this is pretty terrible

[ritaxis]

I juast realized this very second that there's a special election this coming Tuesday in my district. How come I haven't gotten election materials? Is the election in the usual place?

I remember reading that the Governator had decided that we poor central Californians had to have a special election in the middle of the summer, but I never saw any more specific practical information about it and I read Calitics!

I can't tell you how important it is to be represented by John Laird in the first place. This is the right man for any political job you can name. He's honest, hard working, progressive, approachable, and effective. And did I mention he's on the right side of everything? In the second place, he's being opposed by a lying scumbag of a San Luis Obispo oilman. So, if you're local, figure out how to vote Tuesday, and make all your friends and relatives vote.

Comments

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

You haven't gotten election materials because we're in California State Senate district 11, whereas John Laird is running in district 15, which includes some of Santa Cruz County but not the actual city of Santa Cruz. But yeah, I would definitely vote for him if I could!

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

That's both a relief -- as it restores my staunch faith in the efficiency and honesty of my election clerk (Gail Pellerin!) but also a disappointment, because John Laird is ours, and also makes me feel dumb because I should have known that and in previous times I would have.

We are gerrymandered all out of existence. Instead of making the Monterey Bay a unit, as it ought to be, they've carved Santa Cruz County up and thrown the part with UCSC in with Palo Alto of all places and the part with farms in with San Luis Obispo. Since Santa Cruz is one of the smallest counties in the state (depending on how you measure it), and also a county with an actual geographic identity (yes, there are a lot of differences throughout the county but the local identity is stronger -- ask somebody from Watsonville where they're from and they'll say "Santa Cruz" and then they'll say "Watsonville") it doesn't make real sense to divide us up like that, except to neutralize us.