Your monthly support provides voters the knowledge they need to make confident decisions at the polls. Donate today.

Reinette Senum

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
BP-Initials-UPDATED.png
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Reinette Senum
Image of Reinette Senum
Elections and appointments
Last election

June 7, 2022

Personal
Birthplace
San Francisco, Calif.
Contact

Reinette Senum (independent) ran for election for Governor of California. She lost in the primary on June 7, 2022.

Senum completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Reinette Senum was born in San Francisco, California.[1] Senum served as the mayor and a city council member of Nevada City, California.[2]

Elections

2022

See also: California gubernatorial election, 2022

General election

General election for Governor of California

Incumbent Gavin Newsom defeated Brian Dahle in the general election for Governor of California on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom (D)
 
59.2
 
6,470,104
Image of Brian Dahle
Brian Dahle (R)
 
40.8
 
4,462,914

Total votes: 10,933,018
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Governor of California

The following candidates ran in the primary for Governor of California on June 7, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom (D)
 
55.9
 
3,945,748
Image of Brian Dahle
Brian Dahle (R)
 
17.7
 
1,252,800
Image of Michael Shellenberger
Michael Shellenberger (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
4.1
 
290,286
Image of Jenny Rae Le Roux
Jenny Rae Le Roux (R)
 
3.5
 
246,665
Image of Anthony Trimino
Anthony Trimino (R) Candidate Connection
 
3.5
 
246,322
Image of Shawn Collins
Shawn Collins (R) Candidate Connection
 
2.5
 
173,083
Image of Luis Rodriguez
Luis Rodriguez (G) Candidate Connection
 
1.8
 
124,672
Image of Leo Zacky
Leo Zacky (R)
 
1.3
 
94,521
Image of Major Williams
Major Williams (R) Candidate Connection
 
1.3
 
92,580
Image of Robert Newman
Robert Newman (R)
 
1.2
 
82,849
Image of Joel Ventresca
Joel Ventresca (D)
 
0.9
 
66,885
Image of David Lozano
David Lozano (R) Candidate Connection
 
0.9
 
66,542
Ronald Anderson (R)
 
0.8
 
53,554
Image of Reinette Senum
Reinette Senum (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
0.8
 
53,015
Image of Armando Perez-Serrato
Armando Perez-Serrato (D)
 
0.6
 
45,474
Image of Ron Jones
Ron Jones (R)
 
0.5
 
38,337
Image of Daniel Mercuri
Daniel Mercuri (R)
 
0.5
 
36,396
Image of Heather Collins
Heather Collins (G)
 
0.4
 
29,690
Image of Anthony Fanara
Anthony Fanara (D) Candidate Connection
 
0.4
 
25,086
Image of Cristian Morales
Cristian Morales (R) Candidate Connection
 
0.3
 
22,304
Image of Lonnie Sortor
Lonnie Sortor (R) Candidate Connection
 
0.3
 
21,044
Image of Frederic Schultz
Frederic Schultz (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
0.2
 
17,502
Image of Woodrow Sanders III
Woodrow Sanders III (Independent)
 
0.2
 
16,204
Image of James Hanink
James Hanink (Independent)
 
0.1
 
10,110
Image of Serge Fiankan
Serge Fiankan (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
0.1
 
6,201
Image of Bradley Zink
Bradley Zink (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
0.1
 
5,997
Jeff Scott (American Independent Party of California) (Write-in)
 
0.0
 
13
Gurinder Bhangoo (R) (Write-in)
 
0.0
 
8

Total votes: 7,063,888
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Reinette Senum completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Senum's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a 4th generation Californian and former two-time mayor/city council member in Nevada City, California.

I have travelled to nearly 60 countries, have founded the American Women’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition in my early 20’s, and have lived in Alaska, Utah, and Los Angeles.


In 1994 I crossed Alaska alone in the dead of winter, filming my journey for National Geographic. As a result of this trip I would learn, of all things, the power of community, and I obtained a deep understanding of legacy. Ultimately, lessons learned along the trail would become the catalyst for my community work later in life.

For the last 18 years my focus has been on helping to build my hometown as a more resilient community through risk assessment, public outreach, and a daily hands-on approach. It has always been my belief that to change the world one must start with one’s community. I have always been a creative problem-solver. When challenges arise, I always find creative and effective solutions. In addition, I have never been afraid to stand my ground, call out corruption, and do everything in my power to protect local authority from the overreach of government and corporate greed.

I believe in representing my constituents by listening to them, engaging them, and then advocating on their behalf.

