November, 4, 2002 archives

(doing my voting stuff very last minute this time. as they say, plans are a list of things that don't happen.)

prop. 46 is a bond act, which would result in the sale of $2.1 billion in bonds to support various housing programs. there's a vote yes site, but no vote no site. i think i made my stance on debt financing clear last time. i'll vote no.

prop. 47 is another bond act, which would result in the sale of $13.05 billion in bonds to construct schools. here's the vote yes site, there's no vote no site. you know the routine, i'll vote no.

prop. 48 is a legislative constitutional amendment, which would remove references to the municipal court system. this is pretty dumb, it appears that an old proposition to get rid of the municipal courts neglected to clean out all of the references. i'll vote for it, i guess.

prop. 49 is a initiative statute that would allocate $455 million to before and after school programs. here's the vote yes site, there's no vote no site. this is dumb. this is why we elect representatives. i'll vote no. (for a republican, arnie sure seems willing to spend my money for me.)

prop. 50 is another initiative statute that would result in the sale of $3.44 billion in bonds for various water programs. the vote yes site, there's no vote no site. water good, bonds bad.

prop. 51 is an initiative statute that would specify that 30% of the sales tax collected on the lease and sale of motor vehicles would only be used for transportation purposes. here's the vote yes site, here's the vote no site. again, i elect representatives to deal with this. i'll vote no.

prop. 52 is an initiative statute that would allow election day voter registration. here's the vote yes site, here's the vote no site. i don't buy the voter fraud argument, i think this is a good idea.

governor

• bill simon, republican
• reinhold gulke, american independent
• gray davis, democratic
• gary david copeland, libertarian
• peter miguel camejo, green
• iris adam, natural law

talk about the lamest choice since gore and bush. gulke lost me on free trade, copeland lost me on his no-commons all-property-must-be-owned rhetoric, and anyone associated with the natural law party is automatically excluded for being nuts. i guess that means i'm voting green. i feel like i shouldn't be happy about that, but i really didn't find anything immediately objectionable in camejo's platform.

lt. governor

• kalee pryzblak, natural law
• jim king, american independent
• pat wright, libertarian
• donna warren, green
• cruz m. bustamante, democratic
• paul jerry hannosh, reform
• bruce mcpherson, republican

pryzblak = nuts, king excludes himself by saying he'd only support judeo-christian judicial candidates, warren is out for supporting reparations, hannosh is out for his hysterical anti-immigration stuff. between bustamante and mcpherson, i really don't see a huge amount of daylight, and this is a pretty pointless office. so wright sneaks in the back door for running on a silly issue.

secretary of state

• edward c. noonan, american independent
• larry shoup, green
• valli sharpe-geisler, reform
• kevin shelley, democratic
• keith olberg, republican
• gail k. lightfoot, libertarian
• louise marie allison, natural law

noonan is out for actually bothering to list the endorsement of a blood relative, and allison = nuts. the secretary of state role basically boils down to election management, so i'd support a third party candidate over a democrat or republican. lightfoot gets my vote for her saying the magic words about requiring a paper trail in electronic voting.

controller

• steve westly, democractic
• laura wells, green
• ernest p. vance, american independent
• j. carlos aguirre, natural law
• tom mcclintock, republican

mcclintock lost me with the lapdog stuff, vance has no site, and aguirre = nuts. i'm going to have to hold the dotcom thing against westly, and vote for wells.

treasurer

• jeanne-marie rosenmeier, green
• nathan e. johnson, american independent
• marian smithson, libertarian
• greg conlon, republican
• sylvia valentine, natural law
• phil angelides, democratic

conlon lost me when his machine left a message on my machine. beyond that, i don't see a reason to really care. i'll skip this one.

attorney general

• ed kuwatch, libertarian
• bill lockyer, democratic
• dick ackerman, republican
• glen freeman mowrer, green
• diane beall templin, american independent

lockyer was on the side of good in the antitrust case against microsoft, even if the feds caved and it appears the dissenting states will just accept the lame settlement. that's good enough for my vote.

insurance commissioner

• david i. sheidlower, green
• john garamendi, democratic
• dale f. ogden, libertarian
• raúl calderón, jr., natural law
• gary mendoza, republican

making this an elected position was a mistake. i'm not even going to bother.

superintendent of public instruction

• katherine h. smith
• jack o'connell

smith lost me here, o'connell lost me with the "coming soon" sections on his website the day before the election. idiot.

member, state board of equalization, 4th district

• kenneth a. weissman, libertarian
• john chiang, democratic
• glen r. forsch, republican

state board of what? too many elected positions.

united states representative, 28th district

• kelley l. ross, libertarian
• david r. hernandez, jr., republican
• howard l. berman, democratic

well, berman is clearly out. ross froths at the mouth too much. my kingdom for a none of the above choice.

member of the state assembly, 43rd district

• ingrid geyer, republican
• sandor j. woren, libertarian
• dario frommer, democratic

frommer got $5,000 from disney, so he's clearly not my guy, but i can't find any info on the other two. did i mention something about a none of the above choice?

too many judge positions to count

they're kidding, right?

county measure a is a bond measure that would issue up to $250 million in bonds to pay for bring the natural history museum and other county museums to earthquake and fire standards (while requiring them to raise $250 million in private donations for the same, and providing 50% more free admission for student groups and children). nice goal, stupid way to fund it.

county measure b would impose a 3¢/ft² tax on buildings to maintain and expand the county trauma network. i really don't like the text of the measure (it is a heavy-handed play of the terrorism card), so i won't vote for it.

school measure k would allow the issue of $3.35 billion in bonds for a whole swath of school issues. schools good, bonds bad. sorry.

special reorganization f would split the san fernando valley off from the rest of the city of los angeles. although the valley is clearly getting the shaft by contributing more to the city than it gets back, at the end of the day i'd rather see the city united. i also have a hard time swallowing the argument that a distinct city government wouldn't widen the pool of bureaucracy, and eventually end up costing the city, as a whole, more money.

name the new city

• camelot
• mission valley
• rancho san fernando
• san fernando valley
• valley city

camelot? that's a joke, right? san fernando valley is the obvious choice, even if it is too damn long.

mayor

• david raymond hernandez, jr.
• benito benny bernal
• bruce john boyer
• henry duke divina
• mel wilson
• leonard shapiro
• jim summers
• marc strassman
• gregory eagle roberts
• keith stuart richman

clearly strassman has to be my guy here, even if he's running a whatevernuke-based site.

member of the city council, 12th district

• earl howard
• david molony
• victor n. viereck
• dion n. gazzaruso
• frank j. shieftel
• daryl a. sanchez
• carlos e. ferreyra

too hard to really distinguish between the candidates.

special reorganization h would split hollywood off from los angeles (and the valley) as a new city. same goes as for the valley. if they'd proposed to name the city hollywoodland, i might have felt differently.

go vote!