i was thinking roughly the same thing about the primary races as dan gillmor: vote in the republican primary for riordan. even though i voted for davis in the last election, he's shown himself to be pretty lackluster. and there's a whole bevy of non-mainstream republican candidates for governor to consider: nick jesson, jim dimov (no website), danney ball (“america's songwrangler”), and edie bukewihge.

in contrast, the democrats just have anselmo a. chavez, chuck pineda jr. (no website), and mosemarie boyd. the democrats just aren't pulling their wacky-candidate weight.

there's still the other constitutional offices to look at, of course, but just being able to push riordan over the top of bill simon may be reason enough to vote in the republican primary. it certainly isn't worth bothering with the natural law party or the american independent party, the other two primaries that independents can choose to vote in—they're running uncontested slates.

oh, and i have to give a special mention to pat wright, running (uncontested) for the libertarian party lieutenant governor spot. he's the leader of ferrets anonymous, and is running on a pro-ferret platform. (ferrets are illegal in california. so are gerbils.)