The Sacramento Bee and its sister news organizations launched their California Influencer Series on election day with a list of 60 prominent leaders and a commitment to a “long-lasting conversation between you and the leaders and influencers in our state.”
It’s a worthwhile and important effort.
The series, introduced by Lauren Gustus, the new regional editor who oversees the Sacramento Bee and four other McClatchy papers in California, is brilliantly designed to spur public debate – not to mention “clicks” to online articles that will generate ad revenues.
Take a look at the list of 60 influencers. While heavy with administrators and analyzers, it’s a thoughtful assemblage of California’s public voices.
I just wish the list could be expanded to 75 – and include more leaders who represent low-income workers and families struggling to get ahead or make ends meet.
Especially folks on the front lines fighting to secure quality child care, fix our child welfare system, expand health care, guarantee access to abortion and contraception for women of all income levels, create affordable housing, establish workplaces free from gender discrimination, and guarantee income security.
All of these issues will be front and center when Californians elect a new governor in November.
And because counties, cities and school districts deliver most of the services California residents depend upon, wouldn’t it be great if the influencer list included a sitting mayor, supervisor and school board member?
I started to make a list of folks I’d like to see added – like Jessica Bartholow from the Western Center on Law and Poverty or Noreen Farrell with Equal Rights Advocates and Stronger California, Mary Ignatius with Parent Voices, Kimberly Alvarenga with the California Domestic Workers Coalition, or Kellie Todd Griffin with the State of Black Women in California.
But I stopped, because the deliberation needed to augment the influencer list needs to match the research and review that went into its initial creation.
So how about it, Sacramento Bee: Can you add a few more influencers to the list?
