News Flash: I Voted for a Democrat

Before anyone looks into my cubicle to see how things are going and thus compels me to do my job, I feel like surveying the election real quick.

I voted yesteday at 7am at a modern church with rock instruments on the stage and impressionistic paintings of a thorny-crowned Jesus on the walls. I would have gone earlier if the polls were open. Going so late made me miss my morning workout.

Everyone there that early was past sixty: the volunteers, and retired folks with a busy day to get to. The lady who handed me my test form or whatever it's called, hidden in its privacy sleeve, was a sharp-witted blonde of the sort who easily disproves the notion that a woman can't be unaccountably, viscerally attractive after six decades. I said this made my second trip to church this year, the first being the primary. She laughed and said, yep, she hadn't thought of it that way. I said they don't make them like they used to. What with the electric organ, the drum set, the stackable chairs, the motivational banners paraphrasing Tony Robbins, she had to agree.

I went to my little booth, was glad I brought a pair of drugstore cheaters -- last time, I had to squint and hope I was filling in the right circles -- and proceeded to take my test.

Schwarzenegger (R) for Governor. He's doing a good job, he's incredibly smart, and he hasn't done anything yet to piss me off. Won.

McClintock (R) for Lieutenant Governor. I admire McClintock, mostly for his eloquence defending traditional liberty (i.e. gun rights) and opposing unchecked immigration. I'm sure we disagree on some other things for he's a true-blue conservative. Lost.

McPherson (R) for Secretary of State. He's competent. Lost.

Chiang (D) for Controller. The face of the Republican fill-in had the vacant friendliness of a high school offensive tackle who thought debating class would be an easy C, while the Democratic propoganda successfully portrayed Chiang as a typical hard-working, highly-qualified, numbers-crunching Asian. Won.

Parrish (R) for Treasurer. Lockyer (D) needs badly to retire. He pissed me off countless times as Attorney General. And I am heartily sick of these mid-level politicians who bounce from elected office to elected office, building byzantine political alliances within the vast state machine as they go. Lost.

Poochigian (R) for Attorney General. I covered this earlier. Lost.

Poizner (R) for Insurance Commissioner. Bustamante (D) also needs to retire. Apparently a lot of Democrats agree. Won.

Metti (L) for U.S. Senate. L is for Libertarian, the Party Without Principle. Well, I have no use for Feinstein (D) and even less for Mountjoy (R) and would rather like to see a few Libertarians take office. It'll never happen. Lost (to Feinstein).

Warren (L) for U.S. Congress (District 4). The long-term incumbent Doolittle is as conservative as they come and of solid moral character and I'm sick of him. The Dem challenger (Charlie Brown) is a good guy but running in the wrong district. Lost (to Doolittle).

Niello (R) for CA State Assembly (District 5). Evidently the political hobbyist in a wealthy family of automobile dealership owners, he has been a conscientious local politician. Won.

There were other races I ignored for lack of any opinion, or anything to form an opinion on -- State Supreme Court Associate Justices, Park District Board Members, etc.

But the local school district is a mess, suffering from declining enrollment, declining revenue and general incompetence. I wanted the one running incumbent out of there (never mind that I once worked with her husband), and my wife said one of the candidates was a well-intentioned ex-teacher who knows what's going on, and the other guy I voted for (you pick two out of eight) had an appropriate biography somehow, so I voted for them, and they both won.

Propositions are always interesting because they are so direct. If a Proposition passes, it's bound to become law. This makes studying them and arguing them serious business. I did just that over plates of burritos carnitas with a handful of friends. In the end I voted No on them all for various reasons, excepting 1A (which places restrictions on use of gasoline taxes without raising any) and 90 (which, again, does something useful without raising taxes or floating the state a loan). The others were either bond measures, which I see as deferred taxes that the Legislature couldn't pass by themselves, or ill-advised, poorly thought-out social engineering experiments. Some passed, some didn't. The worst (85, 86) didn't.

We also had a county measure that amounted to raising sales taxes to pay for a sports arena, which I joined the majority in voting down. Seems to me if a sports arena is such a good idea, then private concerns can raise the capital for it all by themselves. Government's proper roles do not include basketball. Hurling, now. That could be a government sport. Looks like Calvinball to me. To a first-time observer, it makes about as much sense as current U.S. foreign policy. More on that later. So here's a picture of my chickens.