March, 1, 2002 archives

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.)

the chairman of univision has contributed $1.3 million to three candiates: gray davis, richard riordan, and bill jones. i'm sure he stands behind each candidate, and isn't buying influence. it's not like he has anything to gain, or there's real ideological differences between those candidates.

edward tufte (the guru of information design) is doing a series of one-day courses all over the place. only $320, and you get a copy of each of his books and a really cool poster that shows the losses suffered during napoleon's march on russia. he'll be in southern california in late april, and the bay area in december (tentatively).

there's two issues on the ballot for the city of los angeles, proposition q and amendment r.

prop. q is a bond issue—$600 million to replace, expand, and combine the 911 dispatch center, build six community police stations, replace the metropolitan jail, build two bomb squad facilities, and renovate other police and fire facilities citywide. like the two state bond measures, this is great place to be spending money. however, i'm still basically opposed to increasing the government debt, so i'll be voting no. there's no specific 'yes on q' or 'no on q' sites, and the la times says vote yes.

amendment r would change the date of the city's primary election to early in march, and the city's municipal election to mid-may. currently they're held in mid-april and early june. i don't see any reason to oppose this. there's no websites related to this amendment, and the la times hasn't issued a recommendation. the la weekly says to vote yes (on prop. q, too).

the election is in three days. i just need to go over the county measures and offices, and the rest of the state offices.