Not invited to the funeral

The Badlands Journal editorial staff has few opportunities to defend the honor of the Merced Sun-Star. But, fair is fair. A working girl's got rights, too. On Primary Election night, the Sun-Star committed an act of photojournalism. It took a picture of Jesse "The Crestfallen" Brown, director of Merced County Association of Governments and manager of the failed Measure A campaign. Brown's face expressed bewilderment and despair in a painful moment of political defeat. But the special interests behind the measure to raise sales taxes to pay for the UC Loop Road, maybe the Los Banos By-Pass, and at least for the potholes in front of Brown's office, plunged fiercely forward with a new campaign in the General -- Measure G. As predicted by the campaign's own polling, Measure G also failed. The Sun-Star worked as diligently for both measures as an escort service in duck season. But, it's not good form to invite the party girl to the funeral.

From the Sun-Star's blog, "Sunspot":http://sunspot.mercedsunstar.com/

Nov. 7, 2006
Speaking of Measure G ...
Submitted by Joseph Kieta, Merced Sun-Star editor

Each election night, Sun-Star reporters and photographers patrol various political parties to get photos and talk with the winners and losers. Just about every newspaper does this ... they're not the most exciting photos and the comments can be predictable, but sometimes we get something surprising and interesting for you, our readers.

Don't expect to see a photo out of the Measure G party. Jennifer West, the Measure G campaign manager, said the gathering of supporters will be held at a private home (we hear it's her house) and a Sun-Star reporter and a photographer are only welcome if Measure G wins.
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Nov. 9, 2006
Measure G not likely to come back soon...Leslie Albrecht

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12988694p-13639087c.html
If Merced County votes on a transportation tax measure again, it probably won't happen until the country selects its next president...2008 is the earliest. Measure G, which failed Tuesday, was the third version of a transportation tax that voters have decided on in the past four years... earned 60.66 percent of the vote, falling short of the "super majority," or 66.7 percent, approval it needed to pass. "I think obviously we need to do a better job of education," Spriggs said. "We need to do a better job in the next couple of years of educating folks." Whether voters will see the measure again is up to the Merced County Association of Governments governing board... All five county supervisors and one elected official from each of the county's six incorporated cities serve on the board. But the public will have a chance to weigh in too, said Jesse Brown, executive director of MCAG. Starting early next year, MCAG will hold a series of public workshops to update the transportation expenditure plan, the document that lists the county's top transportation priorities. During the transportation plan's 2001 update, public input drove the decision to pursue a transportation tax ballot measure and the long list of projects the tax would fund, Brown said. Now the public will be asked to help form a new plan that doesn't include the sales tax as a funding source, Brown said.