I’ll be taking questions tomorrow at 7AM for the Washington Post live on video. Fortunately, I’m a morning person. You can watch it here.
Well, it’s here. Today’s the day that we see if Props 16&17 were good investments for their corporate backers. We see which Republican in the Governor and Senate races will try to desperately walk back all the crazy of the last few months. Good Luck on that.
On a more personal note, you may already know that I’m working for Kamala Harris in the AG’s race. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I have been able to work exclusively for candidates and campaigns that I believe in. Candidates like Mark Leno and Lois Wolk; I’m glad to say that Kamala fits right in there. I truly believe that she is the best candidate for the job. She works incredibly hard, and will continue to do so through the general and beyond. She’s already been tested by what amounts to a Republican attack campaign with far more firepower than any of the Republican candidates will be able to muster. She handled it with grace, when I’m not sure that I would be able to do the same. While others want to stick to failed policies of yesterday, Kamala is working to create innovative initiatives that tackle the root cause of our problems in the justice system.
Continuing the personal theme, I’d like to talk about Chris Garland in the 9th AD. I’m not going to analyze this from an electoral perspective, but what I will say is what I know of Chris. I was fortunate enough to work with him in the progressive campaign against Prop 1A last spring. Chris, who worked for the California Faculty Association at the time, was critical to that campaign. He worked extremely hard to show that Californians were upset not just about the taxes, as the Jarvis-ites would have you believe, but also about the crazy spending cap. He is a progressive that will fight for progressive values. More than just being a good vote, he will be an outspoken voice for his constituents and for the California that we all believe in.
No matter who you vote for in any of the primary battles, be sure to vote. The propositions are too important to ignore. Thank you.
Most voters here have been turned off by the comically crass “Indepenent” Expenditure tactics of Chris Garland’s CFA sponsor / employer.
Push polls, smear campaigns regarding city council discretionary funds, and badly photoshopped attack mailers have likely soured most against Garland.
Although neither the CDP nor Sacramento Democratic Party endorsed a candidate in this race, the Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento overwhelming endorsed (72% of votes cast) the target of Garland and company’s dirty politics: Councilman Kevin McCarty is clearly the choice of local progressives!
Wen;t to vote around 9:30 am. the 4 Republican booths we’re being used. I was the only Democrat. I hope that wasn’t a sign. The 43rd AD is heavily democratic, but a special election to replace our assemblyman is today and if dems don’t turn out, we could see one more republican in Sacramento later this week.
Did someone remember to send a reminder to Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and Damon Dunn that today is election day? Sometimes they have a little trouble…just asking.
Registrar reporting 3.6% poll through 1:00 PM at polls, although 242,253 VBM ballots have been returned, and there are a steady stream of VBM ballots being delivered to the polling places. VBM will probably be about 2/3 of the election here, with very low turnout from DTS and third party voters. Republican VBM’s are twice Dems.
I was so turned off by the lack of attention to ENDA, DADT and DOMA.
Then Mercury Insurance and PG&E intervened to motivate me. So I voted after all. November may be a different matter if this DADT thing is a sham.
but I ended up voting for Ted Lieu for AG. He appeared, in my estimation, to be the best candidate for the job and doesn’t have the baggage the two other leading candidates had. He also seems to be squeaky clean with impecable credentials. I also worried that a ticket consisting of Brown/Newsom/Harris from Oakland/SanFrancisco/SanFrancisco might be too top heavy with candidates from No Cali and no candidates from So. Cali. where over 65% of the population lives.
But I suspect the ticket I fear will actually be the ticket that wins.