  • It's literally impossible to serve The People and a party simultaneously. I'm here to serve The People.
  • There are many of us Californians, and I believe in serving the many over money.
  • 80% of Americans agree on 90% of the same issues. As governor I will use that common ground to turn California around.
1. Ending houselessness and creating affordable housing.

2. Reducing crime.
3. Revitalizing California businesses.
4. Reducing overtaxation and regulation.
5. Ensuring school choice and parental control.
6. Ensuring bodily autonomy.
7. Expanding regenerative farming, and rebuilding topsoil and pollinator populations.
8. Ensuring Indigenous land stewardship.
9. Engaging citizenry in undertaking local solutions.
10. Restoring forests/watersheds, and decreasing fire danger.

11. Instituting prison reformation so as to decrease recidivism rates.

R. Buckminster Fuller, American inventor, architect, philosopher, systems theorist, author, designer, and futurist. He pursued "an experiment, to find what a single individual could contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity." He has had a great impact on my thinking and how to address challenges.
1. The ability and willingness to listen.

2. The ability to represent one's constituents.
3. A strong sense of self and character.
4. The ability to uphold the US and California Constitution.

5. A commitment to decisions that serve seven generations from now, and to not simply accommodate immediate indulgences.
I am a solution-oriented person. I have always had the ability to face insurmountable odds, and then identify creative ways to overcome any obstacle.
1. Maintaining a balanced budget.

2. Ensuring the rule of law.
3. Keeping all decisions and actions constitutional.
4. Listening to one's constituents.

5. Upholding one's oath to office.
After two years of suffering, Californians are exhausted, and many feel hopeless. This is why I have built a purpose-driven campaign to engage Californians at all levels, focused on rebuilding an economy based upon restoration and healing: rebuilding our our topsoil (this retains more water), restoring our pollinator population, expanding regenerative farming, and ensuring our legacy farms and ranches remain intact.

I'm also passionate about changing how we lead. It's time California set a standard for its leaders and the decisions they make. This is why I am a huge advocate for the 7th Generation principle; every decision we make today should serve seven generations from now.

If we want to change the world, we must change what and how we are measuring our decision-making.

Most Californians are unaware that our constitution was originally inspired by the 6 Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. However, our forefathers did not include two critical pieces to this amazing vessel; the compass and the anchor. The compass being every decision we make today should serve seven generations from now. The anchor means including our elders in our decision-making so we may draw upon lessons learned over the last few generations. By doing this we create a guiding light for generations to come, and a way to measure our leaders' decision-making to ensure a bountiful future for our children's children.

This is the legacy I want to leave behind.
My first historical event was the death of my namesake, Great Grandma Reinette, when I was about 8 years old. She was well into her 80's and was remarkably young for her age, had lots of energy, and she would never listen to anyone who told her "no."
My first job was at a donut shop for a year. I was saving up to buy a touring bike, camping gear, and airline ticket so I could bicycle through Europe.
Representing The People and planet, not a political party and corporate monies.
From what I have gathered from being on the ground, as it stands now my top responsibilities will start with:

1. Reducing homelessness & crime.
2. Reducing over taxation and regulation.
3. Ensuring parental control, school choice, and bodily autonomy for all ages.
4. Ending the overreach and excessive meddling of our current government.
5. Expanding affordable housing.
6. Reducing fire danger, and increasing forest health (including cultural burning).
7. Returning the rule of law, ensuring constitutionality.
8. Ensuring equitable and transparent water allocation.
9. Advocating for Indigenous rights.

10. Increasing land stewardship and ensuring healthy food production.




In order to guarantee my own accountability to California, I will be highly involved in the budget process, from developing and submitting the annual budget for review to working with legislators to get it approved.
I would only use the power of line-item veto to reduce or eliminate any line-item found to be unconstitutional or that in any way poses a threat to life or liberty.

A relationship that supports open dialogue, constructive debate -- and a continued dedication to finding a common ground to base our decisions on.
I love California's diversity of everything: the geography, the climate, the farms, ranches, and orchards. The incredible fresh food, the people, the races, and religions, thought-forms, incredible lifestyle, and biodiversity. In addition, Californians have always had the ability to lead in imagination and innovation: It’s in our Californian-bones. In spite of the woes that we face, we still have great influence around the world, however, today, this comes with an added danger when seeing the tidal wave of unconstitutional bills being pushed through the state. In the past, we were exporting creative-trailblazing, today, we are on the verge of exporting tyranny and dangerous leadership.
1. Reigning in the influence of big money in politics.

