nonprofit has received a two-year grant from the Kelly Foundation.
Funds will help sustain and expand program for local youth amidst growing demand
(From press release) The Kelly Foundation has granted local nonprofit Make It Happen for Yolo County $20,000 each year for two years for its program that equips underserved local young adults with essential furnishings and household goods to create safe, stable homes as they move into independent living. The two-year grant will help sustain and expand the organization’s work to address furniture poverty in response to significant growth in demand as well as rising prices of items.
“We are grateful to the Kelly Foundation for recognizing that having a fully furnished, safe and functional home is a fundamental need,” said Cathi Schmidt, executive director, Make It Happen for Yolo County. “The resilient young adults we serve have often experienced foster care, the juvenile justice system, homelessness or all three. Working together, we can turn their empty living spaces into places of comfort, dignity and belonging.”
As our monthly poker game winds down about 9 PM someone may ask a defining question, “Let’s play this last hand ‘All In?’” Which is to say everyone wanting to play this last hand will wager their entire bank – be it several tall stacks of chips or sadly a few – on the next, the last seven cards dealt. Winners can become instant losers and vice versa. Life is much like our simple game of Seven Card Texas Hold-Em.
Every day’s a gamble. Surely Julie Veress when she pedaled off on her bike or when Brent Leuschen started his Stebbin Canyon hike did either think it would be their last day. Neither did my friends, Bill, Bruce, Marilyn and Ed who also like Julie succumbed to bike accidents. As I look back I remember the sudden loss of friends Gary, Chris, Doc, Bob, Mickey and Francie. Names no doubt come to mind when you think of tragic, unexpected, sudden deaths. The day before he recently passed Senator Lindsey Graham was in Ukraine. Go figure!
To be successful at poker like the game of life it’s best to acquire some skill and maybe more precious, some luck. I like you know several who struggle as adults having grown up in loving families, with highly supportive parents providing the best possible opportunities. And others who were raised in foster homes, homeless perhaps, or with alcohol or drug addicted parents offering little, grew into happy, well adjusted, productive adults and parents. Mysteries abound.
Some hopefully more today than in prior generations have the needed drive, motivation, ambition, determination to play the game well. The who, what, why, when, where and especially “how” of this needed IT fascinates me. I do know as in poker there’s skill and luck needed and there’s limited time to win in life.
At 17, Davis Senior High School senior Dash Voskuhl built a caregiving startup called Tethr. He and his threeco-founders apply to Y Combinator at the end of July.
(From press release) Dash Voskuhl spent his summer mornings knocking on doors around Davis, selling window cleaning. At one house, the pitch turned into a different conversation. Voskuhl mentioned the caregiving app he was building on the side, and the woman at the door, in her 50s, went quiet. Then she told him about her mother, who has dementia.
“That was the moment I knew I had to actually build this,” Voskuhl said.
Voskuhl, a rising senior at Davis Senior High School, is the CEO and co-founder of Tethr, a Davis startup whose app connects families with vetted caregivers so anyone can book care on demand, the way they’d order an Uber. The company is pre-launch, and this month the team is applying to Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley accelerator whose early bets included Airbnb and DoorDash.
The Future of Cache Creek Gravel Mining Restoration –A New Pathway Forward
(From press release) What-When-Where – The Sierra Club Yolano Group and Tuleyome are sponsoring an in-person potluck dinner and conversation on Wednesday, July 22 from 7 to 9 pm in the Blanchard Room at the Yolo County Library, 314 E. 14th Street in Davis. (Doors open at 6:45 pm). Unfortunately, a Zoom option will not be available.
Cache Creek looking west into the Capay Valley in the 1970s(more…)
(From press release) WRECKAGE: A Musical Tragicomedy, Written by Michael Gene Sullivan. Music and Lyrics by Daniel Savio, Music Direction by Daniel Savio and Will Durkee. The show is directed by Lisa Hori-Garcia.
Wreckage will be performed for one night INDOORS on Wed. July 22, 2026 at 7:00 pm (music at 6:30 pm) at
Davis HS, Richard Brunelle Performance Hall 315 W 14th St., in Davis. Tickets are FREE but an RSVP is required: sfmt.org/rsvp-davis($20 suggested donation)
WRECKAGE: A Musical Tragicomedy runs July 3 – Sept. 7, 2026
Opening Shows: Fri. July 3, and Sat. July 4, 2026- Dolores Park – San Francisco
Running throughout the Bay Area in SF, Ukiah (Mendocino), Cotati (Sonoma), East Bay, Mill Valley, Santa Cruz, San Jose, and Davis.
All shows are FREE and open to the public unless otherwise listed. Paid Ticketed performance: Z Space’s Steindler Stage: Wed., Aug. 19, 2026 – 7:00 pm (Indoors).
Davisite 