More California elections stuff (almost last-minute)

[ritaxis]

So I hear that Westly's drawn just barely ahead of Angelides in the governor's primary(and well over a quarter of the Democratic voters don't know who to vote for). Funny thing, at first I didn't much care which of the two -- neither of them was Schwarzenegger, neither of them was my heart's delight, I could live with either one. But the more Westly tries to make me hate Angelides, the more I hate Westly. Asshole is lying about Angelides. Why? Why not stick to "I'm a businessman, I've taught, I created EBay (has to be right up there with inventing the hippo, right?), I'm a conservationist, NO NEW TAXES?"

I would have said "because California voters are sick of NO NEW TAXES and we don't care if you invented the hippo becuase the state is lousy with hippo inventers and Phil Angelides might just be better at playing the green card?" except that I think when Westly's ads were all about no taxes on green hippos, he came up from way behind. So I don't know why he started telling lies about Angelides shitting in Lake Tahoe and setting off bombs in the wetlands (those are jokes, please: what he said was exaggerated but not that exaggerated). Maybe he's just jealous because Angelides got the cool endorsements: firefighters, cops, teachers, and the Democratic machine. Well, hell, Westly did, you know, throw in his fate with Schwarzenegger at first, which is a pretty sad thing for a Democrat to do, especially if later on he wants to run as a moderately progressive non-politician sort of downhome fellow.

Lieutenant governor: Jackie Speier.

Garamendi for whatever he's running for.

Democratic Senator: Colleen Fernald. Please deliver me from Dianne Feinstein.

Sam Farr seems to be unopposed for Democratic Representative 17th District. Just as well. It's kind of hard to find a better politician than Sam Farr (well, John Laird). I don't mean he's perfect or always brave or anything: just that he's as good as they seem to get (except for John Laird).

John Laird also seems to be unopposed for Democratic State Assembly. John Laird should have any office he wants anytime.

Democratic candidates for Secretary of State, Deborah Bowen and Deborah Ortiz, look like the same person to me. If anybody knows better they can tell me.

Controller -- same deal. John Chiang seems more with-it, maybe, but hell, I don't know. Maybe Joe Dunn is good too. Anybody know?

Bill Lockyer is unopposed as Democratic candidate for Treasurer. What's up with all the unopposed races? Nobody cares?

Attorney General: Rocky Delgadillo. Look, Jerry Brown's father saved my father's life one time, but Jerry Brown has done a lousy job of handling Oakland, in particular the public safety and law enforcement stuff. Delgaldillo sounds like the go-to guy for now.

Insurance commissioner: I hate to endorse the rich guy, but I think maybe Kraft is it. Or maybe it's Cruz Bustamonte. I need to read up before Tuesday.

State Superintendent of Education: Jack O'Connell. No duh: he's the one with the teacher endorsements instead of endorsements by obscure Republicans.

Supervisor: Chris Krohn. County Supe of Schools: Michael Watkins. Everything else is unopposed. But if Gail Pellerin was opposed for County Clerk, I'd say vote for her. She did the training for the poll clerks and there was a shining beacon of integrity and devotion to fair elections, not to mention a great sense of humor.

Yes on 81 and 82: money for libraries and preschools, respectively.

We don't get any local measures -- Watsonville gets to vote against repealing the retirement tax, Scotts Valley gets to vote for a new fire station, and Aromas gets to vote to fix their schools. Later, we get to vote on a living wage and something to do with medical amrijuana again.

Okay. Y'all know how to vote now, if you live in Santa Cruz.

On another front: it's almost time to make strawberry jam, too. We have no jam for the first time in many years and so we have to make all jam this summer. Apricot, strawberry, blackberry, lemon marmalade, and maybe some other stuff. Plum, if I have any plums I don't need for wine.

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[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Lucy, what have you done to the icon? Put someone's face in it?