While he doesn't really need to convince anyone in San Francisco not to vote for Donald Trump that contrarian libertarian IT guy at your office notwithstanding Bernie Sanders will be back in town this weekend doing a little pre-election stumping for both Jane Kim's state senate campaign, and for Prop 61. According to the Chronicle, Sanders's first stop Saturday morning will be at Kim's campaign headquarters at 37 Grove Street where he's expected to say a few words at 10:30 a.m.
From there, Sanders and Kim will head to a rally at the Marriott Marquis beginning at noon with the California Nurses Association in support of Proposition 61, the prescription drug price control measure. Sanders has appeared in TV spots for the Yes on 61 campaign like the one below, urging Californians to "stand up" to the greed of Big Pharma.
Kim issued a statement, picked up by Hoodline, saying, "I’m honored and grateful to have Senator Sanders’ support and I’m so excited he will be joining me again in San Francisco. I’m running for State Senate to make sure our cities work for all of us and I’m grateful to have Senator Sanders by my side to help spread our message."
The measure will make it mandatory for state agencies to negotiate prescription drug prices that are equal to the lowest prices paid for the same drugs to drug companies by the US Department of Veterans' Affairs.
Politifact questions a few of the provisions of the measure in particular the possibility that pharmaceutical companies could simply raise prices on the VA to counteract any loss of profits, and the fact that the measure puts the onus on the state to negotiate prices, with no guarantee that the companies will agree. Nonetheless it sounds like Big Pharma is running scared at the possibility that this thing will pass, and it could cause a domino effect across the country as other states demand the same preferential pricing. The website Common Dreams believes the measure could, in fact, be a first step in bringing down outrageous drug pricing overall.
Saturday's visit will be Sanders's first to the Bay Area since early June, the weekend before the California primary.
In related news, Bernie has a memoir coming out. His book Our Revolution will be released one week after the election, and the Wall Street Journal spoke with the publisher, St. Martin's Press, who explain that the 2016 presidential campaign is in fact a significant piece of the book, which explains what Bernie's been up to the last couple of months.
The book comes out November 15.
Previously: Bernie Sanders Visits The Mission District Ahead Of Tuesday's Primary
