Brian
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Post by Brian on May 10, 2010 23:27:20 GMT -8
As of today, only four more weeks of campaign TV ads remain. They've been running nonstop since January, especially those by Republican Meg Whitman for Governor and PG&E for Proposition 16.
You don't have to know anything about most initiatives to decide yes or no -- just follow the money. If a huge corporation (or several) are spending tens of millions to bombard you with beautifully produced spots, decades of experience says vote the opposite. I wasn't aware California had a problem with municipalities gobbling up territory from big utility companies, but it sounds like a good idea to me. And why do we need a two-thirds majority to approve anything? That's what the Legislature needs to pass any budget, the result of another constitutional amendment passed by the electorate.
Mercury Insurance is a relative piker backing its Proposition 17, which seeks to undo part of Proposition 103 in 1988 and allow insurance companies to make it harder for people who let their coverage lapse to get legal again. They're selling it with a provision that would allow me to transfer my annual Auto Club insurance premium to them. As if I'd want to do business with such an outfit.
Truth to tell, there aren't any primary races to excite a registered Democrat. I can only enjoy the Republican candidates for U.S. Senator and Governor beat up each other over who's more xenophobic. And who can lower taxes and simultaneously cut the budget the most.
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Brian
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Posts: 3,778
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Post by Brian on May 13, 2010 23:05:35 GMT -8
Hours after I started this thread, Courage Campaign released its Progressive Voter Guide outlining recommendations by nine organizations for the five propositions on June's ballot. They've compiled the guide at least twice before, and I don't remember as much agreement among them. This is the link to the pdf: courage.3cdn.net/7fbc57d0a539b27f10_e7m6b93qa.pdfI've already mentioned Propositions 16 and 17. Sharon and I were discussing Prop 13 at Tuesday's banner hanging, which is a tougher call because it expands 1978's Proposition 13 property tax breaks to seismic retrofits, benefiting big corporations as well as nonprofit and historical groups. Prop 14 just sounds horrible, restricting us to only two choices for every office in general elections, both of whom could be Republicans. And Prop 15 seems fair but looks complicated, so I want to read more.
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Post by Sharon W on May 13, 2010 23:34:28 GMT -8
The ACLU meeting on the election didn't help with 13 - they said there wasn't even an opposition submitted for the ballot so it wasn't included with the mock debates they had for the other 4 propositions. I had already decided about those - and I agree with the Progressive Voter Guide. They did have a hand out from ACT with info compiled from several sources for the judges in contested races. See: www.actpasadena.org/homeACT worked hard for the parcel tax to support PUSD - which failed last week - it doesn't bode well for a parcel tax in Glendale. It's going to be hard to save teacher jobs and keep class size down.
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Brian
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Posts: 3,778
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Post by Brian on Jun 3, 2010 23:00:27 GMT -8
It seems that only California television station owners are really enjoying this election. With only a few days to go, I'm finally getting serious about picking candidates for some state offices, meaning those with real contests in the Democratic Party. Does anyone among this fine group -- including the Greens -- have any opinions or information about our next lieutenant governor or attorney general? Each race seems to have more than one decent choice. They did have a hand out from ACT with info compiled from several sources for the judges in contested races. See: www.actpasadena.org/home That's a wonderful resource, Sharon -- the subsequent link has the bar association's ratings along with a good selective roundup of endorsements. But that page says that Sheriff Baca endorsed three candidates for Office 28. I'm going to explore further, starting with the League of Women Voters website linked there.
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Brian
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Posts: 3,778
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Post by Brian on Jun 8, 2010 23:05:14 GMT -8
Unlike Arkansas, there were no surprises in the California primary races. Earlier this evening, all the propositions except 13 were going the opposite way I voted. The "no" votes on Prop 16 started taking over about an hour ago. It may go down!
I'd love to believe that the few remaining voters are hip enough to recognize a huge corporate scam, especially when the turnout was skewed Republican, since they had the only interesting contests. With half the vote in at this hour, Mercury Insurance Company's Proposition 17 is winning by only 27,000 votes with 48 percent counted. I need to be hopeful about something.
With the passage of Proposition 14, this will be our last real primary election. I imagine that all the little parties will become extinct. It's the end of the world as we know it.
By the way, I finally cracked and contributed twenty bucks to Barbara Boxer's campaign.
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