2. Ensuring transparent and fair elections.
3. Reducing taxes and bureaucratic red tape.
3. Ending the lack of government representation.
4. Reducing the state's exponential growth of unfunded liability.
5. Reducing the increased threat of environmental calamity and rise in forest fires.
6. Protecting Californians from unbridled technocratic-control and data collection.
7. Stopping the continued overreach of government meddling, surveillance and control.
8. Stopping the loss of strong local and regional economies, and local authority.

9. Creating equitable water distribution and increasing water tables.
I support the use of emergency powers under VERY limited and extraordinary conditions, and for only as long as is necessary to respond to an emergency situation that poses immediate and significant risk to the public.

However, there should also be restrictions on emergency powers including prohibiting the governor from limiting freedom of speech and the press, confiscating citizens' firearms, restricting the right to assemble and travel, and prohibiting the ability to work. In addition, constitutional limits on state authority and all guaranteed rights should remain in full effect during an emergency.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Senum's campaign website stated the following:

Crime

California locks up a higher percentage of its population than almost any other democracy on earth. As of 2020, about 46% of California offenders are convicted of another crime within three years, and even more are rearrested. I advocate for incarerated offenders to participate in programs that build character and develop practical skills so they may successfully integrate into their communities upon release. Interim housing upon release is also paramount to lowering recidivism rates. The state needs real accountability, as communities should not bear the brunt of releasing violent offenders, closing prisons, expunging criminal records, or unimpeded shoplifting. These faulty practices must stop.


Homelessness

We need to start calling California’s homeless crisis what it truly is: a humanitarian crisis. When elected, I will immediately declare a state of emergency. Accordingly, I will:

  • Deploy a rapid triage on the streets of those who are at most risk to themselves, their neighbors, and surrounding business owners.
  • Streamline/fast track building permits to retrofit existing buildings into mental/drug addiction facilitities, homeless shelters, and transitional housing.
  • Ensure current homeless shelters are meeting California standards
  • Deploy task forces within individual communities for quick, actionable solutions

On top of providing shelter, we must also help break the cycle that traps people. Those suffering from mental health issues, drug addiction, or alcoholism need proper treatment and those who have lost a sense of purpose need support, training, and housing to reclaim a fulfilling position in society. Homelessness is a very nuanced problem and must be met with a multi-tiered approach.


Education

Investing in our children is an investment in our future. We must:

  • Guarantee in-person learning
  • Provide real school choice
  • Reduce student-teacher ratios
  • Guarantee parental involvement in curriculum development
  • Increase vocational and farming programs
  • Increase physical and outdoor education
  • Reduce bloated administration budgets
  • Reduce screen-time
  • Place a hold on standardized testing so students may recover from the systematic setbacks of the last two years
  • End all student data mining across all grades K-12

The time has come for California’s education system to refocus on developing better humans.


Forest Fires

As with all health matters, prevention beats treatment. Unfortunately, more money is made via fire suppression as opposed to prevention. Millions of dollars are thrown at California forest management, yet there is a noticeable lack of necessary funding for restorative programs. It is time for an audit to ensure funds go where they are intended: routine brush clearing, tree thinning, and grazing. We will expand the use of Indigenous cultural burning and engage more Indigenous land stewardship within the California Conservation Corps, while modeling California’s forest management after successful programs such as New Mexico’s Rio Grande Water Fund. In addition, expand outreach and education programs to educate the public on benefits of rebuidling topsoil so as to reduce catestrophic fires around homes, buildings, and infrastructure.


Bodily Autonomy

The government’s business ends at our skin. The government should never restrict, coerce, or mandate a medical intervention or treatment. Californians have the right to be informed of all treatment options – along with the respective risks and benefits – and whatever decision they make for themselves or their children must be honored and respected. The patient and doctor/medical practitioner relationship is sacred and must be respected.


Cost of Living

Californians must be able to afford to live in California. The ever-increasing cost of living has more residents living in poverty in California than in any other state. We must:

  • Shore up California’s finances: Conduct a rigorous and certified financial and operational audits on the State of California
  • Rebuild the local and regional businesses that have suffered so much in the last two years
  • Reduce California’s income and corporate taxation
  • Reduce land-use regulations to allow for more affordable housing
  • Eliminate the gas tax
  • Expand Californian’s Infrastructure Bank to include providing low interest loans to mom and pop businesses, Main Street businesses, and small to large scale manufacturing.
  • End AB5 (which has harmed independent contractors and set off a supply chain disaster and subsequent rise in cost of goods)

Politicians should never determine who works and who does not.


Land Stewardship

Our personal health and future are indistinguishable from the health and future of the environment. As such, in order to ensure a healthy future for all, we must:

  • Rebuild our topsoil and pollinator populations
  • Keep farmers on their land so they may steward it properly
  • Ban toxic chemicals from agricultural and consumer use
  • Incentivize regenerative farming practices
  • Prioritize watershed and forest restoration
  • Reduce plastic waste
  • Implement intelligent, fair, and transparent water management
  • Embrace feed-in tariffs for renewable energy generation
  • Encourage and expand Indiginous land stewardship


Economy/Business

For many years, California businesses have been overtaxed and overregulated. For the last two years, the government has severely restricted California’s businesses while conveniently ignoring the countless consequences of these restrictions. We must turn this around. We need to reduce business taxes, business fees, and red tape. We also need to expand California’s Infrastructure Bank, which will both repair our state’s failing infrastructure and provide in-state low interest loans (rather than borrowing from Big Banks), thus allowing us to revitalize the Main Street small businesses and manufacturers that made our state great to begin with. By utilizing the IBank, we will maintain low interest rates for businesses while keeping our money in California, thereby ensuring a much needed reboot for our state’s economy.


Government Transparency

California has been improperly governed by mandates that are not, in fact, laws. Gas tax money is rerouted to other projects while infrastructure repair remains $400 billion behind in deferred maintenance. Numbers show that, with regard to homelessness, the state pays over $800,000 per individual that it houses. This is not how a state should be run and not how it will be run with the implementation of routine, certified financial and operational audits. Elected officials should also have their leadership and decision making audited: This individual accountability can be assessed through an annual survey, known as the Wellness (Happiness) Index, whereby all Californians provide a real-time measurement of the performance of elected officials and the overall wellness of their respective lives.


Police

I am a firm believer in reforming as opposed to defunding our police force. They are necessary to ensure Californians’ safety. We also need to reestablish trusting relationships between those who protect and serve and their local communities. This can be achieved through considering and implementing any of the following:

  • Mandatory malpractice insurance
  • Police union accountability
  • Mandatory dash and body cams
  • Expanded whistleblower protections
  • The reformation of qualified immunity
  • Increased deescalation training
  • Residential requirements for officers in or near where they work
  • Utilization of K9 units to reduce the rate of police shootings


Cannabis

The cannabis industry was grown and legitimized by the concerted efforts of citizens and community-based businesses. Now, many of those same citizens and businesses are unable to partake in the industry because of cost-prohibitive and punitive bureaucratic controls. We must streamline the process for legally opening new cannabis businesses and reduce unfounded overtaxation so that more Californians have the opportunity to participate in the Green Renaissance.


Taxes

The issue in California is not a lack of state funds, but rather the misuse of funds, compounded by a lack of transparency as to where tax dollars go. We need certified audits of state expenditures to prevent hard-earned dollars from being usurped from our businesses and citizens with little to no benefit for them. Once we clean up California’s accounting, it’ll be time for a wholesale reduction of taxes in the state, and that includes considering the pros and cons to ending the income tax.


Water

Our farmers cannot feed the country while their land is starved for water. 3 billion dollars are available from already approved bonds, yet these funds have not been used. Before taxpayers are asked to approve more borrowing, highest priorities should be evaluated and existing funds invested accordingly. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is not living up to its name or intention. Meanwhile, dam water is being dumped into the ocean. We must focus on:

  • Safe water recycling and conservation
  • Equitable water use
  • Flow standards for the Delta and major rivers
  • Considering pros/cons of a smaller Delta tunnel
  • Smart methods for treating irrigation runoff and wastewater
  • Aquifer usage
  • Utilization of inland sources of brine
  • Watershed protection
  • Water-neutral development
  • Rebuilding our topsoil


Religion/Race

Since its inception, California has been home to many races and religions. I believe in protecting both. I have traveled through countries that do not have these protections, and it is not something I would wish on Californians. So I can safely say protecting the variety of religions and races within California is paramount. Diversity is the richest of California’s resources and I believe in protecting and allowing the expression and celebration of both race and religion.[3]

—Reinette Senum's campaign website (2022)[4]

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 7, 2022.
  2. Reinette Senum for CA Governor, "Meet Reinette," accessed May 4, 2022
  3. Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  4. Elect Reinette For California Governor, “Home,” accessed April 28, 